Duluth Albums from the 1900s

Perfect Duluth Day’s attempt to chronical the works of local musicians begins with this list of 20th century recordings.

Duluth East High School A Cappella Choir
1965
Directed by Robert D. Mix; includes the “East High Alma Mater.”

The Duluth Accordionaires
Music to Eat Pizza By
1967

Don Yoder
Because He Lives
Year not listed, Word Records

The Moose Wallow Ramblers
The Moose Wallow Ramblers
1976, Half Moon Records
Engineered by John Berquist.

Gene Hill
That’s Just His Way
1976
Recorded and mastered at Sound 80 in Minneapolis; directed by C. Edward Thomas.

Various Artists
Trackin’ Up the North
1982, KQDS 95FM Radio
Features bands from the KQDS Miller High Life Rock to Riches Talent Search Contest.

Kim Solem & the Electric Spurs
In Just One Night
1993, Divine Bovine
Engineered by Jeff Nelson and Tom Heinonen.

Low
I Could Live in Hope
1994, Vernon Yard Recordings
Produced by Kramer at Noise New Jersey. Assisted by Steve Watson.

Puddle Wonderful
Sweetly Unnecessary
1995
Recorded by Tim Mac at Amphetamine Reptile in Minneapolis.

Low
Long Division
1995, Vernon Yard Recordings
Produced and engineered by Kramer at Noise New Jersey. Assistant engineering by Jed Rothenberg.

Flux Skapacitor
Flux Skapacitor
1995
Recorded at Wind Songs Studio in St. Louis Park; engineered by James Schmidt.

Charming Snakes
Charming Snakes
1996
Recorded and mixed by Todd Behrens at Danger Studios in Minneapolis.

Low
The Curtain Hits the Cast
1996, Vernon Yard Recordings
Produced by Steve Fisk and engineered by John Goodmanson. Recorded in Seattle.

The Pirates
Replay

The Busters North Coast Blues Band
Waiting for the Tide
1997
Recorded and engineered at Inland Sea Studios by Dave Hill.

Gild
Belief
1997, Spinout Records
Produced by Bernie Larsen at Suburban Exchange Studio in Houghton, Mich.

Port Authority
Serving Up Stuff
1998, North Coast Records
Recorded and engineered at Inland Sea Studios by Dave Hill.

Jerree Small
Sleeping Giant
1998
Engineered in Minneapolis by Kendall Karsh and at Doghouse Studios by Steve Bonkoski.

Stuart Davis
16 Nudes
1998, Panacea Records
Recorded by Rob Genedek and John Pemble at the Maintenance Shop and Brewhouse.

Low
One More Reason to Forget
1998, BlueSanct Records
Live album recorded Nov. 6, 1997 at the Church of Phillip St. Neri in Louisville, Ky.

Various Artists
Random Acts of Radio
1998, Random Records
Produced by D.J. Starfire and recorded in his basement.

Paul Imholte
Red Wing
1998
Recorded and engineered at Doghouse Studio by Steven Bonkoski.

Mel Sando
Walking Alone
1998
Recorded in Sando’s dining room on a 4-track cassette recorder.

John Ward and Lori Hatten
Live at the Amazing Grace Bakery & Cafe
Circa 1998
Recorded at Amazing Grace and mixed at 58th Street Studio.

Delta Resonators
Juke Joint Junkie
1998
Recorded and engineered at Inland Sea Studios by Dave Hill.

Low
Secret Name
1999, Kranky Records
Produced by Steve Albini; recorded at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago.

Ballyhoo
I’m a Pretty Ballerina
1999
Recorded and engineered at 20 Below Studios by Alan Sparhawk.

Giljunko
Gaspump Graveyard
1999, Shaky Ray Records
Recorded at Flowerpot in Minneapolis by Rich Mattson and at Shaky Ray by Mark Lindquist.

Low
Christmas
1999, Chair Kickers’ Union
Recorded by Low at 20 Below Studios. Mastered with Tom Herbers at 3rd Ear.

Sara Thomsen
Fertile Ground
1999

Big Time Jazz Orchestra
The Big Time Jazz Orchestra
1999
Available on bigtimejazz.org

Of course, every list requires some guidelines, so here we go:

  • What makes an album a “Duluth album” can be vague, so there is little choice but to determine it on a case-by-case basis. In general, if the band is from the Twin Cities and the bassist is from Duluth, for example, that doesn’t quite cut it. And we’re not counting Bob Dylan, but here’s a link to his discography.
  • We’re not including seven-inch records or other singles on the list. If you want to comment about your favorite 45, please do, but it won’t make the master list.
  • Even qualified albums won’t make the list until a suitable image of the cover art is available. We like things neat and pretty around here. So don’t pull a tiny graphic off the web and call it good. Scan your album covers or do whatever you have to do so the image is a decent size, like 800 pixels if you can manage that.

Let the digging through your collection to help this list out begin!

36 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Two  I'm surprised I'm missing:

Gild - Moodring
Swivelhead

Somebody help me out with the art on these.

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago

Some halfway decent cover art can be found online at coverhunt.com. 

Even the Duluth Accordionaires. (Bonus!)

Herzog

about 12 years ago

The dream of the 1990s is alive in Duluth.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Two more pieces of album art I'm missing are Kim Rose's Lover's Epitaph and Mel Sando's Walking Alone. Here are small versions I nabbed online.

 

I have both of these albums, but Kim Rose signed a message for me on her cover and Mel Sando scribbled "Promotional Copy" across the one he gave me.

TimK

about 12 years ago

I don't have (all of) these in my personal collection, but here's a few groups who did put out albums:

Quickbreath, the Woodland Jr. High School Choirs dir. by Jim Sersha, and the Chmielewski Funtime Band.

A few 45rpm singles I recall include:

Tom Devine, M.A. Freepress, Little Joe and Famous Lashaway.

OK, Famous Lashaway and the Chmielewskis are not from Duluth, but pretty close.

waferdog

about 12 years ago

Let's see if this works:

Renata and Girls, Girls, Girls. I will try to hunt down a better cover image.

in.dog.neato

about 12 years ago

I'm wondering what the art for a Harbormasters album would look like.

kyanize

about 12 years ago

Are we including albums that were recorded in Duluth but released by out-of-town bands?

Zeito

about 12 years ago

How much accordion is too much?



Accordion Ambassadors 
From Sea to Shining Sea  
Circa 1991



The Duluth Accordionaires 
On Tour Behind the Iron Curtain
I can't find a date on this but it looks to be from the '70s.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Answering a few issues that have come up:

Yes, bands from Superior, the Iron Range and so on that played shows in Duluth should qualify.

Tim, help us out with images of what you have, please.

Out-of-town bands that recorded in Duluth deserve mention here in the comments, but I think we'll leave them out of the main list.

So, here's mentioning Jessica Bailiff ...

 

Is it right to say that when Duluth's Al Sparhawk records in Seattle it's a Duluth record, but when Tuledo's Jessica Bailiff records in Sparhawk's Duluth basement it's not a Duluth record? Well, maybe not, but that's what we're going with for the moment. Tell me I'm wrong -- that's what comment areas on the Internet are for.

Zeito, thank you. There is never too much accordion. Is there anything from the liner notes you can pass along to fill out the info? Where the album was recorded ... that kind of thing?

Thanks to Nathan Amundson for pointing out Jessica Bailiff to me by e-mail, and also sending this Best Boy Electric album cover ...



Best Boy Electric featured Duluthian John Nichols -- the original Low bassist. That qualifies for the list, but I'm holding out for an image that doesn't have the jewel box reflecting the camera that's photographing it. I know, picky picky.

c-freak

about 12 years ago

I banged one of Renata's girls back in the day.

wildgoose

about 12 years ago

This post makes my heart sing.  I'm pretty sure that I have one or two in the vault, I'll check. This post is instantly a candidate for "best post ever."

TimK

about 12 years ago

Paul, I'm sorry, but I don't own those records anymore. I've been married 23 years and it was a girlfriend or two before that when I "lost" all of my records... A couple of others I just thought of are Craig Spates and Michael Monroe (from up the North Shore). Craig's has a very outsider vibe -- like the Shaggs. 

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago



Sometimes the back of an album cover tells the whole story.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

 

This Fromundas demo has four tracks, which I guess falls a bit short of being an album, but it's worth mentioning. (Thanks to Sherman for the artwork.)

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago



As for seven-inch singles, Thrust band's "Children of the Sun" and "Lonely" from 1980 was mentioned on PDD once before, but deserves a tip of the hat here.

greg cougar conley

about 12 years ago

I think Swivelhead's CD should be on the list as well, though I don't know where the cover art is available.

cork1

about 12 years ago

I'm not at home, so I can't check my CDs, but I'm pretty sure that if Gaspump Graveyard is SRR #006 and from 1999, then there are some other SRR albums of local stuff that came out before 2000. I think that first Shaky Ray compilation (Let's Get Sloppy) came out in late spring 2000, which makes me think some of that stuff came from albums. I could be completely wrong.

I don't think he's got complete albums, but I know that Patrick Nelson (who played on that Giljunko record) has been posting some obscure stuff on his Facebook, including The 2nd Thought and Deen Dodge, both from the Duluth area.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Let's Get Sloppy is a 2001 release. It came out between Father Hennepin's Crooked With Gin and Both's The Inevitable Phyllis.

I'm not sure what the five previous releases on Shaky Ray were before Gaspump Graveyard, but I think they were seven-inch records and cassette demos. We'll find out as this thread makes it through the grapevine.

Patrick Nelson's YouTube handle is EsotericArchives. I'm not sure which of the old 45s he's putting up there are Duluth-related, but it's a fun listen.

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago

One of those Giljunko cassette demos is called "Giljunko Shits the Covers." I don't own it, but I saw it once about ten years ago.

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago

This is just a guess, but didn't ATF release an early SSR album? Or was that a split EP?

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

The ATF Plays Giljunko Plays the ATF came out right after Gaspump Graveyard. It was a split seven-inch.

Zeito

about 12 years ago

The stories on the back of these accordion albums are really quite inspirational.  

Accordion Ambassadors
The Duluth Accordionaires

I wish I had the means to get better pictures of these.

Barrett Chase

about 12 years ago

Here is a Shaky Ray Records discography from their old Angelfire site, which is sadly incomplete and without any dates.

greg cougar conley

about 12 years ago

Oh! I think the first Both album came out in 1999, but I don't know if the cover art lives online or what.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Greg, I'm pretty sure that first Both album came out in 2000. I remember it coming out shortly after the Ripsaw went weekly. We used to listen to it in the office a lot.

greg cougar conley

about 12 years ago

You would know better than I, Paulie. I can't even find a copy of it to confirm.

c-freak

about 12 years ago

Oooh, I have an Accidental Porn CD, but I bet that's 2000 something.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Accidental Porn's live album was recorded at Fitger's Brewhouse in early 2000. I think it was released later that year. But speaking of the Brewhouse, The Best of the Brewhouse, Volume One is missing from this list.

Paul Lundgren

about 12 years ago

Two more I'm looking for album art on:

Easy Steam
To Be Alive 
1976
Released by Easy Steam Music of Duluth

Clint Wait Jr. 
Lonely Like a Rose
1990
Released by Fond du Lac Records

Chris

about 11 years ago

Atlantis II was pretty big in the 1970s and I think the band may have had an album. Most of the members went on to form the Centerville All Stars. I did find this single on YouTube.

SuperX

about 10 years ago

Oops,wrong album cover pic.

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago



The reason I haven't included this album is I haven't been able to verify what year it was released. The year 1998 seems correct to me, but I can't recall for certain. The CD booklet does not list a year, nor can I find anything on the internet that narrows down the year of release.

SuperX

about 10 years ago

I found it on the site for 58th Street Studio.



Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

That's enough evidence to at least make us lean in the direction that the album came out prior to 2000. It's on the list now. Thanks!

Helmut Flaag

about 5 years ago

Just found the Easy Steam album this weekend, great album art, very rare. As is Atlantis, two quality vintage Duluth acts.

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