Music
The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns – “The Truth About Duluth”
Matt Farley of Danvers, Mass. has been producing slapped-together novelty songs under clumsy pseudonyms since roughly 2004. The emphasis is clearly on quantity over quality; his website notes he has released 19,000 songs. He purportedly made $23,000 off his music in 2013.
Mysterious Biz White Song about Duluth
We need to unearth some Duluth-based songwriter history. The current reference librarians at the Duluth Public Library are unable to track down the lyrics to a song about Duluth by Biz White, a female librarian during the 1980s and ’90s.
Here’s the conversation:
I was visiting with friends yesterday and one of them said he had been trying to find the lyrics to a song written about Duluth. It was written by Biz White, who used to work at DPL, and he thought it may have been for a Playhouse production. Some of the lyrics he remembered were, “Oh Duluth, your granite hills rise,” and “Oh Duluth, your heartless hills.” I was hoping you had some ideas.
Thanks,
Kim
Help! Does anyone have these lyrics recorded?
Glen’s Neighbor – “Explore, Dream, Believe, Imagine”
Duluth-based bluegrass band Glen’s Neighbor recently released its third album, Ice Cream. The video for the single “Explore, Dream, Believe, Imagine” is directed and animated by Shane Nelson.
Dubz – “Livin'”
Duluth rapper Bryan Wick, aka Dubz, once again enlists the services of Arizona-based Priceless Video Productions on this video for a track from his 2017 release Throw it on My Tab.
Perfect Duluth Day Outdoor Summer Concert Primer 2018
It’s officially summer, now, and the PDD Calendar is stuffed with every ding-dang concert from here to eternity (or at least, like, Tower or somewhere). Of course, the usual suspects like Bayfront Festival Park and Big Top Chautauqua are in there, as are smaller series like Bayside Sounds, Chester Creek Concert Series and Summer (Mostly) Thursdays. Here’s a peek at some of the upcoming sure-to-be outdoor-music highlights. (more…)
Gaelynn Lea – “Lost in the Woods”
Official music video for Gaelynn Lea‘s “Lost in the Woods” from her forthcoming album, Learning How to Stay, which will be released on Sept. 7. Preorders available through GoFundMe.
Ingeborg von Agassiz – “Oh, What a Morning”
Another new video by Duluth artist Ingeborg von Agassiz featuring found footage.
Ingeborg von Agassiz – “What’s Wrong with Me?”
New video by Duluth artist Ingeborg von Agassiz.
Art of Peace continues with “Soulstice”
In 2002, the Art of Peace exhibits/events in Duluth sprung up as a response to the events of 9/11 and the resulting Iraq War. From those events, the Echoes of Peace Choir (led by Sara Thomsen) was born. The choir and its associated nonprofit organization still thrive.
Once again a grass roots effort has sprung up in Duluth to address violence, injustice and the erosion of our democratic principles. A peaceful, artistic event is planned in response to the president’s visit to Duluth on June 20. In just a few short days, a grassroots impromptu group of individuals and nonprofit organizations have put together a diverse program with members of our community.
This is, in effect, a new Art of Peace event in Duluth.
Soulstice: A Celebration of Peace, Love and Democracy is a free concert and community gathering at Leif Erikson Park on Wednesday, June 20. It begins at 5 p.m. (more…)
Low – Double Negative Triptych
Here it is, a Low triple feature — three new music videos for songs from the album Double Negative, scheduled for release Sept. 14 on Sub Pop Records. (more…)
Martin Ledin – “The Coldest Season”
Martin Ledin, a musician based out of the Bayfield Peninsula, released this music video last week for a track from his self-titled 2017 album. The video was created during a live performance at his album release party last fall. It features Ed Willet on cello and Dane Hauser on percussion. The video was directed by Kjell Kvanbeck of True Norse Films. The sound engineer was Ryan Rusch.
Ledin will performing this Thursday ahead of King Cardinal at Blacklist Artisan Ales. The show starts at 9 p.m.
Steve Earle was in Deluth
According to the back of the tour shirt, Steve Earle made a stop in Deluth recently. He must be friends with Christie Brinkley — when she visited Duluth in 2016 during John Mellencamp’s tour stop she Instagrammed photos from around town and noted that she loves “Deluth.”
The Slice: Robot Rickshaw
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north. The pieces are created by WDSE-TV and submissions from viewers.
This video features Troy Rogers, the man behind Robot Rickshaw.
Duluth’s Robot Rickshaw is the geekiest thing
Jeff Pesek of Tech{dot}MN celebrates Duluth’s Robot Rickshaw in the article “Robot Rickshaw is the geekiest thing in Minnesota’s tech scene.”
A rapidly-deployable, human-driven, two wheeled cart full of robots that play music. Piloted by a lunatic in a hazmat suit+teddy bear.
Rickshaw is Troy Rogers, and the article is cool.
Bob Dylan: Duluth Ski Bum?
A profile on Roger McGuinn in No Depression, a quarterly roots music journal, opens with an interesting Duluth-related tidbit.
McGuinn says he and Dylan went skiing in Minnesota — near Duluth or Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing — during a Christmas break in Dylan’s historic 1975-76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
“He’s fast,” McGuinn recalls. “I was a beginning skier on the intermediate slope going down cautiously. I look to my right, and Bob goes vroom right past me.”
So, was it Spirit Mountain? Chester Bowl? Mont du Lac? Giants Ridge? Lutsen Mountains? Let the speculation begin.
Video Archive: Duluth Dylan Fest at R.T. Quinlan’s, 1993
Duluth musicians perform Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” at R.T. Quinlan’s Saloon on May 14, 1993. (more…)
Dancing About Architecture
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it’s a really stupid thing to want to do.
— Martin Mull, maybe?
All good writing strives to say the unsayable.
— Louis Jenkins
I stupidly want to do that thing, and I am ill-equipped for doing it as well as I would prefer, but here we go.
If I still owned a bunch of record albums I’d probably still do a version of what I did with Mom and Dad’s collection when I was a kid: lay or kneel on the carpeted floor in front of the cabinet where the records were stacked vertically spines facing out; flip through the stack, bathing in whooshes of sacred aging-cardboard air as they albums gently slapped against each other; hold worn cardboard covers to my face and inhale in the same way any decent human being does when they pick up an old book; pull out single records or small stacks or maybe the whole collection to flip the covers back and forth back and forth while reading the long notes on the back or the inside and try to figure out how all those words and images and that musty-seductive smell relate to the sounds in the vinyl grooves and the lives of the people who created the sounds; try to figure out what it all meant. What it all means. All of it. (more…)
Homegrown Kickball Classic: Saturday wins, leads series 10-9
Team Saturday celebrates its 2018 victory in the Homegrown Kickball Classic. The 5-2 win brought Saturday into a 10-9 overall series lead.
After losing nine of the past 10 games, the Saturday bands came back to beat Friday 5-2 in the 19th Homegrown Kickball Classic, pulling ahead in the overall series 10-9. (more…)
Selective Focus: Run Smelt Run
Sunday, May 13, is the annual Run Smelt Run Parade. If you’ve never witnessed or been a part of the parade, it’s a blend of art, absurdity, puppets, community, ecology, humor, music, dancing and things that sparkle.
The festivities begin at 3:30 p.m. near the Aerial Lift Bridge and north pier, on the lawn in front of the Maritime Museum. Look for the people on stilts. (more…)
Chris Monroe’s 2008 Homegrown Highlights
A little cartoon retrospective on the 2008 Homegrown Music Festival, drawn by Chris Monroe in 2008. (more…)