Music
Superior Porchfest 2025 Recap Video
The 2025 season of Superior Porchfest continued the mission of the nonprofit Siggy’s Musical Garden to build community with music, arts and fun. This year’s recap video features the music of Steve Solkela and Cars & Trucks, with video clips from throughout the summer of shows.
Porchfest is a free, family-friendly music and art series in which attendees can bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack a picnic and/or simply stop by to enjoy the show. The performances are typically held either on a residential porch or at a city park.
Mini Skirt
Intergalactic glamour and out-of-this-world fashions are featured in this montage edited by Duluth’s Jean Kirwan set to music by Esquivel.
JamesG – “Saggy”
JamesG: getting old and saggy; owning it.
JamesG – “Tired”
Like most people, JamesG could sleep for one whole week, but it wouldn’t be enough.
ZXTv – “See How Much We Can Love”
“See How Much We Can Love” from ZXTv is from the band’s debut album, Snake Mother, now on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp. Members include former members of Duluth bands Ballyhoo, Hobo Alley, Sloe Loris and Chartreuse: Fitty on vocals and guitars/bass and his two sons on drums and synth.
Alan Sparhawk’s full set at Primavera Sound Porto 2025
Duluth’s Alan Sparhawk performed at the Primavera Sound Porto music festival in Porto, Portugal on June 12. A video of the full set just hit YouTube. (more…)
Pronoya – “Dreamcatcher”
“Dreamcatcher” is the third single from Duluth band Pronoya‘s upcoming EP All for the Sun, due out Nov. 28.
Torment – “I Am the Problem”
Torment‘s new music video features scenes from Amsoil Arena captured during the band’s performance at the 2025 Homegrown Music Festival. It was shot an edited by Lane Peterson of Rainfade Media.
The song “I Am the Problem” appears on the band’s most recent release, The Pain EP.
Indecent Proposal – “Messy” (Live on Superior Street)
Duluth band Indecent Proposal provided the entertainment at this year’s Downtown Duluth Street Dance outside Dubh Linn Irish Pub. Joined by vocalist Selie, the band covers the Lola Young song “Messy” in this live music video.
Steve’s Solkela – “Finns Go Marching In”
Steve Solkela and his friends sing this “ode to all the Finnish-American pockets” Solkela has traveled to.
Robert Plant – “Everybody’s Song”
The lead single from the new Robert Plant album is a cover of “Everybody’s Song,” written by Duluth band Low. The song first appeared on Low’s 2005 album The Great Destroyer. Plant’s new record, Saving Grace, is set for a Sept. 26 release on Nonesuch Records.
This is the third time the former Led Zeppelin lead singer has released a cover version of a Low song. His 2010 album Band of Joy featured “Silver Rider” and “Monkey,” each of which also appeared on Low’s The Great Destroyer.
Lighthouse Lives Sessions: Climes
Climes is a musical project led by Drew Anderson, whose songwriting merges folkish sensibility with genre-jumping guitar and lute dulcimer. In this session from Lighthouse Recording Company in West Duluth, Anderson is joined by Steve Dalager on acoustic bass, Clif Nesseth on fiddle, and
Zach Baltich on drums. The group performs three songs — “LTK,” “Hold On” and “Lullaby.”
Helical Hymn
This animated music video was inspired by the Minnesota Million: Reforestation for Carbon Sequestration Project, which is focused on the reforestation of one million acres in northern Minnesota. It will be screened at Dovetail Cafe & Marketplace on July 3 at 6 p.m. as part of the Cafe Scientifique event. Dr. Julie Etterson will speak about the Minnesota Million Project and free seedlings will be given away. Please come hear about this exciting project and help us reforest the northland.
Music in the Weeds: Barbara Jean Meyers and Mike Lewis
A short way up the Kadunce River on the east side of Cook County, hikers on the Superior Hiking Trail can view a large natural cave next to a waterfall just off the trail. Local musicians Barbara Jean Meyers and Mike Lewis trek across the river and perform two original songs, “Big and Small” and “Traces,” inside the cave in the woods.
Music in the Weeds is a new video series from WTIP North Shore Community Radio that showcases northern Minnesota artists performing original music at scenic and meaningful locations around Cook County. It is produced by M. Baxley and Will Moore.
Video Archive: Walter & Sheila’s Cheese Hole
To mark the 40th anniversary of the “Weird Al” Yankovic album Dare to Be Stupid, Nick Prueher posted a Facebook Reel with a clip from a July 7, 1985 AL-TV segment on MTV in which Yankovic runs down a list of fake tour stops, including Walter & Sheila’s Cheese Hole in Superior.
Yankovic actually did play a gig in Superior that year; he was a featured act at the Head of the Lakes Fair on Aug. 9, 1985.
Music in the Weeds: Watershed Group
Watershed Group is an experimental jazz band specializing in improvised jams that can turn both ambient and psychedelic. Featuring Adam Kirsch on clarinet, Cory Quirk on drums, and producer Will Moore on bass, the band performed this original piece on the edge of a cliff high above the town of Grand Marais.
Music in the Weeds is a new video series from WTIP North Shore Community Radio that showcases northern Minnesota artists performing original music at scenic and meaningful locations around Cook County. It is produced by M. Baxley and Will Moore.
Strings of Fire: The Soulful Sound of the Cimbalom
Moldovan virtuoso Ivan Curtean playing the cimbalom. (Photo by Janos Müpa)
This summer, audiences at the Northern Lights Music Festival in northeastern Minnesota will have a rare chance to experience a musical marvel: the cimbalom, an instrument both ancient and astonishing, brought vividly to life by Moldovan virtuoso Ivan Curtean. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Day Outdoor Summer Concert Primer 2025
Lu Starr performed in a backyard concert on June 7 to raise funds for Food Not Bombs, sharring the bill with Charlotte Montgomery, Elsa Krantz and Jerree Small. (Photo by Rich Narum)
The sun has put on its comically large sunglasses, which can only mean one thing — it’s time to soak up the rays and jam with some of the most anticipated musical acts hitting Duluth-area stages this summer. (more…)
Wild Horses – “Sioux Falls”
Grand Rapids-based Americana band Wild Horses has released a new single, “Sioux Falls.” The lyric video was shot and edited by Cooper Baumgartner.
Lighthouse Live Sessions: Lydia Boyum
Lydia Boyum released her debut EP, Paradise Lost, in February. In this session from Lighthouse Recording Company in West Duluth, Boyum is joined by frequent collaborator Ryan Lane on background vocals and acoustic guitar. Together they performs three songs from the EP — “Beautiful Ruse,” “Eden” and “Psychedelic Daydreams.”
James G – “Birds”
JamesG‘s latest video finds him in an absurd bird situation.
Ian Alexy – “There is a Light”
Ian Alexy has a new two-track digital release featuring the songs “There is a Light” and “Shivers Up the Spine ’24.” (more…)
Alan Sparhawk – “Get Still”
Alan Sparhawk‘s second solo album, With Trampled by Turtles, releases Friday. The video for “Get Still” was directed by Ingrid Weise and edited by Alexa Viscius.
Big Into – “Behind the Veil” (Remix by MidiEvil)
Beat master MidiEvil lends his prowess to Big Into as they battle the Worst Company L.L.C.
Shippee – “You & Me”
The latest music video from Duluth’s Blake Shippee is a tribute to his partner Shanna on her birthday.