Twenty years ago today — Feb. 6, 2001 — City Pages published a cover story on Duluth’s “tiny counterculture.” The Twin Cities alternative weekly paper ceased operations last fall and its online archive is on hiatus, but Perfect Duluth Day is here with the flashback goods.
This week’s issue of City Pages is the annual “Best of the Twin Cities” edition. It’s typical for one or two Duluth persons, places or things get a mention. This year it’s Charlie Parr, whose song “Sometimes I’m Alright” was named Best Song to Cry To.
Duluth musician Charlie Parr is featured in this week’s issue of the Twin Cities tabloid City Pages. In an interview with freelance writer Erica Rivera, Parr acknowledges a life spent battling depression and suicidal thoughts.
“It affects everything that I do, all day, every day — and all night,” he says.
Story link: Man of constant sorrow: Charlie Parr’s quiet battle to stay alive
Parr performs at Sacred Heart Music Center on Thursday in support of his new album, Dog.
Duluth’s Rachel Kilgour plays the Aster Café River Room in Minneapolis on April 8. She shared the story behind her new songs over tea and a light dinner in Uptown with Youa Vang for a story in City Pages:
Rachael Kilgour stands up for herself on ‘Rabbit in the Road’
This week’s issue of the Twin Cities tabloid City Pages is dubbed “The People Issue” and focuses on “18 who make Minnesota a better place to live.” Among those featured with the likes of Minnesota Vikings tight end and humanitarian Kyle Rudolph and craft beer entrepreneur Kathleen Culhane is Duluth’s Bob Monahan, owner of Chaperone Records and the Red Herring Lounge, referred to as “Duluth’s music mayor.”
City Pages reports former Duluthian Mary Bue will soon be living in an adobe casita at Taos, New Mexico, as part of a three-month artist-in-residence program offered by the Wurlitzer Foundation. She’s performing a send-off show Saturday at the Icehouse in Minneapolis with Alan Sparhawk and Molly Maher. In May she’ll release an EP, The Majesty of Beasts, which was recorded in Nashville.
City Pages: Mary Bue powers through band split, divorce with desert session, yoga
Youa Vang has the story for City Pages: Rich Mattson & the Northstars channel Iron Range on new LP
Here is the iTunes link and the CD Baby link for the album.
Duluth release party is Friday, June 5, at the Red Herring.
Here is the link to PDD’s list of local albums released in 2015.
City Pages selected Duluth band Southwire as one of the groups “picked to click” in 2013. Minneapolis hip-hop artist Lizzo was picked #1. Southwire came in at #8.
Duluth got two nods from City Pages in its Best of the Twin Cities issue, and musician Eric Pollard was part of both. He’s the drummer for Retribution Gospel Choir and front man of Actual Wolf, bands that won for Best Live Artist and Best Songwriter, respectively.
City Pages‘ “Best of the Twin Cities” issue came out on Wednesday. Lake Avenue Café in Duluth took honors for “Best Restaurant Worth the Drive.”
A collection of Duluth-related stuff from City Pages’ Best of the Twin Cities issues over the years.
2011
Best Blues Artist
Charlie Parr
Charlie Parr is the real deal. A Duluthian through and through, he’s about as unpretentious as they come. Climbing up on stage dressed in a flannel shirt, carpenter’s pants, and work boots, he wields his steel-stringed guitar like it’s an extension of his body, effortlessly gliding over the frets with a slide and letting it reverberate before trading it for a banjo or a 12-string. Sometimes when he plays he’s accompanied by an unassuming young lad who looks like he’s been plucked straight from the ore mines on the Iron Range, who clangs on train spikes and steel bars while Parr sings and strums. And while Parr’s guitar playing is technically complex and seemlingly effortless, it’s his voice-a blues howl with a soft side, which can climb up from a sweet moan into a loud bellow at a moment’s notice-that accentuates the stark, sad nature of his songs, painting vivid portraits through lyrics about loneliness, the devil, and making things right with the Lord.
