Homegrown Music Festival

The Slice: Looking Up from Below

“Looking Up from Below” was a video mural designed by Tom Moriarty and Daniel Benoit that was projected onto the side of Zenith Bookstore in West Duluth during the Homegrown Music Festival. The temporary art installation was meant to showcase whimsy in times of troubles.

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.

Homegrown 2021 Unofficially Unofficial Recap Video

The pandemic put the kibosh on official in-person events during the Homegrown Music Festival, but with restrictions easing up a bit there were numerous unofficial events accompanying the hours upon hours of online video content put out to avoid a superspreader.

In addition to the slaptogether kickball game, outdoor video art installation in West Duluth and the scavenger hunt, there were little bits of actual live music happening with limited attendance. The video above captures clips of some of the unofficial activities, with a note that nothing is officially unofficial, it’s all unofficially unofficial, really. (more…)

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Seven

Saturday’s online Homegrown Music Festival content begins with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra‘s season-ending show, From Beethoven to Milhaud. At the 2:18:43 mark a big blawk of local rawk begins. (more…)

Art outside Wussow’s Concert Cafe and Zenith Bookstore

I parked to watch the new media installation by Daniel Benoit and Tom Moriarty. Below is the description from Facebook:

This installation is a pilot project initiated by the Duluth Public Arts Commission, with plans on the horizon for more rad art like this to be shown around Duluth 🌟 (more…)

Rawkers win unsanctioned Homegrown slap-together kickball

Scott “Starfire” Lunt surveys the kickball field in his Homegown jumpsuit.

Ryan Nelson was barking all game from his first base post for the Friday Rawkers. In the eighth inning, he actually uttered something that had a grain of truth: “It almost feels like Homegrown.”

He and 50 other people were in synch Saturday afternoon as an unsanctioned Homegrown Music Festival Kickball Classic broke out at the field in the back of Chester Park. Those who were there will call it good, and witnessed a win by the Rawkers over the Saturday Rollers that now puts Friday ahead in the all-time series, 11 wins to 10. (more…)

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Six

A bit more than two hours of local rawk and/or roll comprise the Homegrown Music Festival‘s Friday content. (more…)

Video Archive: The Black-eyed Snakes – “Chickenbone George”

From the days when digital video quality was horrific, we present the Black-eyed Snakes at the Red Lion Lounge during the Homegrown Music Festival … two amazing decades ago.

Shot by Chris Bacigalupo on May 4, 2001.

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Five

Thursday’s Homegrown Music Festival content is three and a half hours of livestreamed music from 2104. (more…)

Video Archive: Fred Tyson & the Tysonettes – “Pop that Thang!”

May 7, 2011 — Freddie Tyson and his beautiful backup singers perform “Pop that Thang” at Pizza Lucé during the Homegrown Music Festival.

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Four

The stream of video goods from the Homegrown Music Festival continued on Wednesday with an encore presentation of the Winter Fiasco, originally released in January. This version is about half the length of the original, eliminating the interview segments to make it a full two-hours-plus of music. (more…)

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Three

Video of the Homegrown Music Festival‘s DJ livestream from the Embassy does not appear to be available in an embeddable format to show here, but it can be viewed on twitch.tv. (more…)

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day Two

Monday’s Homegrown Music Festival video content includes the annual showcases of poetry, photos and music videos … along with a short movie starring Teague Alexy. (more…)

Videos: Homegrown 2021 Day One

The Homegrown Music Festival is underway, with video releases and livestreams throughout the week. (more…)

Homegrown Music Festival 2021 Primer

The Homegrown Music Festival is pretty much all online again this year, but things are a bit more organized this time around, with planned video releases and livestreams every day, May 2-9. (more…)

The Slice: Homegrown Music Festival 2021

Duluth’s Homegrown Music Festival will be online again in 2021, due to COVID-19. In the clip above, festival director Melissa La Tour explains that musicians have submitted pre-recorded material that will be curated into daily releases on the festival’s YouTube channel.

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.

Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2021 out this weekend

The 23rd annual Homegrown Music Festival is less than a month away. A 60-page Field Guide is off the presses and will be available at local bars, restaurants and other businesses over the course of the next few days. (more…)

Call for Performers: Welcome Home {Grown} | Live {Stream}

We miss live music! We all miss live music … right?

This will be the 11th year of 2104’s Soup Social, dubbed #SoupB4Supe. Last year we were forced into the Live Stream gig … and now Bryce Kastning and I, also with support from a few others, have been producing Music Live Stream’s since April 2020. If you haven’t listened to our streams … you can pick them up as often as you want, they are at youtube.com/duluthiscool or 2104.us. As of this writing, we have created 22 streams from 2104. (more…)

Homegrown Winter Fiasco 2021

The Homegrown Music Festival’s annual Winter Fiasco is digital this year. The four hourlong videos feature performances, interviews and archival footage of more than 30 local artists. Episode one features music by Mary Bue, Shadows of Me, the Slamming Doors, Dog Talk, Moriah Skye, Boogeymen, WNDY, and Isolation Band. It also includes words from festival director Melissa La Tour and an interview with Kala Moira about her unofficial 2020 Homegrown Scavenger Hunt. (more…)

This Week in Social Distancing: May 7

A special Homegrown edition.

Selective Focus: StayHomegrown

The glamour of big crowds, long nights and sloppy hugs were missing, but the Homegrown Music Festival virtually carried on. Here are a few select images from Instagram of the Homegrown that wasn’t, but sort of was. (more…)

Audio Archive: Renegade Homegrown Radio Hour of 2007

Thirteen years ago today — May 1, 2007 — the Homegrown Music Festival partnered with Renegade Theater Company and 91.3 FM KUWS for an hour of radio sketch comedy and music. Featured here are several clips from the broadcast. The above segment is titled “Cowardly Lion’s Club Pancake Breakfast.” (more…)

A Homegrown Cameo

During Dance Attic’s Virtual Homegrown show, festival founder Scott “Starfire” Lunt wandered into the yard to sing along on a few Homegrown favorites. You can find the whole Dance Attic outdoor set at this link.

Homegrown Rawk and​/​or Roll: Margie Nelson’s Mix

Available now for free download on Bandcamp, 20 tracks of local rawk and/or roll selected by former Homegrown Board President Margie Nelson.

It’s the 12th mix in the Homegrown Music Festival‘s series of compilations highlighting music that has shaped the Duluth scene. View the full discography at …
duluthhomegrown.bandcamp.com/music.

Dance Attic – “Livin’ with a Bear”

The Homegrown Music Video Showcase was released today. It includes this video by Dave Mehling for the Dance Attic song “Livin’ with a Bear,” from the forthcoming album Livin’ for Today.

Check out all of the Homegrown Music Video Showcase at perfectduluthday/com/hg2020. (more…)

Video: Homegrown Poetry Showcase 2020

StayHomegrown continues with the annual poetry showcase, this year from safe distances. The poets are Tina Higgins Wussow, Jayson Iwen, Crystal Detelfsen, Sonofmel, Scott Knight Kite, Liz Minette, Shelley Getten, Laura Sellner, John Herold, Lucas Dietsche and Brooke Zarn.