On a cold Duluth evening back in 2013, a small crew gathered for a video shoot. Mark Lindquist wanted to give his children a Christmas video. Time got away. The footage wasn’t awesome. I set it aside.
It’s always bugged me that I never made that video for Mark and his children. Last night, I went searching through virtual piles and piles of material until I found what I was looking for.
This video of the Denfeld Jazz Band’s arrangement of “Up on the Housetop” was created for the televised version of the Christmas City of the North Virtual Parade.
Students and staff from Central Lakes College in Brainerd have put together a compilation album of regional musicians that features a bevvy of Duluth favorites, including Jerree Small, Low and Greg Cougar Conley.
Jimi and Suzi of the guitar/accordion duo Dance Attic partake in holiday hijinks with music from their 2020 Christmas song collection (featured in the PDD Gift Guide).
Video produced by Andrew Stern.
Hermantown native Tanner Zahn, now of the Los Angeles group FuturePop, has released this Christmas music video. Locals will remember him as Tanner Zahn Hagen, performer in Duluth Playhouse productions and son of Jennifer Madill Hagen and Dusty Hagen, former owners of Madill Performing Arts Center in Duluth.
There is a vein of singer-songwriters I refer to jokingly as “weepy folk.”
Duluth’s Gaelynn Lea performs the Christmas carol “In the Bleak Midwinter” in this video shot live in her home. The song is on Gaelynn’s 2016 Christmas album Deepest Darkness Brightest Dawn, which features live-looped versions of traditional Christmas carols.
Rich Mattson and the Northstars have a new album set for release on Feb. 5. This homespun video, produced by Reggie Pype, is for the first single, “In Flight.”
The upcoming album, Skylights, can be preordered at spartasound.bandcamp.com.
From the Iron Range city of Palo, Steve Solkela sings about … you know … what it’s all about.
This is basically an in-joke between friends but local and fun enough to post. A diss track inspired by my short friend Bailey. She dared me to do this, is how I remember it.
Music: “Young Thug Type Beat 2018 – ‘Sippin’ | Trap Instrumental 2018” by MADEBYFLOWERZ
Singers at the University of Minnesota Duluth overcame great odds this semester during the COVID-19 pandemic. They wore masks and rehearsed online, outdoors and in large lecture halls, ultimately sharing their musical talents in a virtual concert on Nov. 13. Some highlights are in the clip above.
An audience of more than 150 joined together on Zoom to hear the University Singers, Concert Chorale, Chamber Singers, Lake Effect and Chill Factor perform on location in Weber Music Hall, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, and around Duluth and the UMD Campus.
Stillwater-based artist Sofia Logan has released her debut album, Waiting for You, Waiting for Me. The album was recorded in December 2019 in a home near the University of Minnesota Duluth that houses what is believed to be one of the city’s first recording studios.
New Christmas music from Teague Alexy, featuring Brian Wells on bass.
Produced and written by Teague Alexy, mixed and mastered by Jake Larson, recorded at the Igloo in Duluth. Artwork by Heidi Feroe, art direction and graphic design by Joshua Priestley.
My favorite musicians are women. Who’s the coolest member of the Pixies? Kim Deal! You don’t even have to think about it for a second. And my favorite genre is indie rock. Indie is not major label, and not pop enough to score strings of giant hits. The term is frequently applied to punk-lineage garage-y guitar bands, but not exclusively.
The past few years I’ve discovered many indie chick rockers and all-female bands. Here are some highlights. This (not comprehensive!) list showcases indie women who play guitar or bass, either solo or in bands, who have been active in the past five years. Therefore many of my classic faves have been excluded — for instance a suite of 1980s and ’90s rockers. I will write about them one day, but here the focus is on contemporary artists.
My descriptions are fleshed out with links to music videos, interviews, rig rundowns, and live performances. This part one of two, and I plan to give Duluthians their own essay in part three. Here goes — some of my indie rock guitar goddess she-roes:
