On the occasion of Duluth band Trampled by Turtles making a second appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman — tonight at 10:35 p.m. on KDLH-TV channel 3.1 — I looked back at notes from an interview with Banjo Dave Carroll from spring 2013. He told stories about being on the Letterman and Craig Ferguson shows that didn’t make it into the story I was working on at the time.

Here is Carroll sharing an anecdote about taking a break outside the Ed Sullivan Theater before the Letterman gig:

They have these barriers on the sidewalks that are kind of gated off for photographers to hang out and allow them to get a picture of celebrities — whoever’s coming in. … It happened to be Amy Phoeler. We were hanging out there, and there were all these photographers. Her black town car or whatever pulls up, the photographer looks at us and says, ‘hey are you guys in the band?’ We kind of looked at each other and said ‘yeah, yeah we’re in the band.’ And they just said, ‘hey, get out of the way!'” Amy Poehler was coming across the street and they didn’t want us to be in the background with her.

Pineapple Arts Center in Downtown Duluth is now offering music lessons. Guitar, bass and ukulele lessons are available, and songwriting/composition help can also be provided.

Here’s what they had to say on the matter:

We’re so excited to have Duluth-area musician and News Tribune music writer Tony Bennett (Cars & Trucks, The Dames, Seed Math) offering music lessons for beginners/intermediates this summer! Lessons will be dictated by what the student wants to learn, with a focus on fun and creativity. Tony is able to cover many styles, including: rock, folk, blues, punk, metal, avant-garde, pop, some country, and much more! Give the store a call at (218) 722-2919 if you want to take music lessons ~~THIS SUMMER~~ acoustic and electric guitar ~~ bass guitar ~~ or songwriting and composition. ~~ Lessons are available on Tuesdays between 6-9 PM. Cost is only $20 for a single half-hour lesson, and $70 for a four-lesson package deal!

Pineapple Arts on Facebook

A buddy of mine in Nashville set this website up to help local music all over: hereit.org. Use it to listen to, search for, buy and sell local music throughout the United States.

“The site helps listeners find and support new music, while providing independent artists a platform to be heard and sell songs – with no contracts, commitments or cuts taken from the sales.”

On Facebook here.

In case you didn’t feel like showing up, or you did and you want to re-live the memories over and over like in that one movie, here is the Dirty Knobs set recorded live from the Teatro Zuccone stage on Friday May 2. You can listen and download for free. There’s also an in-studio recording included of the same raw materials taken to a slightly different direction.

Thanks to Starfire, to all of the Homegrown staff and volunteers, to everyone at Teatro Zuccone and to the audience.

List of Duluth-related album releases in 2014