HG2015-lores - Duluth Homegrown Music Festival

Transcription

www.duluthhomegrown.com · Duluth, MN · Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015 · The 17th Annual Homegrown Music Festival · Homegrown is a festival that
focuses on local bands. Every
act features at least one person who presently or at some
point lived in or near Duluth
and maintains an involvement in the local arts scene.
Notes from the 2015 Home- While there are bigger music
grown Steering Committee festivals in the world than
Homegrown, we have yet
to hear of another one with
an ultra-local focus that has
Happy 47
Birthday,
Starfire
th
This is the 17th annual Homegrown
Music Festival, and with
each
year
that passes
we get more
inclined to presume everyone has been through this
before. So we tend to use
a lot of scenester
jargon, focus on
what’s new this
year and openly
reminisce about
things only a few
hundred people in
town actually witnessed
as if everyone who is
anyone was there.
On this page,
however, we
do our best
to pull back
and remember that many of
those who have attended
even a dozen or more Homegrowns might not know
who Gomez is, haven’t been
to Rich’s house for soup
and probably missed those
Trampled by Turtles shows at
Pizza Lucé in 2008 and 2009
because the line to get in
curved around the block.
So before we drop any more
insider references or blab
about what’s new this year,
here come the paragraphs
where we lay down the basics.
traffic or piss on storefronts.
Don’t heckle the bands unless you are in a band and can
be heckled back. Don’t crowd
surf if you are wearing combat boots. Don’t leave anyone choking on vomit. We’ve
got a good thing going, so all
you have to do is not be the
one who ruins it.
It is a forgivable offense to
pay for things with a credit
card at Homegrown, but
be aware that
people
will roll
their eyes
at
you.
Bring some
cash and save
everyone the discomfort.
The second commandment
is to just be respectful of
all the dweebs who make
Homegrown happen, from
the musicians and other
artists to the sponsors and
volunteers and sound engineers and bar staff all the way
down to the simple steering
committee member. Take,
for example, Glenn Maloney.
He’s been on the committee for
six years.
S t a r t
showing
him some
respect.
The “Starfire” menreached similar enormity, so tioned in the headline above
pardon us if we brag.
is Scott Lunt. He started this
Homegrown has two gen- festival and built it up into
eral commandments that something one man could
we repeat every year so we no longer contain. You shall
can say we “told you so” and have no other Starfires bethen never forgive those fore Him. His birthday is May
who trespass against us.
7. Wish him a happy one,
First and foremost, we ask but don’t buy him drinks
that you have fun without be- — he’s been sober for more
ing a fuck knuckle and ruining than four years. Tell him he
things for other people. Don’t looks good in those jeans;
drink and drive. Don’t run out he’ll like that, and it’s true.
into Superior Street in front of
Homegrown Price Guide
Weeklong Homegrown Pass: All Eight Days • $25
Single-day Weekend: Friday or Saturday • $15
Single-day Weekday:* Any Weekday • $5 * Main room at Clyde Iron requires a weeklong wristband.
· The 17th Annual Homegrown Music Festival · Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015 · Duluth, MN · www.duluthhomegrown.com
photo by
Max McGruder
Day One · Opening Ceremonies
Sunday, April 26
day-to-day stories by EMILY HAAVIK
The eight-day beast begins
at Teatro Zuccone with the
youngest performers of the
week, the World Beat drummers from Myers-Wilkins Elementary School. The kids play
a mix of their own compositions
and world music. If you are worried about them getting nervous at their big gig … don’t.
“Oh, no. Not this group. These
are seasoned musicians,” says
Music Specialist and Drum
Leader Teri Akervik. “They’ve
performed all over the state.”
Down the block at Tycoons, it’s
Duluth Mayor Don Ness’ last
time presiding over the city
during Homegrown before
he reenters the world of civilian life in January. After seven
years of incredibly witty Mayoral Proclamations, the pressure on him is mounting.
“I’ll definitely have to come up
with something creative and
special,” he says.
Ness served as Homegrown’s
director prior to being demoted to mayor in 2008, so he says
the festival has a special place
in his heart.
“It’s always my favorite week of
the year.”
After his emotional speech, alter your somber mood with a
pint of freshly tapped Homegrown Hempen Ale and let the
music lift your spirits back to
appropriate festival level.
If you’re desperate to show off
your Homegrown knowledge
and perhaps win something
you could pick up at Dollar
General, 9 p.m. is the time to
head over to Carmody and try
your luck at the Homegrown
Pub Quiz. The evening concludes with the traditional New
Band Showcase at Pizza Lucé.
6pm
World Beat
Teatro Zuccone
Free · All ages
7pm
Mark Anderson Trio
Teatro Zuccone
Free · All ages
7:15pm
Mayor’s Proclamation &
Homegrown Hempen Ale
Cask Release
Tycoons Alehouse
Free · 21+
7:30pm
The Farsights
Tycoons Alehouse
Free · 21+
8pm
Lyz Jaakola &
#theindianheadband
Teatro Zuccone
Free · All ages
8:30pm
Boku Frequency
Tycoons Alehouse
Free · 21+
9pm
Homegrown Pub Quiz
Carmody Irish Pub
Free · 21+
9:30pm
Batteries
Tycoons Alehouse
Free · 21+
10pm
Agassiz Oscillation Ensemble
Pizza Lucé
Free · 21+
11pm
Black Diary
Pizza Lucé
Free · 21+
12am
Purple Hearse
Pizza Lucé
Free · 21+
Updates,
Errata,
schedule
changes &
kickball
Weather
report
DuluthHomegrown.com
Day two · Ancillary Arts night
Monday, April 27
Monday starts with the Home- 7:30pm
grown Photo Show at the Red Homegrown Poetry Showcase
The Underground
Herring Lounge, accompanied
Free · All ages
by an experimental showcase
8pm
that’s kind of a throwback to an
Kaylee Matuszak
old Homegrown ritual.
Sir Benedict’s Tavern on the Lake
“They used to put everybody on
a Tuesday who didn’t fit in,” says
Christian McShane, who started
weekly Experimental Tuesdays at
the NorShor Theatre back in 2002,
leading Homegrown to take up
the notion in 2007. “Then people
started saying, ‘I’m not a freak! I
don’t want to be on Tuesday!’”
Now the segregation has reemerged on Monday, with a block
of five acts weirding things up.
Homegrown’s branded Monday
theme, however, is “Ancillary
Arts Night.” Two staples are the
Music Video Festival premiere at
Zinema 2 and the Poetry Showcase at the Underground.
The rest of the night’s shows
are at Sir Benedict’s and Fitger’s
Brewery Complex, including
Bridget the Brave at the Rex.
Bridget won the 2014 Beaner’s
songwriter competition by rapping, a cappella, a song about
receiving explicit photos via
text. She says that one’s “too
naughty for this band,” but she
does promise some instructional hula hooping.
Free · All ages
8:15pm
Superfly McFlash
Red Herring Lounge
Wristband required · 21+
8:30pm
Curren Effinger
Fitger’s Brewhouse
Free · 21+
9pm
Todd Gremmels
Free · All ages
Venus DeMars
Rex Bar
9:15pm
Lorenzo’s Tractor
Red Herring Lounge
9:30pm
Woodblind
Free · 21+
Hot BitKutz
Red Star Lounge
Free · 21+
10pm
Lay Low & Bender
Free · All ages
Bridget the Brave
Rex Bar
10:15pm
I Am the Slow
Dancing Umbrella
Red Herring Lounge
5pm
Opening Reception for
Homegrown Photo Show
10:30pm
Four Mile Portage
Red Herring Lounge
Free · 21+
Free · 21+
Monster Mob
5:30pm
Red Star Lounge
Tim Kaiser
Red Herring Lounge
Free · 21+
Free · 21+
11pm
The Boomchucks
6pm
Homegrown Music
Video Festival
Zinema 2
Wristband required · All ages
Rex Bar
11:30pm
Nopamine
Red Star Lounge
6:30pm
Dirty Knobs
Red Herring Lounge
Free · 21+
Free · 21+
Day Three · Canal Park Night
Tuesday, April 28
Visitors from Edina and Eden
Prairie, beware. Tonight your
path from Canal Park Lodge to
that reservation at Bellisio’s Italian Restaurant will be fraught
with bedraggled punks.
That’s right, tonight is Canal Park
Night. But as with every rule at
Homegrown, someone’s breaking it. Non-canal shows will also
take place just up the hill at Prøve
and Dubh Linn, and out west at
Bent Paddle Brewing. Also, if you
missed the Music Video Fest the
first time, catch the encore at
Zinema 2 at 7 p.m.
Canal Park venues include Amazing Grace, Lake Avenue Café and,
of course, Grandma’s Sports Garden. This year’s mammoth-stage
lineup is Marc Gartman’s Fever
Dream, Prince Paul and the Conscious Party, Devil’s Flying Machine and Bratwurst.
“There’s something for everyone,”
says Festival Director Walter Raschick. “You like reggae? You like
1980’s synth pop? You like meat
thrown at you? You’re gonna like
something at this show.”
This is the biggest stage Bratwurst has ever been scheduled
to stain, so the industrial band
known for its creative use of raw
meat has got something special
cooked up. Or, rather, uncooked.
“The bigger the stage, the more
you can do,” says frontman Tyler Scouton. He won’t spill the
whole secret, but he says there
will be audience participation.
“There are some technical things
involved that we’ve never tried
before,” he says. “I have to try to
find a welder.”
7pm
Homegrown Music Video
Festival (First Encore)
Zinema 2
Hanna Cesario
Bent Paddle Brewing Co.
Free · 21+
7:30pm
Hannah McDaniel
Amazing Grace Bakery & Café
Free · All ages
8pm
The Kyle Scherz Band
Free · 21+
Legitimit
Prøve Gallery
Free · 21+
8:30pm
Wes Hadrich
Free · All ages
8:45pm
Fever Dream
Grandma’s Sports Garden
9pm
Clover Street Cronies
Prøve Gallery
Free · 21+
9:45pm
Prince Paul & the
Conscious Party
10pm
LadySlipper
Prøve Gallery
Free · 21+
Willie Diction
Dubh Linn Irish Pub
Free · 21+
10:45pm
Devil’s Flying Machine
11pm
RoofTop Fable
Dubh Linn Irish Pub
Free · 21+
Adam Sippola
Lake Avenue Restaurant & Bar
11:45pm
Bratwurst
6pm
Steve Sola
Free · 21+
12am
Borderstone
Dubh Linn Irish Pub
6:30pm
Free · 21+
Stel
Free · All ages
Nur Jehan Chishti
Day Four · Westside wednesday
Wednesday, April 29
Wipe that indifferent smirk off
your face and stop pretending you don’t care. Trampled
by Turtles has returned to its
rightful place headlining Clyde
Iron Works.
“We’re excited to be back,” says
mandolin player Erik Berry. He’s
referring to the dark year of
2014, when TBT was unable to
play Homegrown for the first
time in the band’s 12-year history. “It was a bummer, but it was
kind of a choice between playing Homegrown or playing the
entire tour we were on.”
Big Wave Dave and the Ripples
open up the main stage, followed
by the first-ever Homegrown
performance from the Duluth
Superior Symphony Orchestra.
“We’re going to be playing a
repertoire that’s not necessarily
what we usually play,” says Music Director Dirk Meyer. “A more
alternative style ... than a Mozart
or Haydn symphony.”
9:30pm
Trampled by Turtles
Clyde Iron Works – Main Stage
Vitamin Death
Beaner’s Central
10pm
Israel Malachi
Players Sports Bar
10:15pm
The Ball Slashers
Kom-on-Inn
10:30pm
Chasm of Czar
Mr. D’s Bar & Grill
10:45pm
The Brothers Burn Mountain
Clyde Iron Works – Mezzanine
Free · All ages
Dan Dresser
Gopher Restaurant & Lounge
11pm
Virgil Caine Band
Players Sports Bar
11:15pm
Markus J. Dandy & the
Complete Lack Thereof
Kom-on-Inn
If you think the DSSO will be out
of place here, Meyer plans to
change your mind.
11:30pm
“We absolutely try to break down
these barriers,” he says.
11:45pm
American Rebels
Lake Monster
Free · All ages
6pm
Circuit Breakers
Starling of Athens
Free · All ages
12am
7pm
Todd Eckart
Big Wave Dave & the Ripples
Players Sports Bar
12:15am
7:30pm
Pale in Comparison
The Aurora Baer Band
Kom-on-Inn
Beaner’s Central
12:30am
8pm
Glitteratti
Duluth Superior
Symphony Orchestra
8:30pm
Gin Street
Beaner’s Central
12:45am
Iron Range Outlaw Brigade
· The 17th Annual Homegrown Music Festival · Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015 · Duluth, MN · www.duluthhomegrown.com
Day Five · Soup Town Night
Thursday, April 30
Welcome to Tower Avenue. Carry
an e-cig and talk about the Packers a lot; you should be just fine.
6pm
The evening will likely kick off
with everybody and their mother trying to cram into the Red
Mug when the clock chimes 6, so
don’t plan on ambling in around
6:01. A half-hour later, sets spill
over into the Spirit Room, the
new tapas place just upstairs.
6:30pm
Charlie Parr plays his second set
of the week — this one a solo
show — at Norm’s Beer & Brats,
so he’ll likely have one of those
sharks in his drink and someone
will ask him to take his top off.
The Keep Aways are at the
Main Club for what is probably
the band’s last Homegrown
set. Guitarist Mindy Johnson is
moving to the Twin Cities and
focusing on her doom metal
project, Wolf Blood.
“I would not still be playing
music today if it wasn’t for the
support of the local music community,” she says. “I basically
moved here by accident 15 years
ago. I don’t know if it would
have worked out the same way
anywhere else.”
Other than those venues already mentioned, music will be
pounding out of every bar and
shanty in Superior, so pretty
much just walk your way down
Tower or Broadway and you’ll
be in good shape.
In Duluth, Chester Creek Wine
Bar, Jefferson People’s House
and the Reef provide options
that are not Superior — but also
not inferior.
Mr. Kickass
Red Mug Coffeehouse
Free · All ages
11:30pm
Superior Flame Nightclub
Bliss
Charlie Parr
Free · 21+
Norm’s Beer & Brats
10:30pm
Kristy Marie & the
Forget Me Nots
Lee Lah Sohn
Gold Star Junkies
Vintage Italian Pizza
The Spirit Room
Free · 21+
Horse & Rider
6:45pm
11:45pm
Silverback Colony
Gaelynn Lea
Jefferson People’s House
Free · All ages
7pm
10:45pm
Bill Flannagan’s Blue Cabooze
Thirsty Pagan Brewing
Christine Hoberg
Red Mug Coffeehouse
Free · All ages
7:30pm
Frances & Luke
The Spirit Room
Chris & Mark
Free · All ages
8pm
Maintenance Free
Red Mug Coffeehouse
Free · All ages
8:30pm
Group Too
The Spirit Room
Free · 21+
9pm
Steve Johnson
Chester Creek Café Wine Bar
Free · 21+
Dirty Horse
Tower Avenue Tavern
9:30pm
A Winter Downpour
9:45pm
Songs of Shipwreck
10pm
Ann Kathryn Loop
Free · 21+
Low Forms
Tower Avenue Tavern
The People Say Fox
Reef Bar
10:15pm
Supreme Rokka Hi-Fi
The Main Club
12am
The Crunchy Bunch
Reef Bar
11pm
Abe Curran & the Blue Rooster
12:15am
Tower Avenue Tavern
The Social Disaster
Black River Revue
The Main Club
J.J. Lawrence
Reef Bar
Free · 21+
7:45pm
Free · 21+
11:15pm
The Keep Aways
The Main Club
Hannah Rey
Free · 21+
12:30am
The Legendary Hell Puppies
www.duluthhomegrown.com · Duluth, MN · Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015 · The 17th Annual Homegrown Music Festival · Day Six · Rawk Night
Friday, May 1
Forty-six bands. Fifteen venues.
One bus. If you make a plan it
will fail. So lace up your boots,
program an emergency contact
into your phone and just follow
your heart or something.
The Homegrown Trolley will again
be providing free shuttle service
to the various Downtown Duluth
Homegrown venues on Friday
and Saturday nights. The fine folks
at the Duluth Transit Authority
and Greater Downtown Council
heroically sponsor this service.
Rick Weme, who drove the trolley last year, says the night was
“action-packed,” as one might
imagine with this crowd.
In an unprecedented move, trolley
music will actually be scheduled
this year instead of just whatever
eager beaver jumps on board with
a guitar. Friday’s acts are Accipiter,
Buteo and Lakewalk-troubadour
Jeffrey James O’Loughlin.
From here on the best bet is to
barrel blindly ahead and not think
about what you’re missing. For instance, going to see rising Duluth
singer-songwriter Rick McLean?
Cool! Too bad you’re missing the
loin-cloth-wearing Blasphemists.
Checking out Sweat Equity? Awesome! You must not care about
Father Hennepin.
On the bill at the Underground is
Nordic Angst, a band that plays
traditional Norwegian folk music
“arranged with a modern ear.”
Vocalist and accordionist Arna
Rennan says their performance
will defy your expectations — if
you have any.
“I probably shouldn’t assume
that there’s a stereotype out
there of what Scandinavian music is,” she says with a laugh.
Rennan says her band’s set will
include ballads from the Middle
Ages and folktales about trolls
on high-mountain plateaus.
6pm
9pm
11pm
The Slamming Doors
Jeffrey James O’Loughlin
Free · All ages
Beaner’s Central
6:15pm
Free · All ages
Sir Benedict’s Tavern
Emily Jayne
Father Hennepin
R. T. Quinlan’s Saloon
Free · All ages
Space Carpet
9:15pm
Ariane Norrgard, Emma
Deaner & Rachel Gobin
Teague Alexy & the
Ill Contingent
Free · 21+
Teatro Zuccone
6:45pm
Free · All ages
Paper Parlor
The Adjustments
DTA Trolley
Dubh Linn
Free · 21+
Sweat Equity
9:30pm
Holy Hootenanners
The Moon is Down
Free · All ages
The Underground
Rex Bar
11:15pm
The Fiasco
Legacy Glassworks
Free · 21+
Fearless Moral Inventory
7pm
Red Herring Lounge
Biochemical Characters
Beaner’s Central
Potluck Communists
Free · All ages
Portrait of a Drowned Man
Teatro Zuccone
7:45pm
Red Star Lounge
10pm
Déjà vu Drifters
7:15pm
Dead Skull
11:30pm
The Fontanelles
Free · All ages
Tycoons Alehouse
Timothy Martin &
the New Norm
Mary Bue
Pizza Lucé
Strictly Hammers
11:45pm
De Se
Dubh Linn
Free · 21+
Sing! A Women’s Chorus
Duluth Dolls
The Underground
Rex Bar
8pm
Ian Alexy & the Deserters
10:15pm
Morrow
Beaner’s Central
12am
The Hobo Nephews
of Uncle Frank
Free · 21+
Accipiter, Buteo
Revolution Jones
Reflectivore
DTA Trolley
Free · All ages
Dubh Linn
Free · 21+
Red Star Lounge
8:15pm
Heart’s Bane
Rex Bar
10:30pm
The Fabulous D-Bags
The Blasphemists
Free · All ages
Free · All ages
Teatro Zuccone
Legacy Glassworks
Rick McLean
Free · All ages
The Good Colonels
Tycoons Alehouse
Retribution Gospel Choir
Pizza Lucé
Red Herring Lounge
8:45pm
Nordic Angst
The Underground
12:15am
Ire Wolves
Red Star Lounge
Red Herring Lounge
Legacy Glassworks
Ryan Van Slooten
Dead End Friends
8:30pm
Southwire
10:45pm
12:30am
The Silk Sheiks
Tycoons Alehouse
Wolf Blood
Pizza Lucé
Charity & Good Wills
duluthhomegrown.com
[email protected] / volunteer@ DuluthHomegrown.com
10 · The 17th Annual Homegrown Music Festival · Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015 · Duluth, MN · www.duluthhomegrown.com
Day seven · Roll Night
Saturday, May 2
Fifty-four acts span 19 venues
from Canal Park to Ninth Street.
If you just peed a little, so did
everyone else.
Start with a mimosa and music at
Chester Creek Café. Then lift up
your throbbing head, it’s time to
run! Seriously, you have to. Al Sparhawk wants you to, so just do it.
“It’s a great way to shake off the
dust from Friday night,” Sparhawk says of his Rock ’n’ Run.
He promises it will be five miles,
tops — as if that is no sweat for
hung over musicians.
The run starts and ends at
Chester Bowl Park, where the
Homegrown Kickball Classic
then begins. This is the last active thing, promise.
Once you have showered and
puked and showered again,
head to Sacred Heart for
Homegrown’s first-ever classical music showcase. You’ll see
everything from opera to a
flute ensemble to something
called “Basoonation.”
And of course, this is Duluth, so
some guy’s playing Bach on a
tenor banjo.
“It will be true to the spirit of Bach,”
says Tyler Kaiser, who will be performing Cello Suite No. 1. “It will be
unusual only in tone and color.”
The rest of the night is anyone’s
game, but watch for the Electric
Witch. Why?
“The vocoder transforms my
vocals into a robot voice,” frontwoman Mary Bue says. “So
you can barely hear my voice. I
become a robot.”
11am
8:45pm
The Murder of Crows
Free · All ages
Red Herring Lounge
9pm
Josh Nickila
Average Mammals
Free · All ages
Free · All ages
The JMB Band
Marquis Mark & the
Very Mysterious
Free · All ages
Beaner’s Central
Man on the Moon
Toby Thomas Churchill
Rex Bar
9:15pm
Al Church
Free · All ages
Teatro Zuccone
Superior Siren
DTA Trolley
6pm
Lion or Gazelle
Spurs on First
11pm
11:15pm
Free · 21+
Coyote
9:30pm
Free · 21+
Steven Gold
The Horror
Legacy Glassworks
6:45pm
Robot Rickshaw
The Underground
Duluth Flame Nightclub
Free · All ages
Free · 21+
9:45pm
Timmy Jacks Off
DJ Nola
Red Star Lounge
Red Herring Lounge
7pm
Sarah Krueger
Preston Gunderson
Beaner’s Central
7:15pm
Vivielle
Free · All ages
Free · All ages
Free · All ages
Dad’s Acid
Beaner’s Central
Rex Bar
10:15pm
The Gentleman’s
Anti-Temperance League
Free · 21+
Danecdote
Free · All ages
Teatro Zuccone
8:30pm
Phantom Ship
Legacy Glassworks
Free · All ages
Bryan Olds
12am
Tin Can Gin
The Black-eyed Snakes
Rex Bar
Free · 21+
Attitude Era
Red Star Lounge
DTA Trolley
Portage
The Formal Age
8:15pm
Medford
Spurs on First
The Peg Leg Howlers
Free · All ages
11:45pm
8pm
Rich Mattson & the Northstars
Pizza Lucé
Big Science
Minnesota Power Plaza
Low-Hi Funk
Chase Down Blue
The Underground
Tribal Alchemie featuring
Yabobo Drummers
10pm
7:45pm
Two Beat Band
Tycoons Alehouse
Emily Haavik
Teatro Zuccone
11:30pm
Spurs on First
Free · All ages
Free · All ages
The Bottle Jockeys
Sacred Heart
Chester Bowl Park
Maddy Siiter
Homegrown Rock ’n’ Run
Free · All ages
Free · All ages
Brian Dack
The Branditos
3pm
6:15pm
Red Herring Lounge
The Spin Collective
Chester Bowl Park
Homegrown Classical
Music Showcase
Fred Tyson & His Tysonettes
Homegrown Kickball Classic
T. Dack
10:30am
The Underground
12pm
10am
10:45pm
The Anatomy of ...
12:15am
The Electric Witch
Free · 21+
10:30pm
Jaw Knee Vee
DJ Delgado
Red Star Lounge
Legacy Glassworks
Free · All ages
Breanne Marie & the
Front Porch Sinners
12:30am
Red Mountain
Tycoons Alehouse
Tycoons Alehouse
Phillip of Nazareth
Actual Wolf
Pizza Lucé
Pizza Lucé
www.duluthhomegrown.com · Duluth, MN · Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015 · The 17th Annual Homegrown Music Festival · 11
photo by
Day eight · Sunday Brunch & Recovery
Sunday, May 3
You knew this day would come.
You knew Sunday would roll
around and you would want to
give up and just binge watch
Netflix all day. Well, it’s time to
dig deep, get out of bed and finish what you started.
11am
Building your own bloody at Pizza Lucé is the fastest way to pick
up where you left off. The soothing sounds of Pushing Chain
and Mel Annala will provide the
soundtrack to your sweet relief.
12pm
Then head to Canal Park Brewing
for Dance Attic, Feeding LeRoy
and A Band Called Truman.
And dance. Dance your face off,
because come tomorrow, Homegrown will be the farthest away
it ever gets from us in our trip
around the sun. And you’ll need
to remember this moment.
Pushing Chain
Pizza Lucé
Free · All ages
12pm
Mel Annala
Pizza Lucé
Free · All ages
Homegrown Music Video
Festival (Second Encore)
Red Herring Lounge
Free · All ages
1:30pm
Dance Attic
Canal Park Brewing Co.
Free · 21+
2:30pm
Feeding LeRoy
Free · 21+
3:30pm
A Band Called Truman
Free · 21+
bill schwalbe
Brewery and tap room in Duluth’s friendly West End. Must be
21 or older; free admission.
Homegrown
Venues
Canal Park
Brewing Company
Amazing Grace
Bakery & Cafe
394 S. Lake Ave.
(218) 723-0075
Carmody Irish Pub
Beaner’s Central
Chester Bowl Park
beanerscentral.com
Coffee shop in West Duluth with 1801 E. Skyline Parkway
beer and wine. All ages permit- (218) 724-9832
chesterbowl.org
ted; paid admission required.
Homegrown Kickball Classic held
on large field at end of roadway
through park. If conditions are
1912 W. Michigan St.
exceptionally wet, check Home(218) 279-2722
grown website to make sure
bentpaddlebrewing.com
game hasn’t been moved.
Bent Paddle
Brewing Company
1902 E. Eighth St.
(218) 723-8569
astccc.net
The restaurant inside Taran’s Mar300 Canal Park Drive
ketplace in Duluth’s Chester Park
(218) 464-4790
neighborhood has a wine bar
canalparkbrewery.com
Restaurant and brewery in Du- that hosts Thursday night and
luth’s Canal Park. Must be 21 or Saturday morning shows. Must
be 21 or older; admission is free.
older; free admission.
amazinggraceduluth.com
Bakery and café in basement 308 E. Superior St.
of DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace in (218) 740-4747
Duluth’s Canal Park. All ages per- carmodyirishpub.com
mitted; free admission.
Irish-themed brew pub in Downtown Duluth hosting Sundaynight Pub Quiz. Must be 21 or
324 N. Central Ave.
older; free admission.
(218) 624-5957
Chester Creek
Cafe Wine Bar
Clyde Iron Works
2920 W. Michigan St.
(218) 727-1150
Duluth Flame
Nightclub
28 N. First Ave. W.
(218) 727-2344
duluthflame.com
GLBT-friendly dance club in
Downtown Duluth. Must be 21 or
older; paid admission required.
Duluth Transit
Authority Trolley
Cruising Superior Street
(218) 722-7283
duluthtransit.com
The DTA’s trolley replica bus will
be providing shuttle service to
venues on Friday and Saturday
night, with live music on board
from 8 to 10 p.m. All ages permitted; free admission.
clydeironworks.com
Former hoist-and-crane manufacturing plant in Duluth’s friendly West End; now a restaurant,
bar and concert venue. Shows on
the main stage restricted to ages
21 and up and require weeklong
pass; upstairs mezzanine shows
600 E. Superior St.
are open to all ages and are free.
Dubh Linn Irish Pub
(218) 279-2739
fitgersbrewhouse.com
Award-winning brew pub and
(218) 727-1559
restaurant on eastern edge of
dubhlinnpub.com
Downtown Duluth in Fitger’s
Irish-themed pub in Downtown Brewery Complex. Must be 21 or
Duluth. Must be 21 or older; free. older; free admission.
109 W. Superior St.
Gopher Restaurant
& Lounge
402 N. Central Ave.
(218) 624-9793
West Duluth’s oldest drinking establishment, with the finest ambiance. Must be 21 or older; paid
admission required.
Lake Avenue
Restaurant & Bar
Spacious bar and restaurant in
heart of West Duluth. Must be 21
or older; paid admission required. 394 S. Lake Ave.
Grandma’s
Sports Garden
(218) 722-2355
Also known as “Lake Superior
Plaza” or “People’s Power Plaza,”
the tiny park at the corner of Lake
Avenue and Superior Street in
Downtown Duluth is the place to
see fire-spinning and belly dancing on Saturday night. All ages
permitted; free admission.
Players Sports Bar
Prove Gallery
lakeavenuerestaurantandbar.com
Restaurant and bar in Duluth’s 5622 Grand Ave.
425 S. Lake Ave.
Canal Park. Must be 21 or older; (218) 624-4178
(218) 722-4724
The unofficial city hall of West
paid admission required.
grandmasrestaurants.com
Duluth. Must be 21 or older; paid
Giant nightclub/restaurant in
admission required.
Canal Park. Must be 21 or older; 32 W. First St.
(218) 720-0747
paid admission required.
1901 Broadway Street
legacyglassworks.com
Glass-blowing shop in Down- (715) 394-9689
town Duluth. All ages permitted; Music is upstairs at this two-level
12 S. 15th Ave. E.
bar in Superior. Must be 21 or
free admission.
(218) 481-7268
jeffersonpeopleshouse.com
Tiny worker-owned cooperative 1217 Tower Ave.
11 E. Superior St.
bookstore and café that serves (715) 392-1756
(218) 727-7400
as a progressive-politics meet- mainclubsuperior.com
ing site and place to eat toast. All GLBT club in Superior. Must be 21 pizzaluce.com
ages permitted; free admission. or older; paid admission required. Restaurant/bar in Duluth Technology Village. Must be 21 or
older; paid admission required
332 N. 57th Ave. W.
on Friday and Saturday; Sunday
(218) 624-3385
14 W. Superior St.
shows are free.
Legacy Glassworks
Jefferson
People’s House
The Main Club
Kom-on-Inn
Minnesota
Power Plaza
Pizza Luce
4024 Grand Ave.
(218) 624-7974
Walk into the front door of this
West Duluth bar and you will practically be on stage. Must be 21 or
21 N. Lake Ave.
(612) 205-6174
provegallery.com
Experimental art gallery in
Downtown Duluth. All ages permitted; free admission.
Red Herring Lounge
208 E. First St.
(218) 481-7318
redherringlounge.com
New “artist-friendly” drinking
establishment in Downtown Duluth. Must be 21 or older; paid admission required for music events,
Monday photo exhibit is free.
Red Mug Coffeehouse
916 Hammond Ave.
(715) 392-2662
redmugcoffee.com
Coffee shop with beer and wine,
located in the Trade and Com- ted; paid admission required.
merce Marketplace in Superior. All
ages permitted; free admission.
Red Star Lounge
600 E. Superior St.
(218) 727-7827
redstarclub.us
Nightclub featuring Brewhouse
beer and specialty cocktails, located in Fitger’s Brewery Complex. Must be 21 or older; paid
admission required.
Reef Bar
2002 London Road
(218) 724-9845
Drinking establishment in eastern Duluth’s Endion neighborhood. Must be 21 or older; paid
admission required.
Satellite theater of the Duluth
Playhouse tucked in basement
1623 Broadway St.
of Duluth Depot. All ages per(715) 394-2500
mitted; paid admission required
thirstypaganbrewing.com
805 E. Superior St.
for Friday and Saturday, Monday
Microbrewery and pizza restau- poetry reading is free.
(218) 728-1192
rant in Superior. Must be 21 or
sirbens.com
Restaurant and bar at the eastern older; paid admission required.
1201 Tower Ave.
edge of Downtown Duluth. All
(715) 392-5555
ages permitted; free admission. 405 Tower Ave.
vintageitalianpizza.com
(715) 392-0484
Pizza joint in the heart of SupeDrinking
establishment
in
Superior’s North End. Must be 21 or
1323 Broadway St.
rior
with
new
focus
on
live
music.
(715) 817-4775
Must
be
21
or
older;
paid
admisspirit-room.com
sion required.
New upscale drinking establish222 E. Superior St.
ment with tapas menu, located
(218) 722-7300
in Trade and Commerce Market- 132 E. Superior St.
zinema2.com
place in Superior. Must be 21 or (218) 623-1889
Two-screen movie house in Zeitolder; free admission.
tycoonsalehouse.com
geist Arts Building hosting the
Sir Benedict’s
Tavern on the Lake
Tower Avenue Tavern
The Spirit Room
Zinema 2
Tycoons Alehouse
Spurs on First
Restaurant and micro-brew outlet
serving Fitger’s Brewhouse beer
109 W. First St.
600 E. Superior St.
out of Duluth’s former city hall
(218) 491-7110
(218) 733-3090
and jail. Must be 21 or older; paid
Duluth’s only country/western
Nightclub in basement of Fitger’s
admission required for weekend
bar. Must be 21 or older; paid adBrewery Complex. Must be 21 or
shows, Sunday night is free.
older; paid admission required. mission required.
Rex Bar at Fitger’s
Flame
R. T. Quinlan’s Saloon Superior
Nightclub
220 W. Superior St.
(218) 722-3573
1612 Tower Ave.
(715) 395-0101
Old-school bar across from the
superiorflame.com
Holiday Center in Downtown
Duluth. Must be 21 or older; paid Happening little gay bar in
Superior. Must be 21 or older;
admission required.
free admission.
Sacred Heart
Music Center
Teatro Zuccone
(218) 723-1895
(218) 336-1414
201 W. Fourth St.
222 E. Superior St.
sacredheartmusic.org
Former cathedral in Duluth’s
Central Hillside neighborhood;
home of Sacred Heart Recording Studio and historic Felgemaker organ. All ages permit-
teatrozuccone.com
Black-box theater in Zeitgeist
Arts Building, Downtown Duluth. All ages permitted; paid
admission required for weekend
shows; free on Sunday.
The Underground
506 W. Michigan St.
(218) 733-7555
duluthunderground.org
Homegrown Music Video Festival on Monday and Tuesday. All
ages permitted; paid admission
required.
2016 T-Shirts
Preorder your 2016 Homegrown shirt Black Friday 2015:
duluthhomegrown.com
photo by
Emily Norton
Sunday, April 26 – Sunday, May 3, 2015
Homegrown
Music Festival
Homegrown Music
Festival Band Profiles
The Adjustments
11pm Fri 5/1
Sir Benedict’s
Accipiter, Buteo
8pm Fri 5/1
DTA Trolley
No doubt multi-instrumentalist Raphael Tiller is frequently
asked about the name of his
indie-rock folk band. Tiller, who
had previously performed under the name Cancer Romancer,
switched to Accipiter (hawk)
Buteo (buzzard) after his father,
a bird lover, passed away from
cancer. “Accipiters are small
and quick, buteos are large and
slow, representing the dichotomy of how life (and my mind)
work,” he says. Tiller’s been
playing music around town
since 2003 and spent the better
part of 2014 recording his NeilYoung-and-Modest-Mouse-inspired sound in his living room.
His four full-length albums are
available on Bandcamp.
Actual Wolf
12:30am Sat 5/2
Pizza Lucé
Actual Wolf, aka the dude with
the red glasses, blends the grit
and soul of country music with
the rhythm of rock and the
twang of Americana. Eric Pollard is the actual Actual Wolf,
holding down lead vocals and
guitar. He’s backed by bassist Steve Garrington, guitarists
Jake Hanson and Erik Koskinen,
and drummer Jeremy Hanson.
Together they perfectly capture
the feeling of small-town, dusty
gravel road, tattered, downand-out country rock with longing, soulful lyrics and distinctive
guitar for songs that resonate
long after they’ve ended.
The Adjustments have adjusted
well to life as a four-member
blues/rock band in the Twin
Ports, playing frequently around
Duluth and on the Range. Drummer Charles Lattimore and guitar
player Tim Nelson support the
vocal harmonies of keyboardist Alex Nelson and lead singer
Justin Lofquist. Near the end of
last summer, they became the
first band to play during breaks
at Duluth Huskies home games
at Wade Stadium. They released
their first album, Volume One, in
2013 and have been busy since
last fall writing and recording
Volume Two, hoping to have it
ready in time for Homegrown.
Agassiz Oscillation
Ensemble
10pm Sun 4/26
Pizza Lucé
To call Allen Killian-Moore a drummer/vocalist would be like calling
a Long Island iced tea a refreshment; it’s a little more complicated than that. More of a spoken
word drone vendor, he guides
string instrumentalists Skyler
Hawkins, Lee Peterson and Cyrus
Pireh though full sets of experimental orchestrated sibilation.
And to simply call them guitarists
wouldn’t be fair to the sound they
create around Killian-Moore’s
brush work. Hawkins uses a bow
across an electrified banjo like
a haunted fiddle, Peterson employs a full box of feedback trickery, and Pireh is an internationally
renown musical vanguard.
Ian Alexy &
the Deserters
8pm Fri 5/1
Beaner’s Central
After spending more than a decade releasing solo acoustic albums and playing with his brother Teague in folk-reggae group
the Hobo Nephews of Uncle
Frank, Ian Alexy has put together
a new band inspired by the classic 1980s rock he grew up on. En-
photo by
ter the Deserters: Dave Mehling
on keys, Mike Cini on drums and
Johnnie Timm on bass to accompany Alexy’s worldly vocals and
easy guitar work. Taking cues
from album-oriented rock artists
such as Tom Petty, Neil Young
and the Pretenders, this quartet
adds a Midnight Special type of
groove to Homegrown.
Teague Alexy &
the Ill Contingent
9:15pm Fri 5/1
Best known for his work in the
Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank,
Teague Alexy has also performed with a variety of backing
bands over the years. The Ill Contingent combines Alexy’s rootsrock guitar, harp and vocals with
the veteran musicianship of guitarists Jeremy Ehlert and Jason
Wussow, bassist Veikko Lepisto and drummer Tyler Dubla.
Parts of the Ill Contingent have
backed up, shared gigs and collaborated with Alexy for years,
so the songs find a perfect mixture of folk-rock formula and
jam-band improvisation. Members Wussow and Lepisto of the
ska band Wood Blind worked
with Alexy on a seven-inch record released in January, which
featured a reworking of Alexy’s
“Working Man’s Song.”
American Rebels
11:30pm Wed 4/29
These four musical zealots make
up parts of seven other current
bands (not to mention dozens of
bygone groups). When they get
laramie carlson
together as American Rebels, the
pieces form a perfect rock and
roll storm. Bob Olson’s electric
guitar wizardry slides through,
over, under and around Kyle
MacLean’s passionate alt-rock
vocals and raucous songwriting
like an atonal cyclone. It’s the
unflinching drums and bass of
Scott Millis and Heather Dean,
however, that keeps the thing
hinged tight. Look for a television appearance on The PlayList
around the time of Homegrown
and a new album in the summer.
The Anatomy of …
11am Sat 5/2
Chester Creek Café
Here’s to the magic of open stages. How many cool groups originated on these random nights
where amateur performers get
10 minutes to hone their craft in
front of small crowds of fellow
musicians? This duo is a perfect
example. Stand-up bassist Nick
Glass approached guitarist/vocalist Dan Smith after such a
night in 2011 hoping to combine
creative forces. Ensuing jams developed organically with Smith’s
poetic lyrics and soft strumming
being fleshed-out with Glass’
deep rhythms. Three years later,
after a string of shows on stages
big and small, they’ve released
a beautifully stark 10-song selftitled album.
The Mark
Anderson Trio
7pm Sun 4/26
Teatro Zuccone
gion with his acoustic guitar,
playing traditional folk songs,
classic country tunes and the
occasional rock number.
Attitude Era
10:15pm Sat 5/2
Red Star Lounge
Guitarist Casey Corcoran and
drummer Mike Wilson began casually playing music together a
few years ago. Eventually, singer
Sonja Clemenson, bassist Josh
Swanson and guitarist Gabe
Naughton joined forces with
them to form the house-punk
rock band Attitude Era. Since turning their jam sessions into a legit
band last fall, they have played
half-a-dozen shows around town
and are in the process of recording their first demo.
Average Mammals
11pm Sat 5/2
Sir Benedict’s
When one high-school garage
band, featuring Darnea Olson
and Josh Lubovich, joined forces
with another high-school garage
band, featuring Grant Hagen
and Ryan Mulner, the Indie-rock
punk group Average Mammals
was born. The four-piece has
been playing its original experimental brand of music since
2011, starting in Hibbing and expanding to the Twin Ports and
across the Midwest. Their latest
album, Life Under the Influence,
was recorded in Pasadena, Calif.,
in 2013 and released in 2014.
Hopefully, Homegrown 2015
can give jazz guitarist Mark Anderson a much needed mental
break. This past winter his family
lost its home to a fire. So if nothing else, festival attendees can
show some love by checking out
and celebrating this classy, amicable group. Anderson, along
with drummer Marvin Pomeroy
and John Thorene on bass, have
been friendly musical staples in
the Twin Ports for the past 30
years. When together as a trio
they bring lively (and sometimes
hilarious) jazz interpretations of
rock standards and a handful of
Latin-music-inspired originals to 12:15a.m. Wed 4/29
pub crowds across the region.
Kom-on-Inn
The Aurora
Baer Band
Mel Annala
12pm Sun 5/3
Pizza Lucé
Mel Annala grew up in West Duluth and learned his first chords
when his brother Bob received
a Stella guitar for Christmas in
1963. Bob didn’t find time to
play it, but Mel did, playing casually in a variety of bands over
the decades that followed. Since
2006 he’s been traveling the re-
Aurora Baer has been frequenting stages around the region for
several years now. Her heartfelt
songs are soulfully sung to the
strumming of a guitar as they cut
into you like a Bowie knife soaked
in moonshine. Baer brings new
dimensions to her Americana
music with the accompaniment
of upright bassist Mark Glen and
electric fiddle virtuoso T. Bruce
Bowers. A self-titled six-song EP
will be available soon.
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
The Ball Slashers
10:15PM Wed 4/29
Kom-on-Inn
This is a no-nonsense punkrock band — crunchy and
noisy, influenced by classic
rock, garage rock, hardcore
and metal. Guitarist Joe Ulvi
and crew work hard to put on a
killer show. Pete Biasi thumps
the bass, Jason Watt screams
the lyrics and Erik Freitag
brings the cascading drums
from the back. They do it all
with a nod to anyone obsessed
with stabbing exercise balls gizmos during his numerous
Homegrown performances over
for sexual gratification.
the years. Drums, bass, congas,
bongos, kazoos, didgeridoos,
schmidgeridoos, beer flutes — if
it makes music, Rohrbaugh plays
3:30pm Sun 5/3
it. So it makes sense his current
Canal Park Brewing
group incorporates a vast meA Band Called Truman is an nagerie of styles. This coterie
eight-member rock band that of veteran members includes
plays original music and twisted Tom Wilkowske on bass, Chris
covers of everything from Joe Modec-Halverson on drums and
Cocker to the Cure. Frontman Jim Pospisil on keyboard, with a
Leon Rohrbaugh is a musical horn ensemble made up of Jess
jack-of-all-trades who has de- Olson, Kirby Wood, Dale Schimployed any number of musical min and Mina Hubert.
A Band
Called Truman
Batteries
9:30pm Sun 4/26
Tycoons Alehouse
Batteries is a group of rather ubiquitous long-time local musicians.
The band has recorded two albums — That Great Grandsuck of
the Sea, and You’re So Excited. “Our
music has some variety to it,” says
guitarist Dave Frankenfeld, “from
1950’s-inspired doo-wop garagepop and Pixies-style alt-rock, to
texture-driven shanties from the
abyss.” He’s backed by guitarist
Greg Cougar Conley, bassist Bryon
photo by
Gaynor and drummer Scott Millis.
Members have been busy this
past year on other projects such
as Low Forms, American Rebels
and Wino WI, so Batteries has
kept a relatively low profile of late.
Plans for 2015 involve working on
a five-song EP and playing “more
casino gigs and supper clubs.”
perimental music. Twin Ports
crowds should be well acquainted with the power tool
feedback butchery of Bratwurst’s Tyler Scouton and Chris
Modec-Halverson. Tim Kaiser
has created musical science
since the early 1980s. Aaron
Molina and Christian McShane
pretty much put Duluth drone
music on the map with their
early 2000s group If Thou7:45pm Sat 5/2
sands. Throw them together
The Underground
on a stage full of gadgets, inThese ambient all-stars sound ventions, synthesizers and bass
off as a local who’s who of ex- guitars and it’s downright sci-
Big Science
Bill Schwalbe
entific. “We use super science Vocalist and trumpet player
to create cosmic outer space “Big Wave” Dave Adams, guimusic from space,” says Kaiser. tarist Peter Knutson, bassist
Alex Piazza, drummer Dave
Mennes, trumpeter David Rode,
tenor saxophonist Steve Rogers, trombonist Alex Nordehn,
7pm Wed 4/29
baritone saxophonist Matt
Clyde Iron Works
Wasmund and backing vocalist
Those ready to get on up and Shannon Kroenke get crowds
shake their moneymakers need moving with original hits and
look no further than Big Wave their takes on songs by James
Dave and the Ripples. The Brown, Aretha Franklin, Eddie
members of this nine-piece Floyd and more. A music video
band have brought the soul for the song “Real Thing” was
and funk to Duluth since 2010. released in February.
Big Wave Dave
& the Ripples
photo by
Biochemical
Characters
7pm Fri 5/1
Beaner’s Central
Once described as “the missing link between Sister Rosetta
Tharpe and the Rolling Stones,”
Biochemical Characters have
recently shed their aggressive
Americana style to embrace
the more optimistic sounds of
“boreal spiritual music.” Frontman and bassist Michael Gabler
defines the style as being “char-
acterized by driving guitar, vivacious rhythms and hand-holding
harmonies that leave the listener
singing, dancing and a little
more hopeful.” Jay Sandal and
Jay Walker maintain the jangly,
driving guitar leads and drum
beats, respectively, joining with
Gabler to incorporate bluegrassinspired harmonies and lyrics
into the band’s new sound. The
trio recently completed work on
an album of said boreal spirituals. Fun facts: Biochemical Characters are also responsible for
the Harbor City Roller Dames
Andy Miller
theme song and penned the an- the skeletal frame of Jesse Hothem for the One Vegetable, One heisel’s varied guitar styles and
tones, Black Diary creates deep,
Community initiative.
synchronized, three-part harmonies that highlight the poetic
lyricism of the collaborators.
11pm Sun 4/26
Black Diary
Pizza Lucé
Black Diary combines Tasha
Turk’s classical training and the
folk/pop backgrounds of her sister Sophie Turk and their friend
Rachel Phoenix. Their collective
love for hymns and gospel music influences the eclectic sound
of the group. Stretched over
The Black-eyed
Snakes
12am Sat 5/2
Rex Bar
Oh sure, these guys play in some
pretty fantastic other groups
— like Low, the Boomchucks,
American Rebels, Prince Paul and
photo by
Kip Praslowicz
the Conscious Party, etc. — but
nobody brings it to the table like
the the Black-eyed Snakes. Their
psychedelic blues style could arguably be held responsible for
at least five or six of the most
intense, sweaty, out-of-body
performances in Homegrown
history. And finally, rumors of a
long overdue third album featuring guitarists “Chickenbone
George” Al Sparhawk, “Big
House” Bobby Olson and percussionists “Smokin’” Brad Nelson
and Bryan “Lefty” Johnson have
begun to surface.
Black River Revue
11pm Thurs 4/30
Reef Bar
The bluegrass band Black River
Revue has stomped all over Wisconsin and Minnesota since the
2014 release of its second album,
Spring Thaw. Adam Stariha leads
the group on guitar and vocals,
pairing up with Nate Hynum on
mandolin. Violinist Kailyn Spencer
packs a bluegrassy punch along
with Tim Leutgeb on banjo. Ian
Kvale adds an interesting element
to the band’s sound with electric
blues/punk band got kicked
out of its former practice space,
a re-usable diaper and babyclothing store. The Blasphemists
now practice in guitarist/vocalist
Adam Sundberg’s chiropractic
clinic, preparing for shows that
typically include trashcan-banging and glass-shattering. Sundberg and Joshua Herbert rarely
wear shirts while playing guitar
8:15pm Fri 5/1
and singing at Homegrown. NeiTeatro Zuccone
ther do Anthony Schaefer on
Despite the fact that all four band bass (rumored to have the best
members have had babies in the legs in the band) nor vocalist
past year and a half, this rock/ Steve Hamlin on drums. They ofbass, and Joe Berg is the icing on
the bluegrass cake with washboard, spoons and other percussion. Black River Revue typically
delivers a mix of traditional bluegrass music with its own twist,
along with original music from its
two albums of material.
The Blasphemists
photo by
ten invite the crowd in on their of the bands Kritical Kontact and
antics. Anything could happen. Modern Gentlemen, and as the
solo act Bliss. He released an alternative hip-hop, psychedelic,
sci-fi, electro-pop record last
6pm Thurs 4/30
Red Mug Coffeehouse
year, The Most Important Things
in
Life are Invisible, and is curDavid Kittelson considers himself
rently
building up material for
to be a professional drifter, havanother
one. He will be releasing
ing spent most of the past year
new
videos
from his 2014 album
traveling around the country
sleeping in vans, playing shows in the coming year.
and promoting his music. He
has been performing in the Twin
Ports for more than 12 years as 8:30pm Sunday 4/26
a hip-hop artist and co-founder Tycoons Alehouse
Bliss
Boku Frequency
Not many bands can lay claim
to being “house band” at the
Red Lion Bar. Still fewer can say
they survived that notoriously
rough saloon long enough to
regularly perform today. In fact,
Boku Frequency might be the
only one still intact. And God
love ’em for reminding people
what those smoky, ill-fated,
incredibly fun nights were like
before it closed down in 2007.
Though they’ve added musical
virtuoso Leo “Psycho Capone”
on drums, the psychedelic
funk and soulful rock music
Andy Miller
created by guitarist Terry “Redeye Dread” Gums and bassist
Thomas “Too Sharp” Harris has
thankfully not changed much.
The Boomchucks
11pm Mon 4/27
Rex Bar
The folk-rock stylings of the
Boomchucks are deeply rooted
in Duluth’s music scene. The
duo was formed in 2008, after each member had already
spent more than a decade per-
photo by
laramie carlson
forming in the Zenith City. Led
by songsmith Jamie Ness on
guitar and lead vocals, drummer Brad Nelson drives their
tunes into a foot-stomping
rhythm that pulls people out of
their seats and on to the dance
floor. They recently finished
recording their sophomore album, Antidote, which should
be hot off the press around the
time they hit the Homegrown
stage. They are sometimes accompanied by Russell “Sugar
Packet” Sackett on bass.
Borderstone
12am Tues 4/28
Dubh Linn
ing Ryan Morgen and Nicholas
Klee. While honing their skills as
instrumentalists and singers, they
found themselves wanting for a
larger ensemble. John Rainwater
made the group a trio with his
five-string banjo in 2013. They
continued their studies of the old
styles and traditions and finally
brought in Nicholas Glass on bass
and Rachel Reichert on fiddle.
Purist fans of low-fi American
traditional bluegrass will relate
to Borderstone. Hearkening back
to a simpler time, when families
gathered around the radio on Saturday night to hear the wonders
of live music being performed
on a stage in Nashville, these five
musicians have successfully captured the magic of that sound.
Borderstone began in 2012 as a 8:45pm Sat 5/2
guitar-and-mandolin duo featur- Red Herring Lounge
The Bottle Jockeys
What happens when members
of red-letter weirdo bands like
Sexhawk, Giljunko, the Acceleratii and the Black Labels get
mushed up into a big ball and
served to a crowd hungry for
a dose of healthy anarchy? The
best damn barbershop quintet
this side of Milwaukee, that’s
what. Just kidding. It’s the
brand spanking new rock ’n’
roll demolition derby called the
Bottle Jockeys. Frontman Chad
Lyons is backed by quintessential local axmen Ben Marsen and
Tony Derrick along with an all-
photo by
Max McGruder
star, wildcard rhythm section of four years by Jason Wussow
Chris Whittier on bass and Scott on drums and Bruce Rosera on
Millis on drums.
bass. There could be no better
Homegrown setting than Spurs
on First to shake whatever kind
of boots cowpunks wear to a
10:45pm Sat 5/2
Branditos show.
Spurs on First
The Branditos
Brandon Swanson’s cowpunk
band is a straight-ahead threepiece fun machine. “We play
happy, upbeat, high-energy
tunes with catchy melodies and
clever lyrics,” he says. Swanson
handles the guitar and vocal work, backed for the past
Bratwurst
11:45pm Tues 4/28
Just the name strikes terror into the hearts of venue
owners everywhere. Tyler
Scouton’s platoon of misfits
puts on such a dynamic and
meaty show that no band can
be scheduled to follow them.
It takes too long to clean the
stage afterward. Scouton is on
the mic and bangs a steel pipe,
Jason Ratajek and Ben Tryon
make more sounds, Brennan Atchison plays the drums
and Chris Modec-Halverson
does his part. Is it electronica?
Death march canticles? No one
is sure, but somewhere in the
bloody, loud, rancorous chaos
there is some form of music being played. The band is
scheduled to never record an
album, ever.
Breanne Marie
& the Front
Porch Sinners
10:30pm Sat 5/2
Tycoons Alehouse
This is not the new-wave brocountry that pollutes the air in
stuffy county bars and tractorpulls. This is authentic, heartfelt, pure country — the kind
that would bring a smile to
photo by
the face of George Jones and
Tammy Wynette. Breanne Marie and the Front Porch Sinners
evolved out of the solo work
of Breanne Marie Tepler. She
started playing guitar in 2007
and entered the local music
scene in 2010. After releasing
her debut album in 2013, the
Front Porch Sinners were born.
The five-piece country outfit includes Breanne Marie on
vocals and guitar, Evan Tepler
on lead guitar, Glenn Maloney
on bass, John LaMar on drums
and Johnny “Blaze” Peterson bassist Ethan Thompson and
drummer Ryan Jazdzewski. Peron pedal steel.
cussionist Bryan “Lefty” Johnson joins them in the mission
to take Ideker’s original mate10pm Mon 4/27
rial and create a vintage sound
Rex Bar
with a fresh twist. Ideker, by the
After discovering their mutual way, won the 10th annual songlove of classic sound, singer- writer competition last fall dursongwriter Bridget Ideker and ing Beaner’s One Week Live.
guitarist Ben Marsen formed
the rockabilly-esque Bridget
the Brave. In addition to Marsen, the other members of the
Silk Sheiks join Ideker on stage 10:45pm Wed 4/29
— keyboardist Dan Anderson, Clyde Iron Works
Bridget the Brave
The Brothers
Burn Mountain
Bill Schwalbe
More than 15 years of playing
music together, eight full-length
albums and a brotherly bond
fuel the soulful duo known as the
Brothers Burn Mountain. Ryan
and Jesse Dermody lay claim to
playing more than 1,000 shows
throughout the Twin Ports, Midwest and United States, most recently highlighting the fall 2014
release of A Thread Through the
Night. They described their music as “good-ol’ rock ’n’ roll with
a very personal and strange
twist of bluesy tastes.”
photo by
Mary Bue
11:30pm Fri 5/1
Pizza Lucé
channel her unique lyrical style
in a crunchier, punchier way
than her previous, piano-driven work. Bue recently quit her
day job to pursue music full
time while continuing to teach
yoga (one of her other passions) on the side, sometimes
fitting in a class before a show
while on tour.
In the past year Mary Bue
morphed from piano songstress
to pop rocker with the March
release of her sixth album, Holy
Bones. She now fronts her band
on guitar, backed by members
of the American Rebels — Kyle
MacLean on guitar, Heather Millis on bass and Scott Millis on
7pm Tues 4/28
drums — and local electronic
Bent Paddle Brewing
musician Zac Bentz on synths.
The result is a set of tunes that After graduating from the Uni-
Hanna Cesario
versity of Minnesota Duluth and
kicking around the local music scene for a couple of years,
Hanna Cesario moved back to
her hometown of Mankato in
2014. The singer and ukelele
player has returned to play
some of her old Duluth haunts
— the Club Saratoga during
Saturday jazz, for example —
as well as picking up some Twin
Cities gigs. Local percussionist
Char Erlemeier might join Cesario for her Homegrown set.
Andy Miller
Charity &
Good Wills
10:45pm Fri 5/1
Lake Avenue Restaurant
Charity and Good Wills makes
their Homegrown debut this
year, though there are some
very familiar faces in this fiveperson string band. Born and
raised in Duluth, Charity Huot
Benedict heads up the group
on guitar and vocals and is supported by a lively crew made up
of bassist Mark Glen, lead gui-
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
tarist Peter Singler, banjo player
Dustin Mencel and violinist Denise Braus. Individually, many
of these band members have
played on local stages for more
than a decade. Collectively,
Charity and Good Wills deliver a
blend of jazz, folk, reggae, bluegrass and pop. Expect a range
of styles from slower ballads to
fast, fun and frenetic tunes.
Chase Down Blue
10pm Sat 5/2
Sir Benedict’s
Led by young artist Micah
Tigner, who originally adopted the moniker as a solo project, Chase Down Blue began
last fall when bassist Lee Petersen, drummer Sam Williams
and temporary vocalist Melissa Borer joined the mix. The
band got its start playing for
large groups of friends at Jefferson People’s House and the
Red Herring Lounge, where it
had a residency this past winter. There are plans to record
an album.
vasses of chaos with a new band:
Chasm of Czar. A collection of
10:30PM Wed 4/29
their newest material featuring
aggressive riffs; tight, solid beats,
Dan Krause and Connor Glenn and the sparse dulcet spaces they
shared guitar and drum duties purposely leave in between, can
for the second coming of metal be heard on Bandcamp.
rockers Xhaust. Through that
transformation from four-piece
to duo, their sound actually grew
7:45pm Thurs 4/30
deeper and became more me- Jefferson People’s House
lodic while retaining its heavier
roots. Now with Krause strictly With a sound they describe as “an
on drums and Glenn handling earthy blend of funk and acoustic
the guitar they’ve pushed their rhythms,” singer/songwriter Chris
sound even further into the cre- Clemens and percussionist Mark
Chasm of Czar
Chris & Mark
photo by
Macham have performed a regular Tuesday night gig together
for the past five years at Thirsty
Pagan Brewing in Superior, with
Clemens on acoustic guitar and
Macham playing djembe. Area
native Clemens says he’s been a
fan of the local music scene since
high school. Both musicians have
collaborated with various local
artists through the years. Macham currently performs in the Cloquet/Esko-area trio Marquis Mark
and the Very Mysterious and in
the summer he can be found
busking on the Lakewalk.
Al Church
9:15pm Sat 5/2
Singer/songwriter Al Church
played Homegrown back in 2001
at the historic NorShor Theatre
with his high school band the
Spoogees. Fast forward 14 years
and a few Minneapolis rock ensembles later and this engaging
performer has metamorphosed
into a pop and R&B man. Mixing
the infectious grooves of modern indie-soul music (see the
Postal Service) with the record-
laramie carlson
2014 with the release of his second
solo album, Where is My Rumspringa Darling? The critically praised
disc finds Churchill pushing in
more experimental directions
musically than 2011’s Death, while
lyrically his sharp wit remains at
the forefront. Bassist and vocalist
Danny Cosgrove, Churchill’s righthand man since their days in bands
Crazy Betty and the Alrights, is still
on board, as are more recent col11pm Sat 5/2
laborators guitarist Ben Durrant,
Rex Bar
drummer Ryan Lovan and bassThis Duluth native continued his ist James Everest. In the past year
exploration of pop music as art in Churchill has also continued to
ing techniques inspired by the
Motown sound (see Otis Redding) has resulted in the funkyfresh new album Next Summer.
He will be joined by Evan Fox
on bass, Cole Pulice on sax, Levi
Stugelmeyer on drums and Matt
Sandstedt on keys.
Toby Thomas
Churchill
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
perform solo shows as Starling of from a Chicago blues background.
Athens, Duluth’s favorite atheist Singer Jessica Mae has roots in
musical project.
the Minneapolis hip-hop scene.
Saxophonist Greg Moore honed
his rock chops in St. Louis. Greg
Berthiaume has drummed for
6pm Wed 4/29
groups locally and as far as Puerto
Clyde Iron Works
Rico. Vintage guitarist Bob Purdy
This quintet has been together
has played every kind of stage
for five years, touring the Midwest
from resort gigs to Bayfront Park.
and bringing seasoned blues-rock
sets to a long list of venues. The
band’s soulful sound comes from
the cosmopolitan make-up of
members, all of whom share sing- 9pm TUES 4/28
ing duties. Bassist Bill Allen hails Prøve Gallery
Circuit Breakers
Clover Street
Cronies
No longer are the Clover Street
Cronies playing the curb, or
“outside stage” as they call it, for
Homegrown. This year they’re
bringing their ragtime tunes to
an actual stage. With spoons,
a guitar and a banjo, Charlotte
Montgomery creates music inspired from the odds-and-ends
of music from the 1920s and
’30s. Joined by Kyle Ollah on the
guitar and fiddle, the old-time
music duo has decided to retire
their street performances, play
in a heated venue and not freeze
their asses off. A video produced
by Lakefront Films for their song
“Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road” was released in December. It was shot at the ruins
of the U.S. Lighthouse Station
Depot on Park Point.
Coyote
11:15pm Sat 5/2
Singer and banjo player Marc
Gartman’s description of Coyote matches the experience
of listening to All I Feel is Night,
the band’s third album. “I’d say
photo by
our music is pretty and intense
and steeped in nostalgia.” In live
shows and on recordings, Gartman and guitar player and singer Jerree Small join with standup bass player Matt Mobley
to craft a moving, unadorned,
deep-souled version of folk music that feels substantive and
gentle like good dark beer.
making Duluthians dance since
2009. The DJ collective released
its first official original material
last year on the four-track EP, Nah,
I’mma Stay. Chris LeBlanc (aka
Privilege) and Dan Branovan (aka
Branologic) also scratched on a
handful of tracks on Strictly Hammers’ latest album. Each DJ has
his own personal style, ranging
from hip-hop, rap and funk to future, house and electronic. Along
with Jack Hazelton (aka Hazel12am Thurs 4/30
tron) and Alexis LeBlanc (aka Mr.
Reef Bar
Ness), the Crunchy Bunch has
The Crunchy Bunch has been been focusing less on gigs lately
The Crunchy Bunch
Andy Miller
and more on original material cussion, vocals, second beard,
and recordings, but they expect tasteful silliness” are from Pat
to be playing more this spring.
Bowen. Outside of music, Curran
is a tax preparer and Bong is a
massage therapist. That yin and
yang chills well on stage.
Abe Curran &
the Blue Rooster
11pm Thurs 4/30
Tower Avenue Tavern
Abe Curran leads this easy-going
rock / new-folk / psychedelia-jam
group with what he calls “guitar,
vocals, songwriting, beard, safety glasses, brains.” The “bass, vocals, sex appeal, no beard” come
from Eric Bong and “drums, per-
Brian Dack
6:15pm Sat 5/2
Amazing Grace
Brian Dack describes his music
as “original classical folk with
the emphasis on melody and interesting guitar arrangements.”
He plays occasionally around
photo by
town and has been a part of
Homegrown numerous times.
During this past year, Dack performed at out-of-state gigs with
his wife, Arna Rennan, who is a
fellow member of the Norwegian folk band, Nordic Angst.
At Homegrown, Dack will be
performing with another musician from Nordic Angst, Doug
Greenwood. The pair has played
music together since 1969. Dack
hopes to document a backlog
of unrecorded material in 2015
at Inland Sea Studio.
T. Dack
8:15pm Sat 5/2
Amazing Grace
Tobin Dack has produced ambient synthesizer music for eleven
years. His discography includes
more than a dozen releases. The
latest, Untropic Nothings, plays
the role of teaser (outtakes and
B sides) for an even newer vinyl
release coming later in 2015. Using minimalist, sequenced beats
as a blueprint, Dack employs
electronic echoes and noise vibrations to create the spaced-
out soundtracks that are perfect when peaking at a rave or
as background music during a
planetarium lecture.
Dad’s Acid
10pm Sat 5/2
R.T. Quinlan’s
“Dad’s Acid surfs waves on a sea
of blood, reverb and fuzzed-out
doom,” says the band’s official
bio. The genre: devotional-stoner-surf-punk-garage-doom rock.
Jacob Swanson plays guitar and
sings, Nikki Moeller plays bass
laramie carlson
and Jacob Paulsrud hits drums.
Dad’s Acid’s debut EP First Trip
was released one year ago, on
April 20. The date may or may
not be significant.
Dance Attic
1:30pm Sun 5/3
Canal Park Brewing
“We don’t have a banjo,” says
Dance Attic guitar player and
singer Jimi Cooper. “We have
an accordion!” The concertina
he’s referencing is played by Susan Ludwig of Father Hennepin
photo by
Andy Miller
fame, who also sings in Dance
Attic. Their sound, says Cooper,
encompasses the classic Duluth rawk and/or roll combination of old-time country, polka,
1920s swing, and march music.
Sets include romantic Italian accordion pieces, Norwegian folk,
the Monty Python’s Flying Circus
and PBS Mystery themes, Hawaiian tunes, “a derangement
of a Beatles song,” and “originals that are all over the place.”
Cooper also plays in the Fractals
and does solo fingerstyle-guitar gigs every other Thursday at
the Thirsty Pagan in Superior in work, solo and collaborative,
rotation with Dance Attic gigs. always brings a professional
production edge that separates him from the ever-growing pack of ordinary laptronica
10:15pm Sat 5/2
noise makers. His discography
Duluth Flame
of work as Danecdote includes
Electronic music producer and six original albums and two full
composer Daniel Nelson can no albums of dance remixes.
doubt drop a beat. Sometimes
it’s a dance-floor friendly mix
like “Cardinal,” the first track on
his new album Koda Bae. Some- 11:45pm Fri 5/1
times it is a much more experi- Lake Avenue Restaurant
mental soundscape like the title Ben Butter has played in a wide
track from said album. But his variety of musical projects over
Danecdote
De Se
the years — everything from
country to metal and whatever
lies in between. When he started performing as a solo artist,
he claimed it was “to expunge
some clinging dark bits and
slime off my soul.” More than a
year has passed, and apparently
the Bukowski-tinged songwriter
still has some scraping off to do
because his folk act De Se endures. Maybe not so good for his
psyche, but good for small-stage
audiences lucky enough to catch
him spinning tales about all sorts
of trouble and troublemakers.
photo by
Anderson plays with guitarists
and singers Phil McLoughlin
10:30pm Fri 5/1
and Joe Warttman and drumRed Herring Lounge
mer Pete Hannegraf. They’ve
“We play loud, catchy rock mu- been performing local shows for
sic,” says Dead End Friends bass- about three years.
ist and singer Ben Anderson. The
band’s 2014 release, Something
for the Kids, proves him correct.
11:15PM Fri 5/1
If songs by All, Green Day, Cheap
Red Star Lounge
Trick, Helmet, Black Sabbath and
Queens of the Stone Age were Dead Skull is comprised of two
thrown into an audio blender, brothers from Knife River who
the resulting concoction might now operate out of Minneaposound a lot like the crunchy, 4/4, lis. One writer says drummer
fuzzed-out rock-pop-with-guts Dan Johnson and his brother
Dead End Friends
Dead Skull
Brian, who plays guitar and
sings, sound like “Fugazi meets
Black Sabbath.” Another says
he “hears descendants of the
Stooges.” On your own you
might hear the the MC5 or raw,
unhinged White Stripes echoes
or Bon Scott AC/DC. The first
full-length Dead Skull album,
Blam!, was released one week
before last year’s Homegrown.
Deja vu Drifters
10pm Fri 5/1
Sir Benedict’s
Andy Miller
Those who savor the taste of
1970s-style ensemble folk music
à la the Band or Rolling Thunder
Revue will appreciate the Déjà
vu Drifters. Rick Olson, Mike
Mattson and Steve Johnson
played in the late 1970s in the
Sawtooth Mountain Boys. Olson
and Mattson went on to play
electric blues and Johnson took
up with numerous local bands.
In 2010, the group decided to
get back together and added
talented singer/songwriter/percussionist Greg Tiburzi to form
this acoustic project.
photo by
laramie carlson
she’ll do for Homegrown. A
new acoustic album, Flesh and
9pm Mon 4/27
Wire, recorded at Sacred Heart
Rex Bar
Music Center, is set for future
Duluth native Venus DeMars release. The three-song 12and her art defy most conven- inch record Take My Shoulder
tional definitions, but here’s came out in March.
a shot: She’s a transsexual
woman who’s developed an
ardent fan base as a punkglam rocker in Minneapolis.
10:45pm Tues 4/28
She’s best known for her eclecGrandma’s Sports Garden
tic work with the band All the
Pretty Horses. She also plays They don’t play out much, but
solo acoustic shows — calling when they do ... look out. Charit “punk folk” — which is what lie Parr and Christian McShane
Venus DeMars
Devil’s Flying
Machine
initially formed Devil’s Flying
Machine as a sort of “what if?”
duo, wondering what might
happen if they merged Parr’s
ol’ timey guitar and vocal stylings with McShane’s darker
drone creations. Surprised by
how quickly audiences sought
them out, they soon recruited
drummer Dave Frankenfeld
and found their slithery folk
jams entertaining packed houses. Due to individual touring
schedules, the group has performed rarely in recent years.
Dirty Horse
9pm Thurs 4/30
Tower Avenue Tavern
Guitarist and vocalist Nate
Case describes his band’s style
as “pontoon rock.” If he means
that it creates a just-hangingout- in -the -sun - having - fun and-partying-with-friends sort
of feeling, then he’s spot on.
Songs from the 2011 EP Tartan, which he penned with fellow guitarist Andy Olmstead,
sound like excellent outtakes
from My Morning Jacket or
photo by
Andy miller
Twin Peaks. Perhaps someday,
along with bassist Brian Wells
and drummer Jake Paulsrud,
they will finish the much-anticipated follow up. Until then,
the occasional gig/soiree at
this festival, aboard the Dylan
train, or offshore on a party
boat will have to satisfy.
Knobs. “The cliché is that it’s
just one note played over and
over, so I try to make my sets
as dynamic and melodic as
possible, while still keeping
it monolithic and imposing.”
He says various listeners have
complimented the Dirty Knobs
experience as “like the sound
of a busy highway off in the distance,” “like being crushed by
the ocean,” and “like it was re6:30pm Mon 4/27
corded in Hell’s deepest skullRed Herring Lounge
silo.” “Really,” he says, “I’m just
“Drone can be a bit of a hard trying to make as much horsell,” says Zac Bentz of Dirty rible noise as possible.”
Dirty Knobs
spin hip hop, electronic dance
music and top-40 remixes but
10:30pm Sat 5/2
will throw in rock, country
Legacy Glassworks
and reggae when he feels the
Derek Delgado has played a crowd will enjoy it.
pivotal role in the the Twin
Ports hip-hop scene since the
early 2000s when he became 9:45pm Sat 5/2
involved with Round About Red Herring Lounge
Records and started playing
with rap group Kritical Kon- Lake Nebagamon native Nola
tact. Since then he has toured Wick is known from Duluth to
the country and played locally Madeline Island and down into
at nearly every venue in town. the Twin Cities for her ever-exHe’s been mixing records since panding collection of funk, soul,
the late 1990s and prefers to classic disco and rare groove
DJ Delgado
DJ Nola
photo by
records. She has been using
her vast knowledge of the oldschool originals to produce
eclectic mixes at local music
venues and super-secret house
parties since 2001.
bring it to life. Acoustic guitarist Dan Dresser recorded some
basic folk-rock rhythm tracks in
May of 2014 and, in the months
that ensued, added choirs, backup vocalists, cellos, violins, pianos, drums, bass and the efforts
of both Beaner’s Central and Sa10:45pm Wed 4/29
cred Heart studios. Look for its
Gopher Lounge
much anticipated release around
His forthcoming full-length al- the time of Homegrown.
bum might be called a solo
project, but it took a long list of
community musicians, produc- 10pm Fri 5/1
ers/engineers and studios to Rex Bar
Dan Dresser
Duluth Dolls
The bawdy spectacle of burlesque returned to the Twin
Ports in 2012 with the formation of the Duluth Dolls. Combining classic burlesque style
with a creative and contemporary edge — sometimes referred to as “neo-burlesque”
— these glamorous gals promise “oodles of sass, class, love
and laughs” with every performance. Alex Jost serves as the
troupe’s host, a sort of circus
ringmaster who presents dancers by the stage names Velvet
Noir, Aurora Borealis, Veronica
Jason Kokal
Vixen, Khaleesi Khaos, Lilly
LaRouge, Madame Touché and
Nadia Norimi.
Duluth Superior
Symphony Orchestra
8pm Wed 4/29
Clyde Iron Works
No, it won’t be the entire orchestra on stage at Homegrown; it’ll be a select group of
roughly 15 members. “It’s like
a small chamber orchestra or
an ensemble,” says DSSO Conductor Dirk Meyer. Also, the
photo by
music will not be typical orchestra material, but instead a
special set of tunes specifically
for the Homegrown audience.
Maestro Meyer says the chosen compositions are classical
music written for an orchestra,
but also embrace pop and rock
elements. “At least two of the
composers are still living. One
is from Australia and one is
from Uruguay but lives in the
U.S. now. It’s going to be much
more updated and more rock
music than we usually do.”
Todd Eckart
12am Wed 4/29
Players Sports Bar
Todd Eckart started playing Duluth gigs in the mid-1990s, tried
out the Los Angeles scene from
2007 to 2012, and now does a
lot of local shows, including
solo appearances and Rat Pack,
Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley
tributes. For Homegrown he’s
backed up by a tight, fun band
that knows its way around Americana, country and rockabilly:
Jimi Cooper on guitar, George
laramie carlson
Ellsworth on bass and Matthew with blues/rock/jazz riffs whethGroom on drums.
er backed by a drummer or playing solo acoustic sets. Recently,
he has added even more zeal to
his repertoire by enrolling in the
8:30pm Mon 4/27
study of building hand-made
string instruments.
Though not much older than the
Homegrown Music Festival itself, Curren Effinger has already
played around the Twin Ports for 12:15am Sat 5/2
four-plus years. He describes his Duluth Flame
music as “shoe gaze,” but don’t Originally formed by husband
let the soft, thoughtful lyrics and wife Zac and Steph Bentz
fool you. His accompanying gui- along with friend Marcus
tar sound is no drone; it rumbles Matthews, the Electric Witch
Curren Effinger
The Electric Witch
photo by
Kip Praslowicz
popped up sometime in 2012
and took on the task of introducing the Twin Ports to the
mysterious musical sub-genre
of synth noir. Much like an 8bit video game come to life,
the band’s performances now
feature digital noise from Eric
Anderson and robotic vocals
by a bedazzled Mary Bue, appearing unrecognizable as a
mechanized space alien. This
industrial electronica spectacle
dominates the sensory and is
an unsafe bet for anyone who
knows exactly what they like.
Emily Jayne
9pm Fri 5/1
Sir Benedict’s
Cloquet native Emily Jayne Brissett started playing piano at the
age of 14, went to Berklee College of Music, broke into the local scene at Beaner’s Central, released a string of albums — most
recently 2011’s Blue Plate Fellas,
then drifted off the radar after
playing Homegrown in 2012.
This past winter she brought her
piano-based, alternative, singersongwriter pop sounds back for
a New Year’s Eve gig at Beaner’s,
followed by a new single, a few
more gigs and her upcoming return to Homegrown.
The Fabulous
D-Bags
10:30PM Fri 5/1
Legacy Glassworks
Guitarist and vocalist Vincent Hladilek — better known as Vincent
Cadillac — has put together more
than a handful of diverse musical
projects over the past decade.
The most notable would be Poor
Howard, which played Homegrowns from 2010 to 2012. Now he
teams up with another six-string
veteran of Twin Ports musical
mayhem, Brandon Eugene, and
teenage sensation Tyler Wood
on drums to create a punk-rock
explosion called the Fabulous DBags. Where is the bass player for
this three-piece noise machine?
The fuzzed out guitar dynamics,
cryptic yelps and double-time
drum swells do enough damage
on their own. There ain’t no room
for no stinkin’ bass in this band’s
bulwark of sound.
The Farsights
7:30pm Sun 4/26
Tycoons Alehouse
The trio of bespectacled rock ’n’
roll musicians known as the Farsights formed in 2011 to blend
three distinct musical backgrounds. Frontman Phil Jents’
experience in acoustic folk-rock
with a focus on storytelling,
bassist Brynn Sias’ training as an
accomplished jazz guitarist, and
drummer Ryan Nelson’s experience in punk and psych-rock
bands came together to form
the band’s unique combination
of punk beats with folk-song
narratives. They unleashed their
self-titled debut album in 2013.
Father Hennepin
11pm Fri 5/1
R.T. Quinlan’s
Duluth’s favorite alt-country-ish
band that plays in the key of G
celebrates its 17th year together at this year’s Homegrown.
Since forming in 1998 to play
Homegrown before it was called
Homegrown, the band has performed at all but two official
Homegrowns — meaning this
year makes it 15 of 17; more than
any other band. The roster has
seen a few minor tweaks over
the years, but the basic framework for the vast majority of the
Fat Hens’ existence has been
Scott Lunt on guitar and vocals,
Ted Anderson on guitar and vocals, Susan Ludwig on accordion,
Bob Olson on bass and Brad Nelson on drums.
Fearless Moral
Inventory
9:30pm Fri 5/1
Red Herring Lounge
Fearless Moral Inventory originated in 2007, with vocalist Andy
Stern and guitarist Corey Gice
combining to play the open mic
circuit. Other members have
come and gone since then, but
the current lineup includes three
names that range from not-sonew to new. Kai Bowen, who
joined the band more than three
years ago, has moved out from
behind the drums to take on key-
board, sax, trumpet and guitar
duties. Bassist Steve Karels has
been with the group for more
than two years. The recent addition of Jim Mattson on drums
has this five-piece exploring new
depths of sound and composition while resolving to release a
debut album this year.
Feeding LeRoy
2:30pm Sun 5/3
Canal Park Brewing
Sonja Bjordal and Lee Martin
began performing together in
Park City, Utah, and eventually
brought their act home to Duluth, performing with various
backup musicians in the Mud
Puppies, Next of Kin and Sonja
and the Reckoning. The new
incarnation, Feeding LeRoy, features Adam Staup on upright
bass, T. Bruce Bowers on electric
violin and Luke Martin on harmonica, producing a sound that
is an amalgamation of Gram
Parsons, Emmylou Harris and
the Jayhawks. In January they
released an EP of their acoustic,
cosmic Americana music titled
Love is a Gamble.
Fever Dream
8:45pm Tues 4/28
Originally from New York, the
enigmatic multi-instrumentalist
Marc Gartman has spent more
than a decade cutting his teeth
on the local folk scene with
projects including Coyote, Two
Many Banjos, Little Grey House,
Marc Gartband and other collaborations with some of the
region’s favorite musicians. He
threw fans for a psychedelic
loop two years ago when he decided to take things in a different direction with Fever Dream.
After commissioning the help
of friends Alan Sparhawk, Steve
Garrington and a rotating group
of glowing hula-hoop girls,
what started as an introspective electronica experiment has
now become a full-blown thing.
The second Fever Dream album,
Hey, What’s Up? was released on
cassette in September.
photo by
Richard Narum
The Fiasco
11:15pm Fri 5/1
For the past year or so guitarist
Andy Lipke has teamed up with
bassist John Favell and drummer
John Lamar to create the Fiasco.
Though they have connections
through playing together in
other acoustic-oriented groups
like Five Pints a’ Rye and the Bryan Olds Band, this particular trio
delves into a heavier and more
electrified roots-rock sound.
They have posted a collection
of live jams on Lipke’s Reverbnation page and plan to release
an official six-song EP sometime
later in 2015.
Bill Flannagan’s
Blue Cabooze
10:45pm Thurs 4/30
Thirsty Pagan
Singer and guitar player Bill
Flannagan, who has been
playing around Duluth for a
long, long time, calls the Blue
Cabooze’s sound “rockin’-honky-tonkin’ blues,” and says it
encompasses fast, slow, happy
and sad bluegrass, classic country, honky-tonk, blues, and
rock ’n’ roll. He prides himself
on his band’s ability to go from
screaming Chicago blues-style
guitars in one song to acoustic flat-picking in the next and
have it come out as a cohesive
set. Paul Vogel plays harmonica and guitar and sings. Eldo
Abrahamson sings, plays bass
and might play drums depending on the set list.
The Fontanelles
11:30pm Fri 5/1
Tycoons Alehouse
Duluth native Dave Mehling
formed the Fontanelles with
Darin Rieland after they met
at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis
and bonded over their shared
love of “both kinds of music
— country and western.” They
took their band in the rock direction, however. After various
lineup changes, bassist Beau
Jeffrey and drummer Jason McGlone have joined the group
photo by
Jason Kokal
and a debut album is expected fifth Homegrown under the curthis year. Expect no Prince cov- rent lineup. Describing their own
ers, per the band.
sound as the love child of the Pixies and the Cars raised by Bruce
Springsteen, the group plays
hook-heavy anthemic power-pop
10pm Sat 5/2
with political and scientific lyrical
Rex Bar
themes. A self-titled debut album
The Formal Age is a six-piece band was released in June.
made up of guitarists Jake Jonker
and Ryan Wiisanen, keyboardist
Phil McGrath, bassist Jay Rahman
and drummer Adam Helbach. 10:30pm Mon 4/27
They’ve all been part of the local Fitger’s Brewhouse
scene for more than a decade and Tom Maloney and Brandy Forsare returning this year for their man specialize in old-time
The Formal Age
Four Mile Portage
fiddle-and-banjo dance music.
In earlier years, the husbandand-wife duo played at tamarack dances and later branched
out beyond dance music to
create Four Mile Portage. Of
late they have been hosting a
twice-monthly square dance
at Jefferson People’s House,
performing monthly at Amazing Grace Bakery and Café
and Bent Paddle Brewing’s
tap room, and periodically at
the Fitgers’ Brewhouse and
Tycoon’s Alehouse during
Grog Time. Recently the duo
became a trio, with Kyle Ollah
joining in on guitar, banjo and
fiddle. The band’s new album
Can’t Find Home was recorded
at Sacred Heart Music Center
and released in February.
Frances & Luke
7:30pm Weds 4/30
Beaner’s Central
Stephanie Longstreet has been
involved in the Duluth music
scene for nearly a decade, performing in her former band the
Brushstrokes and other proj-
photo by
ects with Dan Dresser. Her husband, Andrew Longstreet, joins
her in Frances and Luke. She
provides the sexy and soulful
vocals while he brings the facemelting guitar solos. Backed by
drummer Chad Erlemeier, the
trio plays a show-stopping mix
of funk, rhythm and blues.
ous musicians over the years
— Charlie Parr, Alan Sparhawk,
Billy McLaughlin, Ariane Norrgard and Dan Dresser to name
a few. Her deep love of traditional Celtic music has led her
to exploring these century-old
tunes with the aid of a looping
pedal. She has also tried her
hand at poetry and songwriting in her solo act and is eager
6:45pm Thurs 4/30
to share her fiddle tunes with
an audience because, she says,
Violinist Gaelynn Lea Tressler “music is something that ties us
has collaborated with numer- together through the ages.”
Gaelynn Lea
Max McGruder
rhythm guitar, Peter Whiteman
on bass, Jonathan Halquist on
violin and Alan Peterson on lead
guitar. All of them provide vocal
harmonies. Their album, Lamp
10:15pm Sat 5/2
was released on Bandcamp in
September. Since then they have
Some would call it “old-timey,”
been whooping it up prohibiwhile others would argue “timetion-style at Sir Benedict’s, Beanless.” The unarguable truth is that
er’s Central and the Red Herring.
the Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League is a string quartet
that honors the sounds of classic Americana, influenced by the 8:30pm Wed 4/29
Beaner’s Central
gypsy jazz and swing era. The
band consists of Daniel Rosen on “A little bit sad, a little bit an-
The Gentlemen’s
Anti-Temperance
League
Gin Street
photo by
gry, very honest and always
changing,” is how Gabe Naughton describes the music of his
band, Gin Street. “Our songs
are like life: unstructured and
chaotic, but still resilient and
optimistic.” The band started
out in the summer of 2013,
with its members playing Andrew Jackson Jihad covers in
their parents’ basements and
smoking too many cigarettes.
Eventually they started writing
their own material and playings shows regularly. Naughton shares vocal and guitar
duty with Jack Wynn, backed cussionist Kyle Keegan has been
by Cedar Flatau on bass and keeping the beat for years with
Ned Wynn on drums.
various local bands and is currently playing with Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) in his solo
endeavor. Together this quartet
12:30am Wed 4/29
make up Glitteratti, an acoustic
Glitteratti is a side project of guys folk-rock group that plays a mix
who already had side projects. of Gartman originals and cover
Marc Gartman, of Fever Dream songs ranging from the Everly
and Coyote fame, used to be Brothers to Pink Floyd.
in Two Many Banjos with Dave
Carroll. Carroll is in Trampled by
Turtles with Tim Saxhaug, who 11:30pm Thurs 4/30
is also in Dead Man Winter. Per- Vintage Italian Pizza
Glitteratti
Gold Star Junkies
Max Mcgruder
Once a year handfuls of local
musicians toss their name into
a bucket to be randomly thrust
into a band at Duluth’s Rock
and Roll Kamikaze. For many,
this is a one-and-done lineup
that makes for a fun night of
cover songs and curious clothing choices. But for this quintet,
something sparked that was
worth pushing forward. Filled
with the Gold Star-studded cast
of guitarist Sheila Wonders,
percussionist Kris Carlson, lead
guitarist Bob Bursell, bassist
Blake Konrad and drummer Jim
photo by
Richard Narum
Hagstrom, the band has been
polishing its sound at open-mic
nights and is ready to let loose
at Homegrown.
ever since. Over the past several months Gold has shifted
his creative focus to hip-hop
and shared the stage with various local acts within the scene.
Staying hard at work as both an
MC and producer, Gold is keep9:30pm Sat 5/2
ing the craft going as his boomLegacy Glassworks
ing ambition prepares him to
Steven Gold first started writing take the world by storm.
in the second grade but, so he
says, after hitting his head two
years later he “couldn’t stop
creating things; it became an 10:30pm Fri 5/1
obsession.” His passion for craft- Tycoons Alehouse
ing words has held out strong The Good Colonels were
Steven Gold
The Good Colonels
formed in 2007 after longtime
friends Codie Leseman and Curtis Mattson decided to switch
instruments. With Leseman on
guitar and Mattson on drums,
they infused bassist Joe Conaway into their battalion and
have been rocking out as a
three-piece ever since. Their
sound lands somewhere in the
realm of experimental postpunk and gives listeners the
feeling of wandering through
a park alone on LSD, but in
a good way. Predominantly
keeping things instrumental,
Lesemen and Conaway season in the occasional vocals as
their set blasts audiences into
outer space and drags them
back down to Earth.
Todd Gremmels
9pm Mon 4/27
Sir Benedict’s
Todd Gremmels has been in
the Minnesota music game for
quite some time now. How long,
you may ask? Quoth Gremmels: “Since before most of
the people in the bands in this
photo by
area were sperm cells!!!” Well,
you can’t argue with that. Having dabbled with many genres
through many bands, Gremmels brings an eclectic sound
to the stage that’s worth triple
exclamation points. This year his
band mates’ identities remain a
mystery but he’s implied that
they may or may not be human.
When he’s not rocking across
the region, Gremmels can be
found building kit cars, pondering life’s mysteries and taking
punctuation to new extremes.
Group Too
8:30pm Thurs 4/30
Spirit Room
As a teenager in mid-1960s Duluth, the bands guitarist Bob
Flatt played in often had to create their own venues and showcases. Sometimes renting out
places like the YMCA or Shrine
Auditorium, they’d handle everything from selling tickets to
concessions to making fliers, not
to mention playing long sets of
blues-orientated rock music.
Fast forward 50 years and his ar-
Jason Kokal
earnest songs that blend soul
and modern pop and a friendly
Iron-Range-born
demeanor,
Gunderson leaves his audience
wanting to just sit down and chill
with him over a beer at the bar.
After making national buzz and
getting close to appearing on a
few television singing competitions, Gunderson recorded his
2013 release, Getting Good at
9:45pm Sat 5/2
Starting Over, with the help of
Spurs on First
more than 300 Kickstarter supOn stage, Preston Gunderson porters, and last fall he released a
exudes the attitude of the all- music video for the song “Night,”
American guy next door. With a duet with Jillian Rae. At Hometistic spirit lives on in Group Too.
Joined by Carol Flatt on bass
and shared vocals, they usually
perform as a folk duo. For Homegrown, however, they plan on
delivering a heavier blues set
with guitarist Israel Malachi and
drummer Todd Gremmels.
Preston Gunderson
grown he will be accompanied
on keys by Craig Skalko.
Heart’s Bane
Emily Haavik
Amazing Grace
7:15pm Sat 5/2
Teatro Zuccone
Emily Haavik writes gentle folk
songs that reflect the cipher of
love and life on Lake Superior.
Throughout the year she can
be found strumming in cozy
venues like Beaner’s, Amazing
Grace and Teatro Zuccone. To
fill out her acoustic pickings and
keyboard playing, Haavik will be
joined at Homegrown by Beau
Walsh on banjo, guitar and vocals, Lisa Wentworth on vocals,
Bryan Wentworth on guitar and
Luke Mirau on the cajón.
Wes Hadrich
8:30pm Tues 4/28
Amazing Grace
After more than a decade of writing and performing in the Duluth/Superior area, Wes Hadrich
is no newbie to the Homegrown
Music Festival. He describes his
music as leaning country, “with
a love for Jay Farrar, Ryan Adams
and Bruce Springsteen.” Hadrich can commonly be seen performing brunch shows at Pizza
Lucé on the weekends, playing
new songs off his latest album,
Naturally Blue, which came out
in late 2014.
8:15pm Friday 5/1
The brainchild of former Godhead and Manhood drummer
Phil Roper, Heart’s Bane initially
formed in 2009. It took five years
for the full band to finally come
together, debuting at Pete Fest
2014. Roper now takes on the
role of lead vocalist and rhythm
guitar, with Kal Howg handling
lead guitar and backing vocals.
Travis Sayler switched from bass
to drums to make way for former
Godhead and Manhood bassist
Erick Hermanson. With the lineup complete, the band has been
working hard to write music and
play shows as much as possible.
Howg says audiences should expect “good times, laughs, rockin’
melodies, atmospheric leads and
a high-energy performance.”
Christine Hoberg
7pm Thurs 4/30
Red Mug Coffeehouse
Christine Hoberg is a vocalist
who also loops, warps, arranges
and produces her own songs. She
began playing music as a child in
Superior on a karaoke machine
and is now based out of Brooklyn, N.Y. Hoberg is best known
for a collaboration project with
Flight Facilities on the song “Clair
de Lune,” which earned platinum
certification on the Australian
Recording Industry Association
charts. Her most recent album,
11:15pm Thurs 4/30
World Within, an a capella venture,
Superior Flame
premiered on Spin magazine’s raAlways soulful, sometimes play- dio program and won her a spot
ful, Hannah Rey Dunda has at the SXSW festival.
made a nice little niche for herself in the eclectic local music
scene. Born and bred on the
North Shore near Two Harbors,
she was introduced to the re- 12am Fri 5/1
gional music scene in the band R.T. Quinlan’s
Wildwood and played her first Brothers Ian and Teague Alexy
Homegrown gig in 2012. In ad- have been stompin’ around Twin
dition to her solo shows these Ports venues as a duo for nearly
days she frequently gigs with a dozen years. Both are also solo
the cover band South of Supe- artists, but together forge a
rior. Performances of note since sound born near the train tracks
last year’s Homegrown include a in Holyoke that Atlantic City
private party train, a scenic tour Weekly has described as “treboat and a member’s celebra- mendously played roots music.”
tion at the Lake Superior Zoo.
Local label Chaperone Records
Hannah Rey
The Hobo Nephews
of Uncle Frank
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
will release the fifth Hobo Nephews album, American Shuffle,
in 2015. Chaperone re-released
2012’s Number One Contender,
which garnered critical acclaim
from the Star Tribune.
Holy Hootenanners
6:45pm Fri 5/1
The Underground
This 10-piece folk ensemble
plays “foot-stompin’, hoot ’n’
holler country gospel music
and more.” United by a small
country church in Mahtowa,
the group released its first album, Home of Country Gospel in
July. The band also donated all
proceeds from sales and shows
to renovate the Old Mahtowa
School into a community center.
The outfit is composed of Colleen Myhre and Zach Langhorst
on guitar, Jeff Gilbertson on
bass, Luke Lekander on drums,
Doug Soukkala on lead guitar,
Caleb Anderson on the piano,
Brooke Anderson on mandolin,
Lyric Lekander on banjo, and
Erin Lanhorst and Donita Korpela providing vocals.
The Horror
11:15pm Sat 5/2
Duluth Flame
What would happen if the Syfy
and Playboy channels combined
forces and decided to make bad
movies together? What would
the soundtrack to those campy,
space adventure, nudie flicks
sound like? It would probably
sound a lot like the Horror: synthed-out, art-funky-punky instrumentals with an occasional
cabalistic gurgle spewing forth
from the background. Keyboard-
ist Billy Wagness, guitarist Joe
Conaway and drummer Anders
Lundahl debuted four years ago
with the wonderfully weird album Diction. Recently, they have
penned and recorded new compositions for what is sure to be
one of the more bizarre regional
releases of 2015.
Horse & Rider
10:30pm Thurs 4/30
“We sound like a bunch of bands
that no one around here gives a
photo by
shit about,” says Horse & Rider
drummer Mat Milinkovich. It’s
the kind of music no one has
been giving a shit about since
1999, when Milinkovich and guitar player Matt Osterlund formed
Farewell Tour, a band that later
added bassist C.J. Keller. In 2007
they took the name Horse & Rider, and at the end of 2013 added
a second guitar player, Andy
Pletcher. “We’ve written a bunch
of songs and are currently recording them for no one’s listening pleasure,” Milinkovich adds.
“You’re welcome.”
skills” into a performance of samples from his vast collection of
9:30pm Mon 4/27
gems, “combined with live loops,
Red Star Lounge
scratches and vinyl transitions,
Patrick Hannu, locally known as and perhaps secret live vocals.”
DJ Path Annu, will be jockeying
the stage again this year with
well-loved, worn vinyl. He is best
known for spinning disco, house
and funk music, and participates 10:15pm Mon 4/27
Red Herring Lounge
in the underground disco revival
as part of the Disco Devils. A solid Brian Ring and Jesse Porter represence in the Twin Ports music turn from a seven-year hiatus to
scene for the past 18 years, Han- bring to Homegrown the band
nu says this year at Homegrown they view more as an art project
he will be channeling his “Jedi focused on found sounds and
Hot BitKutz
I am the Slow
Dancing Umbrella
Andy Miller
experimental electronic music.
Roughly 10 years ago they created
an “electronic jungle” at Homegrown, complete with field recordings of real animals. This year
they have another ambitious set
in mind to further their mission of
finding new ways to express music in terms of function and form.
Ire Wolves
12:15am Fri 5/1
Red Star Lounge
It has been a year since the trio of
guitarist Michael Trepanier, bassist
photo by
Dustin Fennessey and drummer
Tim Simmons released The Ascetic
on Bandcamp. The album showcases the band’s ability to uphold
the standards of post-metal: gritty, spooky, heavy bass with vocals
that rock to the core and provoke
the uncontrollable head thrash.
They have since received the accolades of not only the Duluth
News Tribune and Perfect Duluth
Day, but also a handful of online
metal webzines. Since last year’s
Homegrown the band has been
playing shows at R.T. Quinlan’s
and the Red Star while working
on a second album to be released with black eyes, missing teeth,
in the summer of 2015.
broken knuckles and facial scars.
Their four albums’ worth of cowpunk songs breathe authenticity. Guitarist Kirk Kjenaas trades
vocals with bassist Freddy Han12:45Am Wed 4/29
son and drummer Glen Mattson,
Gopher Lounge
Some bands like to be portrayed while John Peterson’s pedal steel
as whiskey-slammin’ outlaw mo- adds a bit of country credentials
torheads when, in fact, the mem- to the donnybrook created by
bers are more likely to have data- these north woods bandits.
Iron Range
Outlaw Brigade
entry jobs and college degrees
than a police record. And then
there’s the Iron Range Outlaw 12:15am Thurs 4/30
Brigade — a band full of guys Superior Flame
J.J. Lawrence
laramie carlson
With help from two Denon S3500
CD turntables and a Numark mixer with effects, Jason Holmes creates the sound of a self-described
“bipolar DJ” as J.J. Lawrence. “I
will usually change the sound
very dramatically,” Holmes says.
“I love to change the mood from
pretty to powerful within the
electronic dance music culture
just to see the reaction of the
audience.” Holmes says he finds
influence in the good things in
life, especially his two young
daughters and wife. “Because
of their inspiration, I have been
sober for 14 years now,” he says.
With his positive outlook on life,
his main objective is to make his
audience have a wave of “uplifting prosperity” come over them
with music they’ve never heard
anywhere else.
Lyz Jaakola &
#theindianheadband
8pm Sun 4/26
Teatro Zuccone
Lyz Jaakola has worked as a Native American artist and musician since the 1990s. Her projects have been featured on
Minnesota Public Radio and
WDSE-TV, and she was nominated in 2010 for a Native American
Music Award for Best Traditional
Recording. Her backing group,
the Indianhead Band, prefers to
render its name in the form of
a hashtag and delves musically
into a raucous mixture of dancehall, ska, jazz, soul and Ojibwa
traditional music. Dave Ripley,
Hunter Jaakola and Jackson Ripley all play guitar and various
other instruments. Their songs
have received airplay on the syndicated radio program Native
America Calling and WGZS, the
community station of the Fond
du Lac Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa.
Jaw Knee Vee
12:15am Sat 5/2
Red Star Lounge
Spawned from the aftermath
of radioactive motor oil being
spilled on a Robert Johnson record, Jaw Knee Vee (aka Johnny
Vichich) is the definition of a
one-man-band. Self described as
“deep-fried trash blues,” Vichich
creates a chaotic, yet hip-shaking, blend of blues and punk that
pulls the audience in for a fully
immersive experience. His band
mates consist of duct-taped microphones, a distorted slide-guitar and a kick drum attached to
various things you’d find in a garage — and that’s all he needs to
get people dancing as he howls
out his reverbed vocals. With
three self-released albums out,
this is Jaw Knee Vee’s first official
Homegrown appearance.
JMB Band
6Pm SAT 5/2
Spirit Room
Former Thunder Brothers
members Jason Noe, Bill Berguson and Mark Eskola are
respectively the J, B and M
of this space-rock and southern-blues trio. Berguson’s
squealing guitar work grabs
most of the attention, ripping
through progressive-rock riffs
influenced by Rush, Return to
Forever, John Scofield, Jimi
Hendrix, Tower of Power, Porcupine Tree and the like. Bassist Eskola holds his self-taught
bandmates in check with his
music degree and classical orchestra background.
Steve Johnson
9pm Thurs 4/30
Chester Creek Wine Bar
Steve Johnson, front man of
Sight Like December circa 2002
to 2009, made his return to
Homegrown in 2014 as a storytelling-style folk/blues acoustic
soloist. It’s a drastic departure
from the indie-emo sound of
his former band, but is marked
with the same vulnerable edge.
Johnson says his set at Homegrown this year will be “an
eclectic mix of sell-your-soulto-the-devil-era blues, classic
country and indie music.”
Tim Kaiser
5:30pm Mon 4/27
Red Herring Lounge
Tim Kaiser is all about creating.
He creates his own instruments,
which he then uses to create experimental music. His musical
approach is “textural,” he says,
“building layers of sound and
stacking them on top of one
another — altering and manipulating them to create sonic
environments.” The result is a
feeling of being transported to
an eerie electronic landscape.
Kaiser’s recently successful
Indiegogo campaign made it
possible for him to release a
double EP, Inferior Planets, on
vinyl. It was created as a double seven-inch with the idea
photo by
that the audience, like Kaiser,
can get together with their
friends to play different sides
at the same time to create a
new experience.
The Keep Aways
11:15pm Thurs 4/30
Main Club
This year marks the Keep
Aways’
14th
consecutive
Homegrown, which according
to various sources is a record.
That being stated, Mindy Johnson, Nikki Moeller and Chris
Warne can’t exactly be blamed
for spreading rumors this
could be their last one. “Time
to pass the torch,” says Johnson, who is planning a move
to the Twin Cities. Either way,
the Keep Aways have been sufficiently kicking the region’s
ass over the years with music
that’s as heavy as it is catchy.
A collection of the punk trio’s
best material from the past
decade and a half is planned
for release on vinyl this year,
along with a seven-inch record
of new material.
Kristy Marie & the
Forget Me Nots
10:30pm Thurs 4/30
Looking to move her listeners
toward a revolution of love, a
“lovelution” if you will, Kristy
Marie has added a backdrop
of prayer and political inspiration to her smooth, harmonious
folk sound. She has teamed up
with Jim Hall, Ron Koivisto and
Bryce Kastning to explore balances between masculinity and
Andy Miller
femininity, truth and falsity, and
freedom and control. Their album, Bears of Men, recorded in
Karpeles Manuscript Museum,
will be released later this year.
Sarah Krueger
7pm Sat 5/2
Beaner’s Central
Wisconsin-born, Minnesotabred Sarah Krueger has been
on the Twin Ports music scene
since 2005. No stranger to the
starving artist side of life, she
has waited her fair share of
tables while spending the past
three years contemplating the
lightness and darkness of human nature. The result is her
second album, Lustrous, recorded at Erik Koskinen’s Real
Phonic Studio and released
in December. Her ever-rotating cast of band members includes Steve Garrington, Brian
Wells, Nate Case, Jordan Taylor, J.T. Bates, Kyle Keegan and
Jeremy Ehlert.
Lay Low & Bender
10pm Mon 4/27
Sir Benedict’s
This quartet, led by singersongwriter Keir Gellatly of
Proctor, is inspired by the feelgood swing-rock of the 1990s
à la Smashmouth and Barenaked Ladies. Gellatly is backed
by Ben Anderson on bass, Paul
Abear on lead guitar and Ryan
Donovan holding down the
drums. Their contagious, headbobbing, finger-snapping and
foot-tapping sound could soon
10pm Tues 4/28
be available in recorded form.
Prøve Gallery
An EP titled Ender has been in
LadySlipper is an American the works for about a year.
tribal-style belly-dance and
acoustic-music collaboration
that mixes in Middle Eastern
beats. Denise Hooper created 6:30pm Thurs 4/30
Spirit Room
the group in 2013 and doubles
as artistic director and dancer. Influenced by society and day-toDeanna Erickson will be danc- day human interactions, singering and playing finger cym- songwriter Haley Lawson brings
bals. During performances, her introspective folk sound to
musicians improvise off cues Homegrown in the form of medand gestures that the danc- itative acoustic guitar. Joined by
ers use to communicate while Logan Amys on bass and Mike
performing. The band includes Lueck on percussion, the trio
John Hooper on acoustic guitar forms the year-old band Lee Lah
and vocals, Elden Lindamood Sohn. Their groove-based take
on doumbek and auxiliary peron American folk is written to
cussion, and Adam Metzer on hone in on themes and feelings
accordion. This year, LadySlip- common to the human experiper will also feature special ence. “We would love for people
to listen to us and leave feeling
guest dancer Danie Jimenez.
inspired to create their own music, art, etc.,” Amys says.
LadySlipper
Lee Lah Sohn
Lake Monster
11:45pm Wed 4/29
Clyde Iron Works
Lake Monster is a five-piece
band with a big sound its members refer to as “desert funk.”
Lead vocalist and banjo player
Henry Turnquist credits shamanism, a rock painting of a panther
and the North Shore among the
group’s influences. Max Goldfine
plays a homemade cigar box guitar, in addition to adding vocals,
trombone and acoustic guitar.
Other members include Steve
Karels on bass, Joe Anderson on
tenor sax and Chad Erlemeier on
drums. Their song “Together”
was featured on the Arrowhead
Story’s second Industry.Peace.Environment. compilation to counter the proposed sulfide mines.
The Legendary Hell
Puppies
12:30am Thurs 4/30
The Legendary Hell Puppies is
a quintet of like-minded guys
focused on keeping the most
danceable music alive. The group
has been playing its mixture of
rockabilly, blues and rock ’n’ roll
— which sounds straight from a
1950’s diner or dive — all around
the Twin Ports area for about
three years. Vocals and guitar
are provided by Marty Hope and
Steve “Gomez” Mahlberg. Mike
“Rabzilla” Rabideaux lays the
groundwork with his bass and
vocals. Nathanial “Belch” Belcher
keeps things fast paced on the
drums while Keith “Sugarbear” out on her own as a solo artist,
Bower lends his vocals and wails mixing her deep soulful vocals
with the rich melodies she writes
on his saxophone.
for piano. She plans to record
an album of new compositions
sometime in 2015.
8pm Tues 4/28
Legitimit
Prøve Gallery
Lawrence LeTourneau has been
creating hip-hop in Duluth for
more than a decade. Originally
one of the three MCs from Kritical Kontact, he turned his Legitimit persona into a solo side project in 2008. He has toured more
than half of the United States,
bringing upbeat, body-moving
mixes and crafty wordplay to
each show. His first two albums
are 2009’s Up 2 No Good and
2011’s Smile 7up and Lowrtabs. A
new work, Stardust Voicemails, is
planned for a late 2015 release.
Lorenzo’s Tractor
9:15pm Mon 4/27
Red Herring Lounge
The story of this shoegazer juggernaut begins back in the early
1990s. Twenty-plus years later,
Lorenzo’s Tractor is still dropping
large doses of tripped out guitar
fuzz interwoven through droning soundscapes. Often hosting alternative-venue gigs at his
home, Rob Fernquist and fellow
guitarists Jim Connor and Harrison Crane distort space and time
while Luke Olson and Armond
Blackwater add bass and keyboard expressions. A new album
titled All You Hear was released
6:15pm Sat 5/2
in March, and a summer tour is
Teatro Zuccone
in the works. Bonus tracks can
Guitarist and vocalist Brian Ring be heard for free on Bandcamp.
mixes his abstract roots with
an earthy folk-pop for this particular project. His work here
combines dark, cold, but af- 10pm Thurs 4/30
fected-enough arrangements Tower Avenue Tavern
to sound like a futuristic mix of Members of the Low Forms
Roger Waters and Conor Oberst. herald themselves as “Duluth’s
When teamed with Sophie Turk best punk band by a country
on vocals, it adds an extra di- mile,” and with their fast-paced,
mension to the stark themes catchy, energetic sound, it’s
presented in the writing. Put- easy to hear why. For five years,
ting on the finishing touches is Pete Biasi, Dave Frankenfeld and
Matt Mobley with his bass/cello Jeremy Ehlert — also known as
brushstrokes. Lion or Gazelle Pete Form, Dave Form and Jer
has a vinyl album available from Form — have been bringing
Chaperone Records and has ap- their pop-punk sound all around
peared on KUMD, KUWS, the the Midwest and show no sign
Current, The PlayList and KBJR. of slowing down. They released
a four-song cassette in June, followed by a seven-inch single in
March, and have plans to release
10pm Thurs 4/30
another single later this year.
Chester Creek Wine Bar
Lion or Gazelle
Low Forms
Ann Kathryn Loop
Ann Loop first garnered attention in the local music scene
with the band Mayfly and its
cover of “It Ain’t Me Babe” on the
Duluth Does Dylan compilation
back in 2000. By 2004 she was
with a similar group, Lookdown
Moon, which added drums and
lead guitar to flesh out a traditional folk/rock sound for close
to a decade. Now she has broken
Low-Hi Funk
11:30pm Sat 5/2
Pizza Lucé
After seeing an inspired performance by Chad Brown as rapper C-Silence, Nick “MidiEvil”
Pawlenty felt compelled to join
forces. The electronic musician/
producer mastermind behind
Strictly Hammers shared some
ideas and mixes with the baritone lyricist, and within two
weeks, a deal was struck. Now,
when recording or sharing a
stage, they go by the name LowHi Funk. The project features
hard-hitting yet positive insight
on the mic and silvery, melodic
beats from behind the tables.
This fast developing dyad has
released a handful of tracks for
its EP The HitchHiker’s Guide to
Universal Destiny.
Maintenance Free
8pm Thurs 4/30
Red Mug Coffeehouse
Lifelong Duluthians David Aker
and Mark Levings have been
performing in the area as Maintenance Free for three years
now. The two teamed up to
merge decades of individual
songwriting and musical performance experience into this
folk duo. Originals are their
forté, but they have also resurrected centuries-old traditional
songs and sprinkle in covers
from various iconic artists such
as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen
and Guy Clark. Both Aker and
Levings are multi-instrumentalists, so along with guitars they
play harmonicas, mandolins, cajons, djembes, strum sticks and
maybe even a kazoo or two.
Israel Malachi
10pm Wed 4/29
Players Sports Bar
Israel Malachi has been a fixture on the Duluth music scene
since 2006, often performing as
the Tico Three. Now he is billing his band as “Israel Malachi”
to avoid the nagging question,
“Which one is Tico?” and to account for a dynamic number of
bandmates. The one thing that
remains consistent is Malachi’s
dedication to providing the
baddest blues music in the Twin
Ports. This year’s special Homegrown lineup has Chris True
joining in on the guitar and vocal work, Jesse Gangi and Mark
Blom laying the foundation on
bass and drums, and flutist Crystal Detlefsen adding spark.
Man on the Moon
11pm Sat 5/2
R.T. Quinlan’s
Brad Fernholz, the driving force
behind the now-defunct band
Bradical Boombox, is at it again
with fellow boomboxers Brynn
Sias and Diane Milinkovich. They
added guitarist Tony Derrick and
drummer Mat Milinkovich in 2013
to form this powerhouse rock
band. While still playing Boombox tunes, they are collaborating on new material and recently
recorded with Rich Mattson at
Sparta Sound. They hope to release a record later this year.
Markus J. Dandy
& the Complete
Lack Thereof
11:15pm Wed 4/29
Kom-on-Inn
The storyteller-style lyrics and
acoustic pop/rock guitar of Mark
Blom sound reminiscent of college
radio favorites the Mountain Goats
and Neutral Milk Hotel. Add the
creative and tasteful percussion
work of Tyler Dubla and you have
something very original known as
Markus J. Dandy and the Complete
Lack Thereof. Though the band
name runs long, their songs cover
a lot of ground in short work. Blom
spins tales by the mouthful while
the music changes tempos from
melodic finger picking to fastpaced, hand-clapping pop. A collection of fun, homemade videos
can be found on YouTube.
Marquis Mark &
the Very Mysterious
9pm Sat 5/2
Sir Benedict’s
Marquis Mark and the Very Mysterious have been making music together since 2009, but the
members of the band have been
a part of the Twin Ports music
scene in one form or another for
the past 20 years. This self-described power trio is made up of
multi-instrumentalists Mark Macham, Victoria Macham and Theresa Williams. They play originals
written by Williams and round
out their sets with folk favorites.
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
Eli Bissonett, upright bassist Russell Bergum and drummer Curtis
Mattson to create a dreamy folk8pm Sat 5/2
rock vibe. Their single “This Town
Beaner’s Central
(Ghost Town)” was released on a
Local music icon Rich Mattson seven-inch record last fall and
has rocked in and around Duluth is also available on the Sparta
for 25 years, before most Home- Sound Bandcamp page.
grown Chicken-lovers were even
a twinkle in their daddy’s eyes.
Sharing vocals and guitar with 8pm Mon 4/27
him is Chaperone recording art- Sir Benedict’s
ist Germaine Gemberling, who
She has only been playing the
also pens some of the material.
guitar for two years, but Kaylee
The two are joined by violinist
Rich Mattson &
the Northstars
Kaylee Matuszak
Matuszak is well on her way to
becoming a bright star in the local scene. Performing in the singer/songwriter tradition, she cites
talented female artists such as
the Indigo Girls, Tegan and Sara,
and personal music inspiration
Brandi Carlile as her influences.
Matuszak is currently participating in the Music Resource Center,
the after-school program that
gives kids the opportunity to
learn from music professionals,
and hopes that with the MRC’s
guidance that she’ll have an album of original material ready
for release in the coming year.
Hannah McDaniel
7:30pm Tues 4/28
Amazing Grace
Hannah McDaniel has yet to
hit 21, but already has about
five years of area performance
experience as a soloist. She
also drums in the instrumental
rock band Lesser Planets. As a
singer/songwriter she shares
very personal stories and experiences and also mixes in some
pleasing, ambient instrumen-
photo by
tals on her acoustic guitar. She
is able to balance a minimalistic
approach with advanced time
signatures and chord progressions, and her latest sevensong recording Speak is now
available on Bandcamp.
Rick McLean
8:30pm Fri 5/1
Legacy Glassworks
It doesn’t matter that guitarist
Rick McLean probably wasn’t
born when the New York
anti-folk movement started
in the early 1980s or even understands its importance in
American music history. What
matters is that once an established artistic movement, like
the wave of Twin Ports folk and
bluegrass acts, begins to take
itself too serious, it desperately needs a young acoustic/
punk bohemian like McLean to
come forth and toss salty grenades at the establishment.
Along with bassist Joe Anderson and drummer Mike McClean, this singer/songwriter
brings a fresh dose of earnest,
Bill Schwalbe
heartfelt humor back into this that would frequently build into
area’s acoustic scene.
long electric jams. They released
a self-titled album in 2007 and
have been on somewhat of
a hiatus since 2009. This year
11:45pm Sat 5/2
marks a reunion of sorts with
Spurs on First
core members Dano Sauter on
Medford originated in 2004 on drums, Caleb Anderson on keys
an open mic night at Beaner’s and Marios Glitsos on bass.
Central. Singer/guitarist Chris
Kelly and a friend took their
rookie songwriting efforts on
stage and impressed the owner 10:15pm Thurs 4/30
enough to get regularly booked. Superior Flame
Soon after, the duo expanded This old-school punk trio has
into a full band with a set list been shaking the paint off Hill-
Medford
Mr. Kickass
side basement walls for close
to 15 years. In the vein of early
Hüsker Dü records, Mike Fradenburgh’s bass and vocals pound
and yelp over the no nonsense
guitar and drum work of Jed Olsen and Jake Daire, respectively.
A handful of short originals
can be found on SoundCloud,
but the demo style of these
recordings don’t do justice to
the cheap-beer thrills provided
during sweaty live sets inside
crowded underground venues.
Monster Mob
10:30pm Mon 4/27
Red Star Loung
out the quartet on bass and guitar. They announced plans for a
debut album sometime in 2015
and hopefully some B-moviestyle music videos for fellow horror/punk enthusiasts.
The Moon is Down
9:30pm Fri 5/1
Legacy Glassworks
Buckle up Duluth, anarchy is alive
and well here, delivered at breakneck punk pace by the Moon is
Down. Frontman Glenn Maloney
formed the project after arriving
in Duluth from Milwaukee in 2006.
This year is somewhat of a Homegrown reunion show since the
group’s last Homegrown as a band
was in 2011. Joining Maloney on
guitar is Evan Tepler, who also plays
with him in Breanne Marie’s backing band, the Front Porch Sinners.
Fueling their machine of distorted
harmonic energy is John Lamar on
drums and Paul Whyte on bass.
Monster Mob uses campy creature-features and 1980s slasher
flicks for inspiration when composing its hardcore noise. Lyrically, versatile singer Cory Jezierski
has turned his love for the genre
into the general theme for this
relatively new group. Joining in
on drums is his usual partner in
crime, the always dependable
Dan Holmi. Well known Twin
Ports metal heads Mark Swan- 10:15pm Fri 5/1
son and Garrett Schroeder fill Fitger’s Brewhouse
Morrow
photo by
Husband-and-wife team Heather and Andy Morrow formed this
folk band two years ago only
to find out it wasn’t a folk band
after all. They recruited bassist
Mike Weinandt and drummer
David Anderson to round what
turned out to be an acoustic rock
band, with Heather handling the
lead vocals and Andy taking care
of guitar and backing vocals.
They have since played steadily
around the Twin Ports with their
creative and original songs.
the always imaginative guitar
efforts by Sparhawk. They share
vocal duties and also often share
8:45pm Sat 5/2
a playful banter between songs
The Underground
that puts audiences at ease. Their
Gaelynn Lea Tressler and Alan song “When We Were Young”
Sparhawk began their foray into was featured on the Sundance
macabre folk music in 2011 by Channel drama Retify in 2014.
playing a live soundtrack during a showing of the dark Lon
Chaney classic film The Penalty. 9pm Sat 5/2
Since then they’ve released the DTA Trolley
seven-song EP Imperfecta. Their
He represents, whether he knows
shows feature Lea’s gorgeous
it or not, a big part of what the
violin work winding through
The Murder
of Crows
Josh Nickila
laramie carlson
Homegrown Music Festival is all
about. Josh Nickila has played
blues covers and jams around
town for the past year or so. He’s
in the process of finding his voice,
his original style, a new set list that
pays tribute to the great blues
artists he’s obviously studied
while staying true to what he is
discovering about himself. While
getting his old-school Stevie Ray
Vaughan chops down during sessions at Carmody Irish Pub he has
spent the past few months penning original compositions that
should make their debut in 2015.
photo by
Max McGruder
added drummer Aaron Smith last
summer and have performed at
11:30pm Mon 4/27
youth centers, art galleries and
Red Star Lounge
house parties. Their set list inLike the Beach Boys wrote surf cludes about a dozen originals
music and never surfed, the that may see life as a demo tape
members of Nopamine play sometime later this year.
skate punk and don’t skateboard. They’re too busy working
full-time, going to college and
playing basement thrash shows 8:45pm Fri 5/1
to find time to practice 180 kick The Underground
flips. Guitarists and songwriters Nordic Angst has been playing its
Brooks Von Koski and Dan Childs traditional Norwegian folk music
met through mutual friend and with contemporary arrangements
bassist Sage Snyder in 2012. They
Nopamine
Nordic Angst
since 1999, when the band opened
for Swedish rock band Hoven
Droven at the NorShor Theatre.
Accordionist Arna Rennan, guitarist Brian Dack, bassist Cathe O’Bey
and electric guitar and ukulele
player Doug Greenwood perform
anything from drinking songs to
dance tunes to cow calls. All band
members are veterans of the
music scene individually as singers and songwriters in different
genres. Rennan is currently working on an album of traditional
music due out this summer.
Ariane Norrgard,
Emma Deaner
& Rachel Gobin
6:15pm Fri 5/1
Teatro Zuccone
Guitarist, vocalist and pianist
Ariane Norrgard collaborates
with some of the more stately
musicians/producers in town,
like Gaelynn Lea, Al Sparhawk,
Eric Swanson, Sean Elmquist
and Jake Larson. Her new album,
The Things That Can’t Be Helped,
is two years in the making and
photo by
should be released sometime
in 2015. A few outtakes have
made the rounds and give a
hint of her folkish, alternative
string work and her poetic,
breathy vocals. Accompanying
her since 2014 is drummer, audiophile and KUMD DJ Emma
Deaner on drums. Recently,
they’ve added the elegant cello work of Rachel Gobin.
Nur Jehan Chishti
12am Tues 4/28
Nur Jehan Chishti performs
chanting and spiritual meditation music with a twist. Band
leader Kristy Marie O’Neill
embraces ancient chants from
all over the world and incorporates them into contemporary melodies. Backed by
Bryce Kastning and Mark Glen,
O’Neill’s music is original in
composition, yet ancient in the
method and theory behind it.
The purpose is to use music “as
a form of meditation to simplify the mind and brighten the
spirit,” she says.
Jeffrey James
O’Loughlin
9pm Fri 5/1
DTA Trolley
Jason Kokal
the raw energy provided by
the ’Mats, he abandoned the
music biz altogether, joined
the Navy, and traveled the
world, port-by-port. In 1999,
he returned to Minnesota with
a renewed Westerberg-like
passion for songwriting and
Lakewalk busking. His newest
album, Black Butterfly, was released in February.
If “all the world’s a stage,” as
Shakespeare wrote, then Jeffrey James O’Loughlin’s part in
the play reads like a lost Coen
Brothers manuscript. On the
verge of finding a music career
in the early 1980s, the young
guitarist saw an early version
of the Replacements at a bar 11:45pm Sat 5/2
in Minneapolis. So inspired by Lake Avenue Restaurant
Bryan Olds
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
This singer/guitarist plays a wide
variety of venues. Audiences of
his solo folk style might find him
on the small stage at a local cantina or coffee shop. Fans of his
blues and classic rock repertoire
can catch him with accompanying electric performers at more
traditional bar-band settings
across the region. And who
knows what his modus operandi might be when booked at
weddings, ski lodges or country
club events? For Homegrown
though, Olds will break out a
slew of original acoustic num-
bers including a few from his After shifting through a variety of
2012 album Three Summers.
names, like all good punk bands
should, the members eventually
landed on Pale in Comparison
after no other names seemed to
7:30pm Wed 4/29
Beaner’s Central
measure up. The group makes
Pale in Comparison is a group regular appearances at a local
of young malcontents in Duluth indoor skate park, which makes a
that continues to kick out the lot of sense, given the indestruchardcore, fast-vocal barrage of tible youthfulness that comes out
lo-fi punk. The band’s early incar- of their old-school sound.
nation formed in 2010 with Matt
Biggs on guitar and Kyle Lee taking up the bass. Drummer Andrew 6:15pm Fri 5/1
Olson joined the band in 2012. Amazing Grace
Pale in Comparison
Paper Parlor
Despite half of the band not
being old enough to drink, Paper Parlor has held down an impressive five-year run as a musical project that keeps growing
in new directions. The quartet,
made up of Kirdan Wenger on
guitar and vocals, Mitch Selin on lead guitar and vocals,
Wilson Johnson on bass, and
Chad Erlemeier on drums, has
an overarching resonance of
indie folk-rock, dabbling with
elements of blues and lending
itself to spellbound melodies
sprinkled throughout. After
photo by
several months of recording
they’ve just released a new album titled Dreamscreen that
was recorded at various locations around Duluth.
Charlie Parr
11:30pm Thurs 4/30
Charlie Parr describes himself
as “just another tired folk singer who won’t go away,” which
is good, because no one here
wants him to. Although he has
no plans to “go away” in the con-
ceptual sense, he is very much a
man on the move. While many
Duluthians are lucky to catch
him in town on a regular basis,
Parr has recently been on an
extensive tour, stomping boots
from coast to coast and everywhere in between. He even has
post-Homegrown dates lined up
Down Under, following hobbits
around the shires of New Zealand. While Parr has the ability to
reach those around the world, his
dirty-roots folk sound fits right at
home here in the Twin Ports.
Bill Schwalbe
jug while waiting on that train
to come around the bend. It’s
fast-paced, high-energy folk
8pm Sat 5/2
and blues, with enough dust
DTA Trolley
on it to hassle any asthma sufThe Peg Leg Howlers is a new ferers in the audience.
project comprised of two familiar faces on the local music
scene. Kyle Ollah moves be- 10pm Thurs 4/30
tween the fiddle, banjo and Reef Bar
guitar, while Matt Ray takes on Since forming in 2008, the guys
the other guitar and the other behind the People Say Fox have
banjo-related duties. The Peg been making a lot happen for
Leg Howlers are perfect for themselves. The band has reanyone sipping wine from a leased two full-length albums
The Peg Leg
Howlers
The People Say Fox
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
and one seven-inch record. They
have also had the opportunity to
share the stage with well-known
acts, including the likes of Cloud
Cult and Motion City Soundtrack.
Their music makes for a slow-rising, mellow, indie sound that
eventually erupts into an organized chaos. Nathan Holte holds
a guitar and belts out emo-indie
vocals, backed up by Zac Roorda
on the other guitar. Drummer Rio
Daugherty and bassist Michael
Billig make up the rhythmic base
the whole thing is housed in.
Together they create highly tex-
tured soundscapes that could lights,” are the words Gusts uses to
easily fit in on college radio play- describe his project. His sound is
lists across the world.
a slow-rising, drone-like-buildup
that he says is atmospheric, yet
danceable. There are typically no
song breaks in a Phantom Ship
8:30pm Sat 5/2
set. It is a straight-shot trip through
Legacy Glassworks
Scott Gusts is the sole crew aboard space and time with enough aural
this haunting electronic experi- oddity to keep the hypnotized aument. A former college radio dience/passengers on their toes.
Phantom Ship
DJ for KUMD, Gusts has steered
his Phantom Ship into the Twin
Ports harbor for the previous two
Homegrown Music Festivals. “Cables, cords, machines and blinking
would sound like if a punk band
started digging through your uncle’s prog-rock collection, then
Phillip of Nazareth is well worth
checking out. The three-piece
outfit, comprised of bassist Andy
Pletcher, guitarist Josh Mutchler
and drummer Cory Coffman, has
been crafting a musical concoction soon to be released as their
first studio album in several years,
Killing Machine. Holding down a
live set that seems to get tighter
10:30pm Sat 5/2
with every performance, their
Pizza Lucé
dynamic stage presence delves
If you ever wondered what it into unique time signatures,
Phillip of Nazareth
photo by
genre shifts, and Mutchler’s re- bassist Jason Hildebrandt and
markable dance moves.
drummer Adam Rosenthal have
held true to their musical beginnings while leaving enough room
for exploration. Their discogra8:15pm Sat 5/2
phy includes 2011’s The Unsalted
Teatro Zuccone
Sea and 2012’s Landings. A third
Since the early beginnings in an album is in the works for 2015.
attic on Duluth’s East Hillside,
Portage has made long strides in
becoming a crowd favorite both
in the Twin Ports and Twin Cities.
Painting an indie-rock ambiance 7:15pm Fri 5/1
around a roots-rock base, guitar- Teatro Zuccone
ist Trent Waterman, guitar and It’s not often that you’ll find
keyboard player Dave Mehling, a four-piece band featuring
Portage
Portrait of a
Drowned Man
three guitarists, but in the case
of Portrait of a Drowned Man
it works exceptionally well.
Founded in 2003, the band has
spent more than a decade creating and performing a panorama of post-rock arrangements that almost give the
feeling of an instrumental narrative. All moving to the beat of
Ken Nyberg’s drum, Paul Connolly and Justin Kervina bring
spacey and rhythmic tones
to the stage alongside Aaron
Richner, who has returned to
Richard Narum
the band in the wake of longtime guitarist Jesse Hoheisel’s
departure. Their third album is
due out this year.
The Potluck
Communists
7:15 Fri 5/1
Amazing Grace
If there were local music
awards for best new band
logo, this year’s winner would
be ska group the Potluck Communists. A cartoonish giant
soup pot next to a black four-
photo by
Richard Narum
leaf clover next to an imposing Soviet hammer and sickle;
pretty heady stuff for young
men who haven’t turned 21
yet. Nick Carlson-Becklund
handles the vocals and shares
guitar work with Jake Vainio.
Ian Erickson and Robert McGrady make up the bass/drum
rhythm section while Hans
Arvidson-Hicks adds trumpet.
They’ve played Pete Fest, KBJRTV, the Ska Skank Redemption
show and plan to record sometime in 2015.
Prince Paul & the
Conscious Party
9:45pm Tues 4/28
There isn’t anything much more
infectious than reggae singer
“Prince” Paul Robinson’s hearty
on-stage laugh. Hailing from Jamaica, he’s become a Twin Port’s
fixture of all sorts of musical Rastafarian fun since the Black Label
Wednesdays at the Red Lion. His
group, the Conscious Party, has
released one full-length album
ing of malt shops, hordes of tourists wandering the Lakewalk and
the appearance of an ominouslooking funerary vehicle cruising
downtown streets. Much like its
namesake automobile, the band
Purple Hearse is a complete unknown. Formed via text messages between Tony Bennett and
Ian Prince, former bandmates in
the Dames, the duo will debut at
Homegrown. Prince has drummed
12am Sun 4/26
with a variety of acts, including
Pizza Lucé
Houston, Kid Dakota and Story of
Summer in Duluth is marked by the Sea, but given his history with
a few telltale signs: the reopen- Bennett something along the
and brought plenty of tropical
joy to cold northland crowds over
the years. The band includes percussionists Bryan “Lefty” Johnson
and Nathaniel Beltcher, horn players Jason Minke and Leonardo DeBruce, guitarists Pat Powers and
Joe Hauge, bassist Sven Berg, and
longtime keyboardist Rob Jones.
Purple Hearse
lines of improvisational noise and
sludgedoom can be expected.
Think the experimentation of
late-period Coltrane mixed with
an early Melvins sound.
Pushing Chain
11am Sun 5/3
Pizza Lucé
While fiddle player Adam Moe
and guitarist Boyd Blomberg
have been playing together since
1997, the current incarnation of
their musical rapport was formed
in 2012 under the name Pushing
Chain. Playing a variety of traditional and original songs rooted in
the realm of Americana music, the
duo has kept busy over the past
few years performing regularly
around the region. With the release of a self-titled album in October the two continue to bring an
original experience to every show
with a revolving set list, spontaneous guest appearances and a
good dose of old-timey soul.
Red Mountain
12:30am Sat 5/2
Tycoons Alehouse
There is a great deal of spectacle
surrounding Red Mountain performances, but the style doesn’t
trump the substance. The band’s
debut album Scowl Lightly was
voted Best Album of 2014 by
readers of Perfect Duluth Day,
and the record didn’t include
fire dancers, aerialists or sequin
costumes. Live shows, on the
other hand, could include any
of those things and more. Anton
Jimenez-Koeckl and his Rhodes
piano lead this avant-garde bohemian pop band, which has
grown over the years to become
a roughly nine-piece ensemble.
The roster includes Grace Holden on trumpet, Erin Tope on
tambourine, “Big Rig” Matt Mobley on bass, Chris LeBlanc on
drums, Charlotte Montgomery
on percussion, Soren Dietzel on
clarinet and saxophone, “Gold
Tooth” Jeremy Ehlert on bass
and Becca DeBoer on trombone.
Intertwined on stage with extra
shakers, cow bells, whistling and
yelling they create a feel-good
dancing extravaganza.
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
Reflectivore
10:15pm Fri 5/1
Red Star Lounge
Ryan Rusch and Allen Cragin met
when Rusch was in the band Professor Hefner and Cragin was in
Circa A.M. They formed Reflectivore in 2010 and in the past
year have been recording at the
Weight Room, Rusch’s studio
in Washburn. Their self-titled
debut album is expected to be
released before Homegrown.
Joining them on stage are bassist Matt Osterlund, guitar player
Matthew Cihaski and drummer other band, Low, as well as purTom Anderson.
suing personal projects including Tired Eyes (Sparhawk’s Neil
Young tribute band with Rich
Mattson) and Garrington’s jazz
trio. Drummer Eric Pollard, now
10:30pm Fri 5/1
based in Nashville, has continPizza Lucé
Retribution Gospel Choir gigs ued to write and perform his
have been sparse since the own music under the name Acband’s powerful performance at tual Wolf. This versatile trio has
last year’s Homegrown. Guitar- tackled everything from sprawlist and vocalist Alan Sparhawk ing psych rock and dub jams to
and bassist Steve Garrington power pop; whatever they come
have busied themselves tour- up with for this year’s Homeing and recording with their grown, it won’t be boring.
Retribution
Gospel Choir
Revolution Jones
12am Fri 5/1
Dubh Linn
Revolution Jones is the more aggressive and technical incarnation
of the Bayfront Reggae Festival
regular Uprising. Frontman Dexter
Baxter enthusiastically entertains
with solid vocals. Guitarist Andrew
Perfetti, bassist Tal Lindblad and
drummer Luke Perry are joined
by versatile keyboard player John
Heino, who utilizes piano and organ. The band mixes “high-energy
reggae, soca and dub rhythms
photo by
with rock and jazz energy.” They
plan to record throughout the
year at the Hellfire Studio in Superior. Whether at an outdoor
festival, in the spacious basement
of R.T. Quinlan’s or squeezed into
the narrow hallway of Carmody,
Revolution Jones never fails to get
its audience dancing.
“a rapidly deployable, humandriven, two-wheeled cart full of
robots that play music, piloted by
a lunatic in a hazmat suit + teddy
bear.” AMI (Automatic Monochord Instrument), CARI (Cylindrical Aerophone Robotic Instrument), Stemmetje (a vocal robot),
MADI (Multi-mallet Automatic
Drumming Instrument), RUSTI
(Robotic Used Slide Trombone Instrument) and other robots yet to
6:45pm Sat 5/2
be completed will entertain the
The Underground
crowd with Rogers at the helm.
Composer, roboticist, creator and He describes this genre as “robot
educator Troy Rogers has created math folk and early 21st Century
Robot Rickshaw
Jason Kokal
Midwestern semi-nomadic robot The band has been performing at
herder’s music.”
Amazing Grace Bakery & Café on
the last Saturday of every month,
and is busy working on its first
album, which should be ready
11pm Tues 4/28
Dubh Linn
by the end of the summer. In the
The deep and powerful vocals of meantime, the video for “Snow,”
Suzy Anderson, aka Suzy Q, head showcased at last year’s Homeup this genre-defying trio. Pen- grown Music Video Festival, can
nies for a Dime alums Faye Baron be found on YouTube.
and Mikey Trifilette back her up
on drums and guitar, respectively.
RoofTop Fable’s sound could perhaps be described as a modern 8pm Tues 4/28
blues-pop twist on classic rock. Bent Paddle
RoofTop Fable
The Kyle
Scherz Band
photo by
The Kyle Scherz Band is the
solo act of ... Kyle Scherz. That’s
right, he is the band. While he
often plays around town with
Josie Taylor as part of the Yeah
Scherz duo, for this gig he will
use his vocal flexibility, a looper, and acoustic and electric
guitars to produce the illusion
of a full rock band, layering
his voice over the instruments
to create unique covers and
original songs. Expect some
beatboxing as well. Scherz has
been working on an EP for future release.
Maddy Siiter
10am Sat 5/2
Chester Creek Café
As Maddy Siiter sings on her
new album, “I’ve been quiet for
15 years of my life — things are
stacking up.” Well, the 16-yearold singer-songwriter has plenty
to say now, and a lot of people
are listening. In the past year
she’s expanded her reach past
the Twin Ports, playing shows in
the Minneapolis area and as far
south as Nashville. That’s where
she recorded her second full-
Bill Schwalbe
sound with the classic organguitar-bass-drums setup,” says
Dan Anderson, who plies the organ and piano. At the previous
three Homegrowns they were
the soothing Sunday afternoon
last-band-of-the-festival tonic for
whatever ailed beleaguered concert-goers. This year they will be
one of the last band’s to the stage
on Friday night. Their musical
12:30am Fri 5/1
style blend comes from musicians
Tycoons Alehouse
who have all spent more than 15
The Silk Sheiks intend to “turn years on Duluth music turf, inpeople on to the forgotten and cluding guitarist Ben Marsen,
under-appreciated late 1960s bassist Ethan Thompson, drumlength album last summer. Siiter
went into the studio with a roomful of pro musicians — including
Garth Brooks’ guitar player Chris
Leuzinger — and put down the
10-track Runaway. You can pick
up a copy at Electric Fetus or
download it on iTunes.
The Silk Sheiks
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
mer Ryan Jazdzewski and percus- House playing a spaceship. If
sionist Bryan “Lefty” Johnson.
spaceships aren’t American
enough for you, try this on for
size. Douglas describes the
formation of the alt-country
11:45pm Thurs 4/30
drone-rock band in the depths
Thirsty Pagan
Silverback Colony is — much like of Duluth’s musical soil as “a kinthe primate species from which it ship ... the likes of which hadn’t
derives its name — big, bearded, been seen since the 1991 World
loud and aggressive. The band Champion Minnesota Twins.”
is made up of frontman Gabe
Douglas, drummer Kyle Keegan,
guitarist Nate Case, bassist Matt
Donoghue, John Lehmkuhl on 7:45pm Friday 5/1
auxiliary percussion, and DJ The Underground
Silverback Colony
Sing! A Women’s
Chorus
If you skin your knee sprinting from Quinlan’s to the Brewhouse, or wake up with a
pounding headache and no
aspirin to numb the pain, have
no fear — Homegrown’s biggest bunch of mothers is here.
“We’re not rock and roll, but
we kick ass,” says Mags David,
director of Sing! A Women’s
Chorus. “We’re pretty good,
and we are literally a bunch
of mothers. And a bunch of
grandmothers, too!” David is
the director behind the bunch
of 30, sometimes 40 women.
They’ve been going strong for
15 years, but she says this year
you’ll hear a “sharper, more intense sound,” along with some
new music. Look for a motherthemed mashup.
Adam Sippola
11pm Tues 4/28
Adam Sippola began his music
career playing classical cello at
the age of five. Since then he
has expanded his artistry as
an actor, singer, poet and vo-
cal soloist. His current focus
as a musician is experimental
live-looping
incorporating
didgeridoo, cello, vocals and
percussion. He draws some of
his inspiration from a diversity of vocal styles including
Qawwali, Tuvan throat singing
and a variety of chant forms.
Together the combination creates soulful, haunting, meditative music. Sippola hopes his
musical experience will serve
as a “ladder for the soul.” His
new album, Rising Point, was
released in January.
The Slamming
Doors
6pm Fri 5/1
Beaner’s Central
The Slamming Doors is a group
born out of Southern rock,
the jam-band movement and
six very different people. “It’s
a unique blend of musical instruments and personalities,”
drummer Matt Johnson says.
“It’s not like we were a group of
friends that just got together
and started jamming in a garage.” The band formed in 2011
when Johnson, bassist Ben
Anderson, guitar/banjo player
Pat Hawkinson, pedal-steel
guitarist Mike Randolph and
keyboardist Craig Skalko all rallied behind the songwriting of
Adam Herman. Their Road Beneath the Wheel made the Duluth News Tribune’s top five list
in 2014, and a new album is set
for release later this year.
The Social Disaster
12:15am Thurs 4/30
Main Club
So many good ingredients go
into this spicy étouffée. First and
foremost are Rachel Phoenix’s
sultry voice and dramatic onstage performances. The dark
disco beats and grooves come
from Moog artesian Jake Larson
and drummer Ryan Nelson. Guitarists Jesse Hoheisel and Jacob
Swanson trade catchy phrasings
and power chords depending
on the mood of each song. If any
band should be rewarded with
a laser light show of its own, it’s
this one. Singles can be found on
Bandcamp and the moody dance
track “Choke Cherry” is on the
compilation Homegrown Rawk
and/or Roll: Christine Dean’s Mix.
Steve Sola
6pm Tues 4/28
Bent Paddle
Steve Sola is just Steve Sola —
something that’s still relatively
new for the veteran Twin Ports
musician. After more than a
decade of playing in the company of countless other bands,
he has by his own account
“embarked upon the mysterious and frequently ill-defined
path of the one-man band.”
As a one-stop blues shop, Sola
accompanies himself with a
stripped-down percussion kit,
harmonica and either a five- or
six-stringed instrument. Audiences will hear “rattles and
growls, moans and howls.”
And whatever else happens,
Sola promises it will surprise.
Songs of Shipwreck
9:45pm Thurs 4/30
Thirsty Pagan
Songs of Shipwreck delivers
much more than its name implies. Guitarists Kent Paulsen
and Sean Mahoney take turns
with keyboardist Matt Sjelin
on lead vocals, singing rock
versions of stories about shipwrecks, rolling hills, Velcro
shoes and more. This gig will
be one of three at Homegrown
for bassist Steve Karels, who
is also performing with Fearless Moral Inventory and Lake
Monster. Davey “Jones” Clark
backs them all up on drums.
The first album by this twoyear old band was recorded at
the Weight Room in Washburn
over the winter and should be
available by Homegrown.
Southwire
12am Fri 5/1
Rex Bar
One of CBS Minnesota’s “Best
Up-And-Coming Bands of 2014,”
Southwire has been making its
name known in the Minnesota
photo by
Andy Miller
music scene with its unique
“heavy folk” style for eight years.
The combination of Jerree Small’s
sweet and soulful voice and Ben
Larson’s sermon-like spoken
word with Sean Elmquist’s drumming and Matt Mobley’s bass
work has garnered both critical
acclaim and packed houses for
performances. “Part gospel, part
folk, the group evokes basement
revivals and post-church, front
porch jams” Andrea Swenson
wrote for the Local Current Blog
following the release of Southwire’s 2013 self-titled debut
a self-titled debut album. Duluth
News Tribune Music Critic Anthony Bennett notes “the band’s
freshman foray isn’t easy to
11pm Fri 5/1
classify — it’s got elements of a
Dubh Linn
number of genres, but they’re all
Space Carpet formed two years
interweaved pretty seamlessly,
ago in the cosmos-themed baseas if the band has digested a lot
ment of Beaner’s Central as the
of influences in equal measure.”
brainchild of guitarist Rory Isakson and ukulele player Jen West.
The five-piece band is rounded
out by Steve Isakson on lead gui- 8:45pm Sat 5/2
tar, Ken Thiemann on bass and Minnesota Power Plaza
Tyler Dubla on drums. They are Known for bringing the heat, this
fresh off the February release of troupe of traveling performers is
album on Chaperone Records.
Space Carpet
The Spin Collective
no circus, but rather a group of
artists whose primary medium
is fire. Backed by “funky folk music,” the collective choreographs
solo and group demonstrations
of fire-dancing techniques,
which has roots as ancient as
the Aztecs and consists of varying levels of difficult moves with
flaming props such as poi, hoops
and fans. Currently 10 members
strong, the performers this year
include Sherry Christiansen, Jillian Forte, Denise Hooper, Jayme
Hudson, Regina Fitzgerald, Matt
Lundberg, Aleasha Hladilek,
photo by
Tristan Fitzgerald, Amy Kozak half to give proper showcase to
and Chris Hogan.
his all-original songs from the
atheistic perspective. It’s just
one man, one guitar and one
freethinking perspective on
11:45Pm WEDS 4/29
the subject of faith.
Gopher Bar
Starling of Athens
Starling of Athens is Toby Thomas Churchill’s “atheist folk”
project from which he dishes
out “the truth from Duluth.”
Long known for his linguistically sophisticated lyrics (à la
the Decemberists) and smart,
quirky humor, Churchill of late
has split his creative energies in
Stel
6:30pm Tues 4/28
Amazing Grace
Brian Stelmaszweski has been
playing in the Twin Ports for 15
years and in that time has been
a member of several musical
projects including; Déjà Blu,
Sweetgrass and a long run with
Larry Sandmann as the duo Stel
& Lefty. Although this is Stel’s
third Homegrown without his
musical “partner in crime” he still
cranks out favorites new and old
with a soulful drive, including a
mix of originals, instrumentals
and covers ranging from Hank
Williams to Jimi Hendrix.
Bill Schwalbe
quent freestyle events at the Red
Star, Strictly Hammers released
its 12th album, The Red Door, in
January. Known for their experimental approach to the genre,
Nick Pawlenty and Matthew
Ihle, going by the stage names
MidiEvil and Crimson, have
been hashing beats together
for the past five years, including
before this project was born.
They often have visiting and lo10pm Fri 5/1
cal freestyle artists join them on
Dubh Linn
stage for dynamic, rousing and
A hip-hop duo that hosts fre- energetic performances.
Strictly Hammers
Superfly McFlash
8:15pm Mon 4/27
Red Herring Lounge
Holding no documented relation to Curtis Mayfield, Steve
Heck plays the role of Superfly
McFlash in a solo act that packs
a punch with various musical
influences. Incorporating the
use of a loop station he combines his skills as a beat boxer,
guitar player, singer and rapper to build and deliver songs.
Sticking to an overarching
theme of hip-hop, Heck lets his
heavy rock background come
through with distorted rhythms
and intermittent guitar solos to
make for a genre hybrid.
Superior Siren
10:45pm Sat 5/2
For the past two years Laura
Sellner has been captivating
audiences with her alluring and
haunting voice. After her 2014
Homegrown debut and the release of her EP Lotus in the Muck
last May, this folk guitarist has
quickly gained popularity in
the Duluth music scene, drawing crowds with her bewitching singing. She’ll be joined at
Homegrown by guitarist Andrew Olmstead, bassist Mark
Glen, cellist Rachel Gobin and
drummer Emma Deaner. A fulllength album is in the works.
Supreme
Rokka Hi-Fi
10:15pm Thurs 4/30
Main Club
Duluth natives Brian Tomaino
and Kevin Craig provide dancehall and roots reggae vocals with
a driving sound system. They’ve
been doing reggae since the
1990s and have been together
for 10 years with long-term gigs
in Minneapolis joints and Duluth’s Red Herring Lounge for
three months late last year. But
they’ll set up pretty much anywhere: “We have played nightclubs, kitchens, parks, dive bars,
basements, gymnasiums and
warehouses,” Craig said.
Sweat Equity
11pm Fri 5/1
Rex Bar
creative coxswaining of Harrison
Crane, Timmy Jacks Off began
as a solo noise project that’s recently branched out into a fuller
sound. Amassed around his distorted feedback and angst-ridden vocals — almost reminiscent
of a young Iggy Pop — Crane is
joined by guitarists Rob Fernquist and Mauro All, drummer
Nick Petoletti and bassist Jesse
White for an avant-garde spectacle. Spending most of the
musical endeavor’s five years in
various basements, Timmy Jacks
Off climbs to the surface often
enough to be known for a loud,
expressive and aggressive show.
Revivalists of the Minneapolis
funk, soul and synth-pop sound,
Paul Broman and Kevin Craig created the band Sweat Equity two
years ago and have kept it pretty underground. Their only gig
was a year and a half ago — but
what a debut it was, opening for
Har Mar Superstar at Pizza Lucé
with opulent candelabras, keytars, turntables and matching
suits. They plan to release their
debut album on June 13, along
with a video for their song “Hot
Shower.” Broman says Sweat Equity’s Homegrown performance
will be “custom-tailored to the
specific tastes of all local profi- 10pm Fri 5/1
cient funky sexy well-dressed R.T. Quinlan’s
dancers, so come prepared with
Timothy Martin Nelson’s “dancemoves to bust out with.”
infused psych rock” is reminiscent
of early Genesis or Depeche Mode.
He began his indie-rock jour11:15pm Sat 5/2
ney as the music scene in Duluth
Red Star Lounge
began to blossom in the 1990s,
Don’t let the name fool you, this forming several bands and proband is really bizarre. Under the ducing compilations such as the
Timothy Martin
& the New Norm
Timmy Jacks Off
photo by
Richard Narum
three Duluth Does Dylan projects.
He says his new material “swirls
those earlier energies together, a
bit light-hearted with dark edges
that feel cold and alone.” His vocals and guitar will be joined by
Peter Knutson on guitar and Russ
Sackett on bass and vocals.
As banjo player Harrison Olk
and guitarist Trevor Marrin’s
journey continued they added
mandolin player Bryan Nelson,
fiddle player Nori Perrine and
stand-up bassist Neil Krause.
Together they create a distinct
style of fast-paced, toe-tapping bluegrass fun. In typical
bluegrass/folk fashion each
song tells a story. Stories about
12am Sat 5/2
life, relationships, alcohol
R.T. Quinlan’s
and the Twin Ports. Since last
Tin Can Gin was born and Homegrown they have toured
brewed on the shores of Lake and played several venues and
Superior by childhood friends. music festivals. In March they
Tin Can Gin
released their second album two weeks after the downpour
Coming Home.
they released a new album, Wild
Animals, and appeared for a second time on the Late Show with
David Letterman. While every9:30pm Wed 4/29
one got a band-crush with TBT’s
Clyde Iron Works
original speedgrass sound years
Duluth’s most lauded band per- ago, the slower arrangements
formed at Grand Casino Hinck- the band has honed in recent
ley in February, but hasn’t seen years are haunting and showa hometown stage since an ab- case the vocal and instrumental
breviated-but-memorable show talents of Dave Simonett on harat Bayfront Park in the pouring monica and guitar, Tim Saxhaug
rain last summer, accompanied on bass, Ryan Young on fiddle,
by wondrous lightning across Dave Carroll on banjo and Erik
the hillside. A little more than Berry on mandolin.
Trampled by Turtles
photo by
the world’s rhythms, Eastern,
Western, local, ancient and new.
Supplying the beat for their
2015 Homegrown performance
7:45pm Sat 5/2
is the Yabobo African Drum
Group made up of convivial perSince 2010 this tribal fusion cussionists Janine Olsen, Eldon
belly-dance troupe, featuring Lindamood, Tim Stratton, Alisa
LeeAnn Myers, Pamela Clifton DeRider and Tamra Anderson.
and Wendy Simmons, has regularly made the rounds performing at local festivals and events. 11:30pm Sat 5/2
Through their body motions Tycoons Alehouse
they hope to spread the riches Jordan Taylor has slowly brought
of cultural diversity and share his songwriting, guitar work and
Tribal Alchemie
featuring Yabobo
African Drum Group
Two Beat Band
rich vocals out of hiding. After
taking time to travel and gain
some world experience, his Two
Beat Band finally got down to
putting 11 new tracks on tape.
The result: the gorgeous, smart
and Ryan Adams/Wilco-ish 2014
album Weekend Sounds. He recently relocated to St. Paul, which
gives his sublime live shows a
wider audience as his work’s
popularity gathers steam. For
Homegrown Taylor has offered a
solo performance featuring a set
from his 2013 self-titled debut
and most recent record.
Bill Schwalbe
Fred Tyson
& His Tysonettes
10:45pm Sat 5/2
Red Herring Lounge
Fred Tyson knows how to bring
the funk. Linked to Duluth at
the pelvis, he can round-theclock party until your beard
falls off. Backed as usual by Eldo
Abrahamson on drums, Ben
Marsen on bass, Dan Anderson
on keyboard, Paul Broman on
guitar and Ryan Jazdzewski on
drums, Freddy will once again
photo by
laramie carlson
do the unpredictable — yet
ever-so-predictable — things
that “he wants to do.” The
lovely Tysonettes will resume
their role at sidestage, lending
sass as Freddy delivers the soul
and funk. He is the star around
which all others orbit.
legendary Bone Appetit, the SuperTacks and Rock Brigade, but
for the past 10 years has put the
bigger focus on his solo material.
His music is a blend of acoustic
power-pop mixed with alternative
rock, yet still maintains that singer/
songwriter charm. He has released
three albums since 2010 — All But
My Soul, The Overhead Low and
8:30pm Fri 5/1
Victory March — and is working on
Red Herring Lounge
his fourth, due out later this year.
Ryan Van Slooten has been a part His band consists of Jacob Jonker
of the local music scene for 15 on guitar, Tom Berrigan on bass
years. He has spent time in the and Scott Millis on drums.
Ryan Van Slooten
Virgil Caine Band
11pm Wed 4/29
Players Sports Bar
With a fourth album of rootsrock and butt-shakin’ blues
complete, the Virgil Caine Band
has resumed its heavy schedule
of weekend performances at
fine watering holes across the
region. Lead by the Texas-style
guitar sound of Tommy Wotruba and the Chicago-blues harmonica of Mark Hawley — both
formerly of the Tom Cats — and
backed by the rhythm section of
“Big Daddy” Dave Prudhomme
on bass and Keith Fredrickson
on drums, the band plays more
frequently on the Iron Range
than Duluth these days, though
it once had an eight-year run
hosting the Sunday-night Open
Jam at the former Twins Bar.
Vitamin Death
9:30pm Wed 4/29
Beaner’s Central
These hardcore collaborators
joined forces in 2013 to create
the heavy-metal blitzkrieg apt-
photo by
Bill Schwalbe
ly named Vitamin Death. But
behind the Cannibal Corpselike aggression are lyrics with
a positive message and instrumentation done with classical
precision. Engaging frontman
Skylar Lysaker provides the verbal bark while guitarists Kyle
Rudd-Pulkinen, Granger Kuberra and Cody Utyro dole out
creative distorted bite. Drummer Chad Illikainen and bassist
Ryan Carlson frame the blueprint, allowing headbangers
to head bang while giving the
songs enough breathing room
for space heads to space out.
Look for their anticipated debut Era of Awakening to drop
in 2015.
vocal harmonies of the Handsome Family. Nathaniel Harvie’s
indie-rock guitar and deep vocal work is often backed by effortless harmonies from Rosalie
Uggla. Lino Rauzi and Joe Rauzi
7:15pm Sat 5/2
fill out the mid-tempo dynamAmazing Grace
ics of bass and percussion.
For a group with members all Their debut album, Time Falls
under legal drinking age, Vivi- Apart came out in August on
elle has the musical maturity of Chaperone Records.
a fine wine. The band’s sound
features the patience and
sparseness of the Velvet Un- 10pm Tues 4/28
derground mixed with the dark Dubh Linn
Vivielle
Willie Diction
Willie Winklesky mixes freestyle
and well-written rap lyrics for his
contribution to the local hip-hop
scene, which he has participated in
for the past decade. Going by the
alias Willie Diction, he often teams
up with electronic music makers
such as Strictly Hammers and LoHi Funk. His delivery is refreshingly
crisp and precise as he doesn’t
crowd his words with studio effects or relentless background
vocals. He has released a batch of
digital singles and radio in-studio
performances on his SoundCloud
page. MidiEvil (Nick Pawlenty) will
provide the backbeats for this Blood. After signing with Dutch
label Roadburn / Burning World
year’s Homegrown set.
Records, the band’s debut cassette-tape-turned-LP has been
showing up on heavy metal and
9:30pm Thurs 4/30
stoner rock blogs across the InNorm’s Beer & Brats
ternet. Bringing an apocalyptic
In 2012, this post-modern group dose of sludgy riffs that dive
released the moody and richly into thrash like a swift kick to
orchestrated album Vandrovec, I the face are bassist Brian Wells,
Need Help. The seven songs fea- drummer Jake Paulsrud and guitured singer/guitarist Alberto Ser- tarists Mindy Johnson and Mike
rano Rivera’s writing abilities that “Riff Merchant” Messina. They
combined the starkness of an ear- will get your head banging and
ly Cure album with the echo and ears ringing from start to finish. If
depth of a Nick Cave record. Paul your neck isn’t sore the next day
Connolly’s signature guitar/feed- then you probably did it wrong.
back work, along with bassist Kevin Zak and drummer Ken Nyberg,
subtly completes the gothic noise
9:30pm Mon 4/27
like soft thunder. A long-awaited Fitger’s Brewhouse
new recording is in the works with
the finishing touches being put on Jason Wussow and Veikko Lepisto
brand new songs they plan to fea- launched their acoustic ska band
at the end of 2013 and quickly beture for their Homegrown set.
came a local fixture. Gigs at some
of the region’s premier events
— the Twin Ports Bridge Festival
12:30am Fri 5/1
at Bayfront Park, the Grand MinPizza Lucé
nesota Taste-Together at Grand
It’s been another great year for Casino Hinckley and DuLutsen at
the demonic doom squad Wolf Papa Charlie’s — were just part of
A Winter Downpour
Woodblind
Wolf Blood
the duo’s big year since Homegrown 2014. In January they released the seven-inch single “Big
Voice,” along with a music video
animated by Brian Barber, and
also performed on the WDSE-TV
program The PlayList.
Homegrown
social media
twitter
@dhgmf / #hgmf15
Flickr
World Beat
duluthhomegrown
Teatro Zuccone
duluthhomegrown
6pm Sun 4/26
World Beat is a group of 24 students from Myers-Wilkins Elementary School who create music in
the drumming tradition of West
Africa. The drummers are typically in grades 3–5 and meet once a
week after school for rehearsals.
Performances occur across the
state, including gigs at the Minnesota Music Educators Conference,
Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra concerts, Bayfield’s Summer (Mostly) Thursdays music series and local community events
such as the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Day Celebration. The drum
leaders are music specialist Teri
Akervik, second-grade teacher
Michelle Bowker and AmeriCorps
reading tutor Adam Metzer.
facebook
Instagram
duluthhomegrown
Website
duluthhomegrown.com
email
[email protected]
volunteer
Volunteer@
Sponsorship
[email protected]
Sound / Production
[email protected]
Another big thank you to our
army of dedicated volunteers,
our great sound engineers,
venue staff, fans of local music,
and all the talented performers
who make homegrown possible.
Happy Homegrown!
photo by
As a cold wind blew heavy gusts
across Observation Hill, Homegrown musicians representing
the Friday-night bands blew
their game-long lead, losing the
2014 Homegrown Kickball Classic to the Saturday team in extra
innings by a score of 6-4.
Kip Praslowicz
2015 Homegrown
Kickball Classic
Saturday, May 2 | High Noon
Chester Bowl Park, 1800 E. Skyline
“It was a good game.
Then there was a collapse.”
2014
Homegrown
Kickball
Classic
Revisited
by
Graham Hakala
Saturday was able to squeak in a
run, tying the game up at 1-1.
Saturday threatened again in the
fourth, but Friday pitcher Chad
Lyons made a diving catch on a
line-drive kick by Nyanyika Banda
to end the inning, stranding two
Saturday runners and finally putThat’s one version of the story, at ting some mud on Lyons’ brightleast. By the time it was over, no white Kenny Powers jersey.
one seemed to truly understand “I told you I’m good at sports,”
what happened out there.
Lyons yelled.
For the second year in a row, cru- Friday took the momentum
el and unusual weather condi- from that clutch play and went
tions forced the game away from up by another run, ending the
its traditional location at Chester fourth inning at 2-1.
Bowl Park. The alternate venue, a
It was in the eighth when all
shabby baseball field at Observasemblance of order began to
tion Park, had its fair share of enbreak down. In the top of the invironmental hazards, including a
ning an argument ensued over
20-foot-wide, ankle-deep mud
whether Saturday player Lane
puddle in between third base
Prekker had properly tagged up
and home plate. If anyone was
on a fly ball that advanced him
going to score, they were going
to third base. After the teams
to have to pay the price.
exchanged angry words, umFriday took the lead in the bot- pire Rick Boo ruled Prekker was
tom of the first, when a pop fly to safe. Moments later, Prekker was
right field gave Heather Dean the tagged out at third while scramchance to score. By the top of the bling back after failing to tag up
third, and by sheer force of will, following another flyout.
photo by
The score remained 2-1 going into
the bottom of the eighth. Heated
arguments seemed to follow every play from that point on, and it
quickly became impossible to tell
who was on what base, who was
keeping score, and who exactly
was in charge of this thing.
Jason Kokal
By the end of the inning, the of- errors piled up in the Friday outficial agreement by most on the field, Saturday’s Jacob Swanson
field was that Friday led 4-1.
made a break for home and tied
It was the top of the ninth, and the game up at 4-4.
In the top of the 10th, a soft kick
to the right side of the infield
gave Saturday enough time to
get two runs in, giving the team
its first lead of the game at 6-4.
“Karma. Pure karma,” Saturday
pitcher Bryan “Lefty” Johnson
said of his team’s unlikely win.
“This is probably going to be a
notorious victory. There were
a lot of crappy calls, but you
have to have those crappy calls
or else it’s not a Homegrown
kickball game.”
Friday would need two more
points to get back into a position to win. They would have no
such luck in the bottom on the
10th. Three quick outs at first
ended the game.
“It was a good game,” said Lyons. “Then there was a collapse.
People started resting on their
Laurels and Hardys, and when
you do that, sometimes Saturday
sneaks one out.”
things were looking bleak for
Saturday. It would be the team’s
last chance to catch up or accept defeat. They scored one
Friday scored another run, which run rather quickly, which put
was met with more contesting them within two to tie it up.
from Saturday. While that ar- With runners on base and ready
gument was being settled, the to go, a pop fly was launched
game continued on in the back- into right field. In the melee to
ground. Friday scored again, get the ball to home plate Satprobably, we think, who knows? urday scored another run. As
photo by
Jason Kokal
Comedy Roast of
the Homegrown
Music Festival
By Mark Lindquist
Hello. Thanks for inviting me up
here to say a few words regarding Homegrown. First, I’d like
to begin by acknowledging the
people who make this spectacle
happen. Without their creativity, organizational skills and passion for success, an event of this
magnitude could never run so
smoothly. So let’s stand up and
give a big round of applause for
the hardest working people in
No, but really, there are so many
different kinds of groups to enjoy
at Homegrown. Rock, hip-hop,
metal, punk, blues, etc. I guess the
newest style is something called
“drone.” Supposedly, it’s part political statement and part artistic
expression made by long notes of
deafening feedback. The hipster
kids absolutely love it. And as an
added bonus, these recordings
can be used to exterminate bedbugs and relieve constipation.
I’m kidding, of course. I feel a
Duluth and Superior show busi- great sense of fellowship with all
ness: Our local pot dealers!
the incredible artists that come
Secondly, I want to congratulate out of this area. I mean, Homethe Twin Ports arts community. grown has introduced so many
The diverse talent this area puts energetic and inspiring bands
forth year after year never fails that even the Bayfront Blues
to impress. Where else can you Festival is considering booking
go and listen to a hippie-jam a living musician under the age
jug band followed by a jug-jam of 70 next summer.
hippie band followed by a jam- The year 2015 will mark the first
ming jug-band hippie? Anytime performance of the Duluth SuI see a bearded musician wear- perior Symphony Orchestra at
ing overalls and a painter’s cap Homegrown. Finally, some forI know immediately where I am. mal and refined classical music
I’m either at Homegrown or in a incorporated into the week’s
slightly racist Hee Haw sketch … lineup. I know the committee
or in line at the free clinic.
that books and schedules Home-
grown will stop at nothing to
make these fine, fine instrumentalists feel right at home during
their set at Centerfolds Gentleman’s Club between sets by the
scream-core groups Ghost Acne
and the Cleveland Steamers.
But all jokes aside, let’s face it,
this week is really just one big
party. Day after day of beer and
cocktails and shots and cigarettes and slurring and not remembering how you got home
— a seemingly endless communal bender for all types of alcoholics and chemical dependents.
Or, as the regulars at the Kozy Bar
used to refer to it: daily life.
I’m joking. I do love this festival
with all my heart. I’ve seen it
grow from just 10 local bands
showcased over one weekend
to a weeklong extravaganza
where all sorts of committees,
sound techs, bouncers, writers,
graphic designers, bartenders,
venues and audiences work together to make sure our favorite
local bands and musicians continue to not get paid.
Thank you! Chad Lyons is next.

HG2015-lores - Duluth Homegrown Music Festival

Transcription

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