MUSIC PHOTOS | Clint Black at the Ames Center

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As New Country music continues to grow in popularity, many of the more traditional sounding artists are enjoying a renewed interest in their established catalogs of music as well. A perfect example is Clint Black who had a good amount of success in the ’90s with a George Strait style sound and major influences from legendary artists such as Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Some younger fans joined a mostly seasoned crowd of appreciators at the Ames Center in Burnsville on March 11th for a 90-minute set that covered a variety of material.The show, titled “An Intimate Evening with Clint Black,” started out in just that fashion with a solo acoustic performance of “Live and Learn.” The scaled down format allowed Black to quickly demonstrate his skill on a six-string and the ability to pair it nicely with his twangy vocal, which sounded great. After a couple more acoustic selections including a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Time of a Preacher,” the four-piece band joined in adding full sound and tight harmonies on “Like the Rain.” Continue Reading

MUSIC REVIEW | Mary Bue: A new freedom in Holy Bones

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I was thinking about how to describe Mary Bue and her music on my walk today. She’s cute and the music is light. Some songs are introspective and she seems to have a sense of humor. Then I visited her website and there were the words I needed: Pop Rock Candy. It’s perfect for someone with a sweet voice and rainbow Clydesdale-like boots.I had not seen Bue before March 10 at the Turf Club but I got a big introduction to her music from the guy standing next to me. Continue Reading

Interview with Kevin Newbury of the Minnesota Opera’s “The Manchurian Candidate”: Paranoia, spying and politics

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The world premiere performance of the opera The Manchurian Candidate takes place this Saturday at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts’s Music Theater. This new opera by Mark Campbell and Kevin Puts was commissioned by Minnesota Opera as part of the company’s New Works Initiative, and adapts the bestselling 1959 thriller novel by Richard Condon. The Daily Planet sat down with The Manchurian Candidate’s stage director Kevin Newbury to discuss the opera.When were you first engaged to direct The Manchurian Candidate?I know Mark Campbell and Kevin Puts fairly well, so as soon as I heard about it I started angling for the job. I have a long relationship with Minnesota Opera, so I read the first draft of the libretto and called Dale [Johnson] and said, “I really would love to do this,” and everything worked out. I was involved very early on – I could attend all the workshops, be part of the writing process, and really be involved from the beginning.Is getting hooked up with productions that you hear about through the grapevine a normal process for you?It happens in many ways – sometimes companies call me up and you’re involved at the genesis of it, sometimes I come in after the piece is already written…which is not what I prefer to do. Continue Reading

Beautiful, aurally sumptuous Concert Hall opens at the Ordway

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The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts formally inaugurated its new concert hall on Saturday with an elaborate gala celebration. The evening began with a cocktail hour and a formal dinner in the Music Theater, followed by a sumptuous concert in the new space and an afterparty that continued into the wee hours.The star of the evening was the new performing art space, the succinctly named Concert Hall. (John and Ruth Huss, whose $10 million gift underwrote a quarter of the $40 million construction costs, humbly declined naming rights.) This 1,100-seat space sits on the northeast corner of the Ordway complex, filling in the southeast corner of 5th and Washington and the old footprint of the McKnight Theatre. The Concert Hall was dressed for the occasion with 14.7 linear miles of mahogany-stained oak, a coat of 1,100 or so acoustic panels, and a cloak of glass curtain walls overlooking Rice Park. More than a thousand friends showed up for its society debut and greeted it with cheers and applause.Perhaps the biggest concern on attendees’ minds was whether or not the space’s new acoustics measured up to their advertising. Continue Reading

Great Northern Radio Show heads to the City: See radio being made live!

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As a kid, my family used to go to see Garrison Keillor and a Prairie Home Companion at the old World Theater (now called the Fitzgerald). I loved it. I loved the idea of being there and seeing the action behind the curtain while some people just listened on the radio. It was like being in on a secret. It’s part of what I love about going to see Real Phonic Radio every month. Continue Reading

MUSIC PHOTOS | Pert Near Sandstone warms up the Cedar Cultural Center

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Performing for two nights at The Cedar Cultural Center, Pert Near Sandstone brought their talent and energy to whip fans into a foot stomping, butt shaking, arm throwing, and even waltzing, frenzy Friday night. With two cloggers to keep the rhythm going and the fans dancing (Andy Lambert and Matt Cartier), Pert Near (Nate Sipe, mandolin, fiddle, vocals; Kevin Kniebel, banjo, vocals; J. Lenz, acoustic guitar, vocals; and Adam Kiesling, upright bass, vocals) is such an energizing performance to experience that they could probably turn any white-collar worker into an overall and straw-hat wearing hillbilly. Smiles and dreadlocks touting fans abound, these boys are some fine musicians and it’s no surprise they’ve been successfully twanging, fiddling, banjoing, and harmonizing their way across the country for over ten years. They’ll play again tonight at The Cedar, then head out West to tour through the Rockies and to the coast before returning to the Midwest in June to play the Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI, June 11. Well worth seeing, get your clogging shoes on and go support these good ol’ Minnesota boys. Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Funders Collaborative 
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MUSIC REVIEW | Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor plays a mixed bag at the Ordway

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There comes a moment in the career of every child prodigy in music when their early promise is held up against a light of adult scrutiny. Technical virtuosity from an early age is a laudable thing, but with increased years comes a demand for artistic refinement – demands that for non-prodigies may otherwise not be expected until a much older age. There is often a rush for judgment as listeners wonder whether a young musician will remain a flash in the pan or mature into a long and continuously fruitful career. Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor’s concert on Tuesday at the Ordway offered no clear answers to this question, but tossed more fuel on the fire.Grosvenor, who won the 2004 BBC Young Musician Competition’s Keyboard Final at 11 years of age, is now all of 22 years’ old. For most professional pianists, this is around the age to graduate from a conservatory (Grosvenor did so two and a half years ago); Grosvenor was not only playing in the Schubert Club’s International Artist Series, but has many years of international soloist engagements under his belt already. Continue Reading

Q&A | Beth Hart Better Than Home World Tour

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On February 19, 2015, Beth Hart made a stop in Minneapolis, MN to perform the 3rd night of her Better Than Home World Tour at the Cedar Cultural Center. She was generous enough to sit down with me before the show and chat a bit about her life as a touring musician and the upcoming release of her new album. I talked to several people at the show who said Beth’s music was significant in getting them through some tough life experiences. She has a gift of being able to communicate through her song writing what she has learned along her own life path and told me that she is an open book, so I hope you get a sense of that from this interview.TCDP: There will surely be Blues fans in the audience tonight.  Are you happy with the newish direction of your career that finds you playing to more of a Blues loving audience and is that a good fit for you?BH: I did the Rock thing and the Singer/Songwriter thing and once in a while I’d write a Blues or Gospel song and this went on in my career for years. When I did the first record with Joe Bonamassa Don’t Explain, I was so taken aback by how much I loved it and I was really surprised that I didn’t feel like I was doing a bad job. Continue Reading