A Local Music Yearbook

At the public memorial for the eight people killed in the October 25 plane crash, Sounds of Blackness perform "Don't You Ever Give Up," while folk singer Larry Long and gospel star JD Steele lead a group of local musicians in "Stand Up, Keep Fighting," which they co-wrote several months ago for the Wellstone campaign. The following night at Xcel Energy Center, Bob Dylan announces, "This is to my man, who reached the end of the road up in Eveleth," before ripping into "High Water (For Charlie Patton)."

In a year of remarkable old-guy reunions (from the E Street Band to Orchestra Baobab), the Suburbs get back together for a series of jubilant shows at First Avenue. The musicians' kids join in for a rendition of "Baby Heartbeat."

Residential punk space House of Knives quits doing shows because of noise complaints. But the scene remains unbowed. The next month, seminal local punk zine Profane Existence hits shelves again after a four-year absence. And Paul Dickinson's early-1990s venue the Speedboat Gallery "reopens" in a new location on Snelling Avenue North.

 

 

NOVEMBER

Mason Jennings sings the national anthem at a Vikings game, then gets to watch the home team beat Philadelphia from up close. "I'm probably a bigger football fan than I am a music fan," says Jennings. "I would have been a football player but I wasn't big enough."

Dave Ray and Tony Glover play a 30-minute set in Mark Trehus's living room on November 15 and a show at the Cedar the following Sunday. Eleven days later Ray dies at home at age 59 after a long battle with cancer. At his annual post-Thanksgiving concert at the Ordway a few days later, Leo Kottke tells a story about running into Ray at a folk club in Dinkytown back in the day, and asking if he could play Ray's 12-string. Ray smiled and told him to go ahead. But the strings were so far separated from the frets that the thing was impossible to play. "You could hang your laundry on them and still have room," Kottke says.

In the same month, Beloved Flamin' Ohs bassist GARY Snow dies at home after his own battle with cancer. And almost a year after local singer-guitarist Charlie Brown died of diabetes-related complications at age 31, his friends get together at the Hexagon Bar to remember him. Known for stealing other bands' songs, Brown is honored by a slew of local country musicians who reclaim their tunes. Hank Williams III happens to be in the neighborhood and sits in.

On a day's notice, Dave Pirner flies into town to play a Mondale rally at Peavey Plaza, encouraging everybody to "tell all your lazy fuckin' friends to get out there and vote!"

 

 

DECEMBER

In the face of competition from "we'll play Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' until you lose your mind" B96 (96.3 FM), black community mainstay KMOJ-FM (89.9) announces that all of its community-service programs will be taken off the air for 45 days, and that hosts will have to reapply to continue their shows. No word yet on whether activist heavyweight Spike Moss has reapplied his foot to board president-elect Bill English's ass.

 

--compiled by Peter S. Scholtes, Melissa Maerz, Erin Anderson, Jen Boyles, Cecile Cloutier, Sarah Sawyer, Rod Smith, and Michaelangelo Matos