Email Author Rick Mason

2007 Stories by Rick Mason

• Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials

  published December 26, 2007

  If it's New Year's Eve at Dave's Calhoun Square rib joint, the diminutive gent with the big blues licks shooting from his guitar has gotta be... More >>

• Trampled By Turtles

  published December 26, 2007

  The pluckiest way to dispatch the waning year may be with a potent dose of northern grass in its many varietal splendors—blue, new, maybe... More >>

• The Pines; Jeremy Messersmith; Roma di Luna

  published December 26, 2007

  This late-season tripleheader is a great chance to catch a short but telling cross section of local, rootsy up-and-comers. David Huckfelt and... More >>

• The Bad Plus

  published December 26, 2007

  Prog (Do the Math/Heads Up International), the latest provocative slab from the locally tied iconoclastic trio the Bad Plus, could... More >>

• Van Morrison

  published December 19, 2007

  Eccentric, instinctively reclusive, notoriously cranky, disdainful of music-biz conventions, and one of the greatest soul singers and visionaries... More >>

• Robert Randolph & the Family Band

  published December 19, 2007

  If the sacred-steel movement has a visionary leader, it's Robert Randolph, a ferocious, enormously talented steel guitarist who has deftly... More >>

• Peter Ostroushko: A Heartland Holiday Concert

  published December 19, 2007

  Always among the highlights of the local holiday season, mandolin (and fiddle) maestro Peter Ostroushko's annual globe-spanning jaunt finds the... More >>

• A Tribute to Fats Domino

  published December 5, 2007

  VARIOUS ARTISTS Goin' Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino Vanguard A first-tier musical... More >>

• Michael Monroe

  published December 5, 2007

  Singer-songwriter Michael Monroe abandoned the Twin Cities music scene in the mid-1990s for the North Shore, a log cabin in the woods, and a... More >>

• The 28th Annual John Lennon Tribute

  published December 5, 2007

  If John Lennon had lived into his 60s, it's a good bet he'd be a lot like the redoubtable Curtiss A: unreconstructed rocker, still possessing a... More >>

• The Lemonheads

  published December 5, 2007

  Sometime around the early '90s, the Lemonheads, a Boston trio with solid punk-pop origins, were flirting with next-big-thing status amid... More >>

• John Williams & Dean Magraw

  published December 5, 2007

  Among innumerable other projects for both, Twin Cities guitar wizard Dean Magraw and Chicago squeezebox/flute/piano ace John Williams have... More >>

• The Steeles

  published December 5, 2007

  The Twin Cities' first family of soul, R&B, and gospel, the prolific Steeles have worked with a slew of diverse artists from near and far,... More >>

• SOLD OUT: Neal & Leandra's Holiday Show

  published December 5, 2007

  This annual, highly anticipated holiday show by the local, married duo of Neal Hagberg and Leandra Peak has always promised a fine assortment of... More >>

• Free Range Pickin' Holiday Show

  published December 5, 2007

  The fourth annual holiday show of Free Range Pickin', the local new-grass quartet with a chicken fetish, happily coincides with the release of its... More >>

• Andrew Bird

  published December 5, 2007

  The surrealistic musings of Andrew Bird—laced with references to palindromes, mitosis, neural walls, a cosmonaut, bile, and the Scythian... More >>

• Dakota Dave Hull

  published November 28, 2007

  Longtime stalwart of the local, West Bank-centered folkie community, guitarist Dave Hull celebrates that world in a sense with a pair of new... More >>

• Bettye Lavette

  published November 28, 2007

  The dastardly deed in question on rediscovered soul queen Bettye Lavette's The Scene of the Crime (Anti) was Atlantic's puzzling failure... More >>

• Peter Lang

  published November 28, 2007

  Before resurfacing a few years ago with a couple of fine albums, local guitarist Peter Lang spent two decades in artistic exile, working a day job... More >>

• Modest Mouse

  published November 28, 2007

  Besides successfully following up their 2004 popular/commercial/major-label breakthrough (Good News for People Who Like Bad News) with... More >>

• Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra

  published November 28, 2007

  If it seems Steven Bernstein has played in every ultra-hip band of the past couple of decades, it's because it's almost literally true, from the... More >>

• Roy Hargrove

  published November 21, 2007

  When last heard from in early 2006, Roy Hargrove was being pulled in sufficiently opposite directions that he decided to release a pair of albums:... More >>

• Piper's Crow/ Dick Hensold

  published November 21, 2007

  The local Celtic quartet Piper's Crow has quietly emerged as an outstanding traditional ensemble, distinguished by a wide-ranging repertoire, a... More >>

• Trio Mediaeval

  published November 21, 2007

  The shimmering beauty of the combined voices of Anna Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth, and Torunn Østrem Ossum sometimes floats in an... More >>

• Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys

  published November 14, 2007

  Ralph Stanley sings like he's met the devil and he's even now waiting in the next room. The craggy, soaring glory of his voice can be as... More >>