It’s no secret that more than half of the people who read this site aren’t located on the terra firma of the Mesabi Iron Range. A goodly segment of you, the ones who aren’t spambots, live in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Perhaps, and I might be dreaming here, you’ve seen me talk about my Great Northern Radio Show as we’ve toured around small towns and off-the-wall places in Northern Minnesota. Maybe you’ve wished you could come see one of these spectacles live, but you’re busy in the city, eating city food, drinking city wine, being city people raising city kids.
Well, here’s the big news. For the first time ever we’re bringing the radio show to the metro area. On Saturday, March 7, 2015 we will broadcast live from 5-7 p.m. at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. We’ll be on our home stations of Northern Community Radio, of course, streaming at KAXE.org. But we’ll also be live on KBEM Jazz 88 in Minneapolis, which means this also the first time our show will air on terrestrial radio in the Twin Cities.
I’ll have most of my regular actors along with some North Hennepin students in the show. Two well-loved, veteran Twin Cities bands are joining us as well, including our old friends the Roe Family Singers, fine Americana music of the old timey variety, and the biggest band we’ve ever tried to put on the air: the jazz/funk fusion New Sound Underground. We think these band will provide a delightful contrast, and a good sound for this particular show.
Our show works with the same format you’ve heard before — Prairie Home Companion, Wits, Grand Ol’ Opry, or my real template: The Muppet Show. Our twist is that we strive for a creative nonfiction mix. We tell the real stories of the place and its people, mixed with some sharp humor and great music from the Minnesota scene. We’re always on the road, having never played the same town twice. Each show is, thus, a love letter to one particular place on one particular night in the passing stream of time.
This show aims to show you one of the “bland” northern suburbs in new light, showing how Brooklyn Park grew from agriculture into the modern American Dream, first for the post-war baby boomers and now for immigrants from all over the world.
I hope you’ll join us in Brooklyn Park, or at least tune into the live show wherever you are. Information on how to reserve free seats is in the press release below. I expect this show will fill the hall at North Hennepin’s theater, so call now. We always take in some at the door, but plan ahead and you can make a cheap date out of the whole thing.
Great Northern Radio Show heads to the City
Quirky variety show to broadcast live at North Hennepin stage March 7
BROOKLYN PARK, Minnesota (Feb. 17, 2015) — The Great Northern Radio Show will make its first appearance in the metro area with its quirky ultra-local mix of music, stories, and comedy performed live at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park on Saturday, March 7.
“We celebrate modern life off the beaten path,” said Aaron Brown, executive producer and host of the traveling variety program. “Our show tells the story of the places we visit, uncovering the culture and history of each place and telling truths only the locals know. We do this with some of Minnesota’s best musicians and our distinct brand of humor blending the cultures of Northern Minnesota and the internet.”
The Roe Family Singers, including the clogging wife Kim and banjo-playing husband Quillan, will return to the Great Northern Radio Show on Saturday, March 7, 2015 in Brooklyn Park. Here the group played in a June 2013 program in Grand Rapids. (PHOTO: Shelly Hanson)
An original production of Northern Community Radio in Grand Rapids and Bemidji, Minnesota, the Great Northern Radio Show airs from 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, March 7 at the North Hennepin theater stage in the outer ring suburb of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. This show will be a special co-production of KBEM “Jazz 88” in Minneapolis, meaning that the show will air live in the Twin Cities as well as up north and online. Free tickets are available for those attending the live broadcast. You must be seated by 4:30 p.m. and reservations are recommended by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799.
The March 7 show features a Twin Cities Americana band with Brooklyn Park roots. The Roe Family Singers are a Monday night staple at the 331 Club in Minneapolis and popular veterans of music festivals all over the country. Kim Roe is a native of Brooklyn Park and graduate of North Hennepin Community College. Her musical partner and husband is Quillan Roe, a veteran of the Twin Cities music scene. The show will also feature electric violinist Stephen Decker, young talent from NHCC, and the exciting jazz funk band the New Sound Underground, a mainstay at clubs around the Twin Cities.
New Sound Underground will bring its jazz/funk fusion to the Great Northern Radio Show on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. (Promotional Photo)
The show broadcasts mostly from Northern Minnesota and occasionally throughout the state, always traveling, never playing the same hall twice. The Great Northern Radio Players perform sketches written by Brown, an award-winning Minnesota author and blogger, and co-writer Matt Nelson, a Hibbing native who now works for the Washington Post. The cast for this show includes North Hennepin student actors John Naumann and Jenny Reierson, and GNRS regulars C.J. Anderson of Pequot Lakes, Sara Breeze of Bemidji, Jason and Louisa Scorich of Duluth, and Brown, a son of the Iron Range who lives in rural Itasca County.
The March 7 program will air live on 91.7 FM KAXE in Grand Rapids, Aitkin and the Iron Range, 90.5 KBXE Bagley and Bemidji, 89.9 FM Brainerd and 103.9 FM in Ely. In addition, the show will broadcast live on KBEM “Jazz 88” in Minneapolis. The show is also rebroadcast on independent public radio stations throughout Minnesota and distributed as a live stream and eventual podcast at www.kaxe.org.
“You can listen at home, in your car, online or right here in the live studio audience,” said Brown. “We like to think of our show as a blend of an old time format, local setting, big heart and cutting-edge comedy and music. We like to surprise our audience with unfettered authenticity. This is our first attempt at a Twin Cities metro show, so success or failure alike could produce results worth hearing.”
The Great Northern Radio Show is a production of Northern Community Radio, an independent NPR affiliate which operates several radio frequencies serving the communities of Northern and Central Minnesota. Though based in the North, many of its members call the Twin Cities home, listening online or at summer cabins. The Great Northern Radio Show is made possible in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
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