The scene from inside Larson’s Barn during the Nov. 7, 2015 Great Northern Radio Show. (PHOTOS: Grant Frashier)
Host Aaron Brown dons a custom bolo tie for the Nov. 7, 2015 Great Northern Radio Show from Larson’s Barn in McGregor, Minnesota.
LISTEN NOW to the Larson’s Barn show.
Last weekend, I hosted another edition of the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio. This one aired live from Larson’s Barn outside McGregor, Minnesota. It was our 17th show and marked four full years doing these hyper-local variety programs from small towns and off-the-beaten-path places around the state.
If you missed it, the barn show will re-air this Sunday, Nov. 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Northern Community Radio. It will be available as a podcast the following week. We continue to make glacial progress on the new Great Northern Radio Show website where eventually you’ll be able to go into more depth with the archives, picking out specific segments as you please.
It was a lovely late fall day in Aitkin County, Minnesota. The show aired on the opening day of the rifle season for deer hunting, so the roads were thick with parked trucks and slow moving orange hordes. Larson’s Barn has a guest cabin below the main barn stage which was rented out to about half a dozen hunters the weekend we were there. They mostly kept their distance, but did peek in at us during their lunch break and patrolled the parking lot with rifles just as our audience arrived. In a testament to Northern Minnesota culture, no one complained or even seemed all that surprised.
Lots to enjoy out of this McGregor show, though I’ve been told that I need to scale back on the talking animals sketches now. The production team held an intervention this week. Well, if you’re going to have talking animal sketches why not have one in which two ladies befriend a talking turkey to save a buck on a holiday meal, or another in which the descendent of the pigs from “Animal Farm” explains modern capitalism? Why not, indeed!
The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank perform in the Nov. 7, 2015 Great Northern Radio Show at Larson’s Barn in McGregor, Minnesota.
Once again our musical guests did the heavy lifting in this edition of the Great Northern Radio Show. The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, featuring brothers Teague and Ian Alexy, headlined the program, which also included original folk stories from Teague’s new book “The New Folklore: Tales for Thinkers and Dreamers.”
Porcupine Creek showed some big time bluegrass chops from a very young set of musicians at the Nov. 7, 2015 Great Northern Radio Show at Larson’s Barn in McGregor, Minnesota.
A fantastic young bluegrass band Porcupine Creek was a big part of the show. The members of Porcupine Creek range in age from 14-19 but they’ve each got a decade of playing behind them. Every one of them grew up playing in one family band or another before they got together to play at a festival. In one of their original songs, the lyrics start “I was born in ’99 …” and he’s not lying. That’s when he was born. Everything becomes old timey again if you wait long enough.
Timmy Haus performs “McGregor” at the Nov. 7, 2015 Great Northern Radio Show at Larson’s Barn.
The local fan favorite was Timmy Haus, a McGregor native who not only grew up just a few miles from Larson’s Barn but also organized a festival there and even attended prom in the barn as a teenager. He lives up in Lutsen now, where he was a guest in our Grand Marais show, but came down to play in our program.
He has a song called “McGregor,” a sort of Irish drinking song that revved up the crowd. He’d sing McGregor and the people called back “McGregor.” Great stuff.
The audience at the Nov. 7 Great Northern Radio Show responds to the Timmy Haus song “McGregor.”
Of course we continue to have wonderful talent in our Great Northern Radio Players, including C.J. Anderson, Jason Scorich, Louisa Scorich, Sara Breeze and Lauren Nickisch on sound effects. Robert Jevne also kicked in some help. He was one of our guests, along with Diamond Knispel who described her transcontinental motorcycle ride and Kathy Larson, proprietor of the barn.
Louisa Scorich (left) portrays “Gobbledene,” a talking turkey, who is lured into the kitchen of Helga (Lauren Nickisch) and Olga (Sara Breeze) under the guise of friendship.
Sara Breeze drew laughs describing her experience dating a man named “Guvner” back home in South Dakota during the Great Northern Quiz Show at the Nov. 7 Great Northern Radio Show. Jason and Louisa Scorich are looking on.
The next Great Northern Radio Show is Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016 at the Mesabi East High School auditorium in Aurora, held in conjunction with the Laskiainen Finnish Sliding Festival in nearby Palo. Call 800-662-5799 to buy tickets.
Host Aaron Brown delivers a monologue during the Nov. 7, 2015 Great Northern Radio Show at Larson’s Barn.
Aitkin County farmer, park ranger and poet Robert Jevne (center) delivers lines during rehearsal of the Great Northern Radio Show at Larson’s Barn.
Really, it’s a barn. We meant that. The cabin below the stage was rented out to half a dozen hunters, who peeked in at us during rehearsal for lunch. While holding guns.
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