-
Hear the Bemidji State edition of Great Northern Radio Show
LISTEN NOW to the Bemidji State show. This Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. you can hear the rebroadcast of last Saturday’s Great Northern Radio Show, which aired live Sept. 19 from the Bangsberg Theater at Bemidji State University. This was one of our more successful shows. The musical lineup featured American Scarecrows, Corey Medina…
-
Taking the Great Northern Radio Show back to school
On Sept. 19 I’m bringing my Great Northern Radio Show to Bemidji State University. From 5-7 p.m. Saturday we’ll broadcast live from the Bangsberg Theater. Audience members need to be in their seats by 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $10, free for kids and college students. Last I checked we’ve got a few seats left, so call today…
-
‘Fantasy News Team’ draft for Duluth, Minn., TV market
A Duluth radio station is sponsoring a unique online poll that would “draft” the mid-sized media-market’s “Duluth TV Fantasy News Team.” Mix 108 is hosting the online balloting, which includes “positions” like anchor, meteorologist, sports anchor and reporter. Visitors can vote once per day. In looking at the list, I am reminded of how much turnover there has…
-
Maid on the Iron Range: 11th Housekeeper Olympics today
Today in Mountain Iron, hotel housekeepers from around the Iron Range will compete for fun, pride and barbecued food in the 11th annual Iron Range Housekeeper Olympics. The event takes the everyday tasks of hotel staffers and turns them into sport. I suppose this could be considered the latter-day equivalent of the old logging competitions…
-
Great Northern Radio Show: Adding value to Northern MN
Like many local mines, Iron Range-based MinnesotaBrown.com will be entering a partial slowdown, or “hot idle” while we work out a little problem with the media commodities market. See, the price of a MinnesotaBrown blog post is down to a historically low $1.45 per long ton, due in part to limited demand and illegal imports…
-
Sept. 5 ‘We are the Range’ concert at Olcott Park
On Saturday, Sept. 5, Iron Range musicians will unite for “We Are the Range,” a benefit concert for area food shelves, at Olcott Park in Virginia from 1-9 p.m. Admission is free, but everyone is asked to bring non-perishable food or financial donations. It’s a good lineup, with a quintessential Range sound. Headlining will be…
-
‘What’s Left: lives touched by suicide,’ opens in Grand Rapids
Last spring I wrote about a personal story as it related to my friend and colleague John Bauer’s project to open dialogue about the effects of suicide on the people left behind by their loved one. He successfully funded the project, which is entitled “What’s Left.” The exhibit will open Friday, Sept. 4 at the MacRostie Art…
-
Hot lineup at Northbound Caravan this weekend
The Northbound Caravan music tour kicks off once again this weekend in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. It’s a good ticket this year with a solid lineup of Minnesota musicians, including past Great Northern Radio Show guests the Slamming Doors, along with the Fattenin’ Frogs, i like you and Rob Wheeler. The Northbound Caravan show opens under…
-
NPR features MN musician Charlie Parr
It was fun to see this video of Northern Minnesota roots musician Charlie Parr — an inspiration to many in the Minnesota music scene — featured by National Public Radio. Here he performs “Over the Red Cedar,” a wonderful song from his widely acclaimed new album “Stumpjumper.” This song just beautifully captures the unease of…
-
Kurtfest 2015 is Aug. 29 in Eveleth
My first two jobs were in Eveleth. The first gig was delivering pizza’s at Snicker’s; the second was spinning adult contemporary records (and also carts and CDs) for 97.9 WEVE-FM. The combination of these jobs gave me a holistic view of the town that it would normally take many years to get. In short, it’s a charming blue collar…
-
Biking the red dirt trails of Cuyuna for The Daily Yonder
Today is the day my big story about the Cuyuna Range is live on The Daily Yonder, a fantastic national publication dedicated to rural people and rural issues. The story is entitled “Pedaling New Hope for an Old Mining Town” and features a wide array of pictures, interviews and perspectives about a set of small…
-
Action! Chisholm to sell city hall to movie studio
Here’s one of those stories that I saw coming a long time ago but hadn’t shared because I just didn’t believe it. The Mesabi Iron Range city of Chisholm is planning to sell its century-old city hall to a developer who wants to use it as a movie studio. The developer is Jerry Seppala, a…
-
Hibbing’s Dylan named Rolling Stone’s top songwriter
Last week, Rolling Stone magazine named Hibbing’s own Bob Dylan the greatest songwriter of all time. Dylan’s vision of American popular music was transformative. No one set the bar higher, or had greater impact. “You want to write songs that are bigger than life,” he wrote in his memoir, Chronicles. “You want to say something about…
-
St. Louis County Fair opens today in Chisholm
The St. Louis County Fair opens today in Chisholm. Billed as “the five best days of summer” on the Iron Range by people who really hope you’ll believe that, the county fair is the traditional end to the Iron Range summer social calendar. (The leaves start changing around Labor Day). As you can see, a…
-
Gin Blossoms headline Merritt Days in Mountain Iron
This week the Iron Range city of Mountain Iron holds its annual celebration of Merritt Days, a series of fun summer events and live music in the “first city” of the Mesabi Iron Range. The event is named in honor of the Duluth and Iron Range family that opened up the Mesabi Iron Range for logging…