Day 2 of the 2023 Duluth Homegrown Music Festival began early as the Mahon brothers, Jacob and Owen, of New Salty Dog, hosted their first Mahon Morning at Duluth Coffee Company, an unofficial Homegrown event in the spirit of Actual Wolf’s morning Homegrown shows there the past few years. Marc Gartman was their first guest, with Sonofmel also joining in, and many Paul Simon covers were played. They’ll be there every morning at 11 through Friday, then Ross Thorn is there Saturday and Robin Hood was Right on Sunday.
Monday was Craft District Night, with all venues except Studio Four located in Lincoln Park. As mentioned yesterday, a film shoot was happening at and around Dovetail Café; while the street was blocked off, Homegrowners were still able to walk by on the sidewalk past white batting draped on everything to simulate snow, Christmas bows, and garland. Crew members rounded up plastic Santas and snowmen and packed away fake evergreens in the biting wind while music fans strolled by on their way to or from Bent Paddle. It was a weird and wonderful addition to the Homegrown fun.
Just on the outskirts of the Craft District, Studio Four, the MN Ballet space in the Depot formerly known as the Underground, hosted Slope City, the project of singer/songwriter Michael Smisek. He opened the night, accompanied by a cellist adding the perfect embellishment to his melodic folk-pop songs. He announced his new single, "Old Friend," released just in time for Homegrown.
Meanwhile, on the far side of Lincoln Park the old-timey trio Sugar on the Roof kicked things off at Wild State Cider, followed by the Rhizomes, who brought Eldri Snow up for guest vocals on the song “Ohio.”
Back at Studio Four, the sweet and sometimes cosmic sounds of Stardust Collective filled the second slot. The quartet sprinkled ornate harmonies into their easy-rocking sound all while the audience steadily grew to near capacity.
Ursa Minor was also filling up, although their additional outdoor seating, warmed on the chilly evening by overhead heaters, helped prevent overcrowding as Severio Mancieri took the stage. Along with his originals, the accomplished guitarist performed crowd-pleasing covers including Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” as well as giving a hometown nod to another excellent songwriter, Charlie Parr.
Meanwhile, back at Studio Four it was standing-room only for the ever-popular Homegrown Poetry Showcase. About two dozen poets took brief turns at the mic to share thoughts and stories of love, loss and aging, as well as those of trucks - both ice cream and garbage.
A different kind of poetry was happening simultaneously at Wild State Cider; Beyondbliss, aka David Kittelson, showcased his incredible skills as an emcee with rapid-fire and emotional rhymes and a tight DJ playing well-produced beats and accenting the set with expert scratches. By the end the enthusiastic crowd was calling out, “ONE MORE SONG!” He announced that his sixth and final album. Born Deaf. will be released May 30th and features Slug of Atmosphere. (Scanning his posted QR code yielded the information that Bliss was born partially deaf, which was later corrected by ear tubes and years of speech classes.) He gave a shoutout and a kiss to his wife who was in the crowd and expecting their first child.
Back at Ursa Minor, NewBerrigan served up a tight set of rock originals, plus a cover of past Homegrown participant Mary Bue’s “Holy Bones," while down the street Polkarobics donned their lederhosen for a rousing set that got the crowd moving at Duluth Cider.
The night's dress-up theme was "Moody Monday;" one couple dressed as sunflowers in hopes of encouraging the sun and warm weather to return.
The much-anticipated debut of Berserk Blondes! at Bent Paddle lived up to the hype. Singer/songwriter Kaylee Matuszak and well-known Iron Range one-man-band performer Steve Solkela teamed up for a fun set of parodies and covers that showcased both of their vocal talents and showed a different side to Solkela beyond his joke-telling Finn persona. Solkela just moved to Duluth, so expect to see more from this duo, who were dressed to the nines for their set, Matuszak in a slinky silver gown and Solkela in a shiny gold suit.
As was the case last year, the evening ended with harder rocking acts at the Caddy Shack. Sour Venom’s band mission statement can be summed up with a line from one of their songs: "I just wanna rock / with my friends," a catchy earworm that clearly reflects their '70s and '80s hard rock influences and had the audience singing and headbanging along.
Cooking with Chef closed out the night, mixing hard rock, punk and just plain fun. All band members wore nothing on top but their signature "Cooking with Chef" aprons and entertained the crowd with sick guitar solos and rock star moves.
Coverage of the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival on the North 103.3 is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.