PRX » Series » Minnesota Music Notes

Songwriting Made Simple

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Singer-songwriter Jeff Krause knows what other songwriters know: sometimes the simplest songs are the hardest to write. He came up with six. Britt ...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

One Voice Mixed Chorus Provides Sanctuary

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

One Voice Mixed Chorus is one of the largest GLBT and Allied choruses in the nation. In the past, the chorus has used music to tell the GLBT story ...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

When Haley Bonar Became Haley

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Haley Bonar has a successful music career. But something was bugging her. Britt Aamodt looks back to 2017 when Haley Bonar made the decision to cha...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Tacky Annie’s Renegade Energy

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Rahelle LaNae and Andrew Frederick met a musician’s party in 2015. But they didn’t form Tacky Annie, named after a dance step, until LaNae got a co...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

The Two Harbors Ukulele Group

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

The ukulele originated in Hawaii in the 19th century. Britt Aamodt looks at the spread of uke clubs in the 21st century, and the Two Harbors Ukulel...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Minnesota Cajun Style

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

The Swamp Kings swing Cajun style. Britt Aamodt shares the history of the Mendota Heights band with a Minnesota address and a Louisiana heart.

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

The Rise and Fall of McNally Smith College of Music

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

The McNally Smith College of Music started with two guitars teachers and a dream. Britt Aamodt looks at the St. Paul music school that nurtured the...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Another Branch of the Minneapolis Hip Hop Tree

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Derrick Branch set himself a goal of writing 15 hip hop verses a day. Britt Aamodt looks at how that goal changed Branch’s sound and led to two alb...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Chase Manhattan Wins One for Big Brother

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Chase Manhattan didn’t want to be pigeonholed as the native rapper. But his big brother gave him some advice that, as Britt Aamodt relates in this ...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

The Organ Player’s Son

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Stephen Paulus’ music has played at president’s funerals and won Grammy’s. Britt Aamodt tells another story, of the organ concerto in which the St....

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Orange is the New Greycoats Single

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

The Greycoats get their music before the public through touring and social media. But Britt Aamodt’s story examines a third route: through music pl...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Maria Schneider’s Season of Crime

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Jazz conductor and composer Maria Schneider was in the midst of a new album when David Bowie rang up. Britt Aamodt tells the story behind 2014’s “S...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

The Rembrandts Are There for You

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Phil Solem had already put out two albums with his duo The Rembrandts when the call came from a Hollywood producer came. Britt Aamodt looks at the ...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Lojo Russo: From RenFest Minstrel to Solo Albums

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Like a lot of working musicians, Lojo Russo can remember a period of life by what gig she was playing. The guitarist and songwriter gathered her li...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Chastity Brown Drives Slow & Enjoys the Moment

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Chastity Brown’s last album had come out in 2012. The clock was ticking. But the singer-songwriter scrapped her new recordings to start over. Britt...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Band of Writer: Cats Laughing

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Steven Brust and Emma Bull are better known as fantasy writers. But in the 1980s, these co-founders of the Minneapolis writer’s group The Scribbles...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Boiled In Lead Meets Death on Hennepin

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Boiled In Lead debuted as a Minneapolis Celtic rock band on St. Patty’s Day in 1983, an annual concert tradition their fans, the Leadheads, have co...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

The Poet, the Sitar and the Tabla Player

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

David Whetstone was going to be a guitar player until he heard the Beatles and Rolling Stones use sitar. After tragedy struck, Marcus Wise went on ...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Tall Paul Offers Prayers in a Song

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Enrolled in the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Tall Paul grew in Minneapolis, listening to hip-hop and catching episodes of 106 & Park on BET. He start...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, KSRQ, and WGZS

Sadik Hakim and the 1945 Ko-Ko Jazz Sessions

From: Ampers
Series: Minnesota Music Notes

Sadik Hakim, born Argonne Thornton in Duluth around 1919, grew up in a musical family. But it was being housemates with saxophone legend Charlie Pa...

Bought by KQAL, KFAI Minneapolis, WTIP, and KSRQ

Minnesota Music Notes

82 Pieces