Rochester Music Notes
Series produced by KRPR
Rochester Music History in 90 Seconds
Rochester Music Notes are produced by KRPR and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communites. Made possible by the Minnesota Art's and Cultural Heritage fund.
52 Pieces
Order by:
Newest First |
Oldest First
Growing up in Rochester, Jeff Kryka had a thing for the film E.T. He loved the story—but he really loved the score. By 2019, Kryka was the man behi...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
It was 2009, the Great Recession was at its height, and schools were slashing arts and music programs. Owatonna native Mark Gehring decided to put ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
March 2020, after a long day of surgery, Mayo Clinic residents Dr. Elvis Francois and Dr. William Robinson turned to music during the dark days of ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
The Frank W. Bridges in Austin, Minnesota, had hosted a number of musicals over the years. But in August 2013, the curtains went up on a musical th...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
Adam Young, the Owatonna musician and songwriter behind Owl City, couldn’t believe it. Taylor Swift was backstage at his show and he was so enchant...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
George Harrison was a cancer patient. That’s what brought him to the Mayo Clinic in 1998. But later, even as the disease took over his body, the gu...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
By 1966, Johnny Cash was known as No Show Cash. Drink and drugs had led to several canceled shows. Would he make his April 15 date at Rochester’s M...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
C.C. Beck of Zumbrota Minnesota is remembered as the first artist to draw superhero Captain Marvel. But he also knew how to draw the crowds at comi...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
March 1960, Eddie Cochran, the 21-year-old from Albert Lea, was playing the Empire Theater in Liverpool, England. He was the rising star of rock ‘n...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
Don E. Johnson and his polka-playing pals couldn’t decide what to name their group. Why not the TV Hepcats? The name changed to the Blue Banners bu...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
In the 1940s and ‘50s, if you were African-American and spending the night in
Rochester, Minnesota, the best place to stay (and one of the only pl...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
There were sixty of them, women vets of World War II, traveling the country in matching white Chevys, singing, playing music and selling meat door ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
When Leighton “Skipper” Berg lost his job in the Great Depression, he did what most parents tell their kids not to do. He went into music, forming ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
Spring Valley native Paul Wesley Evans never studied music beyond a few piano lessons with an aunt. But he became a Dixieland maestro with his corn...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
April 30, 1889, Rochester, Minnesota, celebrated the inauguration of the United States’ first president. And one of the performers on the bill was ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
After the Rochester tornado of 1883, Mother Alfred Moes decided to build a hospital for the town. But how would she and the Sisters of St. Francis ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
In 1868, Will Hill of Rushford, Minnesota, reflected on what it had been like settling a frontier town. He set his reflections to an old tune and c...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
While a student at Mayo High School in Rochester, Matt Hauri worked a summer at Camp Olson YMCA. That’s where he came up with the name Yung Gravy, ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
In 1999, four kids from Rochester formed a punk band, Mister Completely. High school graduates, they changed their band name to the F-Ups, recorded...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
It was 1987 and Bon Jovi, the biggest rock band around, was touring on the strength of its new album Slippery When Wet. For a spring jaunt through ...
- Added: Jun 09, 2021
- Length: 01:30
