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Josh Ritter at Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul (31 Jan 2018)

Read More Josh Ritter Singer / songwriter Josh Ritter and his band The Royal City Band will be trekking through North America in support of Ritter’s new album Gathering (Pytheas Recordings/ Thirty Tigers). … Her Crooked Heart A recent local transplant, Her Crooked Heart (aka Rachel Ries) opened the evening with a charming solo set of her own music and often funny, quirky stories behind the songs. …

Photos and setlist for Josh Ritter and Her Crooked Heart at Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul on 31 January 2018. Stay tuned for a full recap.

Josh Ritter Setlist

Feels Like Lightning Young Moses Empty Hearts Thunderbolt's Goodnight Henrietta, Indiana Dreams Train Go By Josh Ritter Solo Cumberland The Temptation of Adam Snow is Gone Monster Ballads with Sam on keyboards Me & Jiggs Kathleen Right Moves Strangers When Will I Be Changed Homecoming Getting Ready to Get Down -- Encore -- Hopeful with Zack on bass Roll On Girl in the War (solo)

Josh Ritter Tour Dates

02/16/2018 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
02/17/2018 Louisville, KY KCD Theater
02/18/2018 Louisville, KY KCD Theater
02/20/2018 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
02/21/2018 Nelson, BC Spirit Bar At Hume Hotel
02/22/2018 Banff, AB Eric Harvie Theatre
02/23/2018 St. Albert, AB Arden Theatre
02/24/2018 St. Albert, AB Arden Theatre
02/26/2018 Saskatoon, SK Broadway Theatre
02/27/2018 Swift Current, SK Lyric Theatre
02/28/2018 Winnipeg, MB Park Theatre
03/01/2018 Fargo, ND Fargo Theatre
03/02/2018 Omaha, NE Slowdown
08/24/2018 Fayetteville Roots Festival

Her Crooked Heart with Zack Hickman

Her Crooked Heart

Josh Ritter Setlist

Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter: Zack Hickman

Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter at Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul (31 Jan 2018)

john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Minneapolis: January 24 to January 31, 2018

Read More Børns Los Angeles’ Børns, often stylized as BØRNS, is headlining First Avenue next Wednesday, July 27th. Børns recently opened up for Charlie XCX in August 2015, so expect …

Here are some shows taking place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area from January 24 to January 31, 2018.

Read more: Minneapolis Music Guide.

BØRNS
+ Mikky Ekko, Charlotte Cardin
Palace Theatre
Wed 01/24/2018 (6pm/$30/Sold Out)
palacestpaul.com

Garrett Borns, known by his stage name Børns, is currently on a very successful tour in support of his second album Blue Madonna. The album got a lot of buzz already, thanks to a little help from Lana Del Rey, who lent her voice and promotion behind the album’s opening song “God Save Our Young Blood.”

Mikky Ekko and Charlotte Cardin to open.

BØRNS’ 2018 North American headline dates:

Jan 19 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
Jan 20 Vancouver, BC Vogue
Jan 21 Seattle, WA Showbox SoDo
Jan 24 St. Paul, MN Palace Theater
Jan 26 Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater
Jan 27 Chicago, IL Riviera
Jan 28 Grand Rapids, MI 20 Monroe Live
Jan 30 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
Feb 1 Dallas, TX House of Blues
Feb 2 Austin, TX Stubb's
Feb 3 Houston, TX White Oak Downstairs
Feb 5 New Orleans, LA Joy
Feb 6 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
Feb 8 Cleveland, OH Agora
Feb 9 Toronto, ON Rebel
Feb 10 Montreal, QC Club Soda
Feb 11 Boston, MA House of Blues
Feb 13 Washington, DC The Anthem
Feb 16 New York, NY Terminal 5
Feb 17 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory

Read More Tom Keifer Tom Keifer is best known as the lead singer and chief songwriter for 80’s blues hard rock band Cinderella, but recently released a solo album, The Way Life Goes ... Drive-By Truckers This year’s guitar auction will feature a Gretsch 6118 two-tone Green Anniversary electric guitar, signed by the members of Athens’ own Drive-By Truckers: Mike Cooley... Lilly Hiatt Old 97’s is back with Lilly Hiatt. Hiatt just released Trinity Lane, a record produced by Shovels & Rope’s Michael Trent and engineered by Andy Dixon. … First Aid Kit Swedish duo First Aid Kit (sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg) are selling out most, if not all, of their tour dates for their album Stay Gold. It is pretty amazing … Kind Country Kind music for kind people. Kind Country is a Minneapolis based band that plays American standards as well as their own brand of Cosmic American music. … Josh Ritter Josh Ritter (who we previously described as "happiest man alive") and his band The Royal City Band will be stopping by the historic Pantages Theatre next Wednesday, January 27th, …

Other shows in the area:

2CELLOS
Target Center
Thu 01/25/2018 (7pm/$29.50)
targetcenter.com

Croatian cellists Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser, known as 2Cellos is bringing The London Symphony Orchestra with them on this tour in support of their new album Score (Portrait/Sony Music Masterworks).

Originally the show was scheduled for October 25, 2017, but there was an unavoidable conflict so they had to move the show to next Thursday, January 25, 2018.

TOM KEIFER
+ Autograph, Dare Force
Medina Entertainment Center
Fri 01/26/2018 (6:30pm/$37.48)
medinaentertainment.com

Cinderella’s singer Tom Keifer is headlining the Medina Entertainment Center on Friday.

We saw Keifer in 2014 and wrote, “Tom Keifer is best known as the lead singer and chief songwriter for 80’s blues hard rock band Cinderella, but recently released a solo album, The Way Life Goes (Merovee Records/Warner Music) which had been in-the-making for over ten years. Keifer looked like he’d aged fairly well and almost evenly split his 73 min. set between solo and Cinderella songs, along with a Beatles cover thrown in for good measure.”

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
+ Lilly Hiatt
First Avenue
Sat 01/27/2018 (8pm/$25)
first-avenue.com

Athen’s Drive-By Truckers recently released their This Election Day 7” on ATO Records in December. The song picks up where they left off in their politically charged 2016 album, American Band.

Show up early to check out Lilly Hiatt, touring in support of Trinity Lane, available now on New West Records.

Drive-By Truckers/Lilly Hiatt On Tour:

01/26 – Kansas City, MO @ Truman+
01/27 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue+
01/28 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Orpheum Theatre+
01/31 – Missoula, MT @ Wilma Theatre+
02/01 – Portland, OR @ Roseland+
02/02 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Theatre+
02/03 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre+
02/05 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory+
02/07 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall+
02/08 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall+
02/09 – Hollywood, CA @ El Rey+
02/10 – Phoenix, AZ @ Van Burren+
02/17 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club+

MAKO
+ Night Lights, DJ Rowsheen
7th Street Entry
Sun 01/28/2018 (7:30pm/$15)
first-avenue.com

Duo Mako (producer/vocalist Alex Seaver and producer Logan Light) is in town on Sunday. Originally the show was scheduled at the Fine Line Music Café, but it was moved to the 7th Street Entry.

FIRST AID KIT
+ Van William
Palace Theatre
Tue 01/30/2018 (7pm/$25/Sold Out)
palacestpaul.com

Swedish duo First Aid Kit (sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg) is back in town, headlining the Palace Theatre in St Paul. The show is sold out.

Van William to open.

01/24 Oakland, CA Fox Theater*
01/26 Portland, OR Roseland Theater*
01/27 Vancouver, BC Vogue Theatre*
01/28 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre*
01/30 Minneapolis, MN Palace Theatre*
02/01 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium*
02/02 Chicago, IL Riviera Theatre*
02/03 Detroit, MI Saint Andrew’s Hall*
02/05 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall*
02/06 Montreal, QC MTelus*
02/07 Boston, MA House of Blues*
02/09 Washington, DC Lincoln Theatre*
02/10 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer*
02/13 New York, NY Beacon Theatre*
04/14 Indio, CA Coachella
al 04/21 Indio, CA Coachella
06/09 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo

*Van William is supporting all headline dates

THE LIL' SMOKIES
+ Kind Country
Turf Club
Tue 01/30/2018 (7pm/$12)
turfclub.net

Montana progressive bluegrass band, The Lil Smokies, will be headlining the Turf Club in St Paul on January 30th.

They were last in Minneapolis at the Cedar in November. Since then, they finished up all 30 shows that made up their Campfire Caravan tour with The Brothers Comatose & Mipso.

Kind Country to open.

JOSH RITTER
+ Her Crooked Heart
Fitzgerald Theater
Wed 01/31/2018 (8pm/$35)
publicradio.org

Singer / songwriter Josh Ritter and his band The Royal City Band will be trekking through North America in support of Ritter’s new album Gathering (Pytheas Recordings/ Thirty Tigers).

We previously caught Ritter in Feb 2016 and said, “More than just a lyric from the latest single from Josh Ritter and The Royal City Band, it seemed to also be a mission statement for the evening and Ritter and band’s buoyant 105 min performance at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis.”

Tour dates:

01/21—Sacramento, CA—Crest Theatre*
01/23—Sisters, OR—Sisters High School*
01/24—Portland, OR—Crystal Ballroom*
01/25—Seattle, WA—Neptune*
01/26—Spokane, WA—Knitting Factory*
01/27—Boise, ID—Knitting Factory*
01/29—Denver, CO—Ogden*
01/30—Lawrence, KS—Liberty Hall
01/31—Minneapolis, MN—Fitzgerald Theater
02/16—Nashville, TN—Ryman Auditorium‡
02/17—Louisville, KY—KCD Theatre
02/18—Louisville, KY—KCD Theatre
02/20—Vancouver, BC—Commodore Ballroom§
02/21—Nelson, BC—Spiritbar§
02/22—Banff, AB—Eric Harvie Theatre§
02/23—St. Albert, AB—Arden Theatre§
02/24—St. Albert, AB—Arden Theatre§
02/26—Saskatoon, SK—Broadway Theatre§
02/27—Swift Current, SK—Lyric Theatre§
02/28—Winnipeg, MB—Park Theatre§
03/01—Fargo, ND—Fargo Theatre
03/02—Omaha, NE—Slowdown

*Nicki Bluhm
†Dustbowl Revival
‡Mandolin Orange
§Leeroy Stagger

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ facebook.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Dan Wilson at Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul (22 Sept 2017)

Dan Wilson Set List All Will Be Well (Gabe Dixon Band cover) Borrowed (LeAnn Rimes cover) Never Meant to Love You (Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons cover) When the Stars Come Out (Chris Stapleton cover) Breathless You And I (John Legend cover) Home (Dierks Bentley cover) Disappearing Free Life Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks cover) Landing (Matt Wilson cover) Someone Like You (Adele cover) Closing Time (Semisonic song) -- Encore -- Honey Please All Will Be Well reprise Tour Dates 10/13/2017 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour 10/20/2017 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour 10/21/2017 San Francisco, CA Swedish American Hall Read More Dan Wilson Singer-songwriter/producer Dan Wilson proves you can go home again. Dan Wilson’s Re-Covered is out now. The unique album finds the Grammy-winning songwriter reinterpreting songs from his past, including ...

It was a master class in Words + Music (…and hand calligraphy too)—

Singer-songwriter Dan Wilson has been a Los Angeles transplant for several years now, but Minneapolis/St. Paul still claims him as one of our own, and friends, family, and fans all came out, to fill his recent concert at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. 

Wilson first made his name as a member of local bands Trip Shakespeare and Pleasure (soon to be re-named Semisonic) and also found success on the side by co-writing songs with others, from country to pop to alternative rock, that gained him even more recognition as a songwriter than performer (which helped precipitate his move out west). 

His latest collection is Re-Covered (PledgeMusic-funded on Ballroom Music/Big Deal Media),a selection of re-interpreted versions of many of the songs he wrote for/with other artists. 

A recent local transplant, Her Crooked Heart (aka Rachel Ries) opened the evening with a charming solo set of her own music and often funny, quirky stories behind the songs.   The last EP under her own name, Cardinal, was written while on residence in Rouen, France and recorded by local musician Jeremy Messersmith while this year’s debut EP under her new name, To Gentlemen(SoDak recordings) was recorded in nearby Eau Claire, WI.

Songs were often stories about life and love on the prairie, with Ries sheepishly also getting in a plug for her home canning business- “if you like my tunes, you’re going to love my jams …I make preserves” and Ries has already entrenched herself in the local music scene by helping form The Kith+Kin Chorus, an area community choir singing Mondays in South Minneapolis. 

As the stage changed in the 1,000 seat theater, a game board-like hand-drawn image (called an illuminated setlist) gave the audience the musical road map that Dan Wilson would follow during his almost two-hour headlining set.  On this tour, he’s managed to tie together three of his biggest passions into a cohesive show- the composing of words and music, and his visual doodles and hand-rendered calligraphy.

Wilson initially emerged solo to begin his almost two-hour set, on piano for a rendition of Gabe Dixon’s ‘All Will Be Well’ (“you can keep wooh-ing” he said, still tuning up) but was soon joined by bandmates Brad Gordon (piano) and Andy Thompson (drums) and eventually the Laurel String Quartet, subbing in for the Kronos Quartet that is on the new record. 

Many of the songs were accompanied by sped-up screen footage of Wilson handwriting the song’s lyrics in classic fonts with backgrounds, with sometimes a cartoon drawing alongside, though it would sometimes be difficult to stay in sync on the screen, with what was being played. 

For ‘When the Stars Come Out’ written in LA with country singer Chris Stapleton, Wilson questioned the song title’s phrase, telling Stapleton how difficult it is to see actual stars past the city’s smog, but Stapleton’s reply was a deadpan, “…it’s a metaphor”.

Wilson explained the genesis of the song ‘Home’, traveling to Nashville to co-write a kind of patriotic song that didn’t include the word “America” in the title, also explaining how a sterile publisher’s office was not at all conducive to the creative process.  And when Wilson finds himself in a creative writer’s block, he simply asks himself “WWTPD?- What Would Tom Petty do?” to help find a way out. 

In an elongated explanation, Wilson spoke about the Dixie Chicks and the response the trio got after insulting the then-President at a concert in London.  While his first idea was a unifying song named ‘Undivided’, Chicks singer Natalie Maines was determined to stand her ground and a song that was more defiant called ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ (a MN term Wilson remembered growing up) was instead born and redemption made. 

With brother Matt in the audience, Wilson couldn’t resist the chance to bring him onstage to reminisce about their formative years and also duet on ‘Landing’, from Matt’s 1998 solo album Burnt, White, and Blue.

For perhaps his greatest single-song success, Wilson explained the initial reaction to the rough demo of ‘Someone Like You’  he and Adele had been working on- “my manager loved it… and me mum cried”, Adele said, with Wilson realizing they really had something with it. 

For the encore, Wilson explained the work going into the 56-page book he crafted, to accompany the deluxe version, both the essays and visuals, before going into his original ‘Honey Please’ on piano.

And the night would end like it began, sending the crowd off with the hopeful ‘All Will Be Well’- a ray of optimism in an increasingly darker world. “If it’s good enough for Bob Dylan”, he said referring to re-playing a song for the encore, “it’s good enough for us”.

More than “good enough for us”, Dan Wilson came back to entertain and give us a peek inside his creative processes; both in songwriting and calligraphy, that showed what a unique talent he is, still calling the area home and the metro happy to still claim him as one of our own. 

Her Crooked Heart

Setlist

Dan and Matt Wilson

Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson at Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul (22 Sept 2017)

john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic