Best Bets: Duluth Homegrown Music Festival Mixer – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — If you’re one of those people who shudders at the season’s first snow, you’ll be glad to know that this week’s “Best Bets” include two signs of spring. A solstice party means the days are about to start getting longer, while a Homegrown Mixer means plans are underway for the big spring music festival.

On the other hand, if you love to “Let It Snow,” you may want to take a peek at our holiday event guide.

Are you interested in getting involved with the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival as an artist or a volunteer? Are you curious about how the festival works, or just hoping for a pre-holiday hangout with some of the most devoted local music fans? You may want to make your way to Blacklist Brewing on Sunday.

From 2-5 p.m., members of the festival’s board and steering committee will be giving presentations and available for questions regarding any and all aspects of this year’s event, including a new “variety” showcase for artists who aren’t looking to play a full set

(facebook.com/duluthhomegrown).

Contributed / American Gramaphone

It sounds like something the Duluth Seaway Port Authority would classify as “special cargo,” but Mannheim Steamroller isn’t a piece of heavy equipment. It’s a music group, or maybe something more along the lines of what gets described these days as a musical “project,” led by Chip Davis. Though Mannheim Steamroller wasn’t created with Christmas in mind, ever since the multi-platinum success of its first holiday album (1984), the sound of neoclassical new-age rock has been closely associated with the celebration of the Christ Child.

The touring versions of Mannheim Steamroller (there are two) are essentially licensed cover bands, but if Santa can slide down 2 billion chimneys at once, surely Davis can project his spirit across the land — including into the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, which will host the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Tour on Thursday.

(decc.org).

Dan Williamson / File / Duluth Media Group

If you’re tracking the route of Marcia Hales’ beloved holiday decorations, seen for years at her Park Point home and most recently

on display at Glensheen,

you’ll want to stop by both the

Merryweather Inn in Duluth

and the

Lakehead Harvest holiday experience

in Esko. Some of the items from Hales’ “Spirit of the Lights” display have been added to the decorations at the annual celebration of holidays and history. Attractions at the Lakehead Harvest Show, which runs Friday through Sunday, include hay rides and a skating rink

(lakeheadharvestshow.com).

Dan Williamson / File / Duluth Media Group

Best known as frontman of the Jayhawks, Gary Louris is one of the all-time Minnesota music greats and a nationally beloved figure of the alt-country movement. Duluth audiences had the opportunity to see him with the Jayhawks

last year at Bayfront Festival Park,

opening for Trampled By Turtles, and now he’s playing a solo show Friday at Sacred Heart Music Center. Rich Mattson and Germaine Gemberling, the Iron Range duo based at Sparta Sound in Gilbert, will open

(sacredheartmusic.org).

Dan Williamson / File / Duluth Media Group

Ursa Minor Brewing is hosting a very Northland party on Saturday to celebrate the impending winter solstice Dec. 21.

Sauna Du Nord

will be on-site with its portable heatbox;

“Astro Bob” King

will have a telescope set up; and local crafters will be selling their wares. If you wear an exceptionally festive (“ugly” is so judgmental) holiday sweater to the event, you can be entered for a chance to win a gift card

(facebook.com/ursaminorbrewing).

Contributed / Holy Cow! Press

The American Indian Community Housing Organization’s Indigenous Writer Series was created, according to a news release, to “showcase, celebrate, lift up, and showcase local and regional Indigenous writers.” The series started with a virtual event last month, and it continues Saturday afternoon at AICHO’s Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center in Duluth. The guests of honor will be authors Thomas Peacock and Elizabeth Albert-Peacock, co-founders of Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing. Thomas Peacock’s book, “Wolf’s Trail,” is this year’s One Book Northland selection. Jill Doerfler, who leads UMD’s Department of American Indian Studies, will moderate

(aicho.org).

Arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler joined the Duluth News Tribune in 2022. His previous experience includes eight years as a digital producer at The Current (Minnesota Public Radio), four years as theater critic at Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages, and six years as arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He’s a co-founder of pop culture and creative writing blog The Tangential; he’s also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Minnesota Film Critics Alliance. You can reach him at jgabler@duluthnews.com or 218-279-5536.