(various instruments tuning) (group chatters) - First of all, Breanne Marie and the Front Porch Sinners are joining us.

(group applauds) So the first one I have queued up, do you have a suggestion for a good one to start with?

- So there's only a couple of things that have, where we have to go one to the other quickly.

So, and those would be prelude to "Change of Heart", into "Change of Heart", and then the "Ida May", to interlude, to "Under the Grove".

Those are the ones that really have to kind of be done as a set.

Did you want to start with prelude to "Change of Heart" into "Change of Heart"?

- Sure, why don't we do that?

So yeah, just so you all know, at the beginning of "Change of Heart", none of us have anything.

So it's a drum hit will signify the beginning of "Change of Heart."

Is that- - [Breanne] Yeah, that's- - [Erin] We have 6/8.

- 6/8?

- [Erin] 6/8, yeah.

- Let me grab my pick.

- [Drummer] So it should be, what, 6/8 once we hit the fermata?

- So after the fermata, oh, sorry, after the fermata- - So into the fermata and into the ♪ Dan dan dan ♪ ♪ Dan dan dan ♪ - [Erin] Three, two.

One, two, three, one, two.

♪ Dan dan dan ♪ - [Drummer] Or something like that?

- Right.

We just need to know when to come in.

♪ Ja, diga, diga, ♪ diga, diga, da ♪ - [Greg] And that's bar one.

- Oh, I see.

That was all like this, gotcha.

Okay.

(soft instrumental music) (soft instrumental music continues) (soft instrumental music continues) - [Shane] Is this your first time performing at the Bridge Sessions?

- This is our first Bridge Sessions that I've done.

I've been in Duluth my whole life, so I've watched these happen.

And I don't know, maybe about six months ago or so, I submitted an email and then an application for this and was so excited that we were accepted to play.

- [Shane] Now, for someone who has recordings, I mean, you've been recording, you've got multiple albums, how did you decide which songs you would use for this particular- - Yeah, selecting songs for this concert was really tough, but we did have one guiding principle, and that was let's select songs that all sound a little bit different, which is fun because then you are not going to a show where you feel like it's the same song, just a little different each time.

These songs are really drastically different, which is gonna make for an exciting concert.

(dramatic instrumental music) (dramatic instrumental music continues) - This particular show uses a lot of brass.

And we've had, I believe we had French horn, but this is the first show we have trumpet, we have trombone, we have French horns, so it's really brass heavy for us and actually lighter on the strings.

When you saw Superior Siren, we had a whole string section and no brass, and now we're kind of ending with a little bit less, which I think adds kind of to the uniqueness.

And the thing that's really cool is that Breanne also plays trumpet.

So Greg Moore put in some choral type stuff.

He's always really, what's the word I'm looking for?

He's very inventive when he's writing.

And he'll write like these pre charts, pre-song charts that sort of set up the song in a very bridged way, have to use the term, where it's using sort of some conventions from the classical world but putting it more into the style of what the band is.

So I think that's what makes it unique.

And we have like these interludes that link pieces together, something that Greg has done before, and it's really super interesting and fun.

And I think it'll be fun for the audience, especially those that know the band and know their music.

They will hear it, really, in a very, very different way.

And I think having the type of instrumentation that they do will also be like, they'll be like, "Whoa, that's, those are totally different sounds that we weren't expecting, but it sounds really, really cool."

- [Shane] How do you determine which instruments will make the final performance?

- That's a great question.

So the Bridge program in the last couple of years has typically used a set of musicians.

Probably, the first year, it was five.

Last year, it was five musicians.

And this year, we had the budget to go up to eight.

And so Breanne and I chatted about, hey, what would be cool to use?

And we decided to have strings, and piano, and three brass, and a percussionist, so, which is an exciting and kind of a novel combination of instruments.

Especially for a group that essentially plays country style music, to have that mixture of brass in with it is a little bit of an unusual flavor that Breanne and I were both excited about.

Breanne kind of made, if you will, kind of a wishlist of songs where, really, we need to have orchestra instruments on these pieces.

And then other ones, I would go to her and I'd say, "Hey, this sounds like it could use some orchestra instruments."

And then so we kind of negotiated it and I think that we came up with a pretty satisfactory set of tunes.

(upbeat instrumental music) (various instruments tuning) - Check.

Check, one, two.

♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Check, check ♪ - Okay, let's try your fiddle cue.

(upbeat fiddle music) (upbeat fiddle music continues) - Good evening, everybody, hi.

So, welcome back.

Thanks for coming back.

So the plan tonight is we're gonna go in order.

The only things that won't be done are the ones that are just Sinners only.

Otherwise, we'll just, we'll run down each half and we'll go from there.

(dramatic instrumental music) (dramatic instrumental music continues) (upbeat instrumental music) - My name's Kailyn Spencer, and I play the fiddle with Breanne Marie and The Front Porch Sinners.

I've been playing fiddle since I was nine.

I started right before fourth grade, so it's been a long time, most of my life.

My mentor, Erin Aldridge, is involved in the collaboration, along with Greg Moore was my ear training teacher in college and Alexander was my piano teacher in college.

So there's a lot of familiar faces involved with the group, and it's really cool for me to be able to bring my orchestral background and classical background together with my more alternative style fiddling.

(upbeat instrumental music) ♪ Doesn't matter where I turn ♪ ♪ The demons kept following me ♪ - So Kailyn came to UWS to do undergrad to come back and did a music degree.

And ever since, and she's long since graduated, and to see the incredible playing and teaching and work that she's doing just fills me up so much.

It's such a great, great thing.

So for us, we oftentimes will, she's come in and and played with my band and vice versa, so it's such a treat and a thrill to just have fun on stage in this way.

- [Shane] How important is the arts and music education to up and coming students?

Like, why is that important, to continue arts education?

- Arts education is essential because if we want it, if we want arts to survive, if we want people to be interested in attending these events even, I think it's important to have that exposure at a young age so that you have a greater appreciation for it and a better understanding of it.

Yeah, I think it's everything.

I don't know where I would be if I didn't have access to high school orchestra, middle school orchestra.

We even had elementary school orchestra when I was a kid.

That's where I got started.

That's what led to all of this.

And I think that's true for a lot of people that are in the group.

So it's 100% essential.

(upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) - [Erin] So we'll take 15, everybody.

(upbeat trumpet music) - That was it.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

- Okay, okay.

- Yeah, dum, bop.

(upbeat trumpet music) - Oh, I went too fast.

- Bap bap bap bap.

Yep, there you go.

- I am over the moon that I get to be in a brass section.

When the DSSO said, "What kind of musicians would-" Brass, that was my first answer as fast as I could say it.

I knew I wanted brass, and I do, I miss it.

There's just nothing like it, being in a loud brass, well-oiled machine group.

What I would tell Dr. Moore is, "If you could write a wall of sound as often as you can, that would be fantastic."

Yeah, one more time for sure.

Maybe two.

(upbeat trumpet music) - Yeah!

Killing it!

Yeah.

- And then I'll stop.

Or do you want me to stop here?

I can stop there.

- You play whatever you- - Ah!

- [Horn Player] I was gonna say, geez, that's hardly worth the price of admission.

(dramatic instrumental music) (dramatic instrumental music continues) (upbeat instrumental music) - We are a larger band.

We have a lot of musicians.

And when we bring people in, we've collaborated with others before, but anytime we have that space, the stage we're on becomes the front porch.

We are there to have a lot of fun.

Maybe that's sinning, maybe it's not.

(laughs) So when we had our rehearsal with the group to go through the songs and invite them to the front porch and have fun, we just show up as we are, and the songs are as they are.

And as a collaboration, we decide what they're gonna become.

And so there isn't, you must do this, you must do that.

It's, how about we try this?

How about we try that?

So it was nerve wracking at first, but of course, then everything just took off.

I don't know.

I just couldn't have imagined a better situation than what happened.

It really did feel like the Front Porch Sinners.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ That's where I'll be ♪ ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ I'll be with my family ♪ (upbeat instrumental music) - [Megan] When creating a dueling fiddle part, what kind of goes into it?

And what collaboration do you and Erin have to go into to create that little sequence?

- There's a basic structure, like a chord progression that we're following, and it is improv.

We are, kind of on the fly, making up what we're doing, and hopefully, it fits within the chord progression.

Yeah, just knowing what notes fit in with the chords and the scale that we're in and making up our own rhythms, and yeah, doing it within the appropriate timeframe.

Otherwise, we're just all over, playing on top of each other, so.

(chuckles) - Again, we know each other really well.

I can watch her and anticipate and vice versa, and we kind of play off of each other when we're improvising, so it makes it super, super fun.

♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ That's where I'll be ♪ ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ I'll be with my family ♪ (upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) (upbeat instrumental music continues) ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ That's where I'll be ♪ ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ I'll be with my family ♪ ♪ That's where you can bury me ♪ - Okay, so it's, I need to write this down.

You go for a full eight, then me for- - Six, seven, eight, then you go four, then I go four.

Then you go two, I go two.

And then we do four together.

Cool.

Well, thank you to all of you.

Awesome job.

(group applauds) Thank you to all the DSSO side of things.

And we'll see you all tomorrow night.

Thanks, everybody.

And happy birthday, Kailyn!

- It's Evan's birthday tomorrow.

(brass instrument tuning) - So Jake, if I play into the microphone, I'm now like three steps further away from my music stand and I can't read it.

- [Jake] Okay, whatever's comfortable for you.

- So if I play out here though, will it be heard?

- [Jake] It'll be fine.

Yeah.

- It'll be fine?

Perfect.

- All right, that's it.

Have a great show, everybody.

Thanks.

- [Heidi] House is open!

- Well, good evening, and thank you for everyone who's come here tonight.

This is our last Bridge Sessions for the summer, so thank you so much for being here.

Without further ado, enjoy the concert.

(audience applauds) (applause continues) I would like to invite members of the DSSO to the stage please Yes!

As you can imagine this is a like a nerve wracking experience but also like way more exciting than nerve wracking.

And I made the decision before coming here tonight,that tonight was going to be about play.

so we really do invite you to this front porch.

But certainly we are here to have some fun tonight.

(upbeat instrumental music ) - Keeping with diversity of bands and exploring that even more and bringing diversity of genres and background and culture I think would be, that's where I'd like to see this go, is to bridge even more and to bring more unique bands into the fold.

I am all for, like, let's get some heavy metal in here.

Let's get some other stuff and have fun, and again, continue this community building.

♪ I had a change ♪ ♪ of heart ♪ ♪ started from the ♪ ♪ moment that you gave ♪ ♪ up ♪ ♪ I have no regrets ♪ ♪ threats and the personal ♪ ♪ attacks aside ♪ ♪ I'm satisfied.

♪ (audience cheers and applauds) (dramatic instrumental music) (dramatic instrumental music) For me, the most meaningful thing about being involved in this Bridge Session concert is that the songs that I've written, and I've joked with friends, the songs I've written in my pajamas, scrunched up on a couch are being performed by professional musicians.

When I bring what I call a song skeleton to the band, that's just a skeleton.

They bring it to life.

When we bring these songs to the DSSO, I feel like it's taking flight, like it's taking off.

It's lifting off.

And that's really meaningful as a songwriter, to be able to hear all of that and know that others are learning our songs, loving them, and giving new shape and new form to them.

♪ They don't know ♪ ♪ They don't got a clue ♪ ♪ Where am I going ♪ ♪ Where am I gonna go ♪ ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak trees ♪ ♪ That's where I'll be ♪ - I believe strongly that music should be accessible to everybody.

I believe strongly that all music-making and all different genres are great.

And when you historically look at the progression of music like throughout music history, even from antiquity on, you see correlations.

They may sound very different, but they all come from the same place.

I sometimes grew up hearing, well, this is classical, and this is the way classical should be, and this is the way this genre should be, and this, and I just, I kind of go pfft.

It's like my reaction because I'm like, "You do realize that what you're putting down actually came from this?"

And yes, it's subjective, and yes, you're not gonna love everything, but respect the fact that it all comes from the same place, and it all is like offshoots of different types of things.

I think, second of all, bringing people together in a space where there's music is always good.

I think bringing lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds, people who you would normally see in symphony hall and those you would normally see in, at Bent Paddle, and where a lot of, Sacred Heart, and a lot of us play and bringing them together and just to have a great time and listen to great music in a sort of a new way is also a positive.

I think building community is, if you look at what we went through COVID, everyone turned to the arts.

And everybody forgets that when they start cutting funding, but that's where everybody went.

Everybody went to music.

Everybody went to art.

Everybody went to drama.

Everybody went to these places.

And that's why keeping this is so important, and bringing more people into different venues and experiencing different things to just have fun I think is really crucially important to keeping things going.

♪ Old oak tree ♪ ♪ I'll be with my family ♪ (upbeat instrumental music) (upbeat instrumental music continues) (upbeat instrumental music continues) ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ That's where I'll be ♪ ♪ Under the grove of ♪ the old oak tree ♪ ♪ I'll be with my family ♪ ♪ That's where you can bury me ♪ (audience cheers and applauds) - [Breanne] Thank you so much.

(laid back music) (laid back music continues) (laid back music continues) (serene music)