funding for this program is brought to you by the arts and cultural heritage fund and the citizens of minnesota [Music] i find myself down here when i need to connect with the greater that surrounds us sacred place that this has for me this kind of puts me back and it grounds me again [Music] hundreds of years ago my grandfather's grandfather you know walked this same beach you know gives me strength struggling for lyrics just look around you know it's all over it's just breathtaking it's it's god's country up here i love um being on the lake i love being near the lake i love any chance i can get to go towards the lake i do there's something about this lake that is truly special [Music] today we're here on park point in duluth on the shores of lake superior i find myself down here when i need to rest and when i need to think and when when i need to connect with my own thoughts and when i need to connect with the greater that surrounds us um and we're really lucky to have that we're really lucky to have hardpoint i also find that it has like i mean even today with the waves like it has a rhythm to it that really can ground you i'm sarah kruger and i front a project called linux [Music] you say let's go down [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] and [Music] let's go down [Music] one thing that we're really you know blessed with here is this opportunity to be in solitude if we need that and i find myself needing solitude in my creative process a lot when i'm writing a song i i don't intentionally place you know the natural world and the imagery that is involved with that into my songs but i think it really seeps in because it is a source of inspiration for how i live my day-to-day life you know these days these days i had visited duluth one time before i moved here when i was 18 and i have a memory of driving back over the bridge into wisconsin and feeling so connected to this city into the lake in particular and i've been here ever since i've lived in duluth i'm a delusion [Music] i love this being my home [Music] [Music] take a walk and watch [Music] just [Music] hmm [Music] my name is breond morrison i'm a jazz guitar player i live here in grand portage and right on the shores of lake superior our family it calls it red rock [Music] i wanted to have an all-natural sort of sound with two guitars and kind of like what i do live so i have one track for a rhythm guitar and another track for lead i like it simple and elegant [Music] all of our summers you know we we had banjo playing and we had guitars playing and so i naturally you know started playing guitar and and i would say by the time i was 10 years old i you know i knew all of the open chords and um and i could play a lot of folk songs and then when i was 14 okay i turned to jazz do in rock and blues it's like you're kind of confined to a certain set of chords and a certain sound and but see with jazz you know the there's so much more that you you have you know that you can play and it's it's um and so for me personally it's a lot more fun [Music] do [Music] so hundreds of years ago you know my my very family was was here yeah because i because i walk on the beach and and i and i feel like you know my my grandfather's grandfather you know walked this same beach you know gives me strength spirituality it's about feeling connected you know and it's about being connected to people and the earth and and guitar is a very spiritual activity for me it's like being in the moment so that's that's kind of what what i need in my life you know in order to go on clean miri bass mama in the jubber hooch is uh our band name when we're together um i'm transitioning into being called boss mama now for my stage name and the gibber hooch is my band name [Music] the boss part came from i used to play with a guitar player and he's always called me boss and my kids have always called me mama so that's kind of where i got the name from and i don't know i feel like i've earned it now yeah i'm walking walking down [Music] i'm looking for [Music] [Music] [Music] today [Music] scrambled eggs black charades blanket [Music] from [Music] [Music] oh [Music] today [Music] i feel like music connects people and that's my main goal is to try and connect with what i have inside of me i feel like i have something to tell you i have something to share with you because there's you know if it's heartbreak or happy love or recovering maybe from addiction i've been there [Music] oh [Music] is today [Music] huh [Music] so yeah i'm walking i'm walking down past the street pose pass the crowd [Music] i just lost i just lost my baby [Music] shy [Music] i know i'm saying it wrong it's i i keep calling it the leonidas over the overlook that uh leon leonidus i don't know yeah anyways i'm gonna get yelled at and get hate mail for that so we're in avalith on the outlook up here uh i'm christopher david hanson and i'm in the christopher david hansen band leonidas there we go did it you just edit that in living up here like a lot of folks that i talked to from down in the cities they're like oh have you seen this or that and i'm like it's amazing there's so much room up here that you discover things all the time i've never been up here i've never seen this before today so this is amazing it's just breathtaking it's it's god's country up here my best ain't good enough don't you settle like this leave me be let me go drive to yours right here i get off of the bus my money ain't long enough my penny don't shine you can have everything i got but you still ain't happy with mine left [Music] toast as you're leaving might drink a whole bottle of wine ain't the first one to break my heart [Music] go on and get to the back of the line kind of vintage styles of american music just fun stuff yeah trying to bring joy [Music] no [Music] [Music] you ain't the first one to break my heart go on get to the back of the line i learn covers at home but i i literally get halfway through learning one and i'm like i'm just gonna write one like this i've never really thought i did cover as well at all anyways i never felt like i did them justice so just stuck to writing my own stuff all right [Music] my family is from up here and i was kind of a navy brat so we moved around a lot i was born in maryland and then lived in texas and then i grew up down in the cities went to blaine senior high and then moved up here in about 2009 and now i live right between babbitt and ely out on birch lake i had some drinking problems and stuff decided to move up here clean up my act and and i didn't know if i was gonna be able to make a band up here but i found out that some of the very best musicians are up here and was able to put together a really good band back in 2013 and just been evolving the sound ever since my name is erin aldridge i am the concert master of the duluth superior symphony orchestra and i am also professor at uw superior i was finishing up my degree at uw madison and there was a job opening for violin and orchestra director at the university and i applied and i got it and along with that i then got a phone call from then music director marcan thacker at first i'm like i don't i don't think i'm going to play an orchestra and then marcan called and sort of changed my mind and then i thought it was a great way to actually get into the musical community especially the classical music community and it was the best decision i made and so i auditioned for and got a fourth chair and sat in the section for a couple years and then when the concertmaster position came open i auditioned for that in 2005 and won that position and have been in that chair ever since [Music] the piece that i will be playing for you is astor piazzolla's spring from his four seasons of buenos aires i have to start by saying the pizzola is one of my all-time favorite pieces whenever i have the chance to play it i do um i heard it oh ah i can't even remember how long ago it was but it was it was years ago and uh the violinist quinoa and kramer did an album called the the eight seasons where it was paired with of course vivaldi's four seasons and then piazzolla's four seasons of buenos aires and i immediately was like i have to play this i fell in love like i'm i'm i'm pretty decisive when it comes to music that i love i you know there's the stuff that okay that's nice and then there's stuff like i must play it [Music] [ -_-_ ] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] then [Music] done [Music] i grew up on lake michigan and i i love lake superior lake michigan is wonderful but there's there's something about this lake that is truly special but i also think the arts area and the music in this area is extraordinary and and really really special while classical is my main thing i also growing up have done lots of different styles of music and that is just in my nature i'm always looking to do something different i don't like being pigeonholed and this area has afforded me opportunities that i don't think i would have had anywhere else that actually has made me expand even when i do classically and and look at things differently and be a little bit more daring and try things um just because i'm surrounded by incredible musicians of lots of different types of music there's also wonderful support and sort of this value of the arts in the area that i think not every uh area has and i think you know the the symphony audience is incredible i mean it's it is part of what makes playing for the symphony so incredibly fun is that the audience is so into it and so supportive um and i i have friends in lots of different cities in lots of different orchestras and they and while they have support they it's not to the level of what we have in the twin ports and i think that's an important piece is the level of of people actually coming to concerts and and cheering us on is is also i think a really important part of of the puzzle [Applause] [Music] well how it started is in a little town of manawa in barnum area there are tons of musicians my dad and my mom would go and watch music every weekend and if they couldn't go out and watch them they would invite him to the house i've been singing since i've been a little girl since i mean really little like four or five years old i started playing the piano when i was nine got more brave with singing when i was a leader in my teenage years and then just kept singing but i didn't start playing guitar until i was about 24. hi geese and that's when i started songwriting and getting a little more serious about doing music shows and getting out and performing [Music] serious i'm gonna make you make you mad [Music] you make me feel you make me feel so [Music] my alive [Music] [Music] [Music] desire [Music] i'm gonna make you i'm gonna make you mad [Music] [Music] good a lot of times i will just pick up the guitar and i'll start playing and i'll play a riff or i'll play something some chords together and like a song will come into my head and or a story or a feeling and that's how that starts [Music] actually i was folding laundry and that song came into my head and i went over and started writing that song so that's how sexy laundry came apart [Music] you give me a fever you make my blood [Music] fever yeah the touch of your hand [Music] it's like giving candy to a child [Music] i'm gonna make you i'm gonna make it mine [Music] [Music] start you up like a wild [Music] tiger i only live like 10 to 12 miles south of here and when i need to clear my head i go hiking and this is the place i love to go is jay cook i took my children here when we wanted to get out you know get away i just need to go out in the woods i need to be by myself sometimes i just need to have it quiet and listen rivers and water is kind of like spiritual for me and so i like being near water and hiking and meditating at that time so for me it's kind of sacred this kind of puts me back and it grounds me again if that makes sense and uh this is the place i like to go monte del gagants um spirit little cedar tree we called it the witch tree that's how i i knew it and um my father would would bring us there and my mother tells me that the first time i visited it i was three months old to think that that it's been there for hundreds of years and um living with you know the power of the lake you know so it hit it has something it's got some strength it's got wisdom some power [Music] so looking out at the lake and having the lake there as you know the presence of the lake the power of the lake and knowing you're in such a secluded place there was a quietness such that i was able to feel more of the music or what i was doing and just have it be in my soul [Music] so [Music] my favorite thing is playing is making making the music and when it happens you know when the moment happens it's it's uh you know it's a it's great it's joyful it's wonderful [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do to be humble guys is is about the best medicine you know that there is for an artist or musician guitar player to be humble in the sense that to do away with competition for one and and be supportive you know and and instead of competing with people it's like embrace them getting to a point where i can help other people like that's when i think i really noticed that that's what success was for me reaching that tipping point where you could start to get back and help other people and i got to start a radio show where i get to play many you know minnesota bands on it and i think when when that radio show started that was that was when i was like okay this feels successful it's never been about money you know at all ever [Music] so i've been wondering about that whipple wilton house strange songs that hit you in the perfect way i've been spinning around on this carousel for so long i just throw my shoes away [Music] way i'm just sitting on this late show pondering the sky and every single drop around [Music] don't need a single word to get your message through all the animals are doing it even my dog can't listen as a whiffer well sings that song whistling just follow you [Music] the whipper will the song itself is really just about not speaking to say the things that you need to say like how animals they use their body language and you know birds use their you know voices and their body language that's what the song was about it's just body language and not using this vehicle to say the things that you want to say well i've been thinking about your gravity and how my heart it's kind of like a big old moon lots of craters and lots of crabs pulling on your tie [Music] [Music] just so i could watch you dance tell me about that whipple will one more time you all so true don't need a single word to get your message through all the animals are doing it even my dog can too listen as a weapon well sing that song whistling just for you and the song is singing don't need a single word to get your message through [Music] the animals are doing it even my dog came to listen as a weapon well sing that song whistling just for you listen as a weapon well sing that song whistling just for you listen as a weapon well sing that song he's a whistler a lord he's a [Music] [Applause] just my favorite thing is it's the writing that's my favorite part um i do like the the the performance because i'm kind of a homebody and that really is my one outlet for socializing is getting out and seeing people and i really like to just see what the music does for people i get letters you know a few of them a year where a song is you know really hit hard you know really connected with somebody that's always that feels really good but for me it's the writing i started out as a guitar player so the the music that i was writing in the beginning was very riff oriented or guitar part oriented and the words were kind of secondary and the farther i i go down this path the more i fall into the i want to write stories you know it had been almost seven years since i released music under my name in between that time i was teaching full-time and kind of set music off to the side honestly to focus on other things and when i decided i wanted to make music a part of my life again i you know had a batch of songs that i wanted to record and after being in the studio and getting that record done the pandemic hit and you know i had an opportunity to just kind of sit with with this record once it was finished and in that time i realized i wanted to release this under a new name it felt like i was detached from my previous work releasing music under the name linux it feels to me like i can branch out a little bit and explore different textures and different sounds there were more synth sounds a little bit more like warmth and texture and personally i felt like my delivery was just more sincere like my singing was in a place of confidence that i really wasn't at before i think it suits me i think lenu feels like new creative ground for me [Music] come to my party i'll show you my goal [Music] like when we were younger have you heard i haven't seen her in years [Music] [Music] [Music] got a place by the river it's not my channel i could sit here for hours watch the ices grow [Music] all [Music] when i think about when i was first um starting out writing songs i feel like the community just like no matter what skill level you're at or how fresh you are on the scene people are there to embrace you and to just kind of prop you up and show you the ropes and help you gain confidence there's room for all levels of musicians and artists and people make room for that and i think that that really allows for a community that can let art and music flourish and can let people grow into themselves [Music] this year has been one of those years where you realize how much you took for granted you know and everyone says that but whereas before you know i'd be picky about what gigs i was playing or how much they paid or you know if i had a band or not now i'm like i just want to be around people and i just want to share songs and and share in that community so i'm looking forward to moving out of the pandemic and into a fresh perspective on this community that we have and not take it for granted [Music] [Music] [Music] and my story might be your story and i've seen beautiful things i can't forget i've seen beautiful things i can't forget beautiful things i can't forget [Music] beautiful things i can't forget i've seen beautiful things i can't forget [Music] funding for this program is brought to you by the arts and cultural heritage fund and the citizens of minnesota