Cyndi Lauper flew into the Twin Cities on Tuesday to let everyone know — well, at least the folks at Target, Best Buy, 89.3 the Current, Carmichael Lynch and the Electric Fetus — that she's gone country. Yes, the veteran singer, she of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Kinky Boots" fame, is about to drop "Detour," a made-in-Nashville album featuring Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill and Alison Krauss. This isn't new country like Miranda Lambert or Carrie Underwood, it's classic country as in Patsy Cline, Wanda Jackson and Ray Price. Lauper views "Detour" as a companion piece to her last album, "Memphis Blues." "Same state, different cities," Lauper, the pink-and-blond-haired singer said in her Edith Bunker-on-helium voice. Why is she working so hard to set up an album that arrives in May? "Because I want this album to get heard. Not like the other ones." Jon Bream
Color me in press
Even without any of the book's subjects in attendance, fans still packed the Turf Club Saturday afternoon for a party celebrating Memphis music scribe Bob Mehr's new authorized biography "Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements." He showed rare concert footage courtesy of local filmmaker Rick Fuller, including a thundering "I.O.U." from a 1990 First Ave appearance and a blundering, skirt-clad "Hootenanny" from Denver in 2014 — any or all of which might be publicly released soon, it was hinted. In a Q&A, Mehr revealed finicky frontman Paul Westerberg's reaction to the book: "He's not happy about it, but he's fundamentally OK with it." Chris Riemenschneider
Another new curator
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has picked Gabriel Ritter to head its contemporary art department, a post that was open since the department's founding curator, Elizabeth Armstrong, left more than a year ago to lead the Palm Springs Art Museum. Ritter, who starts in May, has been assistant curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art since 2012. "We are particularly excited about his expertise in contemporary Japanese art," institute director Kaywin Feldman said in a statement. Mary Abbe
Lee wins at Lee's
Lee's Liquor Lounge went out with a bang on Saturday, with a $5,000 Country Showdown talent contest co-sponsored by BOB-FM. After interpreting some classic country tunes, Shalo Lee took the top prize. Elizabeth Keeney, who won a KARE-TV "Minnesota Idol" contest in 2003, came in second and Gabriel Alsaker finished third but gets props for covering a Sturgill Simpson song. Pretty hip. After announcing that she'll use the money to record an album, Lee, of River Falls, Wis., went old school to celebrate her win with performances of "Someday Soon," "Folsom Prison Blues" and "When Will I Be Loved." Meanwhile, BOB DJ Paul Thomas announced that Lee's in downtown Minneapolis would be closing for "some awesome upgrades" and reopening April 1. "They're leaving the paneling," he reassured. Jon Bream
About time
Twin Cities indie-rap hero P.O.S. has not issued a new recording under his solo moniker in more than three years, so it's no surprise his first track back is a doozy. The Doomtree star debuted a new and clearly quite pent-up tune Monday called "Sleepdrone/Superposition," which clocks in at nearly nine minutes and includes eight different guest collaborators, including Lizzo, Astronautalis, Allan Kingdom and Bikini Kill punk icon Kathleen Hannah. The song — for sale at iTunes and streaming at star tribune.com/music — was specifically timed to coincide with the second anniversary of his kidney transplant. "Everything I was writing in the months after my transplant was totally opaque, health-related depression rap," P.O.S. said, "which was good for me but wouldn't have been good music in the entertaining sense." He called the song a first step toward his next record, which he hopes to have out by year's end. That's quite a big first step. C.R.
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