The Minnesota State Fair is turning to — surprise! — some familiar names for its grandstand lineup. But Brandi Carlile, a Twin Cities and fair favorite, is not one of them. Instead she's playing a different outdoor venue this summer.
The Seattle singer-songwriter, who is promoting her new album "The Firewatcher's Daughter," will perform Aug. 2 at the Cabooze Plaza in Minneapolis, along with Iron and Wine and Anderson East. Tickets, priced at $56, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ticketmaster outlets, the Electric Fetus and the Joint.
The State Fair did announce some old reliables for the grandstand on Tuesday. Patti LaBelle, the soaring soul singer behind "Lady Marmalade" and "New Attitude," is set for Sept. 2. The Commodores, who no longer have Lionel Richie to sing "Lady" and "Brickhouse," will open. LaBelle is also performing at Mystic Lake on June 6. Grandstand tickets, priced at $45, will go on sale at 11 a.m. Friday.
Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd will return to the grandstand on Sept. 3. Guitarist Gary Rossington is the only original member still on board, but singer Johnny Van Zant and guitarist Rickey Medlocke have been playing "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird" for decades. Opening are 1990s rockers Collective Soul. Tickets, priced at $42, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.
Garrison Keillor brings his radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" to the fairgrounds once again on Sept. 4. It will be taped for radio broadcast the next evening. Tickets, priced at $25 and $32, will go on sale at noon Friday.
State Fair tickets will be available at etix.com and 1-800-514-3849 and, for a limited time on Friday, at the State Fair ticket office (651-288-4427).
In other concert news, German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk will perform Oct. 7 at Northrop Auditorium as part of their visually oriented 3-D Tour. Tickets, priced at $59.50 and $79.50, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at northrop.umn.edu and 612-624-2345.
The fifth annual Longfellow Roots, Rock & Deep Blues Festival is set for July 18 outside Patrick's Cabaret and Harriet Brewing near the intersection of Minnehaha Avenue and E. Lake Street in south Minneapolis. The lineup includes Miss Tess & the Talk Backs, Jimbo Mathus, Kent Burnside, Charlie Parr, Willie Murphy & the Angel Headed Hipsters, Spider John Koerner and Savage Aural Hotbed. Tickets cost $20.
djoles@startribune.com "Radio Man, " written by radio script writer Garrison Kiellor turned playwright, opens Saturday at History Theatre in St. Paul. "His major foible," Keillor said of the main character, "is that he has allowed himself to be the subject of a play."](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/W62QW5RIZ7W6L6GVSL4QSXZ2SY.jpg?&w=1080)
