Lizzo joins Sleater-Kinney tour
She's already a member of Grrl Prty, but now Lizzo is about to become a card-carrying Riot Grrrl. Minneapolis' rapper-on-the-verge was picked to open the first leg of Sleater-Kinney's spring tour, the famed Northwest blast-punk trio's first series of shows in a decade. Still going around the world touting her late-2013 release "Lizzobangers" — she did a U.K. trek opening for Chvrches in November — Lizzo will be there for S-K's Feb. 8 kickoff in Spokane, Wash., and stay through the March 2 gig in Toronto, with a Minneapolis stop at First Avenue on Feb. 14. Talk about a hometown love fest. The news was bittersweet for Lizzo's DJ/producer Lazerbeak of Doomtree, whose punk-rocker past (ex-Plastic Constellations) predictably means he's a big S-K fan, but who has infant twins and a toddler to tend to at home and can't make the tour. "Ryan Olson and I had a good 10-minute freakout over the phone when we both found out about it," he said, mentioning the other co-producer of "Lizzobangers." Instead, Lizzo will likely be joined by drummer Ryan McMahon and hype-grrrl Sophia Eris on the tour.
Chris Riemenschneider
She left her heart in …
Fleetwood Mac opened the first leg of its On With the Show Tour in Minneapolis in September and now the second leg kicks off Friday in St. Paul. Stevie Nicks doesn't know why the Twin Cities is Big Mac's chosen market. "Because my first and only husband lives there," she joked, referring to her brief marriage in 1983 to Kim Anderson, the single-father widower of one of Nicks' close friends. Actually, Nicks has dedicated a song to him at each of Fleetwood Mac's last two Twin Cities shows. Considering that Mick Fleetwood and John McVie live in Hawaii and Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are Californians, she wondered why the band's agent would book them in Minnesota in January. Her husband, Nicks told I.W., "always said there's no cold like the cold in Minneapolis."
Jon Bream
Station rates
The light rail station at Target Field in Minneapolis is one of four winners of an American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2015 honor award for regional and urban design. Target Field Station, opened last May, is a transit hub in Minneapolis' North Loop area adjacent to the Twins' baseball stadium. The project, which includes an amphitheater and a "Great Lawn" for public gatherings, is a focal point for revitalization of the North Loop. The AIA award cited it as "one of the first spaces in the country to truly integrate transit and culture," and saluted the Great Lawn as "a green stage for pregame events, community concerts and other events," augmented by plaza spaces for restaurants, cultural and entertainment events.
Mary Abbe
After Camelot
Minnesota's Hubbard family isn't done with the Kennedy saga. Stanley E. Hubbard, CEO of ReelzChannel, which famously acquired the rights to the Emmy-winning miniseries "The Kennedys," provided details this week of the follow-up, "The Kennedys: After Camelot." Katie Holmes will not only return as Jackie Kennedy; she'll also direct one of the four episodes. The production will air sometime next year. Hubbard also announced the April 11 debut of "Polka Kings," a reality series about a band's quest to bring polka to the masses.
Neal Justin
Trampled gets Emmy
The schedule for last weekend's "The Life and Songs of Emmylou Harris" concert in Washington, D.C., featured two names every Americana music fan would recognize, Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams, sandwiching a name that at least Minnesota music fans know very well, Trampled by Turtles. The Duluth-bred acoustic pickers performed Harris' 1975 nugget "Bluebird Wine" for the tribute, likely to air soon during a PBS-TV station pledge drive near you. At the end of the night, the Trampled guys returned to sing "Boulder to Birmingham" with Harris herself and the rest of the show's cast, including Kris Kristofferson, Alison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill and Mavis Staples. Good company, if you can get it.
CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
When in Minneapolis …
Broadway ingénue Morgan James got permission from Prince to record his "Call My Name" (from "Musicology") for her 2014 soul album, "Hunter," on Epic. She also performed his "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" in her Twin Cities debut Wednesday at the Dakota. "I thought it was only fitting to do a couple of Prince tunes," she told the crowd. "I am in Minneapolis. I'm not some tortured Floridian coming to Minneapolis in the dead of winter." No, the Idaho native explained, she's of Norwegian heritage. Given surname: Grunerud.
Jon Bream
Ordway recognized
Dayna Martinez, artistic director of world music, dance and the International Children's Festival at the Ordway Center, is getting noticed inside the biz. This month, she won an "Award for Excellence in Presenting the Performing Arts" at an industry confab in New York. The honor was bestowed by, take a breath, the North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents at the 58th annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. Martinez has been bringing top-notch jazz (Nachito Herrera and Creole Choir of Cuba), world music (Dobet Gnahoré) and dance (Camille A. Brown and Dancers, Jan. 21) to downtown St. Paul.
Rohan Preston
