A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:
Jon Lewis of Minneapolis:
1 Dan Israel, Driftwood Char Bar. A great bar band in a great bar, with Dan's originals woven amid covers both expected (Tom Petty, the Replacements, Bob Dylan) and unexpected (Grand Funk Railroad). As a bonus, we celebrated the retirement of "Front Row Paul" Engebretson, a huge supporter of local music.
2 Rogue Valley's "Red River of the North." This song comes to mind during flood season. The Minneapolis band may play it at their April 24 concert at the Wolf House, when they perform their "winter" album, "False Floors," and some new songs from their forthcoming LP.
3 MNspin. You can find music by Dan Israel and many other Minnesota artists at MNspin, a streaming and download project of Hennepin County Library. This all-Minnesota music service features artists of all genres, from pop to classical. Thanks to Friends of the Hennepin County Library, MNspin is able to pay the artists, even though it's free for people to use.
Jon Bream, Star Tribune critic:
1 "Prince: All the Songs" by Benoît Clerc. With minimal original research, the French author behind similar volumes on Queen and David Bowie has aggregated information about the 684 songs that Prince (or his estate) has officially released. Despite its prosaic writing and random photos, the hefty 648-page tome is a one-stop encyclopedia of Purple recordings. Super fams won't likely learn anything new, though.
2 The War and Treaty, Fine Line. The exhilarating duo came across like the Mike and Tanya Trotter Revue — a modern-day, Southern fried, gospel-infused funk-rock update of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Except Michael and Tanya clearly love each other big time.
