Wandering Son from the Iron Range

Here's how much buzz-riding singer/songwriter Cory Chisel really is from the Iron Range: When asked about his familiarity with the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, he let out a bit of a scoff.

"That's sort of something more for the tourists than the townies," he said.

Chisel's ties to our state warranted a little questioning, only because many of his local fans -- including this writer and some of the Current/89.3 FM staffers who've played him -- did not even know about those roots before we got behind his music. Having three-quarters of the Raconteurs play on his record and loads of Bob Dylan comparisons were enough.

Chisel, 27, officially hails from Appleton, Wis., but he spent nearly every summer of his childhood living in the map-dot city of Babbitt, Minn., just south of Ely near the BWCA. His parents still live there part-time, and he said he treks there several times a year.

"Whenever I have time off, I usually go up there for a writing retreat -- which basically is just an excuse to go," he said. "But it is a good place to write. I always think at some point I'll move back up there permanently."

For now, though, Chisel's home is mostly on the road. He called last week from California before his first tour date with one of Los Angeles' hottest new bands, psychedelic roots quartet Dawes, with whom he performs Friday at the Triple Rock.

He and his own band, the Wandering Sons, also spent recent months on tour with Raconteurs co-leader Brendan Benson, who co-wrote Chisel's breakthrough single "Born Again."

The song's spiritual tug-of-war theme plays out in several other tracks on Chisel's album, "Death Won't Send a Letter," issued in September on the RCA label Black Seal.

One more surprise in Chisel's biography: He actually was raised a Christian, with a Baptist preacher for a father in a household where the popular music of the day was banned. To Chisel, being "born again" actually means moving away from Christianity.

"There's been a debate of spirituality my whole life, and there continues to be," he said. "I felt ready to just distance myself from that part of my upbringing in ['Born Again']. When you grow up in a very Christian family, it's really sort of hard to say, 'It didn't take.'"

Chisel cites plenty of positive influences from his religious background, though, including the imprint of gospel music on his own revivalistic songs. He even said the ban on pop radio and MTV wasn't such a bad thing for a kid.

"I didn't grow up at a particularly hot time for pop music anyway," he said with a laugh. "But to this day, I still sort of intentionally limit my intake of all the peripheral music out there. A lot of the people in my band had a similar upbringing, so now instead of just leaving the radio on and letting it bleed into our minds and corrode our idea of what's good music, we think it's not a bad idea to just turn that [expletive] off."

"It really all came together natually," he said, "just like it would have if we had met each other in school or something like that, where one guy introduces you to another guy to start a band."

A similar domino trail led Chisel to New Orleans last fall to record one song with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for "Preservation," a new CD benefiting the NOLA music institution. Other collaborators on the album, which comes out Tuesday, include Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco, Dr. John and My Morning Jacket.

While he's traveling far and wide these days, Chisel said the real spark behind his career ignited in Appleton. It's a possible lesson for other musicians living in Middle America.

"Appleton really embraced the music we were making, to the point where it allowed us to make enough of a living off it before any record deals," he said, flash-forwarding to when his band did land a deal.

"We had our one and only showcase in L.A. for record labels, the kind of thing where they get their drinks bought for them and stay for 15 minutes. Luckily, we were able to keep the attention of RCA longer than that, and their first question was, 'What kind of a following have you built up for yourself at home?'"