Music

Those who were reading our publication last summer may remember when I wrote about a certain individual named Julian Ruck who played the ukulele for 30+ hours continuously in a bid to break the world record. So naturally, when Ruck came back into town with another musical project in mind, I knew I had to write the story.

Almost a year has gone by and a lot has happened, but Ruck is still a man who devotes a lot of time and energy into bringing people together and inspiring musical…

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Nikki Lane is a trailblazer. Her unique voice could be described as a cross between Wanda Jackson’s grit and Neko Case’s hauntingly smoky vocals. It’s classic and it’s fresh. In 2017 she won an Ameripolitan award in the category of best female outlaw country artist.Though she says this year is a slow year, on average she spends approximately nine months of the year on tour. While on the road she finds time to scour the second hand stores and antique shops. In a past life she was…

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When I was 13 the “Big 4” of thrash metal ruled the planet. Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax were so cool that my older brother hid their tapes for fear that me becoming a fan would make them instantly uncool.

Charlie Benante is Anthrax’s drummer. I always knew who Charlie was but not really because drummers tend to get relegated to the figurative background as well. When I think of Anthrax, I think of Joey Belladonna and Scott Ian. Joey because he’s the singer and has…

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I felt a little silly opening our interview asking Canadian singer songwriter Corb Lund whether he raised cattle or not.

“I’m not home enough to even have a cat,” Lund said. “My family has cows. That’s kind of the irony -- the more I sing Western music the less time I have to actually live that way.

“That’s how I grew up and that’s what my family ancestry is based off of. Both sides of my family came from Utah and Nevada in the late 1800s and then moved up to Canada around…

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“It’s kind of a fuzzy memory, but basically the fact that we were ‘those American kids’ but also listened to the jukebox at the base cafeteria called the ‘Americana’ and the band Chicago had just come out recently and we thought, well that’s interesting, they named themselves after a city, so what the heck?” Dewey Bunnell said. He was one of the founding members of the 70s folk rock trio America.

“We’ll name ourselves after the whole country,” Bunnell said. “It…

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When musician and Bluegrass Association of North Dakota (BAND) President John Andrus checks out live music in the local bars throughout the state he’s happy to see that the spirit of bluegrass music lives on through multiple generations. 

“I’m amazed how many of the people there are musicians checking stuff out," Andrus said. "Young people wanting to check out the music or something like it. It’s not necessarily straight bluegrass, but some of them have music of their own but…

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By Cindy Nichols
cindy.nichols@ndsu.edu

I find myself almost weepy with appreciation, these days, for any small reprieve I can find from chronic sickness-at-heart; any small mercy that either helps me to forget about 45 for an hour, or actually wakes me up again to how many amazingly good people live in this country. Seattle-area vocalist Brandi Carlile is one of those kindnesses, a kind of tonic for the times, along with her sixth and newest album, By the Way, I Forgive You.

I was able…

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Record Store Day is all about music artists and fans celebrating “the culture of the independently owned record store.” A variety of unique and special releases are pressed for Record Store Day and those are only distributed to participating stores. At this moment, Fargo-Moorhead record shops couldn’t be more excited for this event. Vinyl Giant, Orange Records, Mother’s and Phat Kat Antiques & Vintage Vinyl are participating in Record Store Day and stock up all the special lists…

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Phoebe Bridgers is a force. Her debut album “Stranger in the Alps” is soft, but mighty, it’s honest and it’s personal, her voice haunting, and lyrically her liner notes read like a journal. She provides insight to her fears, often alluding to drowning which she cites as her biggest fear. She sings about relationships and addresses her own depression and describes experiences that are all too relatable. Her sound is Elliott Smith meets Saint Vincent, collaborator, friend and…

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This uncharacteristically cold and snowy April signals the close of another exciting season of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra’s Sanford “Masterworks” series with “A Very Grand Finale." This concert promises to be a romantic and bombastic farewell to the orchestra’s audience for the season.

First of all, the evening will begin with the live world premiere of a piece commissioned by the FM Symphony Orchestra for Dr. Dan Breedon, the professor of composition at Concordia…

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