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Music | October 17th, 2024

North Dakota’s All Star Tribute to John Prine at the Fargo Theatre

By Sabrina Hornung

On November 3, The Radio Stars are rounding up a number of North Dakota’s finest musicians from Watford City to the Red River Valley to pay tribute to the late great John Prine at the Fargo Theatre. They will share the stage with Jessie Veeder, Gina Powers, Chuck Suchy, Pat Lenertz, Darrin Wentz, Tom Brousseau, Emily Walter, Tuckered Out and Dan Brekke.

This isn’t the first North Dakota All Star Tribute by any means. Previous shows have included tributes to artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash. The last and most ambitious (which was a two-day show at Bluestem in Moorhead) was in 2019, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. Gregg Temple of The Radio Stars said these shows were the brainchild of their frontman, Merrill Piepkorn.

“I was there often to just kind of do, be the music, be the music director, and coordinate all the talent and equipment and so on and and then we would, depending on the situation,” he said. “We would sort of be the core band for the show, or if there were people singing that wanted backup.”

“It's usually made up of a lot of the artists that we've just gotten to know over the years, that we know are really good performers and reliable players,” Temple went on to say. “And for me, I will say, it's as much fun being backstage with all these people as it is doing the show, because it's a bunch of great people.”

Temple admires the expression of John Prine’s music — how one song can evoke laughter and another can evoke tears — and the sincerity of Prine’s “what you see is what you get” quality. Watford City-based musician Jessie Veeder will be joining in the tribute. Her father Gene will join her onstage.

“He and I have been doing music since I was a kid,” said Veeder. “I grew up on John Prine, learning and playing his songs, and being influenced by him and his music because my dad listened to him before everything was so accessible. That was what he was playing on his tape players, record players, and then singing to me. So we'll be doing a song that we've sung together forever, which is ‘Speed of the sound of loneliness,’ and then I'll be doing an original song.”

Her father is a folk musician and, according to Jessie, he’s played in bands ”forever” and is the reason she developed an interest in music. In addition to the music, she was drawn to the storytelling aspect of songwriting. Gene gave her a second hand guitar to learn on as a child and the rest is North Dakota music history.

When asked what it was about John Prine’s music that really speaks to her, Veeder said, “When I was a young kid listening to and playing his music, it was the story of the people, the characters and his song. The way that he wrote was very relatable but it painted such a picture, and it felt like he was speaking and singing about people that I knew in my life. There was compassion in his writing.”

“I feel the most connected to character songs and songs that tell the story of, well, working class America or Middle America,” she continued. “And he represented that, you know? Little love stories, or stories of the working people in the working class and the trials and tribulations they go through. I think that's folk music, essentially. And it's not these big romantic love stories and sweeping narratives. It's these simple little nuances of the characters and the situations in his lyrics that I just fell in love with and have always tried to aspire to as a songwriter.”

IF YOU GO:

The North Dakota All Star Tribute to John Prine

Sunday Nov. 3, 2-4:30 p.m., doors open at 1 p.m.

Fargo Theatre, 324 N Broadway, Fargo

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