2025 has been a busy year for Jeremie Albino.
In late 2024, he released his fourth solo album, Our Time In The Sun, bringing the Toronto-based singer-songwriter's timeless Americana sound to new audiences around the globe.
A winter album release tour around the U.S. and Canada led into a spring tour through Europe, followed by a summer schedule packed full of festivals throughout North America.
I caught a show of Albino's early in the busy stretch at a sold-out performance at the Turf Club in St. Paul. Already a fan of his recorded music (Our Time In The Sun was KAXE's first 2025 album of the week), I expected a good show but had no idea just how fun it would be.
From the opener to the encore, Albino and his band treated the audience to a sweaty and enthralling mix of retro soul, classic country, gritty R&B and lots of good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll.
He had everything you want in a frontman: the stage presence, dance moves, energy and voice.
I left the show that night wondering when I would be able to catch him again, assuming it would be at least a few years before a new album and tour brought him back to Minnesota. Luckily, the stars aligned, and Albino is part of our 2025 Grand Rapids Riverfest lineup.
Alongside Courtney Barnett, Margo Price and Alan Sparhawk of Low, the singer will return to Minnesota for the festival along the banks of the Mississippi River on Sept. 6.
"I love Courtney Barnett and Margo Price. I don't know much about Alan, but that's the thing that's so beautiful about these music festivals," Albino said when I spoke to him in anticipation of Riverfest. "Sometimes you'll meet new friends. Sometimes you meet old friends, and sometimes you'll discover new music, which I always love."
One newer friend of the singer's is none other than The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, whose Easy Eye Sound record label released Our Time In The Sun, and whom Albino worked closely with throughout the entire album process.
It's a collaboration that still amazes him — going from listening to The Black Keys as a kid, to writing and recording with one half of the band. In addition to Auerbach, the album's credits include players with ties to famed artists like Elvis Presley, Bobbie Gentry, John Prine and the Dap-Kings, just to name a few.
The Nashville style of co-writing was new for Albino and initially daunting. It helped that Auerbach had gone through the same thing.
"When he [Auerbach] first moved to Nashville, he'd never really done this co-writing thing. It'd always been just him and Pat or just him on his own," Albino said. "But it's something that he really grew to love, and I've really grown to love. It's just, like, being able to connect and just collaborate with musicians that are amazing, and usually something really special comes out of it."
Albino is excited to bring those songs to Grand Rapids and the festival, and although it will be his first time performing in Northern Minnesota, he's not worried about connecting with the audience.
"People make fun of Canadians talking in an accent, but I'm like, 'You guys sound more Canadian than I do,'" he joked, before getting serious. "But it just reminds me of home when I'm out your way, because it's just the same kind of terrain and the lakes and the winters. So it doesn't feel too different when I go through there."
For his Riverfest set, Albino will be joined by guitarist Ian James Bain, bassist Tally Ferraro and drummer Justin Ruppel, the same road-tested band that blew me away in St. Paul.
Get your tickets to Grand Rapids Riverfest!
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