Community Calendar

We Are The Willows is an Orchestral Indie Rock ensemble featuring songwriter Peter Miller’s unique countertenor voice, supported by Jeremiah Satterthwaite (guitar), Travis Collins (bass/ voice), Hilary James (cello/ voice), and Josh McKay (drums). The band crafts dynamic songs with a contemplative air. Their songs cover a lot of conceptual ground: from family history to modern social life and personal identity.

We Are The Willows has been releasing music since 2007. Their most notable release, Picture (Portrait), a 20 song, two-part concept album based on letters written between Miller’s Grandparents during World War II garnered praise from NPR, the BBC, NOISEY, PASTE magazine, Buzzfeed, The Brooklyn Vegan, and USA Today. Between 2009 and 2017 the band toured a great deal, including showcasing at SXSW, Treefort Music Fest, Summerfest, and supporting slots with Blitzen Trapper, S. Carey, PHOX, and Matt Pond PA.

As the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Trampled by Turtles, Dave Simonett had a noteworthy 2016 full of sold out shows coast to coast — including performances at Newport Folk Festival and Red Rocks Amphitheater. An intimate, up-close and personal experience with one of Minnesota’s most prominent musical artists.

Come See Humbird in an intimate concert setting at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids.

Get up close and personal with your favorite Minnesota musicians.

Humbird’s music moves between experimental folk and environmental Americana to embrace the unexpected. The music invites a refreshing dissonance into the house. It leaves bread crumbs along the path and reflects light back at the stars.

Siri Undlin witnessed the power of storytelling in her childhood home and began writing music and performing in church choirs and in Irish ensembles from a young age. Her voice, which contains the unwavering fortitude of hymnal melodies, reveals her traditional background.

In 2019, Humbird released the critically acclaimed, debut full-length, Pharmakon, which introduced us to Humbird’s songcraft and harmonic folk style. Folk Alley called the album “... an absolutely hypnotic listening experience." and Atwood Magazine described it as music wrapped in “gentle rebellion”. The release garnered millions of online streams and a wide range of accolades, including 89.3FM The Current’s “Best Local Albums Of The Year”, one of City Page’s “Picked To Click” Awards, “Best Minnesota Albums” from the Star Tribune, and as an official showcasing artist at SXSW in Austin.

Most recently, the material on Humbird’s sophomore record Still Life (October 2021) has already received enthusiastic praise from within the folk world – awarded as one of Kerrville Folk Fest’s New Folk winners for 2021.

Humbird and producer/engineer/multi-instrumentalist Adelyn Strei recorded the album (mostly) at home in South Minneapolis while sheltering-in-place in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The Minneapolis Uprising of June 2020 unfolded in their neighborhood, and as the acute crisis of burning buildings and military occupation came and went, the two returned to music while reframing and reimagining the future along with neighbors, friends, and family. Still Life is not an overtly political album, more so it is an effort to understand hope as a verb, and healing as a physical place we might inhabit.

Northern Community Trips presents

7 days in ISLA MUJERES, Quintana Roo, Mexico

FEBRUARY 12 - 19, 2022Spend a week with broadcast volunteer Michael Small and a few other KAXE-KBXE members, their family and friends, at the gorgeous Casa de Las Palmas, overlooking the Caribbean.

Group size: 16

Price per person: $1,700.

In addition to 7 nights’ lodging, the package includes :

• Round trip airfare MSP to Cancun
• Shuttle, ferry and taxi service to and on the Island
• Sunday night catered dinner and entertainment at the Casa
• All breakfasts and two lunches
• Happy hour and snacks poolside each evening

Your hosts for this trip are John and Lisa Sumption, long-time members of the station who spend every winter on Isla. They’ll help group member arrange snorkeling, sailing, deep sea fishing, boat tours, massages and acupuncture (in the privacy of your room), and more. IMMUNIZATIONS are required for all participants of this trip.

Travel insurance is highly recommended.

For more info please write to goldberg.actionmedia@gmail.com and we’ll get right back to you.

Come See Annie Mack in an intimate concert setting at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids.

Get up close and personal with your favorite Minnesota musicians.

Inspired by her mother’s love of music, she started singing, performing at local joints. “After my mother passed away, the thing that really stood out to me was to do something that you like before you leave this life." Although never intending it to be a career, it quickly became one.

Working her way through the Midwest bar scene, Mack built a reputation as a powerhouse blues singer getting national recognition at some of North America’s top festivals, including The John Coltrane Jazz Festival, Thunder Bay Music Festival, Twin Cities Jazz Festival and the Bayfront Blues Festival for 6 years running. In addition to playing some of the top blues and jazz clubs like Buddy Guy’s Legends (Chicago) and The Dakota (Minneapolis), Mack has recently garnered the attention of indie rock tastemakers like The Current, landing her gigs at prestigious performing arts centers and rock venues like First Avenue--the iconic club where Prince filmed Purple Rain. She has shared the bill with such wide-ranging artists as Dessa (hip hop), Ondara (folk), Cloud Cult (indie rock) and
blues legend Robert Cray. She is featured in the book 50 Women in the Blues, alongside Bessie Smith, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ruthie Foster and Janis Joplin.

In 2013, Mack released her debut album Baptized in the Blues, which put her on the blues map and established her as a powerhouse performer and singer. After keeping up a rigorous touring schedule, she took time off to record her 2017 EP Tell It Like It Is--a more personal collection of songs about recovery and healing that showcased her serious songwriting chops. Now, with the release of her new recording Testify (2021) she solidifies her position as a top-tier singer, songwriter and producer who has found her musical home, performing her own unique blend of blues, country, rock and soul. The
release finds her confident and comfortable, owning her place as a rising star in the roots music scene.