Minnesota? Really?

               

Every week or so I click onto iTunes to see what’s new and usually gravitate to the free stuff before spending any money.

This week’s free song offering turned into an immediate ear worm. It was from a guy I’d never heard. Not that surprising, trust me.  But it got me wanting to learn more and I discovered he was from Minnesota.

Now, since the Andrews sisters, talented artists have been flowing out of Minnesota. We all know that’s where Bob Dylan and Prince came from. But nobody hardly ever thinks of Minnesota the same way we do of Motown, New Orleans or Nashville, LA, New York and Austin.

We just don’t.

Why?

Because most of us don’t really know what exactly comes from Minnesota or if it’s just there to keep Wisconsin and South Dakota from bumping into one another.

It’s just kinda out in the Midwest. South of Manitoba. Home of an occasionally good baseball team. And Minneapolis hasn’t (to my knowledge) ever tarted itself up as some kind of “Music City”.

But apparently it is; regularly voted or critically acknowledged as one of the top musical hot spots in the entire US of A.

The bands you’d know from there are as diverse as “The Jayhawks”, “Soul Asylum”, “The Replacements” and “Husker Du” (apologies for the lack of umlauts).

Add to that a couple of personal faves, “The Time” and “The Rainmakers”.

And I think we might need to append the creator of today’s ear worm. Free this week on Canadian iTunes. Jeremy Messersmith.

Like the others, virtually out of nowhere. Or at least Minnesota.

For those in Montreal and Toronto, Jeremy Messersmith plays at Divan Orange February 10 and the Drake Hotel on February 11.