To meet the pent-up demand for live music, our critic recommends four local acts you can see each day.
August 23, 2021 at 7:22PM
Yam Haus with Lars Pruitt headlines the Leinie Lodge Bandshell on Sept. 5 and 6. (Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Minnesota music is having a moment.
After a year and a half of shuttered venues and quarantined audiences, the live music scene in the state came to life this summer like mosquitoes after an extra-rainy May. Fans have been gobbling up tickets for local bands. Venues have been heavily relying on locals in lieu of national tours.
That momentum continues at the Minnesota State Fair. As usual, dozens of local and regional acts will perform there every day. This year, though, there's a little more reliance on Minnesota music makers, both out of necessity — see: Gear Daddies filling in after the Dire Straits Legacy tour was canceled for COVID reasons — and out of extra appreciation for all the locals keeping the scene alive.
In the spirit of the many food guides to the fair, here's a tip sheet with recommendations for Minnesota musicians playing the free stages each day at the fair (most acts are booked to play two days back-to-back).
Always a crowd pleaser, Davina & the Vagabonds put a fresh spin and bounce on vintage New Orleans-style jazz and funk (Schell's Stage at West End, 8 p.m.).
Café Accordion Orchestra brings old European cabaret class and romanticism to Minnesota (3:15, 4:30 & 5:45 p.m., International Bazaar).
St. Paul's Mary Cutrufello blends roadhouse blues and honky-tonk twang plucked from her Texas roots (noon, 1 & 2 p.m., Schell's West End).
And get more authentic New Orleans flavor from second-line funk and jazz specialists the Jack Brass Band (10:45 a.m., noon, 1:15 p.m., International Bazaar).
