Author: Chris Godsey

  • Radio Free Ely

    Dark evergreen silhouettes loom against a wash of indigo sky on both sides of Minnesota Highway 1. Driving southwest out of Ely, toward Tower, the early autumn moon is so bright, so close and full, that driving without headlights seems only appropriate.  After a news update from ABC Radio, the voice of late-night DJ Brett…

  • American Gothic

    For ten years, Low’s music has seethed with quiet rural rage—the undercurrent of emotional tension that hums in austere Midwestern places, among people whose deeper feelings are seldom expressed. From the band’s home base on Duluth’s Central Hillside, it has built an international cult following for creating rock music that’s intelligent, intense, ambient, and awesomely…

  • Fish Rap

    Crew Jones is a trio of white guys who met while living in a Grand Marais hippy commune. Named after a character in the 1986 BMX movie Rad, the Joneses call themselves “Minnesota’s Northernmost Rap Band” and the “inventors of Forest-Rap.” They also claim to be “holding it down as kingpins of the cutthroat Twin…