Southern Minnesota musicians and fans gather for workshops, concerts in second annual festival

CATHY WURZER: Summer, of course, is the season for outdoor music and small town festivals, and our next conversation has a little bit of both. The Minnesota Original Music Festival kicks off tonight and runs through Sunday, bringing together musicians in southern Minnesota for live performances and educational opportunities. Eli Hoehn is the director of the festival, now in its second year. Eli is on the line. Welcome to the show.

ELI HOEHN: Hi, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: So I hear that, tonight, you are drafting musicians for a 48-hour band challenge. That seems like a-- that is a very creative way to bring together musicians who wouldn't otherwise be connected. How is it going to work?

ELI HOEHN: Well, so mostly, the musicians have already signed up. But if you come to Patrick's on 3rd in St. Peter tonight at 5:00, there's potentially still some seats left. We just need to know who you are, what instruments you perform on, and then our friend, punk rock Tom Hefferenan is going to choose some-- basically picks you out of a hat and puts some random groups together. We try to make sure we don't have five drummers in the same group, but other than that, you never know what you're going to get. They then have 48 hours to put together a short three-song set of music, including one original tune.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, really? I like that.

ELI HOEHN: Yeah, and the contest itself is on Friday, this coming Friday.

CATHY WURZER: In St. Peter.

ELI HOEHN: In St. Peter, at Patrick's on 3rd. And we probably still have one seat left in the judges table if you're interested in coming down for it.

CATHY WURZER: You're very kind. Thank you very much. Friday nights I'm on the air on Almanac on TPT. I'll have to take a pass. Maybe next year.

ELI HOEHN: All right.

CATHY WURZER: Hey, any of the bands from last year have-- has it led to any long-term connections?

ELI HOEHN: Well, the festival is put on by musicians in our local area-- so St. Peter-Mankato area. We have a musician, Michelle Roche-- she plays in lots of different local groups. She is our workshop manager, and I play in several groups, and I'm the director. And we try to, I guess, put on something that is, I guess, reaching out to musicians from across the state, hopefully.

CATHY WURZER: And making connections, which sounds like that is really a great thing to do.

ELI HOEHN: That's the goal, absolutely. We had a couple of people last year who were very unconnected to the local music scene, and now they play in multiple bands as a consequence of participating in the 48-hour band challenge.

CATHY WURZER: I love the 48-hour band challenge, I'm telling you. You have two stages, Saturday and Sunday. You have a lot of live music. Now I want to listen to some of the bands-- one of the bands right now. This is "Silver Summer" with Witch.

[WITCH, "SILVER SUMMER"]

COLIN SCHARF: (SINGING) They sold the witch's house out from under my nose. Now where am I going to go to watch the darkness grow?

CATHY WURZER: Who is Silver Summer?

ELI HOEHN: Well, Silver Summer is fronted by Colin Scharf, and he's a member of several groups, including Good Night Gold Dust, and he put together a wonderful local group down here, and yeah, they're going to be closing out our Saturday in Minnesota Square Park.

CATHY WURZER: OK, now there are, of course, a lot of live performances, but also these workshops for musicians, is that right?

ELI HOEHN: Yes. We have a whole set of workshops. They start tomorrow morning at Saint Peter High School in St. Peter. And I think a lot of musicians-- myself included-- we focus a lot on writing the songs and getting the music right. But when it starts coming to the other business parts of the equation, it's a lot tougher.

And so we have, for example, a workshop that focuses on releasing, self-marketing, and promoting your album. There's a musician Anya Menk, from Gustavus, who's going to be doing that. We have some peer reviews songwriting classes. If you have a partially-finished song, you can bring it to Nate Boots' Peer Review Songwriting workshop. You'll have other people that are songwriters that can give you some feedback. And then, on Saturday, you could perform your song on the Triple Falls Stage in the park for the people that are there.

CATHY WURZER: Of course, we have Ben Scruggs and Chris Bertrand on the air doing music with us a couple of times during the month, and they do focus on the Mankato area and St. Peter and the Southern Minnesota Music scene. And they have really great things to say about it. And there's really some great, talented individuals down there. How do you describe the music community in the Mankato area?

ELI HOEHN: I guess it's growing, and that's one of the reasons that we're using this project to help some of the musicians. Some of us have more resources than others. And some of us have better connections than others. But there's just a very dense, very creative group of people here that we're looking for places to play, we're looking for ways to promote our music, and so that's what this is all about really. And this is not unique to the Mankato-St. Peter area. I think the state of Minnesota has this going on from border to shining border, actually.

CATHY WURZER: Well, you know what, Eli, we're going to go out to another band that's going to play in this year's festival. This is the Barley Jacks covering "I've Just Seen a Face." Eli, have a great festival.

ELI HOEHN: Thank you so much, Cathy. Thanks for the opportunity.

[BARLEY JACKS, "I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE"]

BARLEY JACKS: (SINGING) I've just seen a face. I can't forget the time or place that we just met. And she's the girl for me. I want all the world to see we've met,

[VOCALIZING]

CATHY WURZER: Eli Hoehn is the director of the Minnesota Original Music Festival. That's happening tonight through the weekend in St. Peter which, of course, is near Mankato.