Music: Making hay:Red Wing gets a shot of blues and roots at a converted farm

Music: Making hay:Red Wing gets a shot of blues and roots at a converted farm
July 30, 2009
By ROHAN PRESTON
StarTribune.com

To the wider world, Red Wing is a brand of popular hiking and work boots -- a means for getting to and from places.

But the Mississippi bluffs city that lent its name to the footwear is going places in a different way -- by building a reputation for roots music and a little Highland fling.

Just off Hwy. 61 in southeast Minnesota, a relatively new venue has joined Red Wing's main performing-arts center, the Sheldon Theatre, and the 13-year-old Anderson Center, an artists' retreat.

Hobgoblin Music, a music center, instrument workshop and concert venue north of town, has been hotting up the music scene in the city of 16,000. With a converted barn and grassy amphitheater, Hobgoblin has become a destination for roots and blues musicians.

On Saturday, it hosts Blues at the Barn, an afternoon festival featuring, among others, blues poet Ray Bonneville, alt-folk artist Pieta Brown and "Prairie Home Companion" vet Dave Moore.

"We are not just selling music and musical instruments, but a way of life," said harpmaker Gary Stone, who with his wife, Eve, transformed a five-acre farmstead into a site for concerts and classes.

The blues festival is the latest offering at the Barn, which also has held concerts of Celtic, bluegrass and folk music in the converted hayloft.

"There's something about playing folk and blues and roots music in that kind of space because it feels so authentic," said Ellen Stanley, a banjo player and employee of Red House Records, the 25-year-old Twin Cities-based folk and roots music label that is presenting Saturday's festival. "The venue is cool, with a great sound system and a homey vibe."

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