DULUTH — This is a week for legendary entertainers, on stage and onscreen.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers
Are you surprised to learn that George Thorogood has never had a Top 40 hit single? It’s true, but he and his band, the Destroyers, are better remembered as avatars of ’80s roadhouse rock than a lot of artists who were more commercially successful at the time. Defined by the 1982 MTV staple “Bad to the Bone,” Thorogood has also put his stamp on covers like “Who Do You Love?” and shown up on soundtracks like “Bull Durham” (“Born to Be Bad”).
Thorogood is now preparing to release a career-spanning set, “The Baddest Show on Earth: Greatest Hits Live.” Due June 12 from Craft Recordings, the 11-track album demonstrates “George’s connection to unvarnished, primal rock and roll,” as record label executive Scott Billington put it in a news release.
The band will demonstrate that connection onstage at Symphony Hall on Wednesday, March 25. As a bluesy bonus, the Robert Cray Band will open the show
Contributed / DECC
Comedian Brad Williams has several distinctions. Aside from the usual touring standup artist’s roster of successful specials and late-night appearances, Williams was the first comic to headline a Cirque du Soleil show and now bills himself as America’s funniest entertainer — “pound for pound.”
The comic riffs on the ironies of dwarfism along with addressing topics like relationships and race, and he isn’t afraid of raising his eyebrows at regional idiosyncracies. What will a guy who makes fun of Michiganders for using their hands as state maps have to say about residents of America’s most inland seaport? You can find out at Symphony Hall on Thursday, March 26
Carl Gawboy and Wendy Savage
Jay Gabler / Duluth Media Group file photo
The theme of this year’s exhibitions at the Duluth Art Institute is “We Hold These Truths,” an invitation for artists and audiences to consider the many dimensions of American identity in the country’s semiquincentennial year.
On Thursday, March 26, artists Carl Gawboy and Wendy Savage will speak at DAI’s downtown gallery space during a reception spotlighting their work on display there. Gawboy’s “Fur Trade Nation” features watercolors examining North America’s fur trade from an Ojibwe perspective. Savage’s “Ojibwe Adornment in Ribbons, Cloth, Beads, and Fur” draws on the artist’s work in textiles and fashion — as well as that of eight more Anishinaabe artists
Contributed / University of Minnesota Press
Friday, March 27, won’t be the first time Minneapolis blues artist Cornbread Harris has performed in Duluth; he played Fitger’s Brewhouse a handful of times in the early 2000s, and has performed at the Bayfront Blues Festival twice (in 2005 and 2010). Still, it’s been more than 15 years since the Minnesota music legend has graced a Duluth stage — and he’s never played Sacred Heart Music Center — so this is kind of a big deal.
Harris will be accompanied by his biographer, Andrea Swensson, whose “Deeper Blues” (2024) is important not only as a long-overdue history of Harris’ remarkable life. The writing process helped reunite Harris with his long-estranged son Jimmy Jam Harris, one of the most successful producers in pop music history. Onstage before Friday’s concert, Swensson will talk with this reporter about her book
Cultural heritage events at UMD
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group file photo
On Saturday, March 28, the University of Minnesota Duluth will host two separate celebrations of cultural heritage.
At the Ward Wells Field House, UMD’s Indigenous Student Organization will present the fourth annual Ziigwan Powwow. There will be two Grand Entry occasions at the celebration of Indigenous culture, which also includes a community feast
Meanwhile, at Kirby Ballroom, Hmong Living in Unity and Balance hosts a Hmong Heritage Night with performances and storytelling. The theme of the evening is “Peb tseem nyob,” or “We’re still standing”
Contributed / Paramount Pictures
No photograph or illustration can convey the sparkling allure of Audrey Hepburn — you simply have to see her onscreen. Although Hepburn’s signature film, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) is problematic — with white actor Mickey Rooney cast as a Japanese character portrayed in racist stereotype — it also weaves an undeniable spell. Removed from the movie, “Moon River” (Oscar winner for Best Original Song) sounds schmaltzy. But, in the film? It will stop your heart.
On Sunday, March 29, Blake Edwards’ movie screens at the Zeitgeist Zinema
Arts and entertainment reporter Jay Gabler joined the Duluth News Tribune in 2022. His previous experience includes eight years as a digital producer at The Current (Minnesota Public Radio), four years as theater critic at Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages, and six years as arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He’s a co-founder of pop culture and creative writing blog The Tangential; he’s also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Minnesota Film Critics Association. You can reach him at [email protected] or 218-409-7529.
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