Music to drive to Duluth to

I never really thought I'd consider myself a fan of bluegrass--but a couple of recent new arrivals on the Minnesota scene has redefined how well this musical form fits with the Minnesota landscape.

I've been to a few Pert Near Sandstone shows and the manic strumming of strings can have a pentacostal affect on me and my friends--suddenly I'm spilling beer down the front of my shirt, laughing, and hot-stepping with Jessica or whatever girl happens to be closest at hand.

I just got the new album by Trampled By Turtles, Duluth. It's quite wonderful--it'll be perfect driving music when I head up to French River (about ten miles north of Duluth) for Christmas this week. At it's slowest it sounds like early Ryan Adams (lyrically, too, with the common motifs of I can't love you like you need me to, you are going to leave me, it's too cold to go outside, Duluth is my home but I hate it here, etc. etc.). Faster songs are mellowed by a plain, measured male voice intoning about church bells and being too drunk to remember last week. Ah, brings back memories.