Twin Citians alert

[Russell Letson]

Should have thought of this earlier--Dakota Dave Hull has a CD release concert at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 at someplace called Patrick's Cabaret (3010 Minnehaha). I picked up the CD, "Time Machine," a couple weeks back, and it's really, really interesting stuff, with him accompanying fiddle, clawhammer banjo, cornet, and such, as well as playing solos. With luck, some of Dave's collaborators will be there tomorrow night. I'm going, if the weather don't turn ugly in the meantime.

www.dakotadavehull.com/recordings.html

Ah--here's concert info, on Dave's front page:

www.dakotadavehull.com/

[billhammond]

I like Dave's record, too.
Also in the Twin Cities this weekend........



By Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

PETER LANG

CD/DVD party: 8 p.m. today.

Where: Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $15-$18. 612-338-2674.


DAKOTA DAVE HULL

CD party: 8 p.m. Sat.

Where: Patrick's Cabaret, 3010 Minnehaha Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $12-$15. 612-724-6273.

You might think a bunch of middle-aged-and-up guys who like to work alone without amplification would be a boring lot. However, the Twin Cities' many acoustic-guitar maestros are a surprisingly difficult group to pin down.

Case in point: Peter Lang and Dakota Dave Hull -- two of our best-known local guitar heroes -- are both reinventing themselves with CD-release parties this weekend.

Lang, who reemerged from a two-decade hiatus a half-decade ago, says he's starting yet another chapter of his life following tonight's show at the Cedar Cultural Center. From here on out, he plans to perform mostly as a rootsy blues artist.

"This recording is sort of a closing-of-the-book," Lang said of "Live at the Charlotte's Web," a two-CD, one-DVD collection.

Culled from an archive of recordings at one of Lang's favorite venues in Rockford, Ill., it features many of his best-known original compositions, including several from his folky albums on John Fahey's Takoma label. Lang claims he won't perform many of those old numbers after tonight, at least not in bulk.

"Early in my career, I sort of molded myself to what Fahey wanted, and what we could sell at the time," Lang said. "But that's not really where my roots are."

Instead, Lang grew up listening to way-old blues greats like Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, Sleepy John Estes and -- one of his personal faves -- Sylvester Weaver. He avoided playing that style of music, he said, "because I didn't want to be a pretender to the throne." But with some of the genre's great modern purveyors passing away in recent years, including Dave Ray, Dave Van Ronk and Fahey (all Lang's friends), he realized that "no one else is left."All my heroes, for the most part, are dead," he said. "It's high time I carry on their tradition."

As for Hull, he isn't changing styles so much as roles on his new album, "Time Machine," which he's promoting Saturday at Patrick's Cabaret. A collection of old-timey waltzes, rags and Americana songs, it's Hull's first recording as more of a rhythm guitarist and bandleader than as a dazzling finger-picker.

"It's a big part of my musical life," Hull writes in the liner notes about collaborating. His cohorts here include Laura MacKenzie (fife), Kari Larson (resophonic guitar), Adam Hurt (banjo) and Mikkel Beckman (washboard). You get a little fancy guitarwork here and there, but mostly the CD sounds like a group effort -- and a fine one at that.

[John B]

Does Kari Larson ever perform or record? The Hull and Larson CDs are wonderful.

[Deleted]

Oooh...Peter Lang is one of my all-time guitar heroes.

I'd love to see him live.

Tom