MORNINGBIRD NEXT IN GRASSROOTS SPRING CONCERT SERIES! The Iron Range duo MorningBird will perform for Grassroots Concerts at the Live Well Nightclub and Coffee Bar in the Journey Church, Nisswa, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 4. Admission is $15 at the door for adults and $5 for children under 12 with listening attention, when accompanied by an adult. Seating is first-come, first-served. Show-time is 7:30 PM (doors open at 6:30) Partners in life and music, multi-instrumentalists Rob Wheeler and Jill Burkes bring a rare chemistry to their eclectic performances. Rooted in free-spirited authenticity, their music provides a gospel edge within Appalachian harmonic structure. Their songs often explore nature and incorporate a refreshing element of nature. They started out in 2020 as a duo with Rob on guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and stomp box and Jill on violin or guitar). For the Nisswa venue they expanded to include bassist Shane Kingsland. The ensemble is string-driven, performing traditional as well as original tunes. “Right from the start their style is a refreshingly modernized throwback to duos and groups of the 60s and early 70s that carved out the more acoustic folk-storytelling songbook,” praised American Highways. “Sometimes bands doing this type of music take time to find their footing, but these musicians are accomplished and ambitious,” said American Highways’ review of the 2024 debut album “Echoes in the Meadow.” “They aren’t trying to emulate anyone. They add sterling additions to their performance to enhance the pleasure of listening to them. Each tune whets the appetite for more. “This is quite the original. It’s an interesting listen. Even their covers are brightly performed. ‘Birds and Bees’ is a beautifully upbeat folk workout with lots of excellent vocalizing and accompaniment. The members comfortably add a cross-current of folk with R&R spice. Jill Burkes’ lead vocal is exemplary.” “When we were touring we camped in a canyon near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota,” Jill said. “It was fall and the colors were peaking on the trees. We did some of our first writing together as a trio there, surrounded by meadowland grasses and vivid autumn colors. We knew we wanted the album title to have a nature vibe to it. “We kept tossing around nature words. We landed on ‘Echoes in the Meadow.’ We liked the ring it had. We were making our own echoes in the meadow on that trip, and we also loved that the word echo doesn’t typically make someone think of a meadow landscape.”

CONCERT INFO

"Grassroots Concerts are the nonprofit cultural offerings of a small, happy society of largely omnivorous but gentle folk dedicated to the preservation of live entertainment in vicarious times."

GRASSROOTS CONCERTS are held at the LIVE WELL NIGHTCLUB AND COFFEE BAR at the Journey Church, 5459 Lakers Lane, Nisswa, MN.

Grassroots Concerts, a non-profit, volunteer-run organization begun in 1988, charges $15 at the door for adults and $5 for children under 12 with listening attention.

At all shows, seating is first-come, first-served and you are encouraged to come early to claim your choice of seats. Doors open 1 hour before show-time.

At each concert, decidedly the best family entertainment in the Brainerd Lakes area,
Grassoots welcomes your nonperishable food, cash, or check donation to a local food shelf.

Thank you for helping to continue quality concerts in the Lakes Area!