Making good public use of the underused-of-late Woman's Club Theater in Minneapolis, the Music and Storytellers series will return for another run this spring with guests including Lissie, Dave Simonett of Trampled by Turtles and longtime "A Prairie Home Companion" regular Sue Scott.
Tickets went on sale Friday via etix.com or suemclean.com for the truly intimate shows, which — as the name suggests — task the performers with talking about themselves and their craft alongside playing their music. VIP packages are available for some of the shows.
Other guests in the March 12-May 13 series will be: Meghan Kreidler and Michael Anderson, the creative partners behind local rock throwback band Kiss the Tiger; and Iron Range-reared blues/folk vet Paul Metsa, who will be discussing his new book "Alphabet Jazz" with fellow author and northern Minnesota native Andrea Swensson.
Known more as an actor and comedian, Scott will use her appearance in the series as a live staging of her podcast "Island of Discarded Women" with musical guests Jennifer Grimm, Ann Reed, Zippy Laske, Courtney Yasmineh and the new trio SingHers with Thomasina Petrus, Kathleen Johnson and Gwen Matthews.
Housed inside the regal and historic Woman's Club of Minneapolis — which overlooks Loring Park and the downtown skyline — the 1928-era theater cozily seats a little more than 600 people and boasts fine acoustics. The company behind this series, Sue McLean & Associates, is the all-women promotions team that produces other concert series at Canterbury Park and the Hilde Amphitheater and was long behind the sorely missed Music in the Zoo shows.
Here's the full schedule for Music & Storytellers:
Sunday, March 12: Sue Scott hosts "Island of Discarded Women" live show and podcast.
Saturday, March 25: Paul Metsa with guests Sonny Earl and Mari Harris, plus a Q&A moderated by music journalist Andrea Swensson.
Saturday, April 1: Lissie (solo).
Friday, April 14: Megan & Michael of Kiss the Tiger in a special "It Takes Two" performance.
Saturday, May 13: Dave Simonett of Trampled by Turtles with guests Superior Siren.
