If there is one city in the world that doesn’t need an excuse to party, it’s Duluth, MN. It’s in the air they breathe, in the beer they drink, the wild rice burgers they consume. I should use “we”, since I still feel a very close connection to the city that I left a mere 2 short years ago. Alas, I am now a big city outsider with starry eyes.

No, Duluth needs not a single excuse to party-they are the party! They are the people others around Minnesota, western Wisconsin and select parts of Canada look to to provide the good times. The people they look to keep their glasses and hearts full. Duluth is 2 parts innovation and 8 parts hospitality.

It’s this feeling and vibe that emanates out of the somatic woodwork of the walls and dwellings in Duluth. It’s this sentiment that gives Duluth it’s fuel and motivation to keep the Homegrown music festival raging on the verge of control and out-of. It’s  this same sentiment that gives Duluthians another great opportunity to cut loose, the Duluth Dylan Festival.

Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, and a the majority of people there want you to know that. And this is fine. I was raised in Hutchinson, MN. A city who proudly claims Les Kouba and Wally Pikal (the former a world renowned water color painter, the latter a performer best known for his ability to play 3 trumpets while simultaneously hopping on a Pogo Stick). Cities love paying homage to the success stories they birth and nurture. Duluth is no different. The first shadow Bob Dylan ever cast was in Duluth.  It was small back then, but rather large now. He’s been back to perform a few times, but none of which have been very memorable performances. Just sort-of in and out.

It’s almost better this way. I already sort-of imagine Bob Dylan as a ghost. His stories are, year-by-year, being filled with hyperbole and greater imagination. The movie “I’m not There” from 2007 is an epic semi-biography where Dylan is played by a black kid, Cate Blanchett, Mason Jennings. The film definitely plays off this notion of mystique surrounding Bob Dylan. I might be letting the idea of Bob Dylan get away from me a bit too much, so I’m going to reel it in here. The Blood on the Tracks Express, a 6 hour train ride from Duluth to Two Harbors and back is a wacky adventure filled with drunk characters and insane amounts of fun. There’s almost nothing Dylan about it other than the occasional Dylan cover by some of the bands or Jamie Ness and Brad Nelson playing Dylan songs as their band the Boomchuck’s pseudonym, the Free Wheelers.

This year’s train ride features The Black Eyed Snakes, Feeding LeRoy, Wolf Blood, Tin Can Gin, Clover St. Cronies, and the Social Disaster. The Boomchucks will most definitely do their Free Wheeler set at the Two Harbors VFW (or Legion I can’t remember) while the bar slings cheap tacos and dollar jello shots between train trips. I’ll be playing with Andy Olmstead at Fitger’s Brewhouse as Gabe Douglas and his Silverback Colony rock the Red Star directly after the train arrives back at the Fitger’s complex. Designed to be rowdy and adventurous, it sounds like this year will not be an exception to the party. See you on the train!

Nacho