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Kenyatta Hill with Culture at Bayfront Reggae and World Music Festival. Photos by Jill Fisher.

It was a dark and dreary day with a deluge of rain in the late afternoon into early evening hours that threatened to keep attendees away from the Lake Street Dive concert at Bayfront on Tuesday, July 15, despite the “rain or shine” caveat on the tickets. Indeed, the festival grounds gates did not open at the specified 5:30 time. 

So, as I waited in my car for the rain to subside, it was amazing to see people continue to arrive outfitted in ponchos and rain gear and wait for the gates to open, which they eventually did at 8 p.m. This group has a following! 

Lo and behold, the rain tapered off, the western sky lightened and there was no more wet stuff for the duration of the concert. Something for which all of us attendees were most thankful.

Although the band’s name is taken from slang for a certain south Minneapolis bar (the Bryant Lake Bowl) Lake Street Dive is actually based in Boston. It is in the midst of a nationwide tour; the closest it will be to us in the foreseeable future is either Milwaukee (396 miles) or Des Moines (395 miles). I’m thinking this group might be worth a road trip.

But first, the opener which began nearly two hours late: Your Smith, which is actually singer-songwriter Caroline Smith plus a backup band. She’s a Detroit Lakes native who is now based in Minneapolis, after a stint in Los Angeles. She plays electric guitar and her bandmates play electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and keys. These were manned by Jake Luppen (a multi-instrumentalist and frontman of the band Hippo Campus) together with Reese and Jesse (sorry, no last names for these two). Because of the late start—8:50 pm to be exact—Smith announced that they would simply blow through five of their songs. Most of these tunes were presumably from her most recent album The Rub (2025), including “Change of Heart,” which describes how one’s feelings may change about a romantic relationship. It was a good tune with insightful lyrics.

Your Smith

Descriptions of Your Smith’s music are generally “indie folk” or “alt indie” which don’t confer any real description of its music to me. Caroline did the lead vocals on all the songs, with nice harmonies by the other guitarists. They were upbeat and definitely danceable. 

Perhaps “indie” simply suggests that the person or group has a very personal view of the world that is expressed through its music and lyrics. In any case, it was a tease of a performance that made me think of seeing them again since they are based in the Twin Cities.

By 9:20 pm the headliner, Lake Street Dive, took the stage with its eclectic sound that Rolling Stone magazine referred to as “jazz-pop-whatever.” While jazz was a starting point for each of them, one can’t miss the influence of soul music in their mix. Their sound has morphed to include pop, rock and roll, folk and who knows what else? 

Lake Street Dive

Members are Rachael Price (lead vocals), Bridget Kearney (bass, vocals), Mike Calabrese (drums, vocals), Akie Bermiss (keyboards, vocals) and James Cornelison (electric guitar, vocals). Price, Kearney and Calabrese are the three original members dating back to 2004, with Bermiss joining in 2017and Cornelison in 2021. 

This concert was really delightful with LSD (!) performing songs from its most recent album Good Together (2024) beginning with its title track and including, “Better Not Tell You,” “Dance With a Stranger,” “Party on the Roof” and “Twenty-Five.” The latter about a long-ago love that still remains in one’s heart. 

There was also their fun cover of the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” from the 2012 EP Fun Machine. Another fun one was “Zamboni.” An especially memorable number was a soul-infused ballad sung by Bermiss with his accompaniment on keys. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the title. 

Oh well, it was a fine concert that will have me following the band and likely attending another concert when they get back to this neck of the woods. 

Then there was the 19th Annual Bayfront Reggae and World Music Festival on Saturday, July 19. Despite a forecast for unhealthy air quality, a light breeze out of the northeast and off the lake kept the smoke from Canadian wildfires at bay. Thankfully it was sunny and 70 degrees when the festival kicked off with our local ska band Woodblind with Teague Alexy – a bit later than the scheduled 3 p.m. start. 

Now, I’ve seen this large 10-member band in various venues with varying compositions and I must say their appearance on this stage amply demonstrated their full-bodied sound and musicianship. But the special surprise in store for us was their reggae version of Pink Floyd’s “Time.” Beginning with a cacophony of sounds that mirror the ticking and clanging timepieces in the original song, it took a while to recognize it but then came through clearly, even if in the ska mode. 

Woodblind with Teague Alexy

Wow, that was amazing and such a revelation to know this amalgamation of musicians could tackle just about any song they desired. Their well-honed repertoire and showmanship showed them to be perfectly poised for the big time. It’s too bad there wasn’t a larger audience there to witness it, as it took the long line of folks quite a while to achieve entry.

The second act on the schedule was the Jamaican Kenyatta Hill with Culture. Kenyatta had immediately and impressively stepped in to take his father’s, Joseph Hill’s, part when he collapsed onstage at a European concert in 2006. This set struck me as real rootsy reggae and Hill was ably backed by the musicians of Culture, which included two talented female singers who also had some great dance moves. 

He shared some memorable original songs, among them “Population Control” and “Policeman.” He spoke of smoking anywhere, even in Dubai; a Dylan-style/Highway 61 siren whistle clued us into what kind of smoke he was talking about. Kenyatta’s set was very well received, with encore and much applause in which I joined wholeheartedly.

It was at this point that the music schedule was adjusted. The next performer, Timaya who hails from Nigeria and who is the acclaimed “King of Afro-Soca music” was supposed to begin at 6:30 pm, but instead we got the DJ Fujun filling in for an hour and 20 minutes. But the audience did not appear to be disappointed as dancing continued and I didn’t hear any complaints. 

Timaya’s set was an oddly schizophrenic though – from rocking reggae (“Be Myself”) to a suddenly religious bent where he actually began blessing the audience as if he was a priest. At one point he made the statement that “there’s no love without money.” The crowd let him know they did not agree!

One of the fascinating things about this festival is that it draws many people of color from outside of Duluth, evidently visiting just for this concert, following their favorite performers. It appeared that the males were dancing just a much as the females (not so typical here) and there was a good deal of “twerking” happening on the dance floor as well as on stage. 

A limbo contest has been an annual tradition that scads of folks, young and old, participated in, myself included. So fun to watch!

Limbo contest

Romain Virgo was the erstwhile headliner for this festival and, due to the previous delay, he didn’t take the stage until 8:50 pm, almost an hour after his scheduled start time. Like Kenyatta, he had two dancers that added interest to his show, which was heavy on romantic ballads. 

It was interesting to hear him ask the audience after each of his later songs, whether they wanted to hear more from him. I wondered what he might have done had we yelled out “NO!” But that didn’t happen and he played out his full set. From my perspective, he went on a bit too long.

It was nearly 10:30 by the time Virgo ended his set and the last act began: Charly Black, the Jamaican dancehall DJ and performer. He really blasted his music out. It was LOUD – way too loud. with reports of it being heard in the East Hillside. The bass notes were so overwhelming that the bones in my body vibrated and I had to distance myself in order not to feel like I might have a heart attack. The crowd must have felt the same as a mass exodus began soon after Black’s set began. I had inserted high-end ear plugs a bit earlier in the evening, but they did not help in this instance. 

From what I understand, Black’s set ended a half-hour early due to the 11 p.m. curfew for music at Bayfront. I’m hopeful that this issue of volume will be adequately addressed prior to next year’s festival. 

Charly Black

UPCOMING: Attention all you Finns (and would-be Finns) out there —FinnFest is coming back to Duluth! It starts on Thursday, July 31, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 3. I went last year and it was a hoot. Of course it was mostly about the music for me, with some traditional dances thrown in. This year the “Tori” (market) is free and open to the public, during which there are several musical offerings, such as a duet by Steve Solkela and Kyle Gray Young at 10 am and the Lindula Brothers at 1 pm on Friday. Those interested in classical music may want to attend a performance by the FinnFest Symphony Orchestra at 8 pm Friday evening at the Denfeld High School Auditorium. It features professional musicians from across the country together with members of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra to perform all-Finnish classical music. This is a ticketed event. Check out all the offerings and details at finnfest.us/events.