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Gavin St. Clair at Sire Benedict's. Photos by Jill Fisher.

Ever wonder how one’s personal taste in music evolves?

In speaking with many musicians, it seems that our parents’ preferences get inculcated in us at an early age. Then, despite exploring newer music in our teens and 20s (which our parents usually hated), we begin to better appreciate those older tunes as we age.

Such were my musings Monday, Nov. 17, when I heard Gavin St. Clair play a solo show at Sir Benedict’s Tavern on the Lake. Though I saw him play a while back at Carmody Irish Pub, I am more familiar with him as keyboardist for Saltydog.

Gavin was subbing for Teague Alexy on this Monday evening and playing acoustic guitar. His repertoire included many very old tunes that I grew up hearing and pretty much know by heart. What was most amazing, Gavin knew them all by heart, too!

I mean a young rocker like him covering Fats Waller’s 1929 “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and Hoagy Carmichael’s 1931 “Up A Lazy River” is not all that common. He sang “Blueberry Hill,” which was published in 1940 (a song my father loved) and that was made more famous by Fats Domino’s 1956 recording.

When asked about knowing these, the Eden Prairie native responded, “I just kind of caught the jazz bug in my late 20s and started teaching myself those old standards”

Gavin’s playlist was something of a musical retrospective that included “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in 1945, Hank Williams’ 1948 “I Saw the Light” and 1952 recording of “Take These Chains from My Heart.”

“Big Blue Diamonds” written by Earl J. “Kit” Carson and first recorded by country singer Red Perkins in 1950 was another.

Nor was Gavin reticent about singing songs made popular by Patsy Cline, such as “Walking After Midnight”(1957) and “So Wrong” (1962).

More 1960s covers included the Everly Brothers’ “Walk Right Back” (1961), John Hartford’s “Gentle On My Mind” (1967) and Tom T. Hall’s 1969 country tune “That’s How I Got to Memphis.”

Whew, what a playlist!

But that wasn’t all. Even the most recent tunes Gavin played date back 50-plus years, from the early 70s. These included “Close To You” by the Carpenters (1970) and Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California” (1972).

But what amazed me the most was Gavin playing “Sugar Man” by Sixto Rodriguez (1970). I became aware of this tune from the 2012 award winning documentary, Searching for Sugarman, about him and his mysterious disappearance from the popular music world. It’s a great music-related flick that I recommend.

After seeing this documentary I also heard from a friend that he was extremely popular in Australia in the 1970s. It was one of the more uptempo and raw songs Gavin sang on this evening of mostly gentle love songs.

Interspersed amongst the above tunes (which don’t include a list of what he played in the hour before I arrived!) were several instrumentals that displayed Gavin’s fine picking on his acoustic guitar.

What was an even more pleasant discovery was his beautiful, sweet, pitch-perfect voice that gave this wonderful variety of songs their due.

Gavin is a fixture in Duluth’s music scene; he has hosted open mics at Sir Ben’s every other Tuesday night for eight years. I will have attended his show at Zeitgeist with his trio on Tuesday, Nov. 25, since this is someone I will be wanting to hear again.

Cigarette Picnic

The next evening, Tuesday, Nov. 18, I was in for something entirely new and different. The trio Cigarette Picnic is a new group of three female vocalists — Erica “Ricky” Francois, Madi Phyle  and Elsa Krantz. Erica and Madi both sing with the band Jumpsuit while Elsa has been performing solo for nearly a year now. They played at Zeitgeist, opening for The Peat Boggs.

The Zeitgeist performing space was relocated from the bar/restaurant proper to the spacious upper lobby/gallery, which increased the seating area for folks there for the music and away from the chatter of diners.

This should prove to be a big improvement for those interested in actually listening to the performers.

In this case the ladies were rather difficult to hear as they stood a bit too far from the single multi-directional microphone being used. Despite this, the show was worthwhile, with some very fine harmonies to be heard.

What is most interesting about Cigarette Picnic is that all 10 songs they performed were original compositions. Most were co-written by the trio, others by one of the individual singers. The lyrics were engaging and seem to have been inspired by very personal observations and aspirations. It was poetry and wisdom seemingly beyond the years of these three young females.

The music was spare, with some bass guitar for accompaniment (played primainly by Elsa, but Madi taking over on one song).

The first number was “Parallel Lines,” which demonstrated their wonderful vocal harmonies right off the bat. They put me in mind of The Roches, while the Curmudgeon was reminded of Ollabelle (which includes Levon Helm’s daughter Amy).

Each of the singers took turns singing lead; Elsa sang “Notion” with her rich, low alto voice. Ricky may have the strongest voice of the three and she led on “Under The Rug.”

My favorite might have been “Mole Hill” that declared the protagonist could make a “sea out of a pond, a William out of Bill and a mountain out of a mole hill.” Madi was lead vocalist on that one.

They ended their set with “Gospel Song” sung a cappella with only clapping as accompaniment. That was quite nice and suggested to me that they could ditch the bass guitar. (The C did not agree!) 

I suspect this trio will continue to evolve and produce more compelling compositions. With10 already under their belt, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an album being produced. In any case, this is a group to watch and enjoy.

The latter part of last week, the C and I enjoyed a potpourri of musical entertainment.

Mike Munson

On Thursday, Nov. 20, we made sure to get to Bent Paddle to hear Twin Citian Mike Munson, who played solo during an outer gear donation drive for CHUM and associated raffle. (We didn’t win anything but it looked like they made quite a haul.)

Munson is an accomplished guitarist, with fabulous licks and slide work, and excellent singer-songwriter. I liken him to Charlie Parr, as the delivery of his original lyrics is similar.

It was interesting to discover his local connections: he’s a cousin of Tim Leutgeb, banjo player with Black River Revue.

The following evening we stopped into Cedar Lounge to see what The Roadside Lupines were all about. It was a bluegrass band formed by a bunch of college friends: Jason on mandolin, Jamie on banjo, Riley on acoustic guitar and Molly on bass. They performed “Jolene” by Dolly Parsons, some classics including “Rocky Top,” covers of Trampled By Turtles, and several original numbers. They must have a lot of friends as the place was packed by Gen-Zers!

The Gemstones

Next stop was Wussow’s, where we enjoyed the last few songs of The Gemstones’ set. When we walked in they were playing “Ghostbusters” with great energy and an enthusiastic audience response. This group has gotten so tight and has so much fun playing I challenge anyone to resist its infectious funky energy.

All four members – Josh Nickila (electric guitar), Courtney Ellian (keys), Manny Eisle (bass guitar) and Ian Hopp (drums) – are superb musicians and man, can they rock! Good stuff to keep in mind when you have the opportunity to see them again.

Coop & The Kooks

Saturday evening we got back over to Cedar Lounge to hear Coop & The Kooks; that’s Jimi Cooper (electric guitar), Darryn Wallace (bass guitar) and Marvin Lee, nee Pomeroy (drums), top-notch musicians all. All decked out in their colorful tie-dyed tee-shirts, they play  a whole other genre of music — surfin’ rock. Great stuff to dance to!

It was good to see Marvin back on the drums after his major heart surgeries in 2024.

Coop & The Kooks were the opening act for The Swongos, another surf-rock band hailing from St. Croix Falls, Wis. They seemed to be playing mostly original music, since I didn’t recognize most of the songs. From what I hear, they tour nationally.

The Swongos

However, the turnout at Cedar for this group was small, indicating the plethora of music happening all around the Twin Ports on this weekend before the official holiday season.

TAKE NOTE! The Sunday Blues Jam at R.T. Quinlan’s is on sabbatical during football season. Don’t worry, it will be back in the spring and we’ll let you know when.

UPCOMING: The choices for music to hear in the last five weeks of 2025 just seems to be getting harder for all the offerings on tap. One show I know many folks are looking forward to happens this Saturday, Nov. 29, at Wussow’s Concert Café featuring The Fractals. This band is renowned, but not so often heard these days. I will see you there!