DJ ESP to the rescue.

Magic. That's the only word for last night's Rift Magazine songwriter showcase at the Bryant-Lake Bowl, wherein Rift's Rich Horton assigned a bunch of local songwriters to write a song about...

Coffee.

In 36 hours.

Everybody came through like champs -- Luke Zimmerman, Eva Mohn, Mike Brady, Ellis, Martin Devaney, Brad Senne, Ben Glaros, Tony Thomas, Sam Keenan, Future Lisa, Chris Koza, Chris Harrington, Terry Eason, Patrik Tanner, and Rob Meany. The set concluded with a stunner from Big Ditch Road's heroic Darin Wald, who sang something like, "That look you gave me was stronger than anything you poured in my cup."

Mmm. It was the most memorable night at the BLB I've had since I saw Dan Wilson and Slim Dunlap engage in a similar hootenanny years ago, which found Wilson debuting the audience-singalong "Made To Last" and Dunlap playing a song he wrote before the gig: advice to a young songwriter/fan who'd written him a letter.

(Did we mention that Slim is rumored to be recording a new album starting this summer? I say call it Nevermind the 'Mats Reunion, Here's Slim Did we also mention that Chris Riemenschneider reports that Slim and Curt are playing every first Thursday --tomorrow!-- of the month at Famous Dave's in Uptown? C'est vrai and hallelujah. Oh, and the Belfast Cowboys , featuring ace songwriter Terry Walsh (my brother, and a former member of Slim's touring band opening for Son Volt)are doing a set of original tunes at the Acadia the same night. An embarrassment of riches here, musicheadies).

Anyway, aside from the quality of the writing, much of the magic stemmed from the fact that it was homegrown and ORIGINAL MUSIC. Good news: Brianna Riplinger is feverishly writing her review of last night's fever as we type. She had to work this morning, so it'll be posted here tonight or tomorrow.

As so many things do these days, the whole thing had a feeling of MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL RISING, in that anyone on that stage could've gotten the nod from the judges in Ross Rahalia's recent poll.

What's more, the collective tilling sound in the room reminded me of the two would-be lovers harvesting their field after a tough winter in Ali Salim's beautiful Sweet Land, and every soul there seemed to be living out the great Pearl S. Buck quote that a dear friend sent me a while back:

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.

"Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."

P.S. Encore, please. Weekly. Call it Rift's Thursday Night Hootenanny.

Luke Zimmerman

Eva Mohn

Chris Koza

Ellis

This is such a beautiful thing.

"Jesus Christ."

That's what I said to my friend Dennis, who'd bought me a ticket to see Rosie Thomas at the Turf Club earlier tonight, one song into her set. From the first notes it was apparent that Thomas was something like a descendent of Emily Dickinson whose sparse lyrics and angelic voice said more about love and the world we live in than any late-night beer-soddened blogger could ever hope to.

Here's a new picture of the Replacements and Josh Freese (thanks to 'Mats' fan John Wolf for the link). Brothers got together at Ed Ackerson's studio recently to record a new tune for the forthcoming 'Mats box set, which has been delayed for who knows why. Maybe my liner notes for All Shook Down sucked too much.

Essay and photos by Dave Krejci

Freddie Mercury channeled a message to Paul Rodgers last night, via my eight-year old daughter's beautiful face. I kid you not. But I realize such a loft claim necessitates explanation. If you can bear with me. . .

I got my first LP in 1976, when I was eight -- Queen's Sheer Heart Attack. At age 11, I saw Queen at the St. Paul Civic Center Arena. I took punches in fourth grade defending their honor and later fought on Freddie's behalf against an army of KISS fiends. In my twenties I painted my left-hand fingernails black in homage to Mercury and have kept a Heineken label for 15 years from the beer I had when Freddie died (his brand of choice). All the while, of course, I have listened to Queen for so many hours that the band built a small home in my skull due to their repeated visits.

Cripes, I miss reading the L.A. Weekly's Kate Sullivan in City Pages. Her report from South By Southwest reminded me as much. Kate, come home. For a vacation, at least. Minneapolis rock needs/misses your sense and sensibility. Do a "rock 'n' roll love letter" to/from Minneapolis. Pretty please?

Jeff 'n' Kate

Andrea over at Minneapolitan Music has a cool riff on heroes this week. I can relate. I''ve got so many heroes, I should start a church with stained glass windows to all the writers, readers, rockers, and everyday Joe and Josephine Blows I'd like to blow. Here's some photos of me and my boy-hero Billy Bragg from last night's gig at the Fine Line.

1. "Snow Day," Kevin Kling. The last time there was a Storm Of The Century around these parts, a little thing called iTunes did not exist. I've been up for 15 minutes this morning; the tree branches and streets are caked with white, and already I've downloaded five "Snow Days." This is the perennial, the piece de reistance, as delivered by the Kirby Puckett of spoken-word story-tellers.

2. "Snow Day," Matt Pond PA. A pause in the hurtling-along ever-after, in which we find ourselves hanging out on a lazy morning and taking stock of "the people we have become." A nice respite, but after a while Brother Matt concludes, "We can want more." Speaking of which -- hey, iTunes, why can't a brother get Trip Shakespeare's "Snow Day"?

3. "Snow Day," Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. "You're my medicine," she sings, sounding like a lover who's snowed in and can't get to the office or classroom or parking lot where her other half lives and so, of course, "it's a bad day... it's a long ride… miles to go."

4. "Snow Day," Trout Fishing In America. Corny, campy, and cool. Everything's closed, not a thing we can do, so let's spend the whole day together. Fun! Um, yeah. Well. Redrum. Redrum.

5. "Snow Day," The Honorary Title. So claustrophobic and so rich in adolescent-angst detail, you can almost feel the walls closing in.

6. "Sunday," Michelle Featherstone. The Sabbath may be the day of rest, but not for a restless-hearted pop waif (Tanita Tikaram, anyone?) who misses her lover all week until this holy day, which comes and goes too quickly. Here's to a month of Sundays.

7. "Keeping Me Awake," Tarkio. The Decemberists are getting too clever and/or ornate for me, but this ��" and about 20 others off the new 27-song compilation Omnibus -- are raw, literate things of emo-country beauty that find singer/songwriter Colin Meloy at his basic best.

8. "Breathe Me," Sia. I wrote a column this week about a guy who met a girl at a bar one night two years ago and fell in love with her on the spot. I've told a few people the story, and most were skeptical about what his definition of "love" is; contending that a version like his isn't "real love" or "healthy." Maybe so, but sometimes all it takes is a breath, a scent, and you're gone. This wispy anti-ballad, with a piano that sounds like the bag blowing in the wind at the end of American Beauty is the perfume called "Something To Remember Me By."

9. "Birmingham 1982," Maria Taylor "Do you still remember flashlights under covers?/Raindrops on our tongue?/When life had no distractions?/And love wasn't hurting anyone?" Ouch.

10. "That Teenage Feeling," Neko Case. I don't know anything about Neko Case's love life, except for what I hear in her voice, but it's pretty clear she's never known -- or even desires -- "comfortable as an old shoe" love. On her brilliant new one Fox Confessor Brings The Flood her friend says, "I'm holding out for that teenage feeling."

And Neko agrees, and who can blame her, what with all that pulse-racing and get-to-knowing-each-other and telepathy that goes with it; heaven help her, and anyone who falls for the likes of her, because…

11. "Girls Can Really Tear You Up Inside," A Girl Called Eddy. My 'tweener son and his buddies have just discovered girls. I'm tempted to play this Magnolia-style warning for them, but they're already figuring it out for themselves.

12. "How Can I Protect You?," Alabama 3. A parent-child summit in an uneasy universe that concludes, Marley-magnificently, everything's gonna be alright.

13. "In The News," Kris Kristofferson. The best summation of how it feels to be alive right now, off the best folk-rock record since John Prine's latest.

14. "Oxygen," Willy Mason. Just when you think you're alone in this fucked-up world, someone comes along and sings a pep-talk that becomes your three-times-a-day medicine. Sing it, my peeps:

I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be

On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until I'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew

15. "Plaything," Tim O'Reagan. My favorite song from my favorite singer of the moment, from his debut CD out soon.

16. "I'll Follow You Into The Dark," Death Cab For Cutie. A Catholic school survivor who got his knuckles cracked by the nuns who told him "fear is at the core of love," promises to the lonely listener, "If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks, I'll follow you into the dark." So I got that going for me.

17. "Love Love Love," Mountain Goats. Some things you do for money, some things you do for love, love, love. Some moments last forever, but some flare up in love, love, love.

18. "Not Just Sometimes But Always," Idlewild. An ode to individualism ��" the one that eschews the voices of the leaders and pundits for the inner voices and the voices on the radio. By the way, why are the Vines singing the archaic sentiment, "Don't listen to the radio" at a time whin pretty much the only sentiments that make any sense are coming out of the (music) radio?

19. "I Hope You Had The Time Of Your Life," Green Day. Alicia Corbett and her angels of mercy put together a sweet Katrina benefit at Grumpy's Saturday night, and Dave Boquist finished the evening with his rich baritone and gorgeous guitar playing, and a set highlighted by a longing version of J.J. Cale's "Magnolia." The cherry on top was Dave's teenage son Shane, who performed this Green Day classic. I've heard it at weddings and funerals over the past few years, but rarely has it been so hopeful.

20. "What A Wonderful World," Louis Armstrong. Bob Stinson's favorite song ��" it was played at his funeral ��" filled the Metrodome with sweet sorrow last night at another funeral of another Minnesota-made icon. It was so balming to see Martin DeVaney, a baseball-loving Minnesota kid with wet eyes, backing up Jim "Mudcat" Grant, a Minnesota baseball legend with weary-wise eyes, on Louie's stop-and-smell-the-pine-tar ode to the healing nature of beauty.

1. "Bad News From Phoenix," Curtiss A
2. "The Day They Take The Twins Away," Vinnie & The Stardusters
3. "Puckett's Farewell," Peter Oshtroushko
4. "Empty Baseball Park," Whiskeytown
5. "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request," Steve Goodman
6. "First Breath After Coma," Explosions In The Sky
7. "In The Sun," Joseph Arthur
8. "Hayday," Replacements
9. "Mr. Ambulance Driver," Flaming Lips
10. "Minnesota Polka," Gear Daddies
11. "Center Field," John Fogerty
12. "Everyday Boy," Joan Armatrading
13. "The Greatest," Cat Power
14. "Fixin' To Die Blues," Bukka White
15. "My Ride's Here," Bruce Springsteen
16. "One Of These Days," Neil Young
17. "Thank You Friends," Big Star
18. "Chicago Breakdown," Louis Armstrong
19. "Harmon Killebrew," Jeff Arundel
20. "When You Walk On," Eliza Gilkyson