It’s too bad Duke Boys Auto on Grand Avenue isn’t a Homegrown venue because The Repairmen and their pedal-steel-tinged, frozen country sound would make great music rumbling through the garage bays. The Repairmen are led by singer and guitarist Garth Anderson, who writes deep, well-constructed hymns inspired by the region. “Duluth Song” and “Mimi” share a set list with Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.” The group features Joshua Tesch on guitar and steel, Jeremy Roseth on drums and Timothy Rubin on bass. A series of live recordings, including the band’s 2024 Homegrown set, are available on Bandcamp.

Setting the tone for vigorous headbanging and tossing around, metalcore band Pronoya formed in 2020. The group features Kyle Wolden and William Richardson on guitar, Connor Slawson on electric bass, Loren Dawson on hard-rock drums and Ryan Walkes handling the screaming. They have released five singles. The most recent, “Sever,” was mixed by Wolden and mastered by Mike Kalajian. In August, Pronoya was featured by the Duluth Ballet in its Emerging Performing Artist Series. Since then, these metalheads have been meticulously crafting their debut EP, set to release this year.

Portrait of a Drowned Man is an instrumental post-rock collective composed of Paul Connolly, CJ Keller, Justin Kervina, Ken Nyberg and Aaron Richner. The band has been not-so-quietly making a name for itself in the Duluth music scene with its towering wall-of-sound performances over the past 20 years. Known for its experimental tendencies, the guitar-heavy band frequently collaborates with filmmakers, features guest musicians for one-off performances, and engages in live improvisational sets. Sessions for the group’s fourth studio album were sidelined by the pandemic, leading to a years-long hibernation. Now inspired to complete that nearly forgotten album, PoaDM is working toward a new release in 2025.

Nordic ensemble Ponyfolk features multi-instrumentalists Clifton Nesseth and Paul Sauey. Weaving together interests in folk, rock, jazz and orchestral music, the band is known for intricate arrangements, vocal harmonies and layers of strings and keyboards. Initially formed as a duo in 2014, the group now includes Aaron Hays on drums and Alex Nelson on keyboards. Ponyfolk performs in a variety of configurations, deftly transitioning between a traditional Nordic group and a folk-rock band depending on the occasion. Ponyfolk collaborated with Ross Thorn for a holiday EP in December. A traditional Nordic album was released in February.