Singer, songwriter, author and archeologist Adam Herman mines the peaks and valleys of life for his best work. His songs crystallize aspects of humanity and convey a keen sense of our existence along these Lake Superior shores. He employs clever conceptual connections that inhabit the entire tune, and sprinkles in powerful lines that feel like brilliant turns of phrase. Herman slows things down in a way most cannot, illuminating simple realities that are always there, but rarely comprehended. He finds the gold and turns it into song. The Dynamite Club features Ben Anderson, Alex Nelson, Alyssa Swanson and Todd Garland.

Alex Heil is one man with a guitar and a punk-rock heart. After playing in punk bands during his youth, Heil moved to Duluth in 2010 to attend college. Soon after, he recorded several songs and shared them with friends. Then time passed; he graduated, got married and started a family — common milestones of adulthood. Recently, he realized it’s not about having enough time but having the right support systems in place to prioritize his music. This approach resulted in the January 2025 release, Ten Years, an EP of songs written over the past decade. Additionally, Heil’s songs from 2010 are available on the album Growing Up to Do.

Post-punk trio Hardaybra is centered around the pointed songwriting of its frontman Mark Blom. The band has been on hiatus, but with some new material in the works, it’s planning another Homegrown appearance. The group features Blom on guitar with bassist Jeremy Craig and drummer Tyler Dubla. A Ranger Ron video has surfaced on YouTube which documents the group performing the original song “Relationshipwrecked” in 2019. The song opens with a nod to Gordon Lightfoot before rolling through some stormy chord changes and hitting a rocky chorus at full steam. The EP Impetus was released in 2018.

Nashville-based, Duluth-raised singer-songwriter Sydney Hansen has been expanding her sound from straight, cry-in-your-whiskey country to more rough-and-tumble southern rock. A concert video posted to YouTube last fall features a performance of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Hansen gives the song a sweet, smouldering reading while her electric band delivers a big guitar-solo finish. It’s the kind of work that wouldn’t sound out of place at the beautiful Ryman Auditorium or a rowdy Macon, Georgia, street dance. Hansen’s band features Don Douglas on electric guitar, Jim Holbeck on bass, Dave Patterson on drums, Paul Jones on steel guitar, Mark Wiita on piano, and David Ridson on fiddle.