Trampled by Turtles, a folk band from Duluth, Minn., will perform at 8 p.m. today at the Bluebird ?Nightclub.
The band is set to be joined at the show by fellow Duluth, Minn., folk musician Charlie Parr and Minneapolis folk duo The ?Lowest Pair.
“There’s a lot of good Minnesota bands right now,” Trampled by Turtle’s fiddle player Ryan Young said. “The two bands we’re going on tour with are two prime examples of good Minnesota music ?right now.”
Since the release of its latest album “Wild Animals” in July 2014, Trampled by Turtles has been touring heavily around the United States in addition to making appearances on NPR’s “Tiny Desk Sessions” and “Late Show with David ?Letterman.”
Their momentum doesn’t look as though it will be stopping soon, either, with tour dates announced until the end of August, many of which are appearances at festivals such as the ?Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and the band’s own Festival Palomino.
Young said when the band goes on tour, it creates a new set list every night because it doesn’t want to do the same show twice. He also said they try to create a good mixture of their songs — old, new, fast and slow — to make each show different.
“Our shows are high energy and kind of intense,” Young said.
Some of the themes on the album, according to the band’s website, stem from lead songwriter Dave Simonett’s recent move from Duluth, Minn., to Minneapolis. He wrote on the website about the ritual of spending time alone in a solitary, natural environment that he had to give up when he moved to a larger city.
“This was a very important ritual for me,” Simonett wrote. “Solitary time in a nearly untouched landscape is my version of church, so I think there is a bit of loss of religion in a lot of my work these days.”
Writing for the Current, Bill DeVille said the band continues “to focus more on the songcraft than the speed and precision.” He also wrote that, despite being a band bedded in bluegrass and folk music, Trampled by Turtles isn’t afraid to venture into other genres such as rock.
“This isn’t your daddy’s bluegrass band,” DeVille wrote. “This is bluegrass for people who don’t ?necessarily like bluegrass.”
The Lowest Pair’s debut album, “36 Cents,” was released January 2014 and found the duo already connected to Trampled by Turtles with Simonett as a producer and engineer on the album. Evan Schlansky wrote for American Songwriter that the pair combines “a two-banjo approach with earnest, earthy songcraft.”
Charlie Parr also released a new album in 2014. “Hollandale,” an improvisational and instrumental album of five songs, was produced by Alan Sparhawk, who also served as producer for Trampled by Turtle’s “Wild Animals.”
“I normally record with a set number of tunes, and I know them from start to finish,” Parr wrote on his website. “Here I started with a tuning and maybe a couple of phrases and then ?improvised the rest.”
Tickets are available for $20. The show is open only to those 21 and older. Doors open at 7 p.m.
