When Duluth was Country

Duluth was once a Midwestern center for country-western music. I’m going to share some fragments of it, and I want readers to help me with three things: 1. Are any PDDers alive who remember these things? 2. Are they still rolling and just not on my radar? These come from a book I bought at Gabriel’s back in the day.

So for example, does anyone remember North Country Shindig?

When I first moved here, the Chmielewski Fun Time Band played at UMD. I didn’t realize they had a TV show!

All of these materials are from a book by Dottie Lou. Her music label was in Minneapolis.

I can’t imagine country music labels in Minneapolis anymore.

There were, at one time, multiple country western shows, live, each week in Duluth and the surrounding area.

… including the Gopher?

The Venture Supper Club no longer exists, yeah? It started as the Hollywood Club, then the Venture Club, then it burned down, I think.

The auditorium would be filled with country at times. Wait. Auditorium?

And the Duchess of Duluth was inflected with a country vibe. All of the above was taken from books by country western musician Dottie Lou.

Dottie Lou maintains a website. And, there is a lot of Dottie on Social Media:

• Facebook on great concerts in Duluth.
• Facebook on Minnesota Music History.
• A Johnny Cash blog.
• A country music archive (Upper Midwest Country & Western News-Scene vol. 1, no. 7),

Dottie Lou’s “A Bunch of Love” is available on YouTube.

The album North Country Shindig is for sale on eBay.

But what I really want are your memories.