Luke Redfield
Encyclopedia
Luke Redfield is an American indie folk
Indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, country music, and indie rock. A few early artists included Lou Barlow, Beck, Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith...

 singer-songwriter. Sharing his Duluth
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...

 birthplace with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, Redfield grew up in small-town Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 and Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

, and has since lived in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, San Francisco, Nashville, and Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

.

In 2008, Redfield recorded Fire Mountain with guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker
Jeremy Ylvisaker
Jeremy Ylvisaker is a Minneapolis-based musician. Ylvisaker fronts the band Alpha Consumer. He plays guitar in Andrew Bird's touring band band alongside fellow Minnesotans Dosh and Alpha Consumer bassist Mike Lewis....

 and drummer JT Bates. The album was produced by Eyedea
Eyedea
Micheal Larsen , known by his stage name Eyedea, was a well-known freestyle battle champion and underground rapper. His notable wins included the televised Blaze Battle sponsored by HBO and a victory at Scribble Jam...

, but never physically released due to lack of proper funding. A few of the songs, however, are included on Redfield's debut LP, Ephemeral Eon, which released to critical acclaim in 2010.

Redfield's lyrics are often philosophical with an atmospheric backdrop which has earned comparisons to Iron and Wine, Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes is an American indie rock band founded by singer-songwriter and guitarist Conor Oberst. It consists of Oberst, multi-instrumentalist and producer Mike Mogis, trumpet and piano player Nate Walcott, and a rotating lineup of collaborators drawn primarily from Omaha's indie music...

, M Ward and Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...

.

Early life

Redfield was born in Duluth, Minnesota and grew up in the small towns of Cannon Falls and Kenyon
Kenyon, Minnesota
Kenyon is a city in Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, along the North Fork of the Zumbro River. It was founded in 1856 and named in honor of Kenyon College...

, the son of a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

 songwriter turned Lutheran minister. Redfield's family moved a lot during his youth, also living in Alliance
Alliance, Nebraska
-External links:* * *...

, located in Nebraska Panhandle
Nebraska Panhandle
The Nebraska Panhandle is an area in the west of the state of Nebraska. A panhandle is an area extending from the rest of a political unit; the Nebraska panhandle is two-thirds as broad as the rest of the state. It is approximately 100 miles east to west and 125 miles north to south...

. Redfield attributes his vagabond spirit to his parents: “Dad’s lineage of Norwegian Viking and my ma’s Bohemian Gypsy blood pretty much cursed, or blessed, me to be a wanderer by nature...so I figured I’d write some songs along the way.

While dabbling in hip hop in his teens, Redfield heard a cassette copy of Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited in his dad's Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...

 and suddenly had an epiphany to switch genres. Teaching himself guitar, he became a folk-rock troubadour heavily influenced by Dylan's early work, as well as the albums Revival and Soul Journey, by Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...

, and Nebraska, by Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

.

Travels & Music

Following an unfruitful year at Music Tech (now McNally Smith
McNally Smith College of Music
McNally Smith College of Music is a contemporary for-profit music college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. McNally Smith offers a range of diplomas, associate's degrees, and bachelor's degrees in the areas of music business; performance in guitar, bass, drums, voice, keyboard, brass...

) College in St. Paul, Minnesota, a young Redfield strapped his Martin acoustic guitar to his back and set out on a voyage to see the world. In 2006, he busked his way through Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, sleeping in hostels and at homes of musician friends he met in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Dublin, and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. Networking through Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

, he got his first break when he was invited to open for London-based songwriter, Nick Harper
Nick Harper
Nick Harper is an English singer-songwriter/guitarist. He is the son of English folk musician Roy Harper.-Early life:Nick Harper was born in London in 1965 to the famous folk singer-songwriter Roy Harper...

.

Redfield returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 2007 and booked his first tour, which consisted of solo acoustic bar gigs and street performances in Madison, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Austin, where Redfield ended up living for an extended period. It was on this trip that Redfield and his traveling pal, Drew Swenhaugen (editor of Poor Claudia), met Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

, Riders in the Sky, and Ke$ha, whose family treated the boys to backstage passes at the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...

.

In summer 2008, Redfield sojourned in Homer, Alaska
Homer, Alaska
Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population was 5,364. One of Homer's nicknames is "the cosmic hamlet by the sea"; another is "the end of the road"...

, where he lived a Thoreau-like lifestyle without the conveniences of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...

. Living in a seven-by-seven foot shack nicknamed "The Birdhouse," Redfield used this meditative time for self-inquiry and wrote some his most stirring material to date, including the song "Find Me in the Light," which attempts to explain Nondualism
Nondualism
Nondualism is a term used to denote affinity, or unity, rather than duality or separateness or multiplicity. In reference to the universe it may be used to denote the idea that things appear distinct while not being separate. The term "nondual" can refer to a belief, condition, theory, practice,...

 in layman's terms.

Redfield's music was first recognized in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, where he released his studio debut, Ephemeral Eon, in March 2010. The Star Tribune
Star Tribune
The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...

 and City Pages
City Pages
City Pages is an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It features news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews, and music criticism. It is printed in a tabloid format, and is available free every Wednesday...

 both gave rave reviews, while Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio , is the flagship National Public Radio member network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, Classical Music and The Current, MPR operates a 42-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest serving over 8 million people...

 and Cities 97 continue to play several of its tracks, many of which were mixed by Eyedea
Eyedea
Micheal Larsen , known by his stage name Eyedea, was a well-known freestyle battle champion and underground rapper. His notable wins included the televised Blaze Battle sponsored by HBO and a victory at Scribble Jam...

 and feature Jeremy Ylvisaker
Jeremy Ylvisaker
Jeremy Ylvisaker is a Minneapolis-based musician. Ylvisaker fronts the band Alpha Consumer. He plays guitar in Andrew Bird's touring band band alongside fellow Minnesotans Dosh and Alpha Consumer bassist Mike Lewis....

 and Haley Bonar
Haley Bonar
Haley Bonar is an American alternative country singer-songwriter who hails from South Dakota. She has lived in Duluth and St. Paul, Minnesota. In July 2009, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she spent a year writing songs for her newest album Golder, which is to be released April 19, 2011...

. Redfield was "Picked 2 Click" by City Pages in August 2010 and Ephemeral Eon earned honorable mention on critic Rob Van Alstyne's list of the year's best local records.

Redfield has collaborated and performed with artists such as Dosh
Dosh
Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh , known in music as Dosh, is a musician and multi-instrumentalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an artist, Dosh is a percussionist uses various electronics, often with a Fender Rhodes...

, Gregory Alan Isakov
Gregory Alan Isakov
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Philadelphia, Isakov later moved to Colorado. Isakov's voice and guitar style leave a humble presence that has spawned a burgeoning fan base. He has shared the stage with numerous touring artists such as Ani Difranco, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Alexi...

, Marissa Nadler
Marissa Nadler
Marissa Nadler is an American dream-folk singer-songwriter and fine artist based in Boston.-Early life:Marissa Nadler was exposed to art at a young age through her mother Pamela, an abstract painter, and her older brother Stuart, a guitarist and writer...

, Haley Bonar
Haley Bonar
Haley Bonar is an American alternative country singer-songwriter who hails from South Dakota. She has lived in Duluth and St. Paul, Minnesota. In July 2009, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she spent a year writing songs for her newest album Golder, which is to be released April 19, 2011...

, and The Tiny
The Tiny
The Tiny is a Swedish band consisting of pianist and vocalist Ellekari Larsson, cellist Leo Svensson, and double bassist Johan Berthling . Larsson's DetErMine Records distributes the band's albums in Sweden, while they are signed to Eyeball Records in the United States...

, and shares live/studio band members with Peter Wolf Crier, Dark Dark Dark
Dark Dark Dark
Dark Dark Dark is an American chamber folk band based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Formed in 2006, the band has toured extensively in the United States and Europe and is known for their blend of New Orleans jazz, Americana, Eastern European folk and pop sensibilities.In 2008 Dark Dark Dark...

, Sound Team
Sound Team
Sound Team was an American band based in Austin, Texas that formed in 2000 around principal songwriters Bill Baird and Matt Oliver. For most of their recording career, Sound Team consisted of Bill Baird , Matt Oliver , Jordan Johns , Sam Sanford , Michael Baird and Gabe Pearlman...

, Bon Iver
Bon Iver
Bon Iver is a Grammy nominated folk band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. It includes Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago independently in July 2007. The majority of that album was...

 and Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.- Early life and the Bowl of Fire :...

.

Activism

Like Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...

, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

 and a young Bob Dylan, Redfield is a topical songwriter whose songs often address social issues and speak out against injustice.

David Lee Powell Case

In 2010, Redfield wrote the song "Let David Live" in a futile attempt to stop or postpone the execution of Texas death row inmate, David Lee Powell, who was found guilty of killing police officer Ralph Ablanedo in 1978. The song was played on the steps of the Texas State Capitol
Texas State Capitol
The Texas State Capitol is located in Austin, Texas, and is the fourth building to be the house of Texas government in Austin. It houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the office of the governor of Texas. It was designed originally during 1881 by architect Elijah E. Myers, and was...

 in an effort to grant a reprieve for Powell, who, at the time of execution, had served 32 years in prison counseling murder victim's families, educating illiterate inmates, and helping drug addicts come clean. Prison guards testified to David's remorse and believed he'd contribute to the betterment of society if allowed the chance to live out his life in prison. However, Governor Rick Perry ignored the outpouring of public support, including songs by Redfield and Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...

 (who wrote a heartfelt ode to the fallen officer and donated proceeds to his family), as well as a petition by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, and Powell was put to death by lethal injection on June 15th, 2010. It remains one of the most controversial capitol punishment cases of all time.

Minnesota Remembers Vic Chesnutt

When Georgia-based singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt
Vic Chesnutt
James Victor "Vic" Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success didn't come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a tribute album of mainstream artists...

 passed away on Christmas 2009, Redfield rallied his Minnesota musician friends to record Chesnutt cover songs for the charity record, Minnesota Remembers Vic Chesnutt, which released November 8th, 2011, via nonprofit label, Rock the Cause. Performers on the album include Dan Wilson
Dan Wilson (musician)
Daniel Dodd "Dan" Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, Grammy-winning songwriter and producer...

 of Semisonic
Semisonic
Semisonic is an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1995. The band consisted of three members: Dan Wilson , John Munson , and Jacob Slichter...

, David Simonett of Trampled by Turtles
Trampled By Turtles
Trampled By Turtles is a progressive bluegrass band from Duluth, Minnesota. The group is most famous for its high-tempo, fast-paced songs but also features lead vocalist Dave Simonett's lyric writing abilities in slower ballads. Their high-energy concerts have attracted an ever-growing,...

, Ben Weaver and several other top acts from the Minneapolis and Duluth areas. The album came together through the pro bono work of over 50 industry professionals, and was recorded by noted engineers Tom Garneau (Prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...

), Chad Weis (Mason Jennings
Mason Jennings
Mason Jennings is an American pop-folk singer-songwriter. He is well known for his simple yet catchy melodies, intimate lyrics, literary and historical themes, and distinctive voice...

), Tom Herbers (The Jayhawks), and others. 100% of proceeds are being split amongst two charities, the Twin Cities-based Lifeworks and Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams is an American singer-songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. She is noted for her descriptive songwriting talent, which she has used to immerse the listener of her songs into a...

' Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.

Disc golf

Redfield is a professional disc golf
Disc golf
Disc golf is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." Of the more than 3000...

er who has had moderate success on the PDGA tour, competing against Ken Climo
Ken Climo
Ken "The Champ" Climo, from Clearwater, Florida, is a professional disc golfer and is unanimously considered the best player to have ever played the game. Climo has claimed Twelve PDGA World Championship titles, including nine in as many years from 1990 to 1998...

 and others. He is known for his unique sidearm and tomahawk throwing techniques. His PDGA number is 19123.

Discography

LPs
  • Fire Mountain (2008)
  • Ephemeral Eon (2010)


As Executive Producer
  • Minnesota Remembers Vic Chesnutt (2011)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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