Brian Miller in Concert @ Depot Days - FREE

On Friday, June 24 at 7:00 PM, the Historical Society welcomes fiddler and historian Brian Miller, a member of the popular regional folk art duo The Lost Forty. Brian will present and perform on Bemidji's Lumberjack Musicians Circa 1922. A native of Bemidji, Brian Miller has performed extensively throughout the US, Canada, and Ireland with a variety of Irish music groups. It was his study of Irish music history that led him back to his hometown! After paging through a songbook and finding some Irish-influenced songs collected 100 years ago in Bemidji, he set out to research and revive the "Woods music" of Minnesota's logging era. This work led to several grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and, in 2014, the Parsons Fund Award from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Brian promotes the revival of regional songs with his duo The Lost Forty and his blog Northwoods Songs. He has spoken on Woods songs at the American Folklore Society conference, University College Cork (Ireland), the University of Wisconsin, and folksong festivals across the US. He will give the opening lecture at the 2023 Inishowen Song Festival in County Donegal, Ireland.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota, through a grant from the Region 2 Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Beltrami County Historical Society is honored to host Brian Miller and Acoustic Smoke (Saturday at noon) as part of Depot Days, our cleanup day, annual member meeting, and volunteer celebration. Volunteers are invited to join us on Saturday from 7:00 AM – 10:00 AM to help with indoor or outdoor cleanup activities. Historical Society members are invited to our annual meeting at 10:00 AM. The annual meeting agenda includes officer elections, a review of 2021 and a look ahead, and a celebration of our volunteers. Please RSVP for cleanup or our member meeting by calling 218-444-3376 or emailing depot@beltramihistory.org.