Grand Marais musician Michael Monroe will be celebrating his 60th birthday and the release of a DVD retrospective, Life of My Time, with a reception, concert and DVD preview on November 18 at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights.
Musician Michael Monroe of rural Grand Marais is turning 60 and living with “chronic happiness syndrome.” In celebration of this and the release of a DVD, Life of My Time, he will be appearing at 1 p.m. Sunday, November 18 at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights for a reception, concert and preview of the DVD.
The DVD, funded through an Arrowhead Regional Arts Council fellowship grant, is a retrospective on Monroe’s musical career that includes recent concert footage, performances with his band from the 80s, and reflections on the good fortune he has had in being able to follow his musical passions for over 40 years.
Highlights featured in the DVD include creating music in the U.S. Virgin Islands, finding new inspiration – and a bamboo flute – in India, and recording the soundtrack to National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg’s PBS documentary, Chased by the Light. The DVD also includes a visit with Gunflint Trail luthier David Seaton, who built all of Monroe’s guitars, two of which are made from 200-year-old recycled wood from the bottom of Lake Superior.
Monroe and his business partner/wife, Debra Mueller, moved from the Twin Cities to Cook County in 1994, where for 11 years Monroe used solar power to record his music. He has been performing concerts in his and Mueller’s log cabin in the woods for the last seven years.
This season’s log cabin concert series will include Monroe performing with Claudia Schmidt on December 28 and 29 and with Michael Johnson on December 30 and 31.
Monroe has recorded nine CDs and one vinyl album.
For more information, contact Debra Mueller at (612)789-2255 or mm@michaelmonroemusic.com or visit www.michaelmonroemusic.com.
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