In 1973, having become disillusioned with metropolitan life and its relentless consumer pressure to keep up with the Andersons, my parents bought a farm out in the country an hour north of Minneapolis, in Isanti county. I was little then, and for my next forty years, no matter where I lived that patch of land was, ultimately, home.
That ceased in the winter of 2012-13 when it became the property of Rick Schneider, an art professor, musician, and glassmith. Two year later he was also a master distiller and the place known to my entire vast extended family simply as “The Farm” became Isanti Spirits. Isanti; the last county in Minnesota to end prohibition.
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In 2019, Rick added another vocation to the list: concert promoter. Shut Up & Listen is an annual summer concert series that happens on the grounds of Isanti Spirits, usually from the porch – as the front yard is huge (I should know, I push-mowed it a zillion times in the 70s and 80s). Should it rain, the music takes place inside the distillery itself. The shows are intimate and the performances are breathtaking: Charlie Parr, Sarah Morris, Mike Munson, MoeDeLL, Drew Peterson, The Lowest Pair, Adam Kiesling, just to mention only a few.
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The photos on this page are of Charlie Parr, made in 2019 – SU&L’s first summer. When my brother Joshua (who’s art astounds) told me Charlie was playing at The Farm, I nabbed myself a ticket within a minute. Charlie’s been a subject of my photography since 2005 and never did I imagine I’d get to see him playing at my childhood home; a place I never expected to visit again. I know Charlie to be a compassionate, humble, brilliant musical titan. He, his music, and that place are dear to me.
A year later, in 2020, it became my privilege to photo-document the history and pastoral context of this perennial phenomenon as a volunteer staff photographer, and I will continue to do so for as long as Rick wants my eye on his scene.
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If anyone’s wondering why I’m doing this with the Monochom, rather than in color, the answer is the same I gave a WCCO TV cameraman at the mass gathering outside the Hennepin County Government Center on the day the jury delivered Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict: “You shoot news in color. History you shoot in black and white.”
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Shut Up & Listen slideshows:
SU&L 2021
Miss Myra and the Moonshiners
The Sarah Morris Trio
David Huckfelt
Mike Munson and Mikkel Beckmen
Charlie Parr
Drew Peterson and MoeDeLL
SU&L 2020
Feeding Leroy & Brady Perl
Mike Munson & Tom Feldman
Sarah Morris & Luke Callen
Drew Peterson & Molly Maher