Name: John Louis and Kelley Smith
Start: 2025-01-31T19:00:00-06:00
Location: 3010 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN, United States, Minnesota 55406

John Louis & Kelley Smith
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Friday, January 31, 2025
The Zen Arcade Stage
at The Hook and Ladder's Mission Room
Doors 7:00 pm :: Music 7:30 pm :: 21+
$15 Advance / $20 Day of Show
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Settle in for a cozy mid-winter evening of great music with two of Minnesota’s finest singer-songwriters John Louis and Kelley Smith.
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Country troubadour John Louis wanders around this Twin Town of music, writing and singing heart-worn country folk songs. John’s that guy on the bus who sits quietly, looking tired like the rest of us. The difference is he is sitting there composing a song about your life and those painful poignant moments you dust off on the way home between life’s chores. His songs show us our lives and the subtle but important things that become universally important hallmarks of our Midwestern journey.
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John glimpses it all through a poet’s heart. When he stands bravely on a stage with a guitar and begins singing, we get to see it too.
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The songs John writes keep winning awards from prestigious songwriting showcases. Including the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk competition, Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase, and the Great River Folk Fest songwriter contest. (That’s some hot sh-t folks!)
“Rootsy singer/songwriter John Louis [is] equal parts John Prine and Robert Earl Keen.” - Minneapolis StarTribune
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Folksinger-songwriter Kelley Smith is a hopeless romantic who fancies old poetry and grandpa sweaters. All at once whimsical and haunting, Smith delivers deeply affecting lyrics with wry charm and a time traveler's voice. Prone to melancholy and daydreaming, Kelley spent her childhood roaming the woods of Minnesota and singing to forest animals. To this day, her longing for that landscape runs deep and seems to find its way into her songs in one way or another.
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Since 2022, Kelley has had the honor of sharing stages with folks like Charlie Parr, Dave Simonett, Alan Sparhawk, Wild Horses, Kelly Hunt, Drew Peterson, Stephen Wilson Jr., Molly Maher, and more. Most often performing solo or as a duo, Smith interprets old folk songs on guitar and banjo, in addition to her original music.
”Her authentic, rootsy sound, falling somewhere between country, folk, bluegrass and old-time music, is a pitch-perfect vehicle for the themes she explores...” - Adventures in Americana