From backing band to big stars: How The Current helped Mumford and Sons
Listen to the audio above to hear more about the station's first week (when DJs were playing their own CDs because there was no music on the shelves), the importance of local music and the time Mary Lucia almost came to blows with a band during a live interview.
The Current is celebrating its 10th birthday this week, and DJs Mary Lucia, Steve Seel and Jill Riley joined MPR News' Tom Crann to look back at the past decade.
The success of the band Mumford and Sons is a prime example of what the station is capable of, they said.
When The Current started playing the band's music in 2009, "they were a band I had never heard of, I didn't know where they were from, I didn't know anything about them," remembered Lucia. "And we really latched on to that early."
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"In fact, we — I think — were the first major station in a major market to play them and nobody knew who they were," said Seel. "And we were like, who's this bluegrassy band out of England that plays with this particular higher level of energy?"
The band had first played in The Current's studios as a backing band for artist Laura Marling, but by the time they returned in May 2010, their Varsity Theater show was sold out.
Not even the band was prepared for the response from the Minnesota crowd.
"They had no idea," said Riley. "People knew all the words. When people cheered they practically got blown off the stage ... Now they're one of the biggest bands in the world."
In 2013, the band won a Grammy for Album of the Year and returned to the state for a show at the Xcel Energy Center.