Twin Cities blues musician Dylan Salfer getting ready to release debut album

NINA MOINI: We love that the audience is participating and that our seats are full. Thank you all so much. Of course, this is Minnesota Now, live at the State Fair.

Hey, if you listen to the show at noon every day, which I really hope you do, you'll know that we love to play music by Minnesota artists and musicians in our Minnesota Music Minute. We have a song of the day. It's very meaningful to us to feature our local talent.

So now that we're at the State Fair, though, you're going to get that live. I want to introduce you to Dylan Salfer, a blues guitarist who grew up in River Falls, Wisconsin, and now lives here in the Twin Cities. Maybe you've seen him around town, maybe at Art-a-Whirl, Icehouse, or other local gigs.

He and his band are busy. They're going to be recording their debut album. Congratulations please give a warm welcome to Dylan Salfer. And take it away, Dylan.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

[DYLAN SALFER, "CROOKED HAND"]

(SINGING) I was blinded by the birds

Now it's all been spent

I didn't have much luck

Still, I wonder where it went

It sure didn't happen

The way I had it planned

Yeah, you dealt me a crooked hand

Things were looking up

Now I'm right back where I started

I didn't give up

So you left me brokenhearted

You gave me more

Than any heart could stand

Yeah, you dealt me a crooked hand

A crooked hand

I don't know why you have to taunt me

I feel just like a game you played

All your moves have come back to haunt me, yeah, yeah

How will I ever be the same

Ooh

Ooh hoo

Ah ah ooh

Well I was blinded by the birds

Now it's all been spent

I didn't give up

Still I wonder where you went

It sure didn't happen

The way I had it planned

Yeah, you dealt me a crooked hand

A crooked hand

A crooked hand

Oh, baby

A crooked hand

A crooked hand

Oh, a crooked hand.

NINA MOINI: Give it up again. Give it up for Dylan Salfer, everybody.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

And Dylan is going to join us and have a little seat. We're going to chit-chat. Come on over, Dylan. Have a seat. Thank you so much. Everybody remember where you first heard Dylan Salfer. It was on Minnesota Now at the State Fair. [CHUCKLES]

Dylan, thank you so much. So that song is called "Crooked Hand."

DYLAN SALFER: Yes.

NINA MOINI: Tell me a little bit about it. Why did you choose to sing it here?

DYLAN SALFER: So I grew up touring in a bunch of different blues groups as a kid. And there was one group called the Bernard Allison Group. I think I went to 35 different countries with Bernard, so he showed me the world.

And one of the band members, José James, who's now in my band, we were always writing songs on the road. And you watch people go through different forms of addiction-- addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling--

NINA MOINI: Sure.

DYLAN SALFER: --women. And so we were watching people make fools of themselves and wrote a tune about gambling addiction meets addiction to women on the road.

And a good friend of his, Bruce McCabe, and I got together, and Bruce was a local legend. He started Lamont Cranston Band and played with Bonnie Raitt. Wrote all of Jonny Lang's hits.

So we all got together and wrote that tune. And means a lot to me. Working with Bruce is-- Bruce and José are incredible.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So tell me a little bit more. So you grew up around music, it sounds like.

DYLAN SALFER: Yeah. I mean, my parents liked music a lot when I was a kid. They were big-time partiers, as you should be with your first child. So when I was kind of a toddler, it was like party time all the time.

And my parents had these two friends that played guitar. And they'd come over, and as soon as that would happen, it was like the guitar came out, and everybody was together singing songs. So it was the chaos-free moment of the evening, and I gravitated toward it.

And one of those guys gave me my first toy guitar when I was three, and I would put on shows and stuff for them at the parties. And then he gave me my first electric guitar when I was seven. But my parents aren't musical. They just loved music. And the guitar was always that escape during the party time.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Well, I feel like why it's so neat to have you here is because you haven't-- you're working on your debut album. So this is all music that's not really out there for everybody yet.

DYLAN SALFER: Yeah.

NINA MOINI: What does that process feel like? How are you feeling about getting there?

DYLAN SALFER: I'm feeling good. It's been a long time coming. I am releasing this independently. And I canned two records. I paid for them, had them recorded, and totally trashed them just, because they weren't sounding the way that I wanted. It was very good by modern standards but a little bit too compressed and clean for what I normally like.

And now it's together and being mixed and mastered finally at the end of September. So it feels great. I've got a collection of songs that I'm proud of, and it sounds right, finally.

NINA MOINI: So you're based in the Twin Cities now. That's a really beautiful, eclectic, diverse scene of artists and music. Who inspires you?

DYLAN SALFER: Everybody. As long as someone's got soul, they inspire me. It started-- my first hero was Bob Marley. My parents had Bob Marley and the Wailers' Live! and a Elton John greatest hits CD, so it was like the two of them. Coming from Minneapolis, Prince is a huge influence.

NINA MOINI: I heard you hit those notes. I was like, oh, is that Prince or Mariah Carey? [CHUCKLES]

DYLAN SALFER: And then, yeah, going back through Prince, he was kind of like-- just like Stevie Ray Vaughan was the gateway to blues guitar for me, Prince was that to funk. So I went back and learned about Parliament Funkadelic and James Brown and Sly Stone, you name it. Ohio Players and all that stuff.

And I even love East Indian classical music. Ali Akbar Khan is one of my favorite musicians of all time. Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder are my two favorites. Everything, as long as it's got soul.

NINA MOINI: Claps for Joni, yes, and Stevie Wonder. [CHUCKLES ] So I understand you're by yourself today for us. We love it. Your full band, though, has six members. What does everybody do? How do you guys collaborate?

DYLAN SALFER: Well, it is very collaborative. It's very much a band sound, so I'm kind of out here on my own. But we've got two drummers. And all five of us sing, so there are a lot of five-part harmonies and vocal arrangements. Two drummers, a saxophone-- José, who I talked about earlier-- and organ, keys, and bass and myself.

NINA MOINI: When you write, is that something that you do at all times? Do you have a specific time that you like to do that or a way that you like to do it?

DYLAN SALFER: No. Usually if there is a specific time, nothing comes out of it. And then at the time where you are busy or doing something else, at least for me, then something comes, and I've got to leave it.

NINA MOINI: Oh, I hear you.

DYLAN SALFER: Although I do try to exercise that and sit down and make time to do it.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Well, it's like writing a news story on a deadline. [CHUCKLES] You're like, where did all my thoughts go?

DYLAN SALFER: Exactly.

NINA MOINI: I think that one of the cool things is you seem like you kind of do your own thing. You mentioned that when things don't sound the way you want them to you're like, I'm going to scrap this. I'm going to do something else. Do you ever-- Yeah like, do you ever think about gaining perhaps more notoriety and just still trying to, I guess, maintain the authenticity. Not to sound silly, but just the authenticity of what you're wanting to do?

DYLAN SALFER: Yeah, that's important. I have some offers right now from some pretty significant record labels. And I don't think I'm going to take them, just because it's like, you're going to owe us interest. We're going to own your stuff.

And also, we might want you to do half this record with a different band and half of it with your band. And I was just like, no way. I have to remain in control.

NINA MOINI: So where can people find your music right now, since your record's not out?

DYLAN SALFER: Well, you can go to-- you can come see me live. I'll actually be playing two shows with the full band at the Leinie Lodge the 31st and the 1st, right here at the Fair. And then you can go to my website, dylansalfer.com. And a pre-order for the record is coming soon, in the next month or so.

NINA MOINI: Well, folks, remember, you heard it here first. Dylan Salfer, we're so glad to have you. Thank you so much. He is going to sing another song for us, so you can go ahead and get ready for that. Give it up, though, for Dylan once.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

DYLAN SALFER: This next song--

NINA MOINI: Give me one-- sorry. I got to do a couple more things. Dylan, again, he's going to play for us. But first, we have to make sure-- that's why I had to interrupt you there-- that we thank everybody who made this show possible today.

It takes a huge team here at MPR. We're so lucky to have each and every one of these people. Senior producer Aleesa Kuznetsov, producers Alanna Elder, Ellen Finn, and Ellie Roth and Gretchen Brown, engineers Erik Stromsted, Elizabeth Iverson, Zack Rose, and Josh Sauvageau. Jacob Aloi, of course, in the audience. Give it up for Jacob. And our senior producer of events, a superman, Tom Campbell. Everyone else who makes these shows possible.

Again, everyone listening, please come and visit us on the corner of Judson and Nelson at 1:30. Come on by Saturday for a cinema quiz with Lynne Warfel. Have so much in store for you. So excited for the State Fair. Thank you all so much for your time and for listening to Minnesota Now. Dylan Salfer's got one more for us. Take it away.

DYLAN SALFER: This next song I wrote about a friend of mine that was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and had only a few months to live. And he wanted to live out his last days, not go through treatment, as pain-free as possible.

And his family wanted the opposite, and they got into a big fight over it and ended up alienating him in the last moments of his life. And I wrote this song trying to comprehend that perspective. It's called "I'll Be Gone."

[DYLAN SALFER, "I'LL BE GONE"]

(SINGING) Seems like I lost track of my time again

Well what they won't carry weight in the air

If I get what I want

Is it what's best for me, too, then

Take me to that place

Where time stops

And I'm alone

Dead on my tracks

Take my watch

I'll be gone

I'll, I'll be gone

I'll, I'll be gone

Reality sucks me back in again

No sign of life near me in the deep end

I just sit at the bottom

And watch my breath float up

Again and again

Cause down here my hair don't fall out of my head

Take me to that place

Where time stops and I'm alone

Dead on my tracks

Take my watch

I'll be gone, yeah

I'll, I'll be gone

I'll, I'll be gone

You're supposed to be family

Instead, I fight the end alone.

CREW: Support comes from Minnesota-based All Energy Solar. Solar panel installation can provide battery storage for power backup when Minnesota's weather takes an unexpected turn. More information at allenergysolar.com.