About IROMA
It was a revival! The bands of the Iron Range Original Music Association (IROMA) had been relatively quiet during 2020-21. When the 218 Taphouse closed, IROMA lost its most reliable and trusted venue for local original music performances, and when Covid hit, the pandemic further curtailed live, in-person performances. Despite the hurdles presented to artists worldwide over the last two years, the musicians who hail from the Range have been busy writing new music, and plans were made to bring it all back in the spring of 2022 in several new venues.
The Range currently boasts upwards of 20 bands and performers who write and perform original music all around our part of the state, and the area is also home to a nationally renowned recording studio located in Sparta MN. (https://spartasound.bandcamp.com/) Rich Mattson opened Sparta Sound in 2005 when he moved back to The Range from Minneapolis. He went to look at an old church for sale and it struck him that it would be a perfect studio. There he has recorded, among many others, Dave Rave and the Governors, Trampled by Turtles, Leslie Rich and the Rocket Soul Choir, the Holy Hootenanners…and his own music. He and his partner Germaine Gemberling and friends make up Rich Mattson and the Northstars, and their latest album, Skylights, was given rave reviews in Duluth Reader, Goldmine, No Depression and several other national publications.
In 2021, the Iron Range Tourism Bureau contracted with Sara Softich to write and record a song touting the Iron Range. She recorded her song with her band playing outside in the woods around a campfire. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jg95w7wuzk) Who wouldn’t want to come visit the Range after hearing this? When the love of a place unites musicians, their music builds its culture---that’s our culture! Their life experiences, told in their songs, reflect the life experience of all Iron Rangers and we share that resonance when we hear the music. It’s different than going to a concert performed by strangers—these are our neighbors. They wake up to the same sunrises, fish the same lakes, ski the same trails, and hear the same loons and wolves at night that we do.
It's economically challenging to be a full-time musician, and many band members have “day jobs” that keep them fed, but evenings and weekends are for music, for writing, practicing, and performing. Guitarist Eric Krenz, for example, spends his days working for the Virginia Housing and Redevelopment Authority and plays with Sara Softich and Friends and with Heather Surla as Horse Fzce. Heather Surla works as a mortgage loan originator at American Bank. IROMA co-founder Karl Sundquist works as an attorney by day and plays with his new band, Pocketknife, whenever they can. Paul Lawrence teaches English at Minnesota North College by day and performs in the evening and summers.
Early followers of IROMA may recall the group’s inception in 2009 when Mac’s Bar hosted IROMA’s inaugural day-long multi-band showcase. The group produced three compilation CDs including music from Iron Range Outlaw Brigade, Hobo Revival, the Josh Palmi Band, the Wheeler Dealers, Matt Ray, Mark Henderson, the Prodigal Sons, Four Horse Johnson, Shotgun Daisy, Mellowdrama, the Modern Antiques, Swing Dogs, the Christopher David Hanson Band, and Mojosaurus. Since the reactivation of the organization’s social media accounts, a buzz has flowed through the local music community creating new connections with additional performers such as Thor Leseman, MorningBird, Paul Lawrence, Kim Nagler, Gene LaFond and Amy Grillo, James Girard, and Colleen Myhre. In 2022, local music was rockin’ and rollin’ again, and the former 218 Taphouse re-opened as the Back of the Shack! A six-part acoustic series at the Mesabi UU venue rounded out the year.
At the end of 2022, IROMA received a Minnesota State Arts Board grant to help support local music events in 2023. These have included singer/songwriter events on Friday evenings at the Back of the Shack, a nine-band multi-venue event on April 21 in downtown Virginia, and the revival of a summer music festival, “Rockbee,” with concerts Friday and Saturday nights, August 4 and 5th at Mesaba Coop Park. We’ll be “touring” the Range with concerts in Nashwauk, Hibbing, and Aurora this summer, too. And a house concert series in September will round out the year.
Music is a vital part of our collective culture, and IROMA has a vested interest in building community resilience through promoting local artists and strengthening the bonds between musicians and audiences. IROMA’s goals are to elevate the stature of all local musicians, and proudly broadcast the stories and sounds of the Iron Range to the world. We invite everyone here in N.E. Minnesota to join us in achieving those goals.