The Current presents

David Huckelt & the Unarmed Forces

with Channy Leaneagh

INFORMATION | TICKETS

About the show

Icehouse and MPR's The Current are pleased to present the Minneapolis record release concert for David Huckfelt's new album, "I Was Born, But...", a silver dagger collection of songs he didn’t write from his folksinger's bag of nearly 300 cover songs, released on Don Giovanni Records and available for the first time this night.  Featuring David's longtime musical comrade's and Minneapolis's fiercest sonic craftsmen Jeremy Ylvisaker, J.T. Bates, & Mike Lewis (Alpha Consumer) aka The Unarmed Forces will celebrate David's first new release in four years with this one time, one night performances of both record songs & brand new originals.  

Firmly nailed to the present tense in real space & time, "I Was Born, But..." is a ceremony of songs that sabotages our insistence that we are the heroes of our own stories.  Covering lesser-known works by legends like Jackson Browne, J.J. Cale, Tom Petty, Warren Zevon, Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan, as well as songs by dear friends Pieta Brown, Howe Gelb, and Keith Secola, interconnection & improvisation will be on full display this night as Huckfelt & crew leave the door ajar to strangeness.  The band will be coming fresh off a Pachyderm Studio recording session of all new material, set for late 2026 release.

Opening up this show will be a very special performance by the incandescent Channy Leaneagh of beloved MPLS band Polica, showcasing her deep roots in folksong and the other sides of her vast artistic expression.  Not to be missed in the slightest.

Collaborations / special guests / intimacy & immediacy to ensure; and the first chance to pick up the new record on vinyl & CD.  Come one, come all.

David Huckfelt

David Huckfelt is a singer / lyricist / activist and founding frontman of Minneapolis indie-folk cult favorite The Pines. His work with The Pines received Record of the Year accolades from Mojo & Q Magazine, and garnered praise for Huckfelt from David Fricke (Rolling Stone) as one of the finest songwriters of his generation. In a fifteen-year touring career, he has shared stages with artists from John Prine, Mavis Staples, and Emmylou Harris to Bon Iver, Calexico, and Trampled By Turtles.

Starting with the late Santee Dakota poet John Trudell in 2014, Huckfelt has partnered increasingly with an array of Native American artists and activists in the fight for environmental and social justice. Last year David joined forces with Honor the Earth founder Winona LaDuke to organize and perform at the inaugural Water Is Life benefit festival in Duluth, MN with Bon Iver, Hippo Campus, Adia Victoria & more, with plans in progress for Water Is Life II in summer 2022.

With thousands of shows under his belt across the US, Canada & overseas, Huckfelt’s grassroots following has grown from small-town opera houses, Midwestern barn concerts to national tours and festival stages such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Edmonton and Calgary Folk Fests, and the legendary First Avenue Mainroom in his beloved Minneapolis home. His live performance is both improvisational and masterful, with a rugged optimism that blasts through layers of darkness in real time with songs that speak volumes, soft & clear.