The Church of St. Joseph’s annual Fourth of July party will be remembering Minnesota and North Dakota music legend Bobby Vee this year. Joetown Rocks is an annual musical celebration which Vee and his wife Karen helped start in 2006; this will be the event’s first year without the Midwestern music icon. The July 3 concert will feature…

Benjamin Booker has a great ability to make retro appreciation sound very modern. On his second album -- filled with brightly lit, rocking blues, soul, and gospel-inspired tunes -- Booker clearly is brimming over with new ideas and thoughts about the world we occupy.

“We all see a reflection of ourselves in at least one of Grant’s songs,” said Mary Jane Mansfield — a friend of Grant Hart and a fellow musician — as she introduced an evening full of music and friends gathered to pay tribute to Hart at the Hook and Ladder Theater & Lounge on Saturday…

We're gearing up for a long weekend of cabining, small towning and staycationing that will gloriously conclude on July 4 - Independence Day. So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear that mention America or the USA?

Two years after his first Red House album Stumpjumper, Charlie Parr is back with a new record, due out Sept. 8 on the St. Paul label. Packed with Parr’s signature, detailed observations and musings, the album’s title track “Dog” is out today. Listeners can expect the themes in “Dog” to appear throughout the album, as Parr tackles “emotional issues,…

JAY-Z’s new album 4:44 is out today. On one song, “Caught Their Eyes,” the rap icon and entrepreneur bitterly addresses his battle with Prince’s estate. “I sat down with Prince, eye to eye,” raps JAY-Z (who’s newly reclaimed the hyphen in his name, and upgraded himself to all-caps). “He told me his wishes before he died/…

EL.i.BE, “Balance (feat. O-Lay)” “I might get lit up if I swerve,” rapper EL.i.BE acknowledges, dreading a “sequel of Philando” at an impending traffic stop. While he and O-Lay share their rhymes, dancers Peace and Nteranya perform intense moves in this film by Benji Cooper. Nick Jordan, “Petty” Soul/R&B artist Nick Jordan brings viewers to paradise in the video for…

It's the last Thursday of June which means it's National Handshake Day - a day celebrating one of our oldest forms of greeting each other. So for today's Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear that say "shake" somewhere in the lyrics?

Today marks the 101st birthday of Prince’s father John L. Nelson — a professional musician whose stage name, Prince Rogers, became his son’s given name. To mark the occasion, Prince’s half-sister Sharon Nelson has released a new recording of one of her father’s songs. She says that “Heart of Mine” is the first track from…

For today's Rock and Roll Book Club, Jay Gabler brought in John McMillan's 2013 book 'Beatles vs. Stones', where he unpacks the most legendary rock rivalry of all time. So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear that name-check either the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or bonus points for both?