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Lori Dokken Presents

WE ARE BACK AT THE CHANHASSEN and we hope that you will join us for an evening celebrating some of the greatest women singers and songwriters ever! With Lori Dokken at the piano, Twin Cities’ vocalists Judi Vinar, Patty Peterson and Rachel Holder will turn the stage into a celebration of some of the matriarchs of music. Sit back and enjoy the vibrant vocal harmonies these girls put to tunes made famous by such divas as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, Carole King, Tina Turner, Judy Garland, Christina Aguilera and many more. It promises to be a fantastic evening of hearing these women “roar” as only they can!

Minnesota’s own Emmy Award-winning acoustic tunesmith, Michael Monroe, performs an evening of music by the tremendously popular British singer-songwriter. In the ’70s, Michael Monroe looked like Cat Stevens, performed Cat tunes and even wanted to be him!

Stevens, whose music remains relevant five decades later said, ”Music can be healing… for what looks like a gigantic divide in this world, I feel I can point a way toward our common humanity again.” Monroe shares this viewpoint and feels Cat’s tunes are especially timely today.  Cat Stevens “had rare ability to combine the strength, fragility, and sometimes mystery of his highly personal compositions,” said the LA Times.

Michael Monroe has performed his original music for five decades. His hand-crafted Seaton guitars are made of 200 year-old reclaimed wood from the bottom of Lake Superior.  These “works of art,” his rich vocals and crystal/bamboo flutes showcase his signature mellifluous sound. 

Expect the best of Cat with songs like “Wild World,” “Peace Train,” “Father & Son,” “Hard Headed Woman,” “Where Do The Children Play,” “Can’t Keep It In” and of course, “Moonshadow.”

The musical journey begins with Sister Rosetta Tharpe and travels through time to today featuring such female phenoms as Laura Nyro, Carole King, Phoebe Snow, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Lady Gaga and India.Arie as well as others. The evening will also be interspersed with words from some wise women such as Maya Angelou, Terry Tempest Williams, Winona LaDuke, Coretta Scott King, Mary Oliver and many others.   

On stage to deliver an eclectic and dynamic array of arrangements of songs written by these iconic female composers are a cadre of local Twin Cities’ vocalists including Judi  Vinar, Joyann Parker, Rachel Holder, Katie Gearty, and Anna Christy backed by pianist Lori Dokken (Producer & Music Director of “Shout! Sister, Shout!”) along with Jordan Hedlund on bass and Daryl Boudreaux on percussion.  We will also be joined by actress Eden Bodnar who will be delivering the spoken word sections.  

Patty will be joined by her trio of pals – Judi Vinar, Rachel Holder and Lori Dokken, along with special guests yet TBA. In the business for more than five decades, Patty is as diverse as they come. She is a world-class Jazz/R&B vocalist, a radio show host on KBEM Jazz 88, a mainstay in the jingle and voice-over industry and an inspiring presenter on the national speaking circuit. There is so much that we know about her. Yet with more than 50 years of musical history, this evening promises to be an amazing journey of stories and songs that will move us to tears, cause us to have bursts of spontaneous laughter and surprise us with all that have we yet to learn about this phenomenal woman. 

To honor the accomplished life and generous heart of this Twin Cities’ treasure, the producers of this event are offering two FREE Concerts in the Dunsmore Room at Crooners on February 19th and 20th. They invite the attendees during that evening or afternoon to consider honoring Patty with a monetary gift to The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation which is an organization that helps to support the staff and caregivers who saved Patty’s life fifteen years ago.

This concert is a gift with our thanks and gratitude to you, our musical supporters. We hope that will join us to experience “The Story of Patty …” and we sincerely thank you for considering making a financial gift that evening or afternoon to our friends in the medical community, who not only saved Patty’s life 15 years ago, but devotedly care for us every day and especially during this pandemic.

Your 100% tax-deductible donation will go directly to the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation is an independent nonprofit research organization that partners with the cardiologists from Minneapolis Heart Institute to lead groundbreaking clinical research and education focused on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart and vascular disease. 

How Spirituals and Gospel Music provided the musical inspiration and foundation for blues, jazz and rock and roll.

Every September at Unity Minneapolis the Music Department presents a month-long focus on a specific musical style, genre, artist or era from our past. Being the Musical Director at Unity places me in the position of selecting what will be featured each year.

I am very excited to join with my friend and collaborator, Ginger Commodore, to assemble this journey through Gospel Music from the Spirituals to contemporary Gospel artists. As challenging as this will be for us to distill into four Sundays, decades and centuries of songs, composers, and artists, we look forward to bringing you a snapshot of the foundational, musical building blocks for the development of some of America’s most renowned contemporary music styles such as blues, jazz and rock and roll.

Musical Guests for this series include: Ginger Commodore, Judi Vinar, Rachel Holder, Julius Collins, T. Mychael Rambo, Jordan Hedlund, Bobby Commodore, Pete Hennig and Dave Berget. 

1971 – 50 years ago – two of the most influential and renowned albums were released by two of THE greatest female composers of all time – Carole King and Joni Mitchell.  The critical acclaim of Tapestry and Blue has only grown over time and this year these albums reach the milestone of being released a half century ago.

To celebrate this grand anniversary, “THREE” (Judi Vinar, Rachel Holder and Lori Dokken) is teaming up with bassist Jay Young and percussionist Dave Stanoch to present these two classic recordings in their entirety on The MainStage at Crooners Supper Club on Thursday, August 12th at 7:30 PM.

If you are like many of us, you have worn out several copies of Carole’s and Joni’s masterpieces.  You won’t want to miss this opportunity to hear the entire albums played uninterrupted by this incomparable group of local artists.