The Duluth local music scene’s resilience through the hardships of COVID-19.

By Mikayla Scrignoli

The decision to release music in a pandemic world.

Duluth musician Sarah Krueger often picks up random books at thrift stores and keeps them stored in her vast book collection, which she revisits through the years. One she has often turned to contains the 1916 poem by Alan Seeger, “La Nue,” which describes nature’s beauty through detailed imagery.

So it made sense to her after a seven-year break from releasing new music when she felt disconnected from the work of her previous albums like “Lustrous” and “Dancing with Phantoms,” that she was seeking a new, creative way forward. She saw the poem again and decided to embrace it. She changed her stage name to “Lanue.”

“You come back to things at a different point in your life and it can have a whole new meaning,” Krueger said. “This felt so fresh to me and I wanted to stand on a new creative ground.”

That change occurred about a year before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Krueger headed into Hive, a recording studio in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the city where she was born and raised, to create what would become her self-titled album “Lanue.” She listened to the works of her musical influences like Phoebe Bridgers, Stevie Nicks and Laura Marling during the two studio sessions it took to record the album’s 10 songs.

And if not for the pandemic, Krueger would have been able to more readily move forward from that point. But like many artists, the path became more uncertain. Krueger started plans to release the album, which was waylaid by the pandemic, and put everything on hold for almost a year.

In the meantime, Krueger began working on music videos over the summer. She filmed the video for her song “What I Love the Most,” outside in her garden and at Park Point beach, where she is waist-deep in Lake Superior — her biggest source of inspiration in what she calls her creative comfort zone of Duluth.

“When I visit the lake and look out at the wide-open space on the horizon, I can really reset myself sometimes. I think that reset is important in drawing out new creative material,” Krueger said. “We knew we had to film that video COVID-safe, so we knew there really couldn’t be anyone else involved and that it had to be outside.”

In January, Krueger announced on Instagram that she planned to release the new album on March 2. She felt the timing was right for her to finally share this collection of songs with the world.

“I just didn’t want to hold onto the record any longer,” Krueger said. 

The album, which showcases Krueger’s warm, soothing and dreamy vocals, features songs that touch on concepts like grace, forgiveness and self-reflection. “What I Love the Most” has generated over 3,600 Spotify streams and her YouTube music videos have collected nearly 3,400 views to date.

“The song is whatever the listener wants it to be, and whatever it means to them,” Krueger said. “I want people to be able to see themselves and find themselves in these songs.”

The local music scene’s resilience and concern during the pause to live music.

Since the album’s successful release, Krueger, among other musicians, has yet to play the songs live due to the past year’s halt of live music. While she had outdoor shows booked for the summer of 2020, she canceled them because of the virus.

“What’s nice is I haven’t had to play them live so I’m not sick of them yet. I feel so often by the time you release a record and are playing the songs, they are so old and you feel that you’ve played them out,” Krueger said.

Right before the pandemic struck, Krueger performed for the last time pre-COVID-19 at one of her favorite venues, Sacred Heart Music Center. A 19th-century church built in 1896 turned nonprofit music venue and state-of-the-art recording studio.

Like most music venues around Duluth, Sacred Heart lost most of its main revenue source, live music performances, and struggled to see an income during the pandemic.

Originally, Sacred Heart had a weak internet connection and was borrowing it from its neighbors. But the venue began to install high-speed wire cable connections so the center could welcome audience members back into the venue virtually, said Mark Nicklawske, a member on the center’s board of directors.

The venue decided to feature local and international artists through virtual YouTube live streams that anyone in the world can watch at any time.

“We had to figure out a way to stay relevant to the community and to get people, performers, in front of their audience,” Nicklawske said.

These virtual live streams have kept the center relevant in people’s minds and have been a source of income for some local artists. The venue’s recording studio is able to take the live streams to the next level, creating an excellent sound quality and visual quality experience, according to Nicklawske.

But there is nothing like live performances with an audience. There’s nothing like being in Sacred Heart and being surrounded by the ancient art and red chairs, with the high ceilings above you, and seeing the light through the stained-glass windows as the sun goes down.

“You can’t really capture the experience of being at Sacred Heart on YouTube virtually,” Nicklawske said. “That’s the downside of it.”

While Krueger thinks it’s a great opportunity for artists and venues who have been doing live stream performances throughout the pandemic, she said that she is going to wait it out until she can do an in-person performance. 

“Not being able to connect with people and play shows makes it really hard to get your music out there. I don’t like that I one hundred percent have to rely on the internet,” Krueger said. “It feels sort of disingenuous to not have that face-to-face connection with people.”

Other Duluth artists have concerns over how the pause to live music has affected their careers. A local rapper who goes by the stage name Kihara Rosee, released a series of singles on SoundCloud that he recorded on his iPhone in his bedroom throughout the pandemic. Similar to Krueger, he also has yet to perform them live.

“Being an artist and dropping music, you eventually have to perform something,” Rosee said. “People are going to want to see something. It’s really hard to get venues or get shows with COVID.”

Both Rosee and Krueger prefer in-person shows and have yet to take part in a virtual performance, but both think it is a strong idea that is helping the local music community. 

“People are doing what they can and that’s awesome,” Krueger said.

What does the future hold for Duluth’s music scene?

After the release of “Lanue” in March, Krueger spends her time at her piano writing new music and preparing for a studio session in the spring for her next music release, which she anticipates will come out in the fall. She wonders about what will be left of the local music scene in a post-pandemic world.

“Who knows who will be able to open their doors again after this. I think we’re all anxiously awaiting to see what’s going to be there and what it’s going to be like to book venues with an entire year of backed-up artists who are all wanting to play,” Krueger said.

Nicklawske echoed this sentiment. While he said that Sacred Heart has been able to “weather the storm,” he also said that he hopes that once people are vaccinated and infections are down, people will feel comfortable going to see a show with a hundred other people by their sides.

“As a musician, we’re really counting on our community to be out supporting venues and supporting music,” Krueger said.