MANKATO — The next installment of this summer’s concert series at the Vetter Stone Amphitheater at Riverfront Park features the BoDeans on Friday.
The following are excerpts from the band’s web bio:
“I’ve always thought of the BoDeans as a truly American band,” says Kurt Neumann, the founder, primary writer and frontman of the veteran Milwaukee-based group. “We were blue-collar kids straight out of the heartland Ñ how could we be anything else?”
Neumann fully embraces that notion on “American Made,” the BoDeans’ eleventh album. Its dozen songs are laced through with strands of indigenous roots elements Ñ heartland hoedown folk, Celtic-rooted mountain music, zydeco, Southern roadhouse soul, Chicago blues and 100-proof roots rock. ...
As it turns out, the album title bears a thematic resonance as well as a stylistic one. With “American Made,” the BoDeans have created a soul-stirring song cycle that directly reflects the American experience at this critical moment in our history. The album Ñ which also includes a powerful rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” Ñ was inspired by Neumann’s blue-collar upbringing and his desire to express what a great country America remains, despite its troubles and the challenges facing it today. ...
“It feels like we’re losing the common sense that has always guided us, and that worries me,” Neumann said. “We’re so out of touch with each other Ñ and just trying to find an American-made product has become almost comical. I wanted to bring that all of that to the surface Ñ hence the album title.”
If “American Made” is about resilience in the face of daunting obstacles, the same can be said of the unforeseen circumstances that led to the album’s creation. Sam Llanas, one of the original members, left the band last year in order to launch a solo career, the news coming just one day after the release of the band’s previous LP, “Indigo Dreams.” ...
When he’d completed the new material, Neumann called on John Alagia (Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Ben Folds) to produce and mix the record, with the exception of “Jay Leno,” which was mixed by Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty), who’d worked with the band in the mid-1990s. Determined to make the best possible album no matter the cost, Neumann sold his truck, one of his most treasured possessions, in order to cover the cost of recording at Los Angeles’ state-of-the-art Village Recorder, where the band had worked in years past with T Bone Burnett.
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