Friday concerts starting this week

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Now in its third year, Arts on Superior’s Fridays in the Park concert series has become part of the rhythm of summer in Two Harbors.

“I had one person describe it as, ‘like the Two Harbors Folk Festival, but all summer long.’” Arts on Superior organizer Linda Melcher said. “People have been asking about it since early in the spring.”

Melcher said audiences kept growing last year, drawing about 120 people on nights with good weather.

New this season is a promotional CD for the series that will be sold at each concert and at local businesses. Each artist donated a song to be included on the CD, and the proceeds will go towards supporting next year’s concerts. This year also brings the addition of fresh grilled food for sale at the concerts, provided by the Pub.

The first act in the series will be acoustic duo Moors and McCumber. James Moors, a Superior native, has performed in the series twice before but this will be first time that Kort McCumber will join him. The performance will be part of their national tour.

After meeting around a campfire at the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival in 2005, they began swapping ideas for songs and writing music together. Though both Moors and McCumber continue to have solo careers and have won awards for songwriting on their own, they enjoy the process of collaboration. “The process is never the same twice,” Moors said. “We play off of each other’s strengths.”

Moors describes their music as “rooted in Americana.” “It’s what I call folk rock,” he said. There are also some Irish and bluegrass influences, partially a result of the wide variety of instruments they play. Moors favors the guitar and the bouzouki, an instrument often used in Irish music that’s similar to a mandolin. McCumber plays guitar, harmonica, banjo and mandolin, often trading-off instruments between songs.

The series will run from July 13 until August 31. All concerts are at 7 p.m. in the band shell at Thomas Owens Park. When it rains, the concerts are moved indoors to United Church across the street.

Tags: life