Jon B, Dakota Block Party, Alicia Witt, Vieux Farka Touré Featured in Star Tribune

The Dakota’s 40^th anniversary free Block Party was such a success last September that Lowell Pickett and company have decided to present it again, with a third venue added for the 41st. Performances will take place on Nicollet Mall, inside the Dakota and in the Quinlan Room down the block. The lineup is stacked with Dakota favorites including the New Standards, Karrin Allyson, L.A. Buckner and Moore By Four as well as the Sounds of Blackness, Liv Warfield, Dylan Salfer and Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas.

With so-called desert-blues music flourishing via such infectiously groovy artists as Bombino and Mdou Moctar, there’s extra interest in getting closer to one of the genre’s primary sources, Malian music legend Ali Farka Touré, who died in 2006. Ali’s son Vieux has been carrying on his father’s traditions for more than two decades and adding his own innovative twists to the delightfully winding, guitar-driven music. He’s stopping back in Minneapolis after a special Winnipeg Folk Festival-backed theater gig across the border.