The Cedar Presents
Kelley Smith and The LaPlants with the Mike Munson Trio
Friday, January 8, 2027
Doors 7PM | Show 8PM
Seated | All Ages
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Northern Minnesota songwriter Kelley Smith celebrates her sophomore release, "Flowers," with her Twin Cities fans at The Cedar. Smith will be joined on stage by the LaPlants: Jed and Ariana LaPlant of the band Wild Horses, and Emily LaPlant of LaPlant Road. Music starts at 7 with the Mike Munson Trio, featuring renowned guitarist Mike Munson, with Nick Salisbury (bass) and Lars-Erik Larson (drums).
Kelley SMith
Minnesota songwriter Kelley Smith is a wallflower who fancies old poetry and grandpa sweaters. All at once whimsical and haunting, Smith delivers deeply affecting lyrics with wry charm and a time traveler's voice. Prone to melancholy and daydreaming, Kelley spent her childhood roaming the woods of the north country. To this day, her longing for that landscape runs deep and seems to find its way into her songs in one way or another.
Raised by musicians, Smith always had music in her bones, but it wasn't until she was 40 and a mother of four that her first record, “Moon Child” (2022), came to be. Since then, she has collaborated with artists such as Charlie Parr, Kelly Hunt, Wild Horses, Mike Munson, Sarah Morris, Dave Simonett, and more. Though still a homebody and in the thick of family life, she occasionally tootles around the Midwest to perform in listening rooms, living rooms, haunted hotels, and at community-oriented festivals. Every once in a while she tucks into dive bars with her banjo to play folk songs.
With her much-anticipated sophomore release, “Flowers” (Nov 6 2026), Kelley Smith leans into her exploration of songwriting as a means of disentangling herself. Smith is as gifted an instrumentalist as she is a singer, and her lyrics stand alone as poetry. With “Flowers,” Smith is a vessel of both the stories of her elders and those of her children, singing of universal sorrows and love that "puts on skin and bones." She wraps sparse instrumentation around her expressive guitar work - by way of counter-melodies, a lonely living room piano, and a few special guest players. “Flowers” is out on Nov. 6, 2026 on Liatris Records.
“These organic and unvarnished songs reflect life experiences that could as easily come from past lives as they could from Kelley’s soul.” - Rieder Homestead Concerts
The Mike Munson Trio
The Mike Munson Trio joyfully traverses the melancholic corners of American music much like Edward Hopper did with a paintbrush on canvas. Creating an incomparable rhythm section of three, Munson is joined by Nick Salisbury on bass and Lars-Erik Larson on drums. Together they explore Munson’s newest original compositions, transportive jazz-like instrumentals and tragic Americana ballads, exhibiting a symmetry that is easy on the ears.
The Mike Munson Trio is a group that is much more than the sum of its parts. They exemplify equanimity, with each member supporting one another while simultaneously prodding the whole into new artistic realms. Though all three are seen playing throughout the region in myriad bands and venues, this collaboration pulls a new sound from each, a richer tone, an air of surprise, a comfort with the unknown. The group relishes live performance where the nightly set list will include familiar songs encountered from a new angle, expanding or contracting arrangements or sonics depending on the inclination of the players.
Spring of 2024 marked the release of four consecutive Munson-penned singles which received significant radio play across genre and region, making waves in the jazz scene in Minneapolis and rural areas of both Northern and Southern Minnesota. The group’s full length album “Sometimes, not always.” was released in Spring of 2026 on Liatris Records.