For Immediate Release   September 24, 2004

For more information contact:
Dennis Behl (612) 825-9726
Dbehl@gbronline.com

20 Years of Sailing Songs: Charlie Maguire and Duluth Seaway Port Authority Bring it All Back Home

It’s been nearly twenty years since a chance meeting involving former Duluth Seaway Port Authority Director Davis Helberg led to folksinger/songwriter Charlie Maguire going onto Lake Superior and beyond. On October 16 at 8 p.m. at the Amazing Grace Cafe in Duluth, Maguire brings all of his lake songs into Port, with a concert featuring the Duluth premiere of his laker song cycle Rough Trade. Tickets are available at the door on the night of the concert for $10. For more information call Amazing Grace Cafe at (218) 723-00 75.

“It all began as an adventure as I hitched rides out of the Port of Duluth on these huge ships that sail the world,” said Maguire. “Davis Helberg, who was Port director back then, helped me arrange the trips after being startled to find out that people living as far away as Dakar, Senegal, in West Africa had copies of my albums.”

Maguire’s adventures on grain and iron ore boats were chronicled in Duluth Seaway Port Authority’s magazine North Star Port, and with the completion of Rough Trade, Maguire again approached the Port Authority to see if they would be interested in helping to arrange a concert where all of the songs created through the first-hand-knowledge provided by the vessel trips would be showcased.

Charlie Maguire’s sailing adventures started in 1986 while on a research sabbatical with a Bush Artist Fellowship, when Helberg helped arrange for his first sail on the M.V. Nordic Trader. Out of Duluth bound for Columbia with 14,000 metric tons of barley and an all-Filipino crew, Maguire accompanied them as far as Montreal. Another trip followed with Helberg’s assistance, this time on the iron-ore carrier William Clay Ford. Ten years later yet another trip, this time on a working buoy tender; the original United States Coast Guard vessel Sundew WLB-404, at the personal behest of Commanding Officer, fan and budding guitar picker William B. Brubaker. Brubaker later remarked that it was the first time in his career that he had put “a civilian on the deck to actually do the work along with my crew.”

Those three trips, plus time to distill those experiences; have led to a body of work destined for a future CD and a rich addition to the legacy American Folksongs of the Great Lakes.

Currently, Charlie Maguire is working with the Smithsonian Institution with the traveling exhibits Barn Again! and Key Ingredients, for the Minnesota Humanities Commission. He writes the theme music for KSTP-TV’s On the Road with Jason Davis and serves as “Centennial Troubadour” for Minnesota State Parks. He was the first “Singing Ranger” in the history of the U.S. Department of Interior, writing songs for the National Park Service from 1995-2003. He has been a guest on A Prairie Home Companion and Good Morning America over a 30 year career on many stages.

Fast Facts

WHO: Charlie Maguire, award-winning folk songwriter and musician on guitar, harmonica, jaw harp and spoons.

WHAT: Maguire showcases a twenty-year collection of hands-on songs about commercial sailing on Lake Superior and the Great Lakes not far from the very docks he left from.

WHEN: Saturday, October 16, starting at 8 p.m.

WHERE: Amazing Grace Cafe, 394 Lake Avenue South, in Duluth’s historic Canal Park District. For more information call (218) 723-0075.

ADMISSION: Tickets are $10 day of show at the door. Students and Seniors are free.

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