Features

Summer Stars: Trampled By Turtles

Our Summer Stars series features a variety of groups out there making the rounds on the festival circuit. Today we look at Trampled By Turtles who are set to make their Bonnaroo debut. Here’s a link to all of our Summer Star pieces which we will post over the coming weeks.

“You can’t escape where you’re from,” says Dave Simonett, frontman of Duluth, Minn.-based bluegrass band Trampled By Turtles. “If you’re being honest as a songwriter, what comes through is your experience from your little corner of life.” The band retreated to the north shore of Lake Superior to record their new album Stars & Satellites and “set up in the woods” where they feel most comfortable. A five-piece acoustic band, Trampled By Turtles channel the fresh air of their home state with a blend of lonesome, whiskey-soaked ballads and manically energetic bluegrass.

Simonett, who writes the band’s lyrics, explains how his home state colors his songwriting, saying, “The weather, the scenery, the general vibe of the people…those things you soak up your whole life just come out and give the songs a little bit of a Minnesota accent.” On “Alone,” the first single from Stars & Satellites, Simonett sings about long, cold winter nights, summer breezes and falling leaves, and his songs are ripe with natural imagery.

Trampled By Turtles started to build a national audience with the release of Palomino last year, which peaked at No. 1 on iTunes’ bluegrass charts. After a lengthy spring national tour, they will make their first appearance at Bonnaroo and stop at Sasquatch!, All Good, Lollapalooza, RockyGrass, Strawberry Music Festival, Newport Folk Festival and Fresh Grass Festival. It will be a busy summer for the band, but as Simonett declares, “it’s the best job in the world.”

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Best album for a warm summer’s night: The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street

In the forest versus beach debate, I choose: The forest even though I bet if you ask a lot of Minnesotans, they’d say the beach. Because we don’t really have the beach, it’s kind of a destination. But the forest is in my blood and that’s where I’m more comfortable. Plus, I’m like this hairy, pale Minnesotan beard guy, so I get terribly sunburned at the beach.