"charismatic...handsome and ambitious.” - New York Times

Lemon Bucket Orkestra are Toronto's original Slavic-Balkan-Klezmer-Party-Punks. The multi-award-winning ensemble has been heralded as a groundbreaking, genre-bending phenomenon by media and fans alike!

One of Africa’s most popular and recognized musicians, Habib Koité is a modern troubadour with extraordinary appeal due to his musicianship, wit, and wisdom. The trio also features legendary Kora player Lamine Cissokho and balafon virtuoso Aly Keita.

As The Cedar continues celebrating our 35 years, we have the great honor of hosting the founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John McEuen & The Circle Band as they take us on a career retrospective.

Featuring re-shared music from the 1860's to now, original songs laced with known hits, and a special tribute to the 'Circle' album music (and the stories behind it), it all comes to life in an evening of acoustic music in overdrive

THE CEDAR CELEBRATION.

A 35th Birthday Party. A fundraiser. A FUN RAISER! A reflection on our past years and a wish for many more.

Please join us for this four hour long party which will feature a variety of performances, a raffle, an auction and a look back into our very curious legendary archive.

The Celebration is hosted by the queen bee of lyrical ingenuity herself, DESSA!

World-renowned, award-winning Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo's seventh album, ‘One Drop of Kindness’, was released in September 2023 by Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records and has recently been voted the Winner in the Asia & Pacific category in the Songlines Music Awards 2024.

In 1971, a young schoolteacher named Linda Hill was visiting her parents in South Carolina, when she met a musician named Robin Williams. She was a singer and played guitar. He was a regular on the coffeehouse circuit. The two hit it off immediately. Two years later, they were married and touring the country in a VW Bug.

They’ve been on the road ever since.

“…Among contemporary country performers, Robin and Linda Williams shine like a diamond amid rhinestones …” - The Boston Globe

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and folk icon, Tom Paxton, teams up with the Grammy winning singer/songwriter duo The Don Juans - Don Henry & Jon Vezner for another memorable performance on our Cedar Stage.

“Thirty years ago Tom Paxton taught a generation of traditional folk singers that it was noble to write your own songs, and, like a good guitar, he just gets better with age.” -Guy Clark

The Cedar is honored to present the Debashish Bhattacharya Trio, touring the United States in the fall of 2024 with the program, "Legacy: The music of pioneering Indian recording artists". A unique tribute to the pioneering Indian recording artists of the early 1900s. Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya is an award-winning artist who is known throughout the world as the unrivalled master of Hindustani slide guitar. The trio features Debashish’s daughter Anandi, a gifted vocalist and a rising star in her own right, and Debashish’s younger brother Subhasis, who is recognized as one of the greatest percussionists of his generation.

“Bhattacharya's facility with a slide is absolutely astonishing: it really has to be seen to be believed.” - All About Jazz

Making her Cedar debut, Carsie Blanton writes anthems for a world worth saving. Her songs encompass a wide range of genres, from sultry pop to punk-tinged Americana. Whether alone with her electric guitar or fronting her “handsome band,” Carsie delivers every song with an equal dose of moxie and mischief, bringing her audience together in joyful celebration of everything worth fighting for.

Return favorite, Matt The Electrician, opens the show.

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore take us To TexiCali and The Cedar is honored to host the ride! The Americana heroes are back with a tour inspired by the name of their upcoming new album...Behind blistering blues licks, TexiCali doubles as a road trip across Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s beloved home states and the memories within, honoring shared musical influences, friends gone too soon, and all they’ve endured along the way.

The Cedar Cultural Center Presents: The Global GetTogether!

Our 2nd year presenting at the legendary Fair while celebrating our own 35-year legacy, The Cedar is back with two nights of entertainment at the Minnesota State Fair located at the International Bazaar!

The Cedar Cultural Center Presents: The Global Get Together!

Our 2nd year presenting at the legendary Fair while celebrating our own 35-year legacy, The Cedar is back with two nights of entertainment at the Minnesota State Fair located at the International Bazaar!

Celebrating the book release of "Deeper Blues" we are totally honored to be hosting living Minnesota legend, beloved blues musician and self-proclaimed "blessed dude", Cornbread Harris as he plays and shares tales with author, Andrea Swensson.

This Friday night will feature stories of history and hope, reconciliation and forgiveness with lots of laughter and MUSIC! Cornbread's talented son, Jimmy Jam will join in for the sweet duo of 'Cornbread & Jam'- along with an additional full set of music via Cornbread and Friends.

Last seen here in 2018, the Grammy award winning collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali and pioneers of desert blues - TINARWEN returns to The Cedar stage in celebration of our 35th Anniversary and the release of their ninth studio album, Amatssou.

Celebrating the new release of All About the Bones, Chris Smither returns to The Cedar to help celebrate our 35th anniversary and his many incredible performances here throughout the years.

“Smither is an American original – a product of the musical melting pot and one of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world.” - Associated Press.

SistaStrings recently made waves during the 66th annual Grammy Awards. They accompanied the legendary Joni Mitchell who took the stage to perform “Both Sides Now,” the New York Times described the moment as “a brief, magical visitation from a musical deity.”

SistaStrings, the musical duo comprising sisters Chauntee and Monique Ross, create power and sonic majesty every time they bring their unique blend of classical training, soulful melodies, and contemporary sounds to the stage.

With her always expanding and singular mix of hip hop, female empowerment, dancehall, and catchy beats, singer, flautist, and percussionist Yaite Ramos Rodriguez, aka LA DAME BLANCHE, delivers a powerful and compelling sound that summons the spirits.

We are HUGE fans of LDB and already counting the days to this hot summer Friday night! Be prepared to dance!

Kith + Kin Chorus, a 76-voice uncommon choir led by Rachel Ries, celebrates the close of their 7th season with a choral collaboration with local luminary Humbird, plus arrangements of Queen, Kasey Musgraves, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner and more. Proceeds from the show and silent auction support the work of Raíces Sagradas, an organization that accompanies immigrants in healing from trauma through culturally sensitive professional psychotherapy services.

Kith + Kin Chorus, a 76-voice uncommon choir led by Rachel Ries, celebrates the close of their 7th season with a choral collaboration with local luminary Humbird, plus arrangements of Queen, Kasey Musgraves, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner and more. Proceeds from the show and silent auction support the work of Raíces Sagradas, an organization that accompanies immigrants in healing from trauma through culturally sensitive professional psychotherapy services.

When we discussed the wish list of artists to return to our stage in this 35th Anniversary year, ROBYN HITCHCOCK was unanimous! So much sympatico between us....with Robyn's illustrious career spanning many decades and the richness of his craft more substantial and surrealistic with every new album and song uttered from his wry, curious point of view. The Cedar is truly honored to be hosting this enduring troubadour.

Having separately played The Cedar with other co-bill partners, we are honored to present this pairing for the first time as they tour together in all of their acoustic glory. Peter Mulvey, self-described as a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur, and almost-poet since before he can remember...Susan Werner has earned a reputation as “one of the most innovative songwriters working today”. Together they make for a contemporary folk dream team for a Friday spring night!

With his haunting, soulful voice, Blick Bassy has become one of Africa’s most inventive and distinctive singer-songwriters. Born in Cameroon, West Africa, he has worked in Brazil and is now based in a village in northern France. It’s here that he has developed a style mixing African, Latin and American musical influences with lyrics in the Cameroonian Bassa language. We have been working on this confirmation for over a year and we are absolutely thrilled to host Blick Bassy's Cedar debut and the unveiling of his stunning 2023 release Mádibá (which means "water").

An immersive concert experience that illuminates hidden Asian American histories through folk songs, sound pieces, live projections, and storytelling - The Cedar is delighted to welcome back NO-NO BOY!

The Cedar is honored to host the debut of HATIS NOIT: Japanese vocal performer hailing from distant Shiretoko in Hokkaido who now resides in London. Hatis Noit's accomplished range is astonishingly self-taught, inspired by everything she could find from Gagaku — Japanese classical music — and operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, to avant-garde and pop vocalists. Chama Devora to open.

The cutting-edge fiddle and cello explorations of Scottish and global music partnership of Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas returns to The Cedar! "… you would think they'd been playing together for centuries. While his fiddle dances, her cello throbs darkly or plucks puckishly. Then [Haas] opens her cello's throat, joining Fraser in soaring sustains, windswept refrains, and sudden, jazzy explosions. Their sound is as urbane as a Manhattan midnight, and as wild as a Clackmannan winter." — Boston Globe

Reimagining traditional music from Canada, France, and America, The Cedar welcomes the debut of Myriam Gendron. Critically lauded, the Canadian songwriter features thoughtful and transformative interpretations of traditional folk music as both a meditation on the past and a novel step forward. Deeply aligned with our programming as we celebrate and commune in this 35th Anniversary year. Minneapolis guitarist/banjoist/sonic alchemist, Paul Metzger, opens the evening - showcasing a maximalist aesthetic and a tinkerer's sense of adventure in his rambling, percussive solo works.

Beloved for his intimate, confessional live shows, Colin Hay is widely known for being the influential and celebrated front man of Men At Work with multi-platinum hits that include Down Under, Who Can It Be Now and Overkill among many others.This show will feature Colin Hay playing songs from both the Grammy winning Men at Work catalog and his solo catalog, including hits like Waiting For My Real Life To Begin, Beautiful World and many more.

Ana Tijoux is THE Chilean hip-hop protester. Touring behind her first album in nine years, VIDA, with media outlets like Rolling Stone naming her as the best rapper in Spanish, The New York Times pointing to her as the Latin American response to Lauryn Hill and magazines like Newsweek ranking her as the most important Latin American rapper on the international scene - The Cedar is super excited to be presenting this show in our very special 35th Anniversary year!

Le Winston Band is a one-of-a-kind Quebec ensemble that blends its French-Canadian roots with Zydeco and Cajun music. Since 2012, the band has been all over spreading its joie de vivre in Canada and Europe, through a sound that fuses the rich Louisiana musical tradition with original compositions. Making their debut in the Twin Cities at The Cedar - please put your dancing shoes on and come fais do-do with us!