DULUTH — Trampled By Turtles have announced their 10th album. The LP, titled "Alpenglow," was produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and will be released Oct. 28. According to a news release, the album was "named after the optical phenomenon that takes place when the sun casts a reddish glow across the mountains at dawn and dusk."
Tweedy also wrote one song, "A Lifetime to Find," for the album, with the remaining 10 tracks penned by the band's frontman Dave Simonett. A first single, the poignant "It's So Hard To Hold On," has been released along with a lyric video featuring fan-submitted photos and videos from live shows across the country.
Trampled By Turtles will tour behind the album from Nov. 3 to Jan. 21, with 18 shows including a Nov. 26 gig at the Armory in Minneapolis; Duluth's Charlie Parr will open that show. This summer, the Americana sextet are playing a handful of outdoor shows including their highly anticipated return to Bayfront Festival Park on July 9.
That will be the band's first show in Duluth, the city where they started out as a band, since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Jayhawks were recently named as substitute openers for the Bayfront show after initially scheduled supporting artist Jenny Lewis had to cancel. The Bayfront lineup will also include Duluth indie rocker Emma Jeanne, winner of Trampled By Turtles' inaugural Palomino Grant.
Bayfront makes an appearance in the "It's So Hard" video, with the Zenith City predictably well-represented: even a pair of fans pictured at a Minneapolis show are sporting "Duluth is a cool city" T-shirts.
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"The group reached out to their legions of passionate fans and asked them to send in photos and videos of their experiences at Trampled By Turtles shows," according to the news release. "The band was completely overwhelmed by what they received, and even more so by the hundreds of heartfelt stories and emotional sentiments that accompanied them."
Tweedy has long been based in Chicago but harbors a well-known fondness for Duluth. His band Wilco have made repeated local stops, with former mayor Don Ness issuing a 2010 proclamation naming the group official citizens of Duluth. Two years later, Ness added a symbolic key to the city — upping the ante after Madison, Wisconsin also made Wilco honorary citizens.
Speaking to a Bayfront audience in 2012, Tweedy said, "It's good to be home." When they take the same stage next month, his latest collaborators will likely feel the same way.
This story was updated at 1:15 p.m. June 14 to correct information in the album art photo caption. It was originally posted at 12:28 p.m. June 14. The News Tribune regrets the error.
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