Minnesota music scene lines up to support John Munson of Semisonic following a stroke

One of the Twin Cities music scene’s most omnipresent and affable players, John Munson is finding out again he’s not alone.

The bassist and co-vocalist in Semisonic, the New Standards, Trip Shakespeare and numerous other projects suffered a stroke on Feb. 23 after returning home from a show he attended at Berlin nightclub in Minneapolis. He is undergoing acute rehabilitation to regain speech and motor skills and will be sidelined from performing for an indefinite period. Munson, 58, also suffered a stroke in 2020 and recuperated well enough to return to his usually busy gig schedule after the pandemic subsided.

Local musicians and music supporters lined up to donate to a GoFundMe started Sunday to offset medical bills and assist Munson and his family, including two daughters. The campaign was started by longtime Twin Cities music booster and family friend Victoria Norvell-Levy, who wrote, “Let’s rally as a community that cares deeply for these people.”

With the New Standards’ gigs now on hold, the jazzy revisionist trio’s co-leader Chan Poling posted about visiting Munson on Sunday when the GoFundMe started circulating online with widespread comments of support.

“He’s in good spirits, then saw these posts and felt even better,” Poling wrote. “Good folks pitching in for good folks.”

Munson himself was able to thank his friends and supporters in a Facebook post he put up Monday.

“The gifts we have already received, in friendship and laughter, joy and conviviality as well as heartfelt empathy … are the best,” he wrote.

The music vet did not sugarcoat his road ahead, though, also writing, “I don’t know when I will be back after it. Working that is. Playing! Soon? Ever? I don’t know. I believe. But over two weeks some days it feels soon. Other days, less soon.”

Munson is scheduled to perform a big hometown gig with Semisonic at the Minnesota Yacht Club festival on July 20. The sporadically active, hitmaking band of “Closing Time” fame also planned to hit the road this year on a West Coast tour with Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Those dates seems like good incentive for Munson to heal up by summer, considering the enthusiasm he showed after he and bandmates Dan Wilson and Jake Slichter toured with Barenaked Ladies in 2023 and then released Semisonic’s first new full-length album in two decades, “Little Bit of Sun.”

“I love performing; that’s my thing,” Munson said then.

“I like to be in front of people doing my thing, strutting my stuff, whatever’s left. But to then do those shows with Barenaked Ladies was so incredibly fun and rewarding. To do that knowing we had this record in our back pocket, and having those new songs to play, made it all the more exciting.”