Minnesota connections

Maria Schneider's "Data Lords" ended up with some Minnesota connections, one intentional, others not so.

For the album artwork, she enlisted fellow Windom native Aaron Horkey, an artist now in Mankato.

"He thought of this idea for the cover of using this cottonwood leaf — and we're from Cottonwood County in Windom — and he had the idea to make half the leaf computer circuitry," Schneider said. "So it's this digital world permeating our very nature."

Then the printing of the album package and the manufacturing of the CDs were done in the Twin Cities at Franklin Press and Groove House, respectively, both in Plymouth.