Scene Maker Q&A: Minneapolis pianist Lori Dokken showcases female singers

Lori Dokken did that piano-woman thing in various Twin Cities bars. For like 35 years.

For the last decade or so, the Minneapolis musician has been producing and performing in themed shows. Like “Women on the Moon” and “Shout Sister Shout.”

These days, Dokken, music director at Unity Minneapolis church, has become something of a fixture at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis near Loring Park. She’ll perform there on Monday with singers Tristana Ward and Emily Rubbelke. She explains. Here are excerpts.

Q: How long have you been producing themed shows?

A: I’d say on a bigger scale for about 10 years and on a smaller scale for about 15 to 20 years.

Q: How do you come up with the concepts?

A: Oftentimes at the kitchen table because my partner Kate is pretty smart. It started at the Ordway where I produced a concert called “Painting Joni” in 2016. Then I got a grant in 2018 from the Ordway. That’s when I started thinking about a production and having a whole spectrum of styles, grooves and emotional feel, from happy to touching, and that show is called “Women on the Moon.” We still do that.

That show came up when I tried to think “what was missing.” A focus on women was missing. The political scene started getting heated up in 2016, ‘17, ‘18 and I thought of the 1960s where society and culture and turmoil and politics and things were pretty noisy. I thought about the women musicians of the ‘60s and what a great time to focus on — from Nancy Sinatra and Mama Cass to Janis Joplin and Grace Slick to Joni Mitchell. At the kitchen table, Kate came up with the title “Women on the Moon.” The first production we did 32 songs from 23 different vocalists from the ‘60s.

Q: How much time is involved in developing the concept, doing the arrangements and then rehearsing?

A: I have a show coming up this fall, “Shout Sister Shout.” I did it at the History Theatre and it could be better. So I spent about 100 hours tearing it apart.

With charts, it takes another two to three weeks with my head down every day to figure them out and then write them. Once a show gets rolling, you can change it along the way. There’s a few hundred hours that go into the conception and packaging of it. I’m not a big rehearsal person. I get reference material so everyone has the information they need [before rehearsal]. For the Ordway, we had one vocal rehearsal and one full band rehearsal and then we did the show.

Q: Do you have a core group of singers you work with?

A: Overall, there’s a core group of 12 or 16-ish women I assemble for different colors and styles for different productions. There’s a primary group of six. I’m creating small circles of community. There’s a chameleon show called Our Voices. I’ve done it for Gay Pride, I’ve done it for kids going back to school. I bring together a collage of folks. We’ll give like $2,000 to Planned Parenthood or $2,000 to the Trevor Project, which helps a suicide line for LGBTQ+ youth.

Q: Tell me about your shows coming up at the Woman’s Club.

A: I’ve been doing shows at the Woman’s Club for 2½ years, and it’s called Club Day Monday. The usual format is myself and a vocalist. A lot of folks I’ve never been onstage with, like Mick Sterling. Now and again I plug in a showcase; Tristana is a vocalist in Pandora’s Other Box and Emily works at the Woman’s Club and she’s an aspiring singer. [On] The 23rd of September Dan Chouinard [and I] are doing Club Day. We haven’t been onstage together for a whole gig for 20 years. In the ‘90s, we worked together at the [Gay] 90′s.

Q: How long were you at the Town House in St. Paul?

A: I was at the 90′s for five nights a week for 11 years; it helped me buy a house, being a self-employed artist. The other two nights I was at the Times [bar] for about 20 years. I was at the Town House for 24 years. Till 2019-ish. They have a new owner.

Q: When did you learn to play piano?

A: I started taking lessons when I was 5 or 6. When I was 15 or 16, I quit. I thought of being a concert pianist. My oldest sister was my teacher. We were the opposite personalities. When you’re 16 and she’s 20 years older, “I can’t take this anymore.” I was in Chicago when I was 18 and I started singing in open mics. I came back here and started singing in open mics and I got hooked up with pianists [to accompany her] and I decided if someone couldn’t make it to a gig, I could do it myself. I wasn’t very good for a couple of years. But people were patient with me. Now it’s mostly what I do. I sing now and again. At the end of November at Crooners, I’m doing a show with bass and drums and no backup singers. Just me.

Q: What do you remember about your first professional gig?

A: The first time I remember being onstage, I was 3½ and it was at a nursing home in Benson, Minn. My mom put me on a table so they could see me. I was in a dress, shockingly. My Aunt Margaret played the piano and I sang Lutheran hymns for about half an hour.

My first professional gig was when I moved back from Chicago in 1981 and I was working at the Night Train and Sweeney’s Champagne Bar [both in St. Paul]. And I wore dresses then, too. I came to a point 20 years ago, sitting on a piano bench is really uncomfortable [in dresses]. I’m not conscious of what I’m doing so it’s safer for me to wear a smart slacks outfit.

Q: Tell me about your church gig.

A: I’ve been music director at Unity Minneapolis for 15 years. I hire all the people. I maintain a budget. I pick all the Sunday music. I perform almost every Sunday. I chose inspirational music, which can be a Brandi Carlile tune or like Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” We did a Beatles month last year.

Q: And you produced a golf tournament?

A: Ha-ha. Yes. I got involved with the Aliveness Project in the ‘80s and ‘90s when HIV surfaced. For 10 years, I worked with Camp Heartland, which is now One Heartland, a summer camp for kids affected by HIV or AIDS. It was called Dizzy Dokken’s Golf Tournament. We’d raise $25,000 on average every year.

Q: Did you play golf?

A: Yes. I haven’t golfed regularly in like 20 years. In eighth grade, I was on the boys junior high golf team ‘cause there was no girls golf team. At 6 in the morning, some of the older retired farmers were on the golf course so it would be like me and Elmer and George for nine holes. Kids could play for free in Benson, Minn., back then.