'Voice' finalists Kat Perkins and Nicholas David team up for our Mini-Grandstand finale

Perkins and David met 15 years ago on the local bar-band circuit. But they've performed together only once before.

September 7, 2020 at 6:27PM
Former "Voice" contestants Kat Perkins and Nick Davis in the Dunsmore Jazz Room at Crooners Supper Club on April 16, 2020 in Fridley, Minn. (Jeff Wheeler/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS) ORG XMIT: 1700754
Former "Voice" contestants Kat Perkins and Nick Davis in the Dunsmore Jazz Room at Crooners Supper Club on April 16, 2020 in Fridley, Minn. (Jeff Wheeler/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS) ORG XMIT: 1700754 (Jamie Hutt — TNS - TNS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Kat Perkins and Nicholas David met 15 years ago while working the Twin Cities bar circuit in their respective rock bands. They reconnected after both made deep runs on NBC's "The Voice," he in 2012, she two years later.

Since then, they've made appearances on the same program, but only once before did they sing together, at a 2014 Minneapolis benefit.

Now the rock siren and hippie soul man have teamed up for a rare performance of two classics for the Star Tribune's virtual grandstand. Perkins injects her personality into Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," and David's funky piano and soulful vocalizing frame Bill Withers' "Lean on Me."

During the pandemic, Perkins has kept busy by delivering pop-up concerts, singing telegrams and an occasional motivational speech via Zoom, featuring her message and theme song, "Fearless."

David has been hunkered down in St. Paul with his wife and three kids, posting an occasional performance video and co-hosting his weekly radio show, "East of Here, West of Now," on community station KFAI (90.3 FM) Tuesdays at 10 a.m.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
about the writer

about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

See More

More from Minnesota State Fair

Will the key voting bloc support Harris or Trump? We went to the Minnesota State Fair (where else?) and asked them.