The Burroughs at the Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (August 13, 2025)

Colorado based band The Burroughs was playing session number six in The Cedar Cultural Center ’s Summer at the Cedar series. A band self-described as “sweaty soul music”, the band is led by Johnny Burroughs and has several albums including 2023’s Honey Imastar. Normally a nine piece, they appeared at the Cedar with eight members with vocals/guitar, trumpet, alto sax, baritone sax, keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums/vocals (only missing the regular trombonist).

Opening with the excellent table setter Found My Groove, the band were dancing with flair. Burroughs, clad in white jump suit and wide brimmed black hat, was the band leader and dance master, and quickly had a sizeable amount of crowd dancing along. The initial songs were very much a retro 70’s funk and The Burroughs could easily have been opening for Parliament-Funkadelic or similar greats of that era.

On Love and Unity, the drummer (“Minneapolis’s own!”) Mary Claxton took vocals for a bit and was a good contrast to and harmonized well with Burroughs through the evening. Their newest song, Feelin’ Good, had a fantastic saxophone solo from Briana Harris, and had the genre formula down, including the quiet middle section and the sing-along repeated chorus.

We had at least five vocalists on Automatic Systematic and a great guitar solo from Jack McManaman, while Burroughs ran off stage for some glitch that seemed to be quickly resolved. A rapped number, Bombtrack, gave the brass section some nice riffs and a Moog-sounding keyboard solo from Spencer Zweifel. Burroughs was all high energy, but the rest of the band was right there with him musically. There was not a lot of break or banter early on, as the band either transitioned from one song to the next or had the shortest of pauses. I was glad for the band that a bit of breeze had picked up, as they were getting a workout in.

I Came Here to Jam got Burroughs on megaphone and the band was working through a large number of the genre’s check list without feeling forced. The middle section had some of the evening’s longer jams, and a long keyboard intro to Made for Love gave the rest of the band a chance to rest for a quick minute and had Burroughs with a good bit of talking, including noting they had been at the Cedar two years ago. It also had a stunning sax solo from Harris, who was absolutely terrific.

Howlin’ at the Moon had Burroughs and Claxton appropriately on their “ooh-ooh’s” with the brass section punctuating throughout. Hayden Farr got a nice baritone sax solo before the band got down, and I mean all the way down to the ground, before inevitably getting it all the way back to the top. Dat Booty got us introduced to another native Minnesotan, as bassist Brian Claxton got a bass solo.

A cover of Champagne Supernova was a decidedly different feel and was the end of the main set. Coming back for the encore, The Burroughs got back to the funk and closed on Honey Imastar, with some dancing in the crowd and a great James Brown inspired close to the number. With a flourish, the band ended on a high note and a promise to return soon.