Autumn may be Minnesotans’ favorite season as we come out of the heat of the summer before the long winter approaches. It’s also the best time of year for live music, as many bands are kicking off their tours in time for Rocktober, the peak touring season. Over at the Fine Line in Minneapolis, it looked to be a pretty brilliant night of folk rock with Margaret Glaspy kicking off her 2026 I Am Both tour.

The opening act was Anna Tivel, a Portland (Oregon, not Maine) folk rock singer and songwriter. She has been relentlessly consistent about writing and recording new music, with nine albums released since her debut in 2012, the latest being 2025’s Animal Poem. The solo (and shoeless!) Tivel drew attention from the crowd right away. (Side note: There’s been a lot to complain about over the years with crowds yammering away while musicians play, but tonight’s audience at Fine Line was locked in, and both performers noted it with appreciation several times.) A short vignette about the day’s events at Minnehaha led to a fabulous version of that title track Animal Poem, and Tivel’s mezzo vocals and acoustic guitar were compelling without needing to be big. A number “about your lovely city” was particularly touching on this anniversary of things that quickly become political and that lyric of “history is ours to tell” was emotionally resonant in the song Bravest. Riverside Hotel was “a story” and Tivel had brought the crowd fully into her quiet storytelling. I was impressed at how well Tivel had the audience under her spell, and it turned out so did she, “You’re such a great listening audience”. Given a choice in next song, “barroom debauchery” easily won the day, and the following number was in the darker corner of the set. Following with a love song, Tivel truly had the audience in airplane silent mode, and I enjoyed how her lyrics, much more than her music, ranged across genres and focus. This was a contemplative set that had Tivel’s expressiveness win the day. Closing on California Zephyr was about the honestly that strangers (on a train in this case) can have with each other that we might not have otherwise and had the broadest range of vocals of the set. Anna Tivel headed off stage to vigorous applause and my guess is with a new group of fans.

Margaret Glaspy, who we last saw in July 2017, was headed to the stage after a very short break in support of her brand new album, I Am Both. The New York based singer and songwriter is your classic alt folk rock artist, and pulls all of the positives while also shading individual songs into a number of related genres with ease. She has a very particular vocal style, full of lilt and interesting cadence and tone. Her track record of music is pretty outstanding, with songs like Act Natural playing as full and evocative set pieces. Coming to the stage solo, Glaspy was a tremendous presence right away, and Would You Be My Man? was such a solid opener. Emotions and Math got multiple cheers before and during, and Glaspy was fully in charge. Hitting the new album, Michigan let Glaspy crush the vocals and the chorus lyric “who’s standing in whose driveway” was a great gut punch and that first appearance of harmonica was solid. A small bit about having more music meaning that each set can be different showed Glaspy equally entertaining at the banter as she tuned or added/removed the harmonica. Bathtub was a quieter but plaintive number and the lyric “if all of my failures were dimes, I could fill up a bathtub” resonated with the crowd. James and Marie had that great opening guitar work and this was a pretty great example of what Glaspy brings as an artist. A Lucinda Williams cover of Fruits of My Labor had the right vocal depth and things were moving so efficiently, you would never have guessed it was night one of the tour. After an early misfire (finally an opening evening mistake!) in The Book of Love, the audience started singing along (including harmonies!) and it was a pretty great moment that live music can bring. That Rose continued the songs from the new album, and it is one worth tracking down. A Dolly Parton cover of Do I Ever Cross Your Mind was a touching number and things were starting to wind down. Closing the main set with the title track I Am Both had the trickster lyricist at play, but she was quickly back for the encore. The two song encore ended with You’re Smiling (But I Don’t Believe You) and Margaret Glaspy had kicked off her tour in style with a marvelous set.