The Premiere of the “Mike and Mary Situation” at Cloudland – Minneapolis, MN

Put a Wisconsin farm boy and volunteer firefighter turned bestselling author and songwriter onstage beside an East Coast Yale grad who earned her chops in FedEx trucks and Texas honky-tonks and you’ve got the Mike and Mary Situation.

Michael Perry, the New York Times bestselling author of over 20 books including Population: 485; Truck, and Forty Acres Deep (and subject of three PBS specials) has been writing songs since the late 1990s. “First show I ever did, I ain’t sayin’ I was nervous, but I ripped out a sixty-minute set in thirty-two minutes flat,” says Perry. He and his band the Long Beds have toured steadily ever since.

Mary Cutrufello played her first Long Beds show in the dust of a county fair horse pull, showed up for the next gig anyway, and has held down the lead slot for years now. A Connecticut-raised Ivy Leaguer who earned her first record deal after scorching a trail through the Texas roadhouse scene armed with a yellow Telecaster, a truckful of originals, and gutsy vocals, she has gone on to become equally well-known for her fiery Midwestern roots rock and powerhouse acoustic performances.

As a duo, Perry and Cutrufello are as at ease with the audience as they are with each other. The songs hit directly and cleanly, the harmonies contrast like worn leather and rough-cut lumber, and the stage banter plays like a conversation between two longtime road-wise friends who’ve taken their lumps and their chances, whose trade is words and music but know what it is to work a loading dock or a pitchfork, and who figure if life ain’t played out exactly as you drew it up, you might as well laugh about it, sing about it, and get on with it.

Friday, February 9, 2024
Doors: 7PM
Music: 8PM
Tickets: $18 (Grab your tickets here)
21+

Cloudland Theater
3533 E Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406