Minnesota
Minnesota music legend Spider John Koerner dies at 85
Spider John Koerner was a fixture in Minnesota music on so many levels.
He sat at the same corner stool nearly every day at Palmer’s Bar in Minneapolis, where they kept an electric mug warmer for his coffee and brandy. He played the same style of Gretsch 12-string acoustic guitar everywhere from the Newport Folk Festival to Minneapolis’ Triangle Bar. And he sang many of the same old-school folk and blues songs at every gig for more than six decades, from Leadbelly and Memphis Minnie tunes to some of his own wry and weary originals.
Koerner’s mainstay presence goes back to Minneapolis’ West Bank folk and blues scene of the early 1960s, when he mentored a young Bob Dylan and recorded albums that influenced John Lennon, David Bowie, Bonnie Raitt and Beck.
The lanky song man’s unchanged, unflappable, old-reliable presence in the Twin Cities music scene was finally upended this weekend, when the influential guitarist and singer of “blues, rags and hollers” died of cancer at age 85. He had begun receiving hospice care several weeks earlier.
Koerner died peacefully at 2:35 a.m. Saturday at his home in Minneapolis, according to his son, Chris Kalmbach, who was there at the home along with other family members.
“The music world lost a great artist, and we lost Grandpa John,” Kalbach said.
Originally from Rochester, N.Y., Koerner made his biggest mark via the acoustic trio Koerner, Ray and Glover, one of the first white acts to help bring authentic blues music to the fore.
Even before that trio took flight in 1963, though, Koerner made another big mark on modern music by schooling a failing University of Minnesota student from the Iron Range.
“When he spoke he was soft spoken, but when he sang he became a field holler shouter,” Dylan wrote of Koerner in his autobiography, “Chronicles, Vol. 1″ ― one of many accounts of the former Robert Zimmerman’s pivotal era learning songs from pickers in Minneapolis from 1960-1961 before heading to New York.
“Koerner was an exciting singer, and we began playing a lot together,” Dylan’s book continued. “I learned a lot of songs off Koerner by singing harmony with him and he had folk records of performers I’d never heard.”
Another future rock legend who learned from Twin Cities musicians, Raitt called Koerner “the old, venerable one” in the 1986 documentary film “Blues, Rags & Hollers — The Story of Koerner, Ray & Glover.”
“The guy that influenced a lot of other musicians that would come up,” Raitt said of him. “He became the fulcrum of the whole scene. I watched his hands. I learned a lot of things from him.”
Koerner came to Minnesota in 1956 to study aeronautical engineering at the U. He never fully gave up his engineer interests — stories abound of him tinkering on self-made items like telescopes and a boat — but he diverted into the Marine Corps and then focused on music as a career once Koerner, Ray & Glover started recording in 1963, first for a small folk label and then Elektra.
The same California label that bolstered the Doors and Paul Butterfield Blues Band (each also noted admirers of the Minnesota trio), Elektra issued “Blues, Rags & Hollers” in 1963 and the follow-up LP, “Lots More Blues, Rags & Hollers,” a year later.
They were the type of records that didn’t sell too well, but seemingly every musician who was anybody at the time owned them and devoured them.
Lennon cited that first record as a personal favorite in a 1964 Melody Maker profile. Bowie also praised it in a 2016 Vanity Fair story for “demolishing the puny vocalizations of ‘folk’ trios like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Whatsit.
“Koerner and company showed how it should be done. First time I had heard a 12-string guitar.”
The group gained more stature through mid-’60s appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, where they performed alongside their old blues heroes like Muddy Waters and Son House — and they witnessed their old pal Dylan’s infamous “going electric” set in 1965.
“They gave hope to white college kids everywhere,” Rolling Stone magazine senior editor David Fricke said of the first album.
“If three white kids from the Midwest could make a record that sounds that black and deep and soulful, that really was inspirational. It became a foundation for so much of what came after it.”
Koerner himself seemed OK with the fact that he never got as famous as many of his admirers.
“I wouldn’t want the kind of success that Bob Dylan has, in terms of my personal life,” he told the Star Tribune in 2005. “He’s got people picking through his garbage, for Christ’s sake.”
KR&G splintered off into solo and duo acts in the late ’60s. Koerner’s 1969 record with late Twin Cities piano plunker Willie Murphy, “Running, Jumping, Standing Still,” was the most successful LP of their post-trio era. Raitt covered one of its songs, “I Ain’t Blue,” on her debut album.
But Koerner seemingly couldn’t stand still in those days. He spent a year making a charmingly hippie-dippie black-and-white movie, “The Secret of Sleep.” He then quit music altogether in 1972, moved to Copenhagen and married a Danish woman and focused on building telescopes and other inventions instead.
His recording and touring hiatus ended in the mid-1980s, when St. Paul-based folk label Red House Records released his first in a series of solo albums, coyly titled, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Been.” Red House later reissued some of Koerner, Ray & Glover’s Elektra recordings. At that point, his music career was cemented.
“Dave and Tony are true musicologists,” Koerner said in a 2002 interview shortly before Ray’s death. “I’m just a guy who got into this for fun, and because to this day I don’t know what else I could do to make a living.”
Koerner and harmonica-blower Glover (who died in 2019) performed off and on as a duo after Ray’s passing, including a weekly gig back on the Minneapolis West Bank at the 400 Bar. Sporadic offers came in for Koerner to perform solo around the world, too.
In 2012, he returned to the Newport Folk Festival after a 43-year-hiatus, where his appearance was cheered on by younger fans on that year’s lineup such as Conor Oberst and fellow Minnesotans Trampled by Turtles. Oberst at the time praised Koerner for “his authenticity, his sincerity, his significance.”
Koerner performed less and less over the past decade. Among the few places to see him play were the locations he liked to visit for vacations, including Madeline Island on Lake Superior, Copenhagen and Boston.
In 2018, he unofficially declared that his performance at Palmfest outside Palmer’s would likely be his last: “My hands won’t always do what they used to,” he said then. “Sometimes I say my muscle memory has Alzheimer’s.”
The neighboring West Bank music hub Cedar Cultural Center also coaxed him into playing two different retirement-style celebrations in 2017 and 2019, each one featuring younger musicians honoring Koerner, including members of the Cactus Blossoms, David Huckfelt, Jack Klatt and the guy many see as the heir apparent of the West Bank folk and blues legacy, Charlie Parr, profiled by RollingStone.com two weeks ago.
Koerner made his retirement official over the past year, when he gave one of his 12-string guitars to Palmer’s, where it now hangs in a glass case (and where he continued to hang out in recent weeks even after starting hospice care). He gave another guitar to Parr and asked the younger picker to keep playing it. He has, and you can bet he will keep doing so.
Said Parr, “Over the years the biggest and still most important lesson I took away from watching John play and listening to his records was that I could find my own voice on the guitar, and play those old songs in my own way. That’s been worth everything to me.”
Similar words about interpreting folk and blues music traditions were said by Koerner in 2005 as he broke from his usual humble statements about his legacy.
“In the early [1960s], when we were rediscovering all these old blues guys at festivals and whatnot, it always struck me seeing one of those guys playing the same way he played 40 years earlier,” he said. “In a sense, that’s sort of what I got to be: my own version of those guys. I don’t expect a lot from that, but I’m very glad my work is appreciated and respected.”
Koerner is survived by three adult children and several grandchildren.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream contributed to this report.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Gas prices are climbing again in the Twin Cities, with experts warning drivers to brace for more increases if oil prices keep rising.
Twin Cities gas prices see sharp increase
What we know:
According to GasBuddy’s survey of 1,106 stations, the average price for regular gasoline in the Twin Cities jumped 10.9 cents per gallon in the last week, now sitting at $4.18 per gallon. That’s 38.6 cents higher than a month ago, and $1.28 more than this time last year.
The national average price for gasoline also rose, hitting $4.48 per gallon after a 5.1-cent increase over the past week. Diesel prices are up too, with the national average at $5.62 per gallon, a 0.2-cent increase.
The cheapest gas in the Twin Cities was $3.70 per gallon Sunday, while the most expensive was $4.63 — a difference of 93 cents per gallon. Across Minnesota, prices ranged from $3.70 to $5.01 per gallon.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said, “Average gasoline prices declined in just six states over the last week, led by the Great Lakes region, where motorists in states like Michigan and Ohio saw prices fall sharply, while Indiana experienced even steeper relief after the state temporarily waived both its excise and use taxes on gasoline.”
GasBuddy’s data shows that while some states saw relief, most drivers are paying more at the pump.
Gas prices in neighboring states
By the numbers:
Gas prices in neighboring states and cities are also fluctuating. Wisconsin drivers are paying $4.37 per gallon, almost unchanged from last week. Sioux Falls saw a significant jump, with prices rising 17.3 cents to $4.13 per gallon. Minnesota’s statewide average is now $4.16, up 11.1 cents from last week.
Looking at the last five years, Twin Cities prices have varied: $2.90 per gallon in May 2025, $3.25 in 2024, $3.47 in 2023, $4.11 in 2022 and $2.76 in 2021. GasBuddy compiles these numbers from more than 11 million weekly price reports across over 150,000 gas stations nationwide.
How much more you’re paying at the pump
Dig deeper:
In the scenario that your vehicle has a 15-gallon tank that you fill up about every 10 days, here is a look at how much more it’s costing you in May versus April, and in 2026 versus last year.
Now: At an average price of $4.18/gallon at three times per month at $62.70 per trip, that comes out to $188.10
One month ago: An average price of $3.79/gallon at $56.85 per trip, that’s $170.55 per month.
One year ago: An average price of $2.90/gallon at $43.50 per trip, that’s $130.50 per month.
Drivers face more uncertainty ahead
What’s next:
De Haan said, “Those declines helped pull the national average lower by roughly eight cents over the last several days after oil prices eased mid-week on optimism that the U.S. and Iran could reach a deal. However, that optimism has since largely unraveled, with talks appearing to stall and President Trump signaling the latest proposal is unacceptable, helping push oil prices higher again in Sunday electronic trade.”
He warned that if oil prices continue to climb, the national average could approach $4.65 per gallon. Ongoing refinery issues are also affecting diesel production, especially in the Great Lakes region, where prices are nearing record highs.
Should geopolitical tensions escalate further, fuel prices could rise even more sharply in the weeks ahead, De Haan said. Many drivers are watching prices closely and hoping for relief, but experts say the outlook remains uncertain for now.
What we don’t know:
It’s unclear how long prices will continue to rise or when drivers might see relief at the pump. Future changes will depend on oil markets, refinery operations and global events.
The Source: This story uses information from GasBuddy.
Cori Roberts of St. Cloud, Minnesota, incurred more than $8,000 in medical bills after she was diagnosed at CentraCare with early-stage cervical cancer. She says the health system told her she made too much — about $41,000 a year — to qualify for financial aid.
Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
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Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Cori Roberts was living in a rented basement four years ago when she was diagnosed with early-stage cervical cancer.
Recently divorced, the former stay-at-home mother had returned to work in her mid-40s, taking a human resources job that paid $41,000 a year. Then, despite having insurance, she was hit with more than $8,000 in medical bills.
“I had my car and a basket of clothes,” Roberts recalled. “Medical bills were not something I could have afforded.”
Roberts sought financial assistance from CentraCare, the St. Cloud-based health system that treated her. It’s a nonprofit charity that receives millions of dollars in federal, state, and local tax breaks. In exchange, it’s obliged to offer charity care to patients who can’t afford their medical bills.
But Roberts said CentraCare told her she made too much to qualify.
Roberts instead scrimped on groceries and Christmas gifts for her kids and paid off more than $6,000 over two years. Then CentraCare sued her last year because she hadn’t paid off all the debt.
“They’re supposed to be a nonprofit,” Roberts said. “It’s like, ‘Come on!’”
This story was a collaboration between KFF Health News and the Minnesota Star Tribune.
A sliver of financial aid
CentraCare earmarks just a tiny fraction of its budget for helping patients with medical bills they can’t pay, but it’s not alone in that, a Minnesota Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found.
Minnesota’s hospitals and health systems are among the least charitable in the country, the investigation found, providing less financial aid as a percentage of their operating budgets on average than hospitals in almost every other state.
The investigation drew on a detailed review of every hospital charity care program in the state, an analysis of five years of hospital financial data, and dozens of interviews with patients, hospital executives and state officials.
Nationally, hospitals spend an average of about 2.4% of their operating budgets on charity care, according to federal hospital data compiled by Hossein Zare, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. Minnesota hospitals spend about a third of that, on average.
CentraCare’s flagship hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota, earmarks only a fraction of its budget for helping patients who can’t pay their medical bills.
Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
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Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Some spend considerably less. Of Minnesota’s 123 general hospitals, 62 devoted less than 0.5% of their operating budgets to charity care from 2020 through 2024, the Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found.
“The system is not working,” said Erin Hartung, director of legal services at Cancer Legal Care, a Minnesota nonprofit that helps patients with medical debt and other financial challenges. “And the burden is falling hardest on the people who are least able to bear it.”
CentraCare’s flagship St. Cloud Hospital spent less than 0.25% on charity care, according to the analysis. That works out to $25 in patient aid for every $10,000 spent on hospital operations.
A growing burden
Charity care will become even more vital in coming years as Americans lose health coverage or can’t afford rising copays and deductibles. The nation’s uninsured rate has been ticking up and is expected to increase further as budget cuts pushed by President Trump force states to pare back Medicaid and other safety net programs.
Nationwide, healthcare debt — much of it from hospitals — burdens an estimated 100 million people. And charity care, which was historically aimed at the uninsured, is now critical to many people with health insurance who can’t afford their bills.
Hospital officials say it’s unfair to expect them to solve this affordability problem when many of their facilities are financially strained. “No amount of charity care from hospitals will ever fully meet the needs of uninsured or underinsured Minnesotans. The need is simply too great,” Minnesota Hospital Association spokesperson Tim Nelson said in a statement.
But Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said hospitals have a duty to increase charitable help for all needy patients in exchange for the tax breaks they receive.
“There is a benefit you get from being a nonprofit hospital in the state of Minnesota,” he said. “But do the people get the benefit?”
Several factors help explain why Minnesota hospitals provide so little financial aid. For one, job-based insurance and an expanded Medicaid program offer broad coverage. Hospitals in states with less government assistance and more uninsured people typically spend more on charity care.
Eligibility standards vary
But patients also face significant barriers accessing financial aid at many hospitals, including inconsistent eligibility standards and extensive applications, the Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found.
To qualify at many hospitals, patients must submit detailed personal information, including bank statements, retirement accounts, mortgage documents and estimates of other assets such as cars, homes or livestock.
Cori Roberts, who was sued by her healthcare provider after she was unable to make full payments for her treatment, thumbs through copies of her payment records at her home in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
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Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune
And because Minnesota has not standardized the criteria for charity care, patients might receive aid at one hospital but not another. The investigation found that some hospitals give free care to patients with an annual household income of $47,000, while others cap it at about $15,000.
There are similar variations in charity care standards at hospitals nationwide, KFF Health News and other researchers have found. A recent analysis by the nonprofit Lown Institute found that one hospital in Boston set the limit for free care at less than half the level as another hospital just a few block away.
In Minnesota, had Roberts driven 30 miles east or 35 miles north, she would have found medical providers with more generous financial aid policies than CentraCare. But she didn’t know to look.
Roberts, now 49, has remarried and lives in a split-level home in St. Cloud decorated with inspirational plaques such as “Faith, Family, Friends.” CentraCare recently dropped the lawsuit against her, but only after she took out a loan against her retirement plan to pay off the medical debt. “It just feels very unfair,” she said.
CentraCare spokesperson Karna Fronden said medical privacy laws prevented her from discussing Roberts’ case. She also declined interview requests about the health system’s charity care spending.
In a statement, Fronden said CentraCare provides assistance in addition to charity care, such as helping enroll patients in insurance. “This helps provide broader, longer-term protection for patients,” she said.
Other hospital leaders said they serve their communities in ways besides forgiving medical bills, including training doctors and nurses and preserving money-losing services such as obstetrics and mental health care.
Hospitals in rural communities specifically also play an important role as employers, said Robert Pastor, chief executive of Rainy Lake Medical Center in International Falls, Minn.
“We are the second- or third-largest employer in town, running on razor-thin margins while navigating escalating labor and supply costs and routine underpayment by public programs,” Pastor said. “Meanwhile, many health insurers post billions in profits.”
“Rural hospitals like ours are often portrayed as though we are sitting on piles of cash and simply choosing not to spend it on charity care. That is far from the reality,” he said.
Hospital executives say they have a responsibility to ensure that limited resources for charity care go to patients who need them, said Travis Olsen, chief executive of Hendricks Community Hospital, near the South Dakota border.
Burdensome application process
To determine eligibility, some Minnesota hospitals consider only income, the Star Tribune-KFF Health News investigation found. But most demand information about patients’ bank accounts as well. More than two-thirds require even more information, including the value of retirement accounts, life insurance policies, property and vehicles.
In addition to copies of tax returns, W-2 forms, pay stubs and bank statements, Hendricks asks aid applicants 53 questions about their finances. These include questions about the make, model and value of vehicles; the current market value of farm equipment, livestock and land; and the purchase price and square footage of homes.
Other hospital applications ask patients to detail their monthly spending on food, utilities and other medical bills.
All these questions discourage patients from seeking assistance, said Jared Walker, founder of Dollar For, a nonprofit that helps people apply for charity care.
“The drop-off rates are much higher the more questions you ask and the more documentation you have to provide,” he said.
By contrast, most hospitals make it very easy for patients to click a button on the hospital website to pay their bills, Walker said. “Hospitals have optimized to get payment,” he said. “If you want to get on a payment plan, if you want to get on a credit card, it’s so easy.”
Back in St. Cloud, Roberts said that when she drives past CentraCare’s $200 million expansion at its Plaza campus in St. Cloud, she wonders why Minnesota hospitals don’t live up to higher standards.
“They have all the money,” she said. “But they can’t grant a good person some grace?”
This story was produced by KFF Health News and the Minnesota Star Tribune.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF.
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