A transition album. A stepping stone.

The bridge between the hardcore Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash and the sheer brilliance of Let It Be.

It’s an important album for any ‘Mat’s fan. There are the purists who will claim that Sorry, Ma was their best album, and there are the majority who will choose Let It Be, Tim, or Pleased to Meet Me as the best, while Hootenanny gets overlooked.

It’s such a wonderfully diverse album. One that kicks off with a blues number (sloppy and loose thanks to the fact that each member of the band is playing an instrument they aren’t the most familiar with), followed by a punk song, and then into one of the more melodic songs they’d written at the time (one that hints at what was coming with Let It Be. In fact it, “Color Me Impressed” would have fit nicely on Let It Be).

Hootenanny even features a “cover” of a Beatles song. “Mr. Whirly” starts off with the opening bars of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and then becomes a parody of “Oh! Darling”. The Replacements were never meant to be taken seriously. Though, they largely wore their hearts on their sleeves, they also had their tongues firmly planted in cheek, as is the case with “Lovelines”; a song that takes all of its lyrics from the personal ads in City Pages.

It’s a piece of Minnesota’s music history. Not one that is heralded in the way Purple Rain or Blonde On Blonde is. It’s not even one that is essential to a record collection like Let It Be is; but if you want a diverse album of Minnesota music, one where most of the songs are different in style from one another, this would be a cool one to check out if you’re feeling adventurous.