Kid Dakota

My goal is make sure that your guests, regardless of what type of event you are hosting, have a great time. To this end, I plan sets that will resonate with your audience. In addition to having hundreds of originals, I also can play over two hundred different covers from a diverse range of musical styles. I will show up an hour before I am scheduled to perform, or sooner if that is necessary, and I have various PAs depending on the size of the event.

I play over a hundred shows !a year and I'm looking forward to performing at your next event!

Kid Dakota is the musical moniker of Darren Jackson. Darren is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, engineer, teacher, and producer, and although he grew up in a small town in Western South Dakota, he cut his musical teeth in Minneapolis. A fixture on the scene there for two decades, Darren founded two critically-acclaimed bands (Kid Dakota and The Hopefuls, aka The Olympic Hopefuls,), released ten albums, and won three Minnesota Music Awards, including “Artist of the Year.” He has headlined nearly every venue in the Twin Cities metro area, including First Avenue, the Fitzgerald Theater, and Orchestra Hall, and has toured extensively in the United States and Europe, sharing stages with rock and roll icons such as Soul Asylum and The Cars as well as indie rock stalwarts like LOW and Trampled by Turtles.

In addition to crafting some of the most unique music to come out of the Midwest in recent decades, Darren also performs a carefully curated selection of covers that pay homage to the best in classic country (i.e., Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Strait, etc.), classic rock (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, etc.), 80’s college rock (R.E.M., The Replacements, Violent Femmes, The Cure, etc.), and modern indie/alternative (Wilco, The Shins, Nirvana, Weezer, etc.).

Darren has performed at breweries, wineries, and distilleries all over the Midwest including 10K, Bent Paddle, Black Tooth, The Cherry Hut, City Service, Contrary, Convergence, Crow Peak, Earth Rider, Enlightened, Fat Pants, Fishback and Stephenson, Fulton, Grumpy Troll, Inbound, Lake of the Woods, Lion’s Bridge, Lost Cabin, LTD, Montgomery, Omni, Rocky Reef, Saw Mill, Sleepy Eye, Spearfish, Spiral, Sociable, Swing Barrel, Twin Spirits, Wild Minds, and Woodgrain.

I have a couple different PAs depending on the size of the event. I cannot provide a stage or lighting of any kind. If you have a stage or lights that you want to use that is fine with me.