In Profile: Dick Cohn
Honoring a commitment to supporting live music in Minnesota
September 8, 2026
Donation placard turned decor
Live @ Lincoln:
Amid COVID-19 restrictions that shuttered Minnesota’s established music venues in 2020, St. Paul couple Richard “Dick” and Val Cohn decided to host a concert of their own. Compliant with all CDC guidelines of the time, a small audience gathered in the Cohns' front yard for a performance by Grammy-winning guitarist and personal friend Pat Donohue. With nowhere for artists to play, word of that night quickly spread, and in the coming years their old Victorian home became “Live @ Lincoln,” a focal point of the local live music scene.
Their concerts are unique for the current day, attracting around 250-500 guests per show with next to no online presence or advertising. Attendees mostly comprise a mix of neighborhood residents and friends from the couple’s vast social network, built over eight decades in the Twin Cities. This becomes apparent at any given show, where the median age throughout the audience hovers somewhere in the high seventies.
This is in part due to how the event flyers are distributed. News of upcoming concerts are sent out through an e-mailing list that can only be joined at one of the concerts. The Cohns said they’ve adopted this approach rather than primarily advertising on a website or social media because it’s not feasible to scale the concerts much larger.
“I’ve been told I take up every parking place around for a six block radius, so we need to be careful with how many people we can bring in,” said Dick.
Although the concerts skew older, all generations are represented, as they’ve become popular bonding experiences for families in the neighborhood. On any given night after the block is closed to traffic, families will line the grassy boulevard with picnic blankets while older attendees settle into their more comfortable, ergonomic camping chairs in the middle of the street.
Depending on the night you might find some dancers, but the atmosphere varies week-to-week. The Cohns book acts from across the musical spectrum, and always try to present guests with the opportunity to discover something new.
“I love to introduce all these old gray haired people who love music into a new genre or a new band that they haven’t heard of before,” said Dick.
Regulars
Grass roots approach:
Part of what gives the front-yard concerts their charm is how they give off a certain polish despite being organized on a shoestring budget.
Before breaking into the entertainment industry, the Cohns' were in the Halloween business, and have repurposed light fixtures and decorations from their former stores to adorn the venue. Even the hat that’s passed around for tips came off an old costume rack. Over time they were gifted more items, such as the decorative banner that hangs from the front porch, framing the musical guests.
“I had to buy $80 worth of replacement light bulbs awhile back. That was the biggest expense I’ve had in a long time,” said Dick.
This approach has kept overhead low, allowing them to donate nearly the entirety of their fundraising efforts to Minnesota Public Radio. Each concert features a weekly raffle with various prizes, the proceeds of which go towards Jazz 88, KFAI, Radio Heartland, and more. Last year they donated over $6,000 to public radio.
So while the crowds are relatively small, they’re also notoriously generous.
As lifelong residents of Minnesota, the Cohns and many of their guests alike are passionate about upholding all dimensions of its time-honored music industry for future generations.
“Minnesota generally is lucky,” said Dick. “We have great radio stations and great sponsoring by the audiences. But rural Minnesota and some of the smaller radio stations are being devastated. They’re all volunteer run, and sometimes have no money to even pay the electric bills. So we’re trying to expand this fundraising to include some of the smaller radio stations in Minnesota.”
It’s safe to say that after six years and tens of thousands of dollars raised for charity, Live @ Lincoln has solidified itself as a community staple. Its success was recently underscored when neighbors, seemingly coming to terms with the fact that these block concerts aren’t getting any smaller, pushed the Cohns to implement noise regulations and an earlier cutoff time.
These limitations, however, have hardly impacted the quality of the concerts or the Cohns’ devotion to organizing live music. If anything, they’ve motivated Dick to work more diligently on his more recent project, connecting musical talents with Macalester College and various businesses along Grand Avenue that have begun to host similar events.
Performance from The Great Northern Band. August 23, 2026
Lifelong Minnesota Music Connections:
One distinct factor in the success of the Cohns' block concerts has been Dick’s childhood connection to folk-rock hero Bob Dylan. He said this little fact has helped the concerts to flourish, as it attracts many artists who are Dylan fans themselves.
“Bob Dylan has done more for me than he knows,” said Dick. “Although I haven’t seen him in many years, often the guests relate to me because they relate to him and they know we grew up together. Many artists want to play here for that reason as well and sometimes dedicate songs to him, too.”
Their friendship began with the two meeting at age 12 at Hertzel, a Jewish summer camp in Webster, Wisconsin. Over their years Dylan became close with Dick as well as many others from that generation of St. Paul’s Jewish community, many of whom are regulars at Live @ Lincoln’s concerts today.
The two became particularly close during their freshman year at the University of Minnesota, right before Dylan left to pursue his career in New York. They lived in the same fraternity and Dick would often go watch him perform covers and old folk ballads at local coffee houses.
“I was a friend but I was more of a fan,” said Dick. “I loved going to hear him and I’d be the only person in the audience sometimes.”
Also during this time the two would frequently visit their childhood friend, Lawrence “Larry” Kegan, at the university hospital, where he was recovering from ongoing health complications resulting from a diving accident.
Once finding fame in New York, however, Dylan shared little contact with any of his friends in Minnesota for roughly a decade. This was until he suffered a motorcycle accident that nearly left him paralyzed and he felt compelled to reconnect with Kegan. Dylan invited Kegan and Dick to accompany his tour across the United States. Sporadically for the next two decades, they followed Dylan’s tour bus across the country in Kegan’s specially-equipped handicap van.
Those years of brushing shoulders with rockstars and watching an old friend address countless adoring crowds further solidified Dick with a love for live music and supplied a deep well of inspiration for hosting events of his own. It’s safe to say that without that history, the Cohns' neighborhood would be a little less lively than it is today.
Dick Cohn. August 2026. 85 years old.
Dylan (left) and Kegan (right) in their teenage years. Image courtesy of expectingrain.com.
