Mainstreet Radio’s Catherine Winter presents a profile of the band, Conga Se Menne. The group from Upper Peninsula of Michigan utilizes some bongos, steel drums, and a tropical beat. They call their music Finnish reggae. The reggae beat is surprisingly similar to the Finnish schottish and soca is not far from a polka.

Many residents in northern Minnesota are descended from Finns, who must have seen some similarities to their chilly homeland when they came to work the mines and log the forests near the shores of Lake Superior. A lot of the mining towns are poor now, surrounded by pits where no one is digging anymore. But somehow this tough ground has grown a tropical flower.

Segment includes music clips