Pine Island, Minnesota’s Rick Keane played his first paying dance job at age 14 and continued with local bands throughout high school. Trumpeter Rick earned his way through college with his horn too.  Rick has always had an interest in any kind of music; concert band, circus band, dance band, and jazz band. (courtesy Kris & The Riverbend Dutchmen’s facebook page).

The Twin Cities Catholic Chorale regularly perform at The Church of Saint Agnes in the heart of St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood since created by Monsignor Richard J. Schuler in 1956. Their repertore includes Masses written by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Dvorak, Gounod, Cherubini, Rheinberger, and are performed by a choir of more than 60 singers with orchestral and organ accompaniment.

Twin Cities Catholic Chorale website

Stop by and check it out! 10am-2pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday. 27 N. Broadway, New Ulm, Minnesota.

Inducted 2024

Crow was Minnesota’s first hard rock band to achieve national success. The band was formed in 1967 by singer David Wagner, guitarist Dick Wiegand, bassist Larry Wiegand, keyboardist Kink Middlemist, and drummer Harry Nehls- originally going by the name South 40. Nehls was soon replaced by Denny Craswell, and the band changed their name to Crow. Columbia Records brought them into the studio to record a demo in 1969- they passed- and Crow was signed to Amaret Records, whose releases were financed and distributed by major-label Mercury Records, based in Chicago. In 1969, Crow’s debut album Crow Music was recorded, and the single “Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)” made the Billboard Top 40 that Fall, peaking at #19 the following January. Albums Crow by Crow and Mosaic were follow-up releases in 1970 and 1971, respectively. Several singles such as “Cottage Cheese” and “King of Rock & Roll” managed to chart, although none reached the chart heights of “Evil Woman”. Wagner left the group in 1971 and released a solo album with Amaret Records entitled d/b/a Crow. Although there was new-found interest in Crow from Elektra Records, the band disbanded in 1972.

Reformed in 1980, the new version of Crow included original lead vocalist David Wagner, John Richardson on lead guitar, Jeff Christensen on lead guitar & vocals, Denny Johnson on bass, and Robby Belleville on drums. From September 1980 to July 1981, they recorded a new studio album titled Crow on the Run. This second version of Crow disbanded in early 1982. In 1988, Crow flew again for a third time, performing concerts all over The United States. Crow still perform occasionally in the Midwest with Dave Wagner on vocals.

Crow’s original and current leader, bassist, and vocalist Larry Wiegand is from Minneapolis and started playing professionally in 1962. He performed in Richfield, Minnesota’s garage band The Rave-Ons early in his career. Larry has toured all over North America and Canada with Crow, Corey Stevens, Bobby Vee, The Fabulous Flippers, and Pacific Gas & Electric. He was Staff Bassist at RCA Records in Los Angeles from 1974 to 1977. Both British superstar heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath and legendary soul diva Tina Turner have recorded a song written by Larry.

Original and occasionally current lead singer Dave Wagner grew up in Minneapolis, and currently resides in Apache Junction, Arizona. He started performing professionally at 15. David Waggoner (real name) is related to Minnesota 1950s rockabilly Mike Waggoner, who was leader of early rock and roll legends Mike Waggoner and The Bops. Besides Crow, Dave sang lead vocals for The Aardvarks, Jokers Wild, South 40, Whiskey River, and The Jack Daniels Band. Wagner has received two Best Male Lead Vocalist Awards.

Original and current member of Crow Dave (Kink) Middlemist was born in Minneapolis. He joined Jokers Wild in 1966, replacing Dave Wagner on keyboards, allowing Dave to focus on vocals. In the early 1990’s he also performed with the 10-piece horn band Under Suspicion in Minneapolis.

Drummer Dennis Craswell is a rare musician who can claim to have performed in two different Minnesota bands who hit the American Top 40. Denny co-wrote and played drums on The Castaways’ smash hit “Liar, Liar”, and joined Crow during the band’s nascent stage. Appearing on all three of Crow’s original albums, Denny went on to futuristic performances using percussion and electronics. The always affable and humble Craswell currently leads a version of The Castaways in South Texas (Winter) and in lakes and resort country of Northern Minnesota (Summer).

In his early days as a musician, original Crow guitarist Dick Wiegand performed most of the time with his brother Larry in Richfield’s garage rock pioneers The Rave-Ons, moved onto South 40, and played incredibly inventive six-string magic on all of Crow’s first three albums. Dick’s guitar sound had a big influence on Tony Iommi, who covered a Crow song on his British band Black Sabbath’s very first record in 1970. Dick currently lives in the Twin Cities area.

Lisa Wenger was born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota, and has performed in the Minneapolis/St. Paul music scene for many years. Her appeal is broad enough to entertain a variety of crowds, and she wins them all over- be it at The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, The Bitter End in New York City, The Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas, Nevada, or at B.B. Kings in Orlando, Florida. Lisa started singing with Crow in 2016.

Jeff Christensen is from Red Wing, Minnesota, and started playing professionally in 1966. Jeff was Staff Guitarist at Pilhofer Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1993 to 1996. He has had considerable success in the smooth jazz market with the release of four albums on CD under the name Boday, from 1997 to 2007. Christiansen also performs with Twin Cities’ group The Lisa Wenger Band.

Drummer Norm Steffen was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and started playing professionally in 1970. Norm toured throughout The United States and Canada from 1979-1984 with country-rock band Whiskey River, where he met Dave Wagner. Steffen and Wagner together have performed in Crow ever since.

Mark “Chico” Perez was born in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, playing drums in his early days. One of  his early bands opened for South 40, and in 1969 he became Road Manager for Crow. Chico played percussion with Crow, Gypsy, The New Primitives, The Del Counts, The Lisa Wenger Band, Kevin Odegard, Sterling, and Tommy Wiggins.

Vocalist Mel Gilbert was born in California and raised in Princeton, Minnesota. Her first band was Back Pages, then joined The Billy Road Band. Since 1991 she has worked with Crow, The Bird Dogs, and her own band Luna Sea.

Other members of Crow that received a 2024 award from The Minnesota Music Hall of Hame are Brenda Lee King, Deb Odenwald, Mike Mlazgar, and Mickey Stanhope.

Crow and individual members have all won Minnesota Music Awards, were inducted into The Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame, The Iowa Rock & Roll Music Hall of Fame, and The South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Crow’s website

Crow’s hit single “Cottage Cheese” reached #56 on The Billboard charts in 1970.

Inducted 2024

Back in 1971, all that Winthrop, Minnesota native Dan Witucki wanted was a chance to see and hold a concertina. His concertina-playing idols at the time were Jerry Schuft, Peter & Paul Wendinger, and Elmer Scheid. His mother, knowing Dan’s love of the concertina, took him to visit concertina master craftsman Christy Hengel in New Ulm. Christy could sense Dan’s excitement and strong desire to play. Hengel graciously invited Dan to see and hold some of the precious concertinas in his young hands. He introduced Dan to teacher Ambrose Kodet from Mankato, who set him on a chair and put a Patek Concertina on his lap. Ambrose gave Dan some lessons and instruction, and he was sent home with that Concertina and some sheet music. Christy made Dan’s mother an offer they could not refuse: Christy said “Try it, and see if Dan can learn to play. If he can and wants to play more, Dan can buy it. If he doesn’t, return it, and you will be out nothing”. As fate would have it, this truly amazing opportunity was a match made in Heaven, leading Dan to a wonderful career.

While in High School, Band Director Jim Rath put together his first band: The Polka Punks. They won The Future Farmers of America (FFA) talent contest, and proudly represented The State of Minnesota in The National FFA Competition in Kansas City, Kansas. While in High School, Dan also joined Lester Schuft and The Country Dutchmen, with whom Witucki recorded five albums. The Country Dutchmen performed at just about every ballroom from Southern Minnesota to the Twin Citiy area, and at The Minnesota State Fair. While performing at Polka Days at the Gibbon Ballroom, Frankenmuth, Michigan’s Marv Herzog heard Witucki play, and offered him a job touring with Marv’s Bavarian Sound of Frankenmuth Orchestra. Dan recorded six albums with the orchestra during this time.

After a number of years of working in other bands, he decided it was time to start his own band. Dan Witucki and The Music Masters were born and eventually recorded six albums. In 1987, on the road while headed to Branson Missouri, The Music Masters band was involved in a terrible car accident. Dan fractured his third lumbar vertebra, ending the group. Fortunately, his story and career did not end there. Dan was not even fully recovered when The Walt Disney Company contacted him to come to work. This fulfilled a dream for him even though his father, Fred Witucki, always said “I didn’t know what kind of a Mickey Mouse Job you will ever get playing that concertina!”. Since 1990 Witucki still performs in The German Pavilion at Epcot Center at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Because of this, Dan Witucki is perhaps the most-viewed concertina player in America– and the most successful.

During his 50+ years performing with the concertina, Dan has been afforded the opportunity to see and perform in 17 countries and 38 states. He has recorded 28 albums with an untold number of fantastic musicians. Dan is forever grateful to the many people who helped make his career a success. They include, but are not limited to, Dan’s mother Lorraine- who took him to see Christy Hengel, Christy Hengel himself- for taking a chance on the young man and letting him try out his first concertina, Ambrose Kodet- for all the instructions and lessons, and Dan’s Grandmother Marie Kuehn- who bought him that first concertina!

Inducted 2024

Friedrich “Fritz” Otto Reuter was born on October 11, 1863 in Jahnsbach, Saxony, Germany. He had shown a talent for music in his early childhood. In his music education, Retuer studied with well-known teachers of his day, including Bernhard Reichart in Waldenburg, Theodor Schneider and Gustav Schreck in Leipzig, Joseph Rheinberger in Munich, and Karl Thiel in Berlin. Reuter completed his formal training in music at The Akademische Institut für Kirchenmusik in Berlin where his studies emphasized composition. Reuter’s teachers could boast a rather impressive lineage. Reichart’s teacher was Johann Toepfer, who was taught by August Mueller, whose teacher was Johann Christoph Bach, whose teacher (and father) was J.S. Bach, the Lutheran church musician who many still regard as the world’s greatest composer. As a result, any student of Reuter and any student of a Reuter student has a direct link in their music education to Old Bach. Although Reuter had held some rather prestigious positions as teacher and church musician in his home country, he had at times found himself out of fellowship with his state church. His continuing concern over theological controversies in Germany led him to seek positions in North America.

Through connections of his brother, Karl, he was able to make contact with a church and school in Winnipeg, Canada. Clara Tekla Sonntag Reuter, spouse to Fritz and mother to their eight children, fulfilled the immeasurable and often silent and less-than-fully-appreciated role of women in that era. Leaving Germany with her husband, she totally left her family of origin behind, never to see them again. As they boarded the ship for America with five little girls under nine years of age, she was also carrying their next soon-to-be-born child. Upon landing in Canada, Fritz Otto contracted typhoid fever and recovered. Tragically, Ida Hanna (age 7) and baby Katherine (6 months) also contracted the disease and were buried in Winnipeg. The new baby, Fritz Gustav, was born in July of ’06. All those events would be more than enough to bear, if one were surrounded by loving and supportive family and friends; however, such family and friends being totally absent, here she was in a strange land, with no knowledge whatsoever, much less fluency, of the English language and her husband fully occupied as the family bread-winner. After serving in Canada a few years, Reuter accepted a position with the Missouri Synod in Chicago in 1907. Reuter became known to the Dr. Martin Luther College faculty through joint teacher’s conferences of the Wisconsin and Missouri Synod. Reuter’s assignment as the first full-time music teacher of the college was to chair the music department and to develop the music curriculum. He was forty-four years old when he came to New Ulm, Minnesota. Reuter came to DMLC highly qualified in keyboard, choral conducting, music history, stringed instruments, music theory, composition, and pedagogy. He arrived in April of 1908 and began his work right away. Reuter even presented a concert in New Ulm’s Turner Hall before the end of the school year.

Fritz Reuter gave music “a place and a dignity hitherto unknown at the college” (Morton Schroeder, Gifted Musician, The Northwestern Lutheran, June 1997). He began singing classes, started mixed and male choirs, taught a 32-hour course load per week, gave keyboard and violin lessons, and, when he could, he composed his own music. During his first years at DMLC, Reuter’s choirs sang music from Elgar, Händel, Mendelssohn, Schütz, and J.S. Bach. Two of Reuter’s works that were sung early on were “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, und Siehe, das ist Gottes Lamm”. Reuter himself spoke of the work of his choirs: “The men’s choir as well as the mixed choir works diligently in the area of tone and voice formation and intonation, and in the area of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic assuredness” (The Messenger, vol. II, no. 3, 57). Over the years many Reuter compositions were sung and played on the DMLC campus. Organ students worked out of Reuter chorale prelude books, and his choral piece, “Weihnachtsgeschichte”, or “The Christmas Story,” written for mixed choir, organ, and narrator was performed almost every year at the DMLC Christmas Concert from the late 1920’s to the late 1950’s, several times between the 50’s and 90’s, and again at the final Christmas concert of Dr. Martin Luther College in December of 1994.

Reuter wrote much secular music in addition to his great body of sacred works. Locally, the Reuters lived at 126 N. Washington Street in New Ulm. He was an active member at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and served in music there, too. There were eight children: Two, Ida Hanna (age 7) and baby Katherine (6 months) died from typhoid fever in Canada, three daughters, Magdalena, Marie, and Elizabeth, and one son, Friedrich, also called “Fritz.” His granddaughter, Margo Reuter Martens, has been actively involved in preserving Reuter’s personal history and music.

Confined to bed with illness, Reuter had been given a leave of absence from Christmas to the end of the 1922-1923 school year. Emil Backer, a New Ulm native, mentee of Reuter, graduate of DMLC, and also a highly skilled musician and teacher, was asked to take over Reuter’s work on a temporary basis with the hope that Reuter would recover. But he did not, and died on June 9, 1924 of a brain tumor. The baton was passed to Backer, who remained in the position of Music Professor and Choir Director at DMLC until his passing in 1957. Fritz Reuter and his wife are buried in the St. Paul Lutheran cemetery in New Ulm. There is a stained glass window in St John’s Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, one of the panes contains Fritz Reuter, picture and name. One of his students was stationed there and was responsible for that being displayed in the church window.

Inducted 2024

Brian Wicklund is a bluegrass teacher and fiddle player from Marine On St Croix, Minnesota. He has been playing the violin most of his life and specifically fiddle and bluegrass since his early teens. Brian was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1965, but his family settled in St. Peter, Minnesota in 1970. He began violin lessons at the age of seven. At age nine, his mother brought home a Flatt & Scruggs record to use for a research paper on country music in her anthropology class. Brian instantly fell in love with the sounds of bluegrass. His father was smitten as well, and began teaching himself banjo. The family started going to Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association events in the Twin Cities, where Brian connected with other fiddlers who kindly encouraged and informally taught him. In 1977, Brian and his father connected with several Mankato, Minnesota area musicians, and started a regular weekly jam session. That jam session turned into a band called River Basin Bluegrass that played many bars and clubs in Southern Minnesota in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A small prairie town in Minnesota was not necessarily an obvious place to grow up for a young bluegrass fiddle player, but, a few years of Suzuki violin training, a good ear, and perseverance helped Brian Wicklund to parse out those tricky licks on fiddle records, and led him on a path to contest winnings and internationally touring bands. In 1980, Brian connected with Mankato native and mandolinist Matt Thompson and formed a band called Bluegrass Connection with Craig, John, and Fay Owens from Houston, Minnesota. The group played gigs mostly in Southern Minnesota, and featured songs and arrangements inspired by Jim and Jesse McReynolds, The Stanley Brothers, and Bill Monroe. They won first place at The Minnesota State Fair talent contest that year, and second place at Bill Monroe’s renowned Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Indiana. After graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, he was asked to join Minnesota’s premier bluegrass band, Stoney Lonesome. His seven-year tenure with the band included hundreds of performances across the United States, Canada, and Japan. They performed several times on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, and released four albums. From 1995 to 2010, Brian toured as a sideman with The Judith Edelman Band, The Kathy Kallick Band, The Chris Stuart Band, and Lorie Line and her Pop Chamber Orchestra. In 2010, he began to focus on songwriting and founded his own progressive bluegrass band, The Barley Jacks, featuring his original music. They have toured throughout the Midwest and released three albums. With a Degree in Education and a knack for making difficult concepts simple, it was natural that he should become a master fiddle teacher. The waiting list for people wanting to learn from Brian grew to years. Brian’s Bachelor Degree in Elementary Education was fundamental in his ability to create fiddle instructional curriculum. After college, he began teaching private lessons, and soon realized that there wasn’t a comprehensive program to teach the fiddle. In 1998, he authored The American Fiddle Method, and published seven books in the series with Mel Bay Publications. His writings have been among the publisher’s best-selling books with over 100,000 copies sold. It can be argued that he has taught more people to play the fiddle than anyone! With a membership to The American Federation of Musicians, students can learn from his video lessons anytime and anywhere. One can also learn from him in person with his online Live Courses, or alongside his hand-picked staff at a Fiddle Pal Camp. Wicklund has been much in-demand as an instructor at the premier fiddle camps, bluegrass camps, and Suzuki Violin Festivals in the United States, Canada, Sweden, and in The United Kingdom. In 2009 he began annually hosting his own music camp in Stillwater, Minnesota called Fiddle Pal Camp hiring many top fiddle, mandolin, and guitar teachers from across the country. In 2019, he launched americanfiddlemethod.com a subscription-based, online program to learn fiddling for players of all abilities and levels consisting of hundreds of video lessons.Brian lives in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota. He is an avid cross-country skier, both competing in races and volunteer coaching with The Stillwater High School Nordic Ski Team. He also enjoys running, mountain biking, and spending time on the St. Croix River, swimming and canoeing. Brian grows much of his household’s food in a large garden and bow hunts for venison. He has been a volunteer first-responder with The Marine on St. Croix Fire and Rescue Department for years. He is married with three adult children.

Inducted 2024

John Mon’s musical career began in 1971 as bass player in his brother’s band, Gary Mons and The Trail Brothers. Over the next four years, they played weekends in bars, supper clubs, ballrooms and at special events all across Minnesota. He studied broadcasting, graduated in 1973 from Brown Institute in Minneapolis, and married his wife Cindy. In 1974, he started working as a DJ at KNUJ radio in New Ulm through 1976. In 1975, he started his own band The Midnite Special, and they experienced immediate success. The group played bars, supper clubs, ballrooms, fairs, and country music festivals- any place in the five-state area that wanted to hear, dance, and party to their country-rock style of music. The Midnite Special took top honors at several band contests across the state, and their popularity soared. In addition to John being the frontman, he also did all booking and promoting for the band. From 1976 thru 1983, while working part-time at KNUJ & at KDUZ radio in Hutchinson, Minnesota, The Midnite Special were playing 275-300 gigs per year, appearing with major acts of the day: Ray Price, Janie Fricke, Sonny James, Jeannie C. Riley, and The Statler Brothers, just to name a few. The band recorded two albums and singles during those busy years. John Volinkaty, who wrote the massive hit song “Satin Sheets”, wrote the liner notes for their first album, and summed it up best: “lf you haven’t seen THE MIDNITE SPECIAL in person, I urge you to do so. In the songs they sing and the way they entertain, the people who come to see them, they are indeed SPECIAL”. ln 1983, John decided to get off the road to spend more time with his family, and got back into radio full-time at KDUZ. Mons reunited with a couple of former Midnite Special members, his guitar-playing brother Gary, and drummer John “A-Frame” Beck. They formed a band called Spearfish Canyon, and their country-rock style once again proved to be popular, keeeping them busy most weekends for the next six years. From 1988-1989, Spearfish Canyon performed every Friday & Saturday night as the house band at The Cedar Edge Ballroom and Supper Club in Cedar Mills, Minnesota. From 1986-1991, John was a Bandshell Emcee at The Minnesota State Fair. In 1989, John got offstage and stepped behind the big stage when he accepted a position at The Minnesota State Fair as the Grandstand Manager and “Handler of The Stars”, personally working with all the national acts that appeared each summer at The Great Minnesota Get-Together— a position he held for 14 years until he retired in 2005. He would spend the entire day working out details with each artist performing that night. There were many entertainers from every style of music that helped create memories- too many to individually name here- but one that stands out is former Beatle, Ringo Starr. John’s professional and easy-going mannerism also led to many friendships with the stars over the years, and one led to the opportunity to work for Dolly Parton at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee during the Summer of 1993 as Stage Manager for her Sunset Music Festival. His responsibility was working with the up-and-coming artists of that time, including Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Allison Krause, and The Dixie Chicks. In 1994, John was also one of the originators and booked all the bands for the first-ever Winstock Country Music Festival, held in Winsted, Minnesota. A huge outdoor country music festival that is still very popular to this day- this event draws close to 20,000 fans each Summer. After retiring from The Minnesota State Fair in 2005, John was back onstage again when he joined The Prairie Rose Band. His intent was to help them out “for a few months”- and he ended up staying with them for 10 years. Prairie Rose released an album on CD in 2006 that sold out in a very short time. John once again became the front man & did all the booking for the band. The group’s popularity found them working a busy schedule in clubs, casinos, festivals, fairs, and street dances. Prairie Rose opened for national recording artists Don Williams, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Williams & Ree, and John Conlee. One “unique” job The Prairie Rose Band really enjoyed was playing between horse races each Summer at Canterbury Park track in Shakopee, Minnesota. On occasion, they were also invited to play at area churches & outdoor services with a set of country gospel songs & religious favorites. The male members of The Prairie Rose Band- without their female singer- performed as a classic country trio called Old Gold. Why that name? John said “The name was picked for obvious reasons. We’re old, and we play solid gold classics!” Mons stepped onstage for the final time with Old Gold in the Summer of 2016. In radio during 2000-2022, John worked at KDUZ, KARP radio in Hutchinson, and KGLB radio in Glencoe, Minnesota. He has Emceed well over a thousand events, benefits, charities, and live radio broadcasts during his 48-year career. John has hosted trips via radio stations to Nashville, Branson, Missouri, and Las Vegas, Nevada, as well has several local trips throughout Minnesota. And- from now on- he’s looking forward to going to as many of his nine grandchildren’s events as possible.