Kim Monson and Mike Monson Narrators Phil Nusbaum Interviewer March 13, 2010 PN: Phil Nusbaum KM: Kim Monson MM: Mike Monson PN: What we’re trying to do is document Bluegrass in the state of Minnesota. You guys have been here for a pretty long time. I guess to me what matters is performance, and also the scene, the informal performance, people who hang around and play, and the socializing that goes along with it, because there’s a lot of performance that takes place that isn’t formal, that isn’t at a Bluegrass show. So all that’s really important to me and how all of this has changed over time. So, let’s just start by asking you where you’re from and how you came to this - Kim or Mike, whichever wants to start? KM: I grew up in Grand Rapids [Minnesota], born in 1959. My dad was a musician and best friends with Lloyd LaPlant, so we grew up with all the LaPlant kids, and Lloyd and my dad were musicians together. They did a lot of jamming when I was a kid, and my father played guitar, mandolin, and a little bit of banjo. I remember going over to the LaPlants at a very young age, and seeing guitars stripped out on the top of his freezer, ‘cause that’s where he made ‘em. He didn’t have a bigger workshop then, he did it out of his basement. So, from very early on I was listening to the music, not really thinking that I was going to ever become involved with it. My sister did a lot of singing, and I did do some singing with her from time to time. My dad passed away when he was 40, so I was 12 and left those three instruments, and brother and I started just kind a picking up stuff and teaching ourselves how to play some of them. PN: What was your dad’s name? KM: His name was Clayton Hanson. From there I just started doing kind of Folk music and did that through my high school years before I moved down to Duluth to go to college. So that kind of music I was around when I was younger, and kind of grew up with that. PN: Your father was really ahead of the curve by playing banjo. He must have been playing that in the ‘50s. KM: He wasn’t a banjo banjo player, and it was a four-string banjo he was playing. It was more like “Way Down Upon the Swanee River” kind of banjo, but he was doing all kinds of the traditional songs you would pick on guitar and mandolin. 1 MM: Well Phil, I was born in 1956, I kind of came from a musical family; we always had piano, guitars. I wanted to be a drummer, so I got a paper route, and saved up $40 for a drum set, and my parents bought the rest it. I played in a little Rock band for the ski club banquets that we had. KM: The Polka Dots! [Laughter] MM: to make a long story short, when you move out of the house you don’t haul drums around to apartments, so I bought a guitar. This was the mid to late ‘70s, and I was kind of listening to A Prairie Home Companion, Powdermilk Biscuit stuff - I loved that. I’d hear Lester [Flatt] and Earl [Scruggs] on the Beverly Hillbillies and thought, “Hey! That’s pretty cool music!” I was playin’ guitar, my favorite stuff to play along with was like Ozark Mountain Daredevils stuff. Then one day, like I said, I was a ski jumper. I was jogging at Chester Bowl. I used to run the cross-country trails up there. I get done runnin’ and there’s this banjo player sittin’ under a tree, and I said, “Wow, you are really good!” and he says, “You know any geetar pickers around here?” I happen to have one in the car, so he told me to get it, and showed me “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” He said, “You’re pretty good at this. I live in the Chester Park Apartments, and come on over and pick a few!” And I said, “Ok, what the heck!? This is a blast!” He was in the Air Force here, the Air Force was in town, his name was Matthew Kelly Imbodin. He’s a really good banjo player. KM: He’s a great banjo player, and has played with some good bands. MM: He says, “I know this fiddle player, he’s in the Air Force, he’s up at the base, why don’t I give him a call.” So he calls Ken Sherman, so Ken comes over. “Hey we know a singer/guitar player,” so they called this other guy, Dave Montgomery, and he played bass also, and he brought a bass. And the next thing I knew I was in a Bluegrass band called, Elbow Grease. So that’s my history and how I got into it early, and that was in the late’ 70s. PN: How did you meet? KM: Mike had been down at Sir Benedict’s tavern starting a jam down there with his band before I ever kind of came on the scene. But we met down there at Sir Benedict’s. Prior to that there were some places you could go out and play that kind of music; maybe the Orpheum was one of ‘em. PN: Is that a movie theater? KM: It was more of a cafe/coffee shop. KUMD [at University of Minnesota Duluth] would even do a Second Saturday radio show there, where they would play live music right there, and do the radio broadcast from there. So I played out there, and there was a little pizza place, Mr. Frank’s Pizza, I used to live right next to, and they played some good acoustic music in there. Then I met Mike at Sir Ben’s in the mid ‘80s. 2 MM: We were looking for places to play with this Elbow Grease band, and we happened to call Sir Ben’s, and they said, “Sure, come on down, we’ll give you sandwiches and beer.” …That was for the band. We did that for a few months, and then it turned into a jam, which is still going today. Wednesday night is Bluegrass jam at Sir Benedict’s. Now it’s only free beer, ‘cause there are too many people to give sandwiches to, but…it’s a great jam session. KM: That’s been 30 years. MM: Yep, I hate to think of that, but… PN: In your experience, is Bluegrass Country? Is it Folk? Is it its own thing? MM: I’d say it’s all of the above. The Country music that I like is the old stuff. Country music’s not Country anymore…to me. But there’s the old Country was almost Bluegrass. But you know us, we take Rock-in-Roll and play it Bluegrass style. We’re not the pure traditionalists, but we love the traditional stuff, and the Gospel… KM: I think that the Country music today, and I’ve heard even Country music stars admit that it’s not like the old stuff, that’s really, really evident in the music. But the writing is what, I think, keeps it “Country,” is what they write about. That’s how they can call it “Country” because of the themes that they use in it, but it so much more rock-y today. The Bluegrass of today certainly has lots more influences; and I don’t even tend to call what we do “Bluegrass” anymore, because we do such nontraditional stuff sometimes. PN: What makes Bluegrass “Bluegrass?” KM: I always think it’s the instrumentation. You’re lookin’ for a guitar, a stand-up bass, a banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and those kinds of things. But it’s tricky, because those are the instruments that are used in Bluegrass, but you can take those instruments and play anything with ‘em, too, and that’s also becoming more evident today in the music that’s comin’ out. PN: Whatever you call what you do, and I think that fans would consider what you do “Bluegrass”? KM: Sure they do. PN: And if they’re aware of the musical trends, they would be able to say just what you say, “Oh, that’s a Rock tune played on the Bluegrass instruments.” KM: Right, right. PN: But what makes you want to continue playing, whatever your word for it is, I’d hope you’re not offended by my saying, “Bluegrass,” ‘cause that’s what most people would consider that’s what you do – at least it’s a Bluegrass base. 3 KM: It is. I’m not going to answer for you, but I know that part of it for us is that you can do it anywhere! We do this kind of music sittin’ on the dock at Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior…we do our music. You can take it anywhere; you don’t need to plug it in. It’s the roots of all different kinds of music shoved into whatever is comin’ out of your instrument at the time. But I love it that you can do anywhere. We meet people from all over the world, playing this music; they may play the same instruments, they may play the same song, but it’s different, it’s is theirs, and ours is ours.