About the Band
(Pix Here)

The Geezers are a chronologically mature jug band, formed by a group of highly confused egos.  They  believe that their musical prowess is expanding, even though they are rapidly aging.  (OK, so the laws of physics would suggest that they're aging at a constant rate, no more rapidly than anyone else -- it just seems rapid.)  They also believe that the world is ready to hear them.  Well, at least once...

As their name suggests, the Geezers have been around a while -- if not musically, at least temporally.  They might have been the original "boy band," until the Girl Geezers appeared.  Pete Albrecht and Tom Skramstad played at the Coffeehouse Extempore in the early 70's (only once -- they were never asked back).  Skramstad has played since the late 70's in a bluegrass group, "The Encampment River Boys."   Don Venne hails from Anoka, so naturally no one knows much about him, although he's quite active in the New Folk Collective and pretends to know a lot about music.

Speaking of class, there is one other truly professional player in the band -- "Fiddlin' Mary DuShane," a former member of The Buffalo Gals, a terrific Twin Cities acoustic band playing old time fiddle tunes, original songs, and their own brand of Cowgirl Swing.  Mary’s favorite nickname came from Garrison Keillor when she played fiddle in the Powdermilk Biscuit Band, which was the house band on the early Prairie Home Companion radio show.  Garrison called her "The Girl With a Thousand Friends."

Then there are the noisiest players in the band, since they are the principal purveyors of miscellaneous clangy, scrapy, scratchy, jangly and otherwise cacophonous objects.  They showed up for practice with husbands Tom and Don, and they were both conscripted.  Gai Skramstad has taken up the challenge of playing the "lager-phone," perhaps the oddest home-made "tambourine-ish" -- but MUCH bigger -- instrument ever devised.  It's origins are murky, but that may be because it sprang from the murky depths of Pete's mind.  This must be investigated.   Mary Rose Cossi is a nice Italian girl from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  (Yoopers just fit naturally into a jug band, dontcha know?)  Among the many instruments (??) in her arsenal is the heavy and dangerous ACOUSTIC waffle iron.  Yes, and this one ain't made of no modern materials like lightweight aluminum or some miracle alloy, and it don't have no TEFLON™ on it.  True to its name, this waffle iron is made of IRON.

The newest member of the band is Cindy Gentling, who plays kazoo in the Geezers, but is also an autoharpist.  For those who don't know, autoharps have 36 strings, so they are 6 times as hard to keep in tune as a guitar.  Cindy apparently has patience which eludes Don, Peter, Mary, Tom and Bill, none of whom ever has to tune more than 8 strings.  (Not that we ever really get in tune, since jug band music only demands "approximate" pitch.)

And finally, our secret weapon in the 2004 Battle of the Jug Bands was 15 year old John Hardy, who has since gone on to whatever teenagers do when they get bored with hanging around Geezers.  John's mouth music is the modern equivalent of the sound of a jug being played -- just take away the jug.

More recently, our friend and bandmate Bill Geezy has disappeared from the band.  Though a mere pup of less than 50 years, Bill is an all-around musician and songwriter, having had his songs recorded by no less than Kate McKenzie.  So, as you can see, he added some serious class to the act.  But he's off doing more of his own music, making CD's and playing non-jug music.  We always like to see him, and you should, too.  See his "Bill Geezy and the Promise Breakers" Web Site.