with temperatures about 80-85.
And we're gearing up for Flambeau Ramble by talking with our talent that's going to be rolling into town later this week to entertain us.
And one of those is Small Town Famous.
They're coming to perform on Saturday afternoon, late Saturday afternoon into early evening.
And we have Peter Larson, we have Nick Hoffman, we have Mick Perry, members of the band joining us.
Good morning to all of you.
Hey good morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, thanks for joining us.
We appreciate you guys taking time to Share your story with us a little bit.
So I don't know who wants to take the first question But how did how did all this get going?
I always like to hear the journey of bands that tour and entertain us and how this all got got going for you guys
Hey, John Nick Hoffman here.
I started teaching in more high school with Peter and Mike Fury in
the fall of 2020 and they found out somehow I played drums and they had a little teacher talent where they'd play some songs in front of teachers and whatnot and I started playing and they looked at each other, Peter and Mike that is and said, hey, we got a drummer here and maybe we should start playing some shows together.
Nice, nice.
Now, Nick, you're a graduate of Park Falls, is that right?
Correct.
2020 or 2005.
2005.
Well, we just talked with Nolan Schmidt, 2004 graduate.
good buddy of mine yes lots of basketball games played between us
yeah yeah we just we just talked with him and moniker just about 20 minutes or so ago and he was talking about just the blessing of the great influence that you had here in park falls nick of the of the band program that continues to this day but but what a great tradition of music singing and uh and the instrument side
um i mean yeah no one's a great friend of mine and uh
I had tons of great friends, blessed with that.
But I think, for me, I was really blessed with Pat Pollock teaching me how to play drums in junior high.
He taught me how to play jazz on the drums, and then John Hankley was so great.
Yeah.
You know, I had some, some great drummers ahead of me that I got to watch and learn from.
But yeah, no one's, he can rip the bass too.
He's pretty good.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
So, uh, Peter, Peter, you the lead, you the lead singer.
Is there a lead singer technically for you guys?
Yeah, I sing most of them.
Mike gets on there a little bit too.
And we got.
Lisa Hoffman is going to sing a few as well at Flamborama.
Somebody informed us of that just before we went on the air to ask you about that special guest.
Lisa doesn't typically do this, but is going to come out for Flamborama.
Is that right?
That's right.
All right.
All right.
Good treat.
What kind of music are we looking for?
People coming out to have a good time.
What are you guys going to bring us?
Yeah, I think that's we've always sort of had the goal of playing crowd-pleasers
Music
that everybody
likes.
Yes, we want to play the music everybody wants to hear so you'll hear I mean it's almost like a like a one-third split between country and rock and pop and We throw some older stuff in there, too We play a couple Elvis tunes and yeah a lot lots of we try to learn some new songs before every show So a good variety and like I said the people the songs people want to hear
Yeah, you guys have been together like four years or so.
And play, it sounds like you're playing enough shows to make it fun, but yet not make it seem like a job.
Would that be a good way to put it?
It's a great way to play.
It's exactly our goal.
We try to play.
You never more than two a month usually one a month and we keep it fun and we you know start being a little selective in where we play now We're lucky enough that we can kind of do that and we like to play the fun shows in flamborama We played the fireman stand last year and that was a really fun show and we're really excited to play the main tent this year
Yeah, Peter will tell us about tell us your journey a little bit to this point and what led you what influenced you Musically as a the younger man
Sure, so I mean I started playing guitar when I was in the fifth grade and took lessons and
I've been doing that for a long time.
And then I had some really great choir directors at my high school.
I went to Cathedral High School in St.
Cloud, Minnesota.
And they really, especially Brett Amundsen, who's at College of St.
Scholastica now up in Duluth.
But he was a spectacular choir director and taught me a lot about singing and that.
And so I'd always kind of fiddle with things.
I had a little two-man acoustic show through college.
We called Peter and the Magic Tone.
That was really fun.
And I did that and started performing kind of on my own and with my buddy, doing some live shows and playing some little house parties and stuff like that.
I came to Mora and I do a solo thing as well.
And I've been doing that for 10 years, I think now, just by myself and whatever.
And then started doing this thing with the teachers.
kind of at the beginning and end of the school year to kind of kick off an end of the year for the staff and That'd been really fun and I always sort of wanted to like make a bigger band and something like that and when Nick got hired in 2020 and Mora He mentioned that he played drums in my ears kind of perked up and I was like oh Let's let's see what this guy's got you know and so he showed up like he said we had that thing we we had a practice session and
Nick left out this part of the story, but I'm going to tell it because I think it's really good.
He didn't show up to the practice and I was like, ah, he's a new teacher.
Like he's busy.
I'm sure he's not going
to do
it.
It's going to be fine.
And then he shows up the morning that we're going to perform.
And we're like, well, we're going to run through everything kind of once before we go.
And we played three.
We did like four or five songs.
We played through each song once.
Nick played perfectly with all of them.
And we're like, OK, this is this is
going to
work out great.
Like I think.
I think we should take this on the road.
So that spring, then we started kind of practicing together and booked a couple of gigs.
And I guess the rest is history.
Yeah.
Mike, tell us about your journey a little bit.
I'd like to hear about musicians' journeys, Mike Furry.
Sure.
Back when I was in, I always played some sort of instrument and I bounced around to a lot of different ones when I was a young kid, piano, clarinet.
And then when I was in sixth grade, I found a guitar under my dad's bed that I didn't know existed.
And I pulled it out and started playing with it.
And my dad yelled at me and told me I couldn't, which of course only makes me want to play even more.
So I'd sneak it out from under the bed and I'd play whenever I could.
And then in seventh grade, I started playing guitar instead of clarinet.
And I've been playing guitar ever since.
It's been like 25 years now, something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Way back in Chicago.
He's from Chicago,
by the way.
Chicago guy.
All right.
All right.
Bear
fan?
Sure, a Bears fan on the South Side or White Sox.
OK, OK, Williams, all right.
Good.
All right.
The music, the live music industry, it's been on a bit of a roller coaster.
It really took a dive there for a while.
I want to say in the 90s, maybe early 2000s, when people seemed like they were hiring all the DJs to play records and stuff.
But it seems like there's a bit of a resurgence in the live music.
Am I right on that?
That's you I'd say I mean So It's interesting and I when we started this band I started kind of looking at some different groups on Facebook and trying to learn everything I could about the live music sort of scene And I would say it's seen a resurgence.
There's you know, we live here I mean more of Minnesota is a town of 3,500 people.
It's a small town and that's kind of where we get our name from but Like there are there's at least three places
within a 15 minute drive well four or five places within a 15 minute drive that have music every weekend live music you know in the in this small town in pretty rural area in minnesota here which is really quite cool and kind of impressive and i don't know if that's kind of true throughout the state but we're certainly in a in a spot here where that is um part of the deal and it's been um really good for us like it's it's been easy enough to find places that want us to play and we've we've been been lucky enough that that we can play
pretty much as often as we like and it's been really good.
So I'd say we played our first
Wedding this summer.
We're just getting into that and and I think there's kind of hopefully gonna be resurgence and having real bands at weddings students.
So Yeah, it's been good.
All right.
Well local guy Nick Nick from Park Falls Nick I asked this of the other guys earlier What stands out Nick when I ask you what is your worst experience you've ever had playing somewhere?
Names places not necessary would be nice, but not necessary What stands out Nick that that was not fun?
I love that question.
It's our very first song, our very first show.
We played a Beatles song, and I don't know.
I mean, we had a handful of practices before we played, but we really botched it,
or at
least I did.
I mean, I got a keep track of all the transitions, and those transitions I didn't hit.
And on top of that,
Sitting right next to my table where some some baseball players that I'd play against and some rival guys and all I was thinking about was holy crap They probably think I stink, you know this band stinks.
So but after that at that botchery we really Turned it up and I mean every every gig we play we get better and better.
So that's a fun thing, too Yeah, I'm gonna forget that first song
Peter Mike anything stands out with you guys
I think like when I was younger playing in bands live at coffee shops and stuff like back when I was in high school I mean we we'd screwed up all the time but the shows are usually so full of friends and nice people that it's always fun regardless like people sometimes almost like to see
that you're human and you make errors and oh, we have to start that song over again and everybody gets a good laugh.
So I think like, yeah, maybe embarrassing moments happen, but we always roll out of them pretty easy.
Yeah, five o'clock on Saturday, small town famous.
We'll be rolling into town with local flavor, Nick Hoffman and Lisa.
Any, any, any hint, any thing you can give us a little bit about what Lisa might be doing for you there on stage?
What vocal?
Well,
Lisa's right here.
So she's she's going to tell you the three songs she's going to sing.
All right, Lisa, bring it on.
Let's hear it.
I'll be singing What's Up by Four Numblands Sunday morning by No Doubt and Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar, one of my very favorite artists from when I was a child.
Yeah, four nine blondes.
What's up?
That's one of my favorites of all time.
That's an awesome song.
All right.
Well, safe travels to all of you.
We look forward to seeing you here.
People want to check out your music.
They can go to what small town famous.
What did I see dot com or what were you on the web there?
Small town famous band dot com and dot com.
Very good.
All right.
Well, thank you all for taking time to join us.
Looking forward to seeing you here on Saturday.
All right, thanks Joel.
Thank you.
Yep, small town famous Saturday five o'clock flamborama local flavor there with Nick Hoffman and Lisa