The Legend
Now in its 60th year, the Midwest Banjo Jamboree is the longest continuous running music festival showcasing America’s instrument...the banjo!
Founded in the Twin Cities, the Midwest Banjo Club started out as an informal gathering of a handful of talented musicians, enthusiasts, and preservationists at the home of Dick Petersen in the early 1960s, during the heyday of the jazz (4-string) banjo’s resurgence in popular culture. Those were the days when “banjo and beer joints” like The Red Garter, Your Father’s Mustache, Mickie Finn’s, and Shakey’s Pizza Parlors were all-the-rage across the country, serving up nightly fun with sing-alongs to the sounds of Dixieland, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley favorites, Broadway show tunes, and folk songs of the era (with pizza and peanuts-in-the-shell on the side).
The Club soon decided to hold its first Banjo Jamboree at Jimmy’s On The Levee in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1964, attracting mostly locals from the “Land of Sky Blue Water” and several passionate banjo lovers coming over from nearby Wisconsin. A few years later, some of those early attendees—Andy Anderson, Leo Dahlberg, and Bob Mitchell—decided to relocate the event to "God's Country" in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on the bluffs overlooking the mighty Mississippi River, where it has remained ever since. Today, the Jamboree attracts fans and artists from not only all over Mid-America, but also stretching from Maine to California and across the border into Canada.
Founded in the Twin Cities, the Midwest Banjo Club started out as an informal gathering of a handful of talented musicians, enthusiasts, and preservationists at the home of Dick Petersen in the early 1960s, during the heyday of the jazz (4-string) banjo’s resurgence in popular culture. Those were the days when “banjo and beer joints” like The Red Garter, Your Father’s Mustache, Mickie Finn’s, and Shakey’s Pizza Parlors were all-the-rage across the country, serving up nightly fun with sing-alongs to the sounds of Dixieland, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley favorites, Broadway show tunes, and folk songs of the era (with pizza and peanuts-in-the-shell on the side).
The Club soon decided to hold its first Banjo Jamboree at Jimmy’s On The Levee in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1964, attracting mostly locals from the “Land of Sky Blue Water” and several passionate banjo lovers coming over from nearby Wisconsin. A few years later, some of those early attendees—Andy Anderson, Leo Dahlberg, and Bob Mitchell—decided to relocate the event to "God's Country" in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on the bluffs overlooking the mighty Mississippi River, where it has remained ever since. Today, the Jamboree attracts fans and artists from not only all over Mid-America, but also stretching from Maine to California and across the border into Canada.
1960s
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1970s
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Over the years, many banjo legends appeared on the stage of the Midwest Banjo Jamboree, including Don “The Flying Dutchman” Van Palta, Jerry Allen, Lowell Schreyer, Leroy Larson, C.C. Richelieu and, most recently, "Captain Banjo" Johnny Thorson. And, many of today’s banjo greats literally grew up as youngsters making their earliest appearances at this event, and also honed their talents there as professional artists in subsequent years. Among the notable “La Crosse Kids” are American Banjo Hall of Fame honorees Paul Erickson, Debbie Schreyer and Johnny Baier, along with the great Lance Dieckow and Jimmy Barrett, who still make the trip back to their musical “home” and regularly perform at the legendary Jamboree to this day.
