(gentle tones) - [Announcer] On this episode of Postcards.

(rock music) (trumpet music) (exciting music) Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region's Arts Council Arts Calendar, an Arts and Cultural Heritage-funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM, online at 967kram.com.

- I was born and raised in Rochester, Minnesota.

I had three sisters and one brother and they all are much older than me.

I started performing as a musician when I was probably 13, 14, and I was just a singer.

I was always singing and I found I had a bunch of friends and we were like, let's start a garage band.

At our first talent show, you know that son Wonder Wall?

We played Wonder Wall at the talent show, and we were so nervous that we played really fast and it almost sounded like I was rapping, you know what I mean?

We got third place and the articles was like oh, the band did a remix version of Wonder Wall.

And it was just like, no, we were just super nervous.

It's always been a part of me.

When I was a little kid I'd always be singing and writing weird little lyrics and things all over the place, and I still do that today.

That's why if you go throughout our house, there's note pads everywhere if inspiration hits and you want to be ready.

(soft music) I'm of German descent and of Greek descent, So yaya in Greek means grandma, pappous means grandpa.

My heritage is very important to me because it tells me where my lineage has come from.

It gives identity to me, which is important, especially in Rochester, growing up.

There's a very tight-knit Greek community.

It's not anything like US culture at all, right?

I mean, from language to even food, like baklava and all that kind of stuff.

It's like, what the heck is that?

I don't know, but it's good.

The story of my pappous, my grandpa, he was a teenager.

This is the late 1800s, really 1900s.

His family was Christians and they lived in these Greek islands.

Well, these islands were always disputed between the Turks and the Greeks and go back and forth.

A Turkish tax collector came and beat up my grandfather's dad.

As a form of revenge, my grandfather's brothers went and killed them.

So then the Turkish government came and killed all them, and essentially my pappous was an orphan all of a sudden.

He escaped and eventually he snuck onto a boat and got to Ellis Island, 'cause he knew he had an uncle in Iowa.

I guess the rest is kind of history.

But my sister, she went to Ellis Island and saw where he wrote in his name the day he came in.

They have a picture upstairs with the boat even that he came in on, which is really cool.

I actually never got to meet him 'cause he passed away before I was born, so everything that I know are just from pictures and stories directly from my father.

I am in a band called the Morning Kings.

That's a Minneapolis funky alt-rock band, and we tour and play and perform all throughout Minnesota and the upper Midwest, and live shows is our thing.

We come and we come to party and come to have good time.

My goal every show is to have someone dancing on a table or something like that, just having fun.

That's what it's all about.

The best part about performing live is the instant release and receiving of management from people.

Playing this music that you work on so, so hard, that you rehearse all these hours and spend all this time on, and then to just be loud at a festival or something like that, where there's thousands of people, they start dancing or just reading the room.

That's just so cool.

It's such an adrenaline high.

The best part about touring is the people you meet in the random ways and the random things you see.

It's just like going on a road trip with your best friends and you just know you're going out for an adventure.

You got a destination.

You don't know exactly how you're gonna get there.

Things happen, the craziness.

That's just so much fun, and so it's like an adventure every time you go out somewhere.

Having a studio in your house can be a double-edged sword actually, because there's a lot of times when I'm walking around the house and it's like, I might walk by and all of a sudden it catches my eye.

I'm like, I should probably be in there.

I'm not really in the mood right now, but you still gotta go.

You still gotta just go in and it's kind of like put on your work hat and just start, and then the ideas will come.

I would love to say that all of it is just random inspiration, but it's not always that way.

It's nice when that happens, but that's not always the case.

You just gotta get down to work.

♪ You know I'm leaving oh I've seen them go ♪ - Writing lyrics is very much a therapeutic practice for me.

I don't always know exactly where it comes from or how it happens, but the fun times, the really fun times, are when you just get hit by lightning and this idea for a song or maybe some visual art or song name or lyric just sticks with you.

There are times where inspiration hits the way that someone, you overhear a conversation and just certain words tie together and that just gets stuck in your head, and then a tune can come from it.

♪ Hold you closer, hope tonight never ends ♪ ♪ 'Cause our love will always set us free ♪ ♪ Nothing from above or beneath ♪ - Music has brought me to places that I never thought I'd ever be and meet people that I never could have imagined meeting.

Whether it's performing at Soldier Field in Chicago to headlining music festivals out of the state in cities we've never been to before and everyone is dancing and just having a good time with us, to going out and recording in LA, it makes my life so much more fun and interesting than maybe just sitting at a desk all day.

My wife is the best.

She supports me and helps me in every way, specifically as a musician or an artist or a band.

It is one thing to go and perform and perform for the people there, but it's also another to try to document that and give other people that are not there the periscope bird eye view into, and Shauna has always been there for me at these shows and helped in that way, which is such an important part.

Also, she's my muse, so it's pretty easy to write songs.

I mean hey, I got my, she's here, she's beautiful, she loves me and I love her, and from that so many creative endeavors come.

Every hat that I wear, whether it's a husband, a father-to-be, musician, all of that, it all plays its part in making me who I am.

But it's not only for me.

It's also to show other people or even our child you can do whatever you want to do in this world.

You can make it work.

You can have fun.

You just gotta go down that road and go down that path.

♪ You and me together never waste a day in this human phase ♪ ♪ You and I forever sing and dance along ♪ ♪ To our favorite song ♪ - Whoa!

We made it.

All right, thanks.

(upbeat music) - My wife Mary and I sing and write music together, and we thought well, let's put a batch of songs together and get out and play 'em.

- I'm the lead singer, I guess, and then write some of the music as well, and then play tambourine every once in a while, which is fun.

(upbeat rock music) - Usually we'll play just because it's easier as a duo at many of the wineries and breweries in Lakes Country, Minnesota.

We really like the drums, the lights, the drama of a live show.

So every once in a while we try to wrangle some friends together and get 'em to Battle Lake, Minnesota to come rehearse and play a full band show.

(upbeat rock music) My mom and dad had me audition for the local community college in Fergus Falls.

That was my first time getting into the music and dance thing.

My best buddy lived right here, and when we turned eighth grade or something, we'd meet in the woods and we kind of taught each other guitar on his older brother's guitar.

That's when it really started to, I don't know, sink its teeth in.

- I grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities.

My mom was a piano teacher and my dad's a pastor, so I grew up in the parsonage.

It's like the church house.

I grew up singing in choir and I learned classically instead of in a band playing chords or learning by ear, and now being in a rock and roll band, I feel like that's, it's just been a lot of fun.

It's definitely more loose.

♪ It is your friend ♪ - Dan and I have been playing together, well, out and about it's only been about five months.

We are based out of right here, Battle Lake, Minnesota.

We moved here a little over two years ago.

We were trying so hard to think of the name, which is one of the hardest parts for a band, and a song that he wrote kind of stuck out and we just liked the Blue Red Roses.

That was the title of the song.

♪ Blue red roses, pull 'em up, give 'em out to everyone ♪ - You drive by and see a sign.

It's like oh, that'd be a good band name.

Oh, that's a good band name, so that song was just laying around and Mary liked the name Blue Red Roses.

- I thought it would stick, and that's what we chose.

- It's like, yeah, let's do it.

And then we have a theme song, too.

♪ Never less than beautified ♪ - Dan and I write the music, so we write some together and some separately.

The music is about, I don't know, everything, our life, and sometimes it's just random stuff.

Just a catchy phrase, and then we kind of go with a theme of that phrase.

- I always want to say, it's so funny.

♪ I just want to say ♪ (both humming) ♪ It's so funny that you always say ♪ - Everyone writes music and everyone has music in them in life that I feel like it kind of connects everybody and it's in everybody and there's a rhythm to life.

- I feel like every song is different.

Some stuff is about past experiences or loves, and some of it is about the present.

Some of it is honestly about nothing.

It's just kind of like a catchy tune.

I think the most common way that it happens would be like a phrase kind of comes to mind where it's like oh, that's so catchy or that's a good lyric.

- Mary, I entrust Mary more with the lyrics because I don't focus on the lyrics as much.

I've always been more of that melody and the rhythm.

I don't think too much about it, but once I need an actual story in place, I'll ask Mary to come and help me with some lyrics.

- And from there, a theme will arise and usually the phrase and a melody will come at the same time, and that's kind of like a hook.

Once there's a hook, then the rest of it is easier, I guess.

(guitar strumming) - Music has never let go of me.

I feel like I've tried to let go of it a few times and tried to focus on something else, but I always just want to keep doing it.

More than anything, I think I like just the songwriting aspect, writing the song and then putting it together and kind of producing it and then being able to play it.

(both harmonizing) - And they're literally right down the road.

It's like in the same neighborhood.

(upbeat rock music) - The show tonight is our second time playing as a full band.

It's so much fun to play with drums and guitars and piano.

Dan and I usually play out as just a duo, which is fun too, but you definitely don't have as much high energy.

So tonight we'll definitely be high energy, some dancing, just a good old rock and roll show.

(rock music) - If people come and walk in the door to a Blue Red Roses show, they'll get kind of just this, a blast of some raw energy.

A little off the cuff, maybe some spontaneity to the show.

- And it's kind of like you get to go into a character and just let loose and you're there to help everybody have a good time.

(rock music) I love music and people love music.

Humans love music.

- We think if we're out with a full band, electrified lights on, we just want to have a good time.

I like it a lot.

(rock music) - It's a good way to spend to time with each other.

It almost kind of feels like a date every time.

You know, let's go to this brewery and play three hours.

- And now to be able to do that as my living is super awesome.

I never thought that would be possible I guess, but it's been great.

It's been really fun.

(upbeat rock music) (audience cheering) (upbeat music) - I got involved with music at a very young age, because of my father, who is a musician as well, would perform and play.

He would always be listening to great music and jazz and classical music.

I remember hearing Miles Davis for the first time and my father played the trumpet, so I always appreciated hearing that instrument.

Eventually my dad gave me a trumpet, just kind of a natural thing.

As I got older, I realized I just had this kind of natural ability from my family.

- I've been doing music stuff as far back as I can remember.

Music was just part of my life.

And so as the kids were growing up, they were exposed to that environment of music all the time.

We just did that all the time.

That was life.

Doug picked it up more, 'cause he just had that natural gift.

But Doug, he just loved it.

- I graduated college in 2004.

My girlfriend at the time, she got a job in Newport, Rhode Island working for the Astor Beechwood Mansion, and that was a living history museum where they had music, and she was the musical director.

So as a tourist, you'd come see the house and see the music and everyone would be dancing and singing as if it was the 1890s.

- Miss Eileen Prose and Mr. Timothy White, Boston, Massachusetts.

- I was two weeks from heading to Miami to do a cruise ship for Carnival, and she called me up and said hey, would you like to sell tickets at this mansion I work at?

And I said I have this cruise ship gig.

And in my mind it was like, do I want to play trumpet every day of the week on a cruise, which to me sounded great, or sell tickets at a front desk of a mansion I've never heard of in a town that I wasn't very familiar with at the time?

So I actually asked my trumpet teacher, and he said immediately move to the east coast.

His three words were network, network, network.

And that led to the upright bass player that was in the band that I led called me and said there's a position available in this band, Room Full of Blues, which at the time was like a 40 plus year old, internationally known touring band, and said they need a trumpet player.

And I got the job.

I went everywhere, all over the globe in my first two months.

I was like, this is awesome.

I'm like, I made it.

And then just from there on out, just kind of got nuts.

(trumpet music) I was with Room Full of Blues from 2008 to 2018, 10 years.

They were the original Blues Brothers band for those that have seen the Blues Brothers movie.

Stevie Ray Vaughn's highest selling record was Live at Carnegie Hall, and Roomful was the backing band.

So they had a lot of notoriety.

They were like the grandfather of the blues.

Being in that band opened a lot of doors and channels for me because I was the youngest by I would say at least 15 years of everybody in that band.

I'm a go-getter, and so I was always doing things to kind of get them out there.

And because of that, people started seeing me a lot as the Roomful guy.

That led to me getting to play with Victor Wainwright and The Train, this guy from Memphis, and I was hired to be a part of their horn section.

♪ Never turning around ♪ ♪ You gotta get off your butt and exercise ♪ - In 2018, we did a record.

I think it was just titled Victor Wainwright and The Train, and it got a lot of attention.

And then sure enough, we got word that we were in the ballot for the Grammys, and I was living in Los Angeles at the time.

I remember I woke up and had like 38 text messages.

What is going on?

They said congratulations about the Grammy nomination.

And I'm like, is this a joke?

I didn't know if it was people messing with me.

And sure enough, I actually called Victor and I said, is this for real?

Did we get nominated for a Grammy?

And he said yep, we did.

♪ It's too late to start the day ♪ ♪ I'll start tomorrow ♪ - Sunday morning we flew out to LA and we're sitting at the Grammy Awards.

We're changing in the van, putting on our tuxedos, and here we are at the Grammys with the best musicians around the world.

So it was pretty cool.

(upbeat music) - We moved to Appleton in 1996, so I was a freshman in high school.

My dad was the pastor at the Methodist Church in Appleton.

We moved here from Minneapolis and we were born and raised in New Jersey, Trenton, New Jersey.

So we went from like extreme city, big population to a town of 1,200 people.

Even as a young freshman in high school, I don't want to say the word culture shock, 'cause it wasn't, but it was just like, cool.

The small town mentality was so refreshing because you get to know everybody.

Everybody knows you and you know everybody.

- Tim, it's Doug Woolverton.

- I recognized you.

- We're doing a interview for the concert I'm performing down at the pavilion.

It's absolutely possible to, in your own meaning of success or definition of success, to make it no matter where you live.

It's a great question about success and can you make it from a small town, and the answer is yes.

I had the support of the practice rooms or Mrs. Ahman at the school to say yep, you guys want to do a jazz band, here we go.

We'll make it work.

But it also took my determination and dedication of practice.

Doesn't matter where you are.

It's always what you put into it.

And you get out of anything you put into it the amount that you put into it.

- It was something he was always interested in.

So it wasn't about let's teach this kid how to do music.

And because he had a natural gift, he was able to be a bit ahead of other people with his ability to kind of improv on things or embellish the notes.

And as a growing youngster playing an instrument, I was always telling him practice, practice, practice.

- My dad was a huge factor of being around music and starting to love music.

- So today we're playing over in the park, as we play with Bob's Big Band.

- To be back in Appleton, to perform at another local show, it's exciting to be back where I started out.

So to be able to come back and have the treat and bonus of being able to perform with my father was always just something I've always loved doing, and it's been really fun to come back and bring it back full circle.

Sure, thanks, dad.

That's what it is.

- To do a father-son thing is really very touching.

(jazz music) (audience applauding) - I got a phone call once from a management company and they said that they're the management company for Aretha Franklin, and they said she's performing and she needs a horn section.

Would you be interested?

So I'm like, of course.

We didn't get time to rehearse the show.

We basically were told we're going to site read the concert.

And now you go from high school where I really couldn't read music and then college, which where I was learning to read music, to now I'm performing with Aretha Franklin and I have to site read, which means never seeing music, flip it open, I have to play it perfectly.

The coolest part about that show, besides performing with Aretha and hearing her amazing voice and piano skills and all this stuff, was it was her birthday, and I remember her coming out of her dressing room in this amazing fur coat, and I got to play her personally Happy Birthday, and then people started joining and singing and we had cake together.

She passed like about a year and a half later, so I got to perform one of her last concerts.

Music has really been an amazing journey for me.

(jazz music) (exciting music) - [Announcer] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Art Council's Arts Calendar, an Arts and Cultural Heritage-funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 KRAM, online at 967kram.com.

(exciting music)