(laid back acoustic guitar music) ♪ Thinking where the feeling of the pain inside my heart ♪ ♪ There is about you ♪ Wondering if I'll ever be the same ♪ ♪ As I was before I knew you My family actually bought a vehicle back in 2018 in the glove compartment.

I found a CD that had from, it was like 1950s, forties, fifties country music.

It was really, I mean, even older than the stuff that I play, but before that, I really didn't care for country music at all, 'cause I don't know, I just didn't like the new, the modern stuff very much, but you might say it went off from there, and then I started listening to the more artists of yester years really and just fell in love with it.

♪ I hope the stars are brighter ♪ ♪ Where you stand tonight ♪ I hope the moon and the galaxies ♪ ♪ Shine on you 'til daylight ♪ Lord, it's been a very long time ♪ ♪ Since I've seen the warmth in your blue eyes ♪ ♪ You don't need to hide it ♪ You don't need to put it in the stars ♪ Yeah, I grew up on a farm in southwest Minnesota here.

Our family had a family band.

There was nine siblings altogether, myself included.

So this show is from 2007, I think, 2006.

2006.

Yeah, it's a couple years ago.

(CD player smacks) It's a little goofy, this thing.

It takes a tap.

- [Photographer] A little bit of percussive maintenance.

- A little bit of, I like that.

I use that on my equipment, but at least I don't have to use it on, like, with sledgehammer and stuff.

That's reserved for only the pickup.

- I'd like to introduce to you all, my little brother Mario.

He's one and a half years old.

♪ Mario, I'm home again, boy ♪ To get the sun back in my sky ♪ ♪ Mario, I'm home again, boy ♪ About a thousand kisses shy - I was still growing up at the time, so I didn't really start playing music at all until I learned guitar first at, like, 10, 11 years old.

- You asked if I would teach you how to play guitar, so I taught him a few chords, and within a week or two, he just took off.

It was like he was playing possum.

He didn't get involved in the family music that the rest of the kids were involved in until later, and then he just took off from there and exploded, so it was, I suppose, a talent on loan from God.

There you go.

- [Mario] Yeah, my parents met in Colorado in '84.

He was working on a harvest crew.

- You have to understand the situation.

When a harvest crew moves into a small town, the population triples and all the new immigrants are young men from 18 to 25, and if there's only one or two young women in town, they certainly got plenty of attention, but she picked me out of that crowd and we got to know each other somewhat and I had to move, like usual, working our way up into Canada, so I proposed to her rather quickly, within 24 hours.

Not that I recommend that, but that's been over 40 years ago, nine kids, 27 grandchildren, three on the way.

It worked.

This is my bride when I met her, beautiful lady, still is.

(clasps snap) - I wrote my first song back when I worked in North Dakota back in '21.

It wasn't a very good first song, but it came from my heart really and it's about a blonde-haired girl I used to know.

That's a long story.

(Mario chuckles) (jaunty country music) I have my own band called the Midwest Cowboys.

We play classic outlaw country from, like, seventies through the nineties.

Waylon Jennings to George Strait to many different artists of the area.

We have a lot of fun doing it.

We love bringing joy to people.

We love what we do and we've been doing it for a while, but the last two to three years, it seems like many things have fallen into place for us.

We've got a song out.

It's called "Coors Banquet".

(relaxed country music) ♪ Well, I pulled into a bar ♪ To have myself a cold one ♪ But the old man sat next to me ♪ ♪ Said, "What you drinking, son?"

♪ I remember the first time we heard it on the radio and, listen, we hadn't even heard it from the studio and Maynard played it and we were in Nebraska on tour and it's like, is that our song?

Oh, yeah.

Like, Clarence is, like, yeah, that's our song.

I'm like, really?

Because now I can hear all the screw ups I put in there.

But no, it's worked out and we've done pretty good with that record so far.

It's sold at least a couple hundred copies of it over the last year, so.

♪ I like Coors Banquet ♪ Hell, I'll take it ♪ And maybe somebody it'll help me ♪ ♪ Get over you First thing you got here is a Squire Telecaster, Fender Telecaster.

This is my family's and had its venture off the stage once or twice before.

I rebuilt this guitar.

The electronics were all shot.

One the frets, which I had to glue back down, 'cause one of the kids I think used a pliars or a knife on it.

When we're on the road with, you know, the band and stuff, I'm also the maintenance guy, 'cause I'm the only one that knows how to solder, so.

This is my newest creation, you might say.

This is also a Fender Telecaster, but I hand built this one.

Ain't she a beauty?

These are custom brass buckle knuckle back here and it's actually quite heavy, but I did a good job.

I liked the burned wood barn design, so that's what I put on it.

I like building things.

You know, that's one thing we always did around here is everything we did was pretty much just you made it work.

Growing up on my family farm, you gotta realize you're exposed to many different things.

It's a very diverse landscape to be a kid on and be raised on.

There's been a lot of sweat shed here.

I can honestly say I'm glad I was born and raised here, 'cause I just, I couldn't imagine any other life.

Never thought I would find myself where I'm at today, just from learning a few chords my dad showed me so long ago, you know.

It's a sincere form of music, country.

I mean, this is just my opinion, but it's the most sincere music in the world.

There's something deep about country music that not a lot of people can fully understand, but it stirs emotion in your soul.

♪ I like Coors Banquet ♪ Hell, it's my favorite ♪ There ain't nothing about it ♪ That'll make me blue ♪ I like Coors Banquet ♪ Hell, I'll take it ♪ And maybe somebody it'll help me ♪ ♪ Get over you ♪ I know somebody it'll help me ♪ ♪ Get over you (uplifting 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 Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region, more at wcif.org.

(uplifting music)