Blue Wolf Duo
Get Ready for Toe Tapping and Clapping
September’s First Friday Concert features Blue Wolf Duo on Friday, September 2, 2022.
Performing as Blue Wolf Duo, Jerry and Shirley Spanhanks perform throughout Minnesota using the banjo, fiddle, accordion, dobro and guitar to provide incredible variety in their shows. Whether it is a bluegrass or country standard, or a specialty song from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley or Patsy Cline, the duo gets the audience clapping and tapping their toes. The audience can expect to hear waltzes ad polkas (even on the guitar), and some novelty songs by George Jones. Most likely, they will perform “Red River Moon” as well as other original songs written by the duo.
Texarkana Boy
Jerry Spanhanks was raised in a musical family in Texarkana, Arkansas. At the age of 9 his dad and mom formed a family country band. Performing with the Spanhanks Country Band for nine years, Jerry played lead guitar and sang. As a young boy, he traveled to festivals and occasionally had the chance to jam with people who are well-known today; David Grisman, Sam Bush, Don Reno, Tony Rice, J.D. Crowe, and Mike Auldridge. In the late 1970’s, Jerry played rock n’ roll, then he took a long vacation from playing. in 1993, Jerry was asked to learn the banjo and then teach it to a friend. Thus began the love for bluegrass and fast guitar breaks. Both 1974 and 1994, Jerry won state guitar player in a contest in Minnesota. He started playing with bluegrass bands while trying to find the groove that musical artists strive for. Expect great playing on the banjo and dobro.
North Dakota Gal
Shirley Mauch Spanhanks grew up on a farm near Mooreton, North Dakota listening to her mom play piano, harmonica and accordion and she took accordion lessons for about four years. While working in Yellowstone National Park in the summer of ’69, she was given a guitar and dabbled in folk songs. In 1976, Shirley heard Doc Watson and the “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album and loved the guitar picking. When she found Adam Granger teaching flatpicking and she became a lifelong student of his.
Shirley has also studied bluegrass at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. She studied guitar with Joe Carr and Alan Munde. Adding to her musical experience, Shirley played guitar and accordion with the 80-member musical “Texas” put on in Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas. When she returned to Minneapolis, she was asked to join the successful all female bluegrass group, the “Outskirts”. Shirley was awarded a Folk Art Apprenticeship Grant to study flatpicking guitar with Master Adm Granger in 1997. She now enjoys the challenge of playing with her husband, Jerry Spanhanks as Blue Wolf Duo playing guitar and singing.
You don’t want to miss hearing this Red River Gal and this Red River Boy (per their song lyrics)! Listen to music samples here.
The concert starts at 7:00 p.m. Doors will open at 6:30. Please feel free to bring a treats to share at intermission. Beverages will be provided.This event is free to the public. Donations gratefully accepted. The Evansville Art Center is located at 111 Main Street, Evansville, Minnesota 56326.
These activities are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Lake Region Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.