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Today I have on me an interview conducted electronically with Tom Little of the Waterville band, The Blue Ringers. I've seen his band in action, and they put on a fun show. Apart from playing gigs in different venues, they often have a big bash up at their house in the boonies/farmland of Waterville, which I am told is one of the best events of the year.
First of all, I asked Tom to describe The Blue Ringers, so people who are interested in seeing them would know what they're about.
"We play a variety of rock, mostly the 80s through today," he answered, "but we also do a few older rock tunes and a few country tunes.
We put on an energetic show with the focus on getting the crowd dancing and partying."
Tom felt pretty early on that he wanted to be a musician."I think I was 17, and my friends and I were all into 80s hard rock. As I would sit in class all day I would dream about being a rock star and performing in front of lots of fans. My best friend, John Peach, The Blue Ringers' drummer, told me I should play bass since he was a drummer and we had friends that played guitar. So I got myself a bass guitar. It wasn't until I was 19 that I got serious with it though."
And about Tom's big dream? "My dream to be a rock star did not exactly come true, but The Blue Ringers is close enough to that dream for me," he explains. "It allows me to pretend to be a rock star on some weekends and still have my normal life, which I love."
I asked Tom if there were any interesting stories that he could tell, and at first he was elusive.
"You do see some crazy things over the years, some that are better not to publish," he started, but then followed with a few print-friendly tidbits. "This one has probably happened to lots of bands. We had a gig in New Ulm and when we showed up there was another band there setting up. The gig had been double booked and we were not too happy about it. We called around and found someone that would pay us a little to play at a barn party so we went and did that. We did have two people meet at one of our shows and eventually they got married. That was cool, we still stay in touch with them."
When I asked Tom which venue in Waseca he loves to play, his direct answer was, "Katie O'Leary's. The atmosphere is perfect for us (we love the owner, bartenders and all the patrons there) and the building itself has great acoustical properties."
A lot of the other bands from Waseca that Tom likes tend to play at Katie's as well. I asked him who some of his favorite local bands are, and he answered, "For classic rock and blues, you have to love The Murphy Brothers. For a cool acoustic group there is a band called The Rain Kings who are simply great. If you like to rock a little harder than The Blue Ringers, then it is hard to beat IV Play." Just to clarify, that is a roman numeral, and the band's name is pronounced four-play.
The Blue Ringers will be playing at Katie O'Leary's on Friday, December 18th from 9pm - 1am. I highly recommend checking them out if you can, their covers are good and they like to work with the crowd.
That's all I have for this weekend. Next weekend will be blog-less, because I am taking the time to enjoy the holidays. I hope you all have a great weekend and happy holidays to you all!
Jenny Hughes can be reached at thejuniperjourney@hotmail.com.
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