Musical and comedy professionals that average 50 years of experience! Each member! Bringing to the stage, soaring harmonies and side splitting comedy antics.
Retired
Retired
Originally from Aberdeen South Dakota. Larry has been singing in choirs and playing musical instruments most of his life. In school, he played cornet, French horn and trumpet as well as having sung in the school choruses. Currently, he is singing in the Voices of Grace choir at Grace Lutheran Church and the Minnesota Valley Chorale. He also plays trumpet with The Echoes Big Band and the Mankato Area and Lake Crystal Community bands. Larry is an engineer at Crysteel Manufacturing, Lake Crystal MN. He has been a member of Sugarloom since it’s inception. A quiet giant of a man whose main desire in life is to sing along side of his wife Barbara and design thingabobs and thingmajigs for Crysteel. He is able to discuss the various thread ratios of a plunket spline on an rotary air driven, greaseless, magneto launcher with anyone who cares to ask him. So if we come to your community be nice and ask him. Please!
Retired
Born in Mankato, MN. In 1953, Barb began her singing career at the age of 3 when, from her bedroom window, she would sing lullabies to the neighbor children. “My pay wasn’t in dollars, I loved singing the children to sleep the way my mom did for me.” By that time, due to having a remarkable memory for pitch, rhythm, lyrics, and melody, Barb had already amassed a repertoire that included torch songs, Broadway musical ballads, folk songs and sacred pieces from Sunday school and cherub choir. By age 11, and for the next several years, Barb was a member of numerous school and church choirs, school musicals and plays, where she was often the lead or featured soloist as well as soloing for many community events in the Mankato area.
After a move to Winnipeg, MB, Canada in 1974, Barbara established herself as a classical and new age genre singer who also sang pop/rock and jazz with several different show and dance bands. Within two years of singing in other bands, Barb and her former spouse formed Clark Productions. Over the next 35 years, Barb performed up to 197 ‘one nighters’ a year, as well as writing most of the arrangements and original music for the bands, writing and performing all of the original music for seven planetarium shows, writing special music for product introduction shows, singing for grand openings, religious services, telethons, voice-overs and acting as sub contractor for Clark Productions as well as teaching voice and piano. During that time, she also acted as assistant to the Dean of Music at the Professional Musicians College, where she also taught voice and a history of country music course, and later acted as director of Music Place, an independently owned music teaching facility.
Barb returned to Mankato in 2004, to meet the man of her dreams and to work as Print Manager at The Music Mart, Inc. and as a sales associate and a vocal and piano instructor at Scheitel’s Music. In 2006, she was asked to be the featured vocalist for the Mankato Area Community Band, and in 2007, became the vocalist and pianist for the Echoes Big Band. Barb continues to solo for many church services, senior living centers, conventions and special events and to perform with the Merely Players, Voices of Grace church choir, and the dance trio, Chance. She has been a member of Sugarloom since it’s inception. Barbara is proud to have been able to write her own bio.
Passed
Born at Fulda MN. Plays piano and organ since childhood, Sang with the Fulda High School chorus, the Good Council Mankato Chorus. Sang with the Mankato Sweet Adelines. Church organist at Dundee MN, Helped organize Butterfly Stew. Pianist, comedienne, singer with all of the Pawlitschek’s music groups. Did all the booking for the Butterfly Stew shows. She acted in a made for TV pilot called “Crime Does Not Pay”. (See more background in Don’s bio) She has been a member of Sugarloom since it’s inception. She is an insurance agent and telemarketing agent. When she is not bugging her husband, she can be seen running around with one of her eighteen grandchildren. Just don’t ask her to name all their birthdays. Or their names. Or her birthday for that matter.
Active
A native of Dundee MN. Played trumpet in Heron Lake MN high school band, sang in chorus. He helped organize and played trumpet in the Heron Lake Community band.
Don and Korrine moved to Lake Crystal MN in 1984. In 1985 they appeared at Farmfest, along with their children. When they would perform there was always a polite contingent of people listening, however whenever the kids appeared the tent would fill up. Their youngest daughter was sick with flu so she wasn’t in top form. Ben their three-year-old son had to stop the show so they could take him to the bathroom. But apparently the crowd loved it. In surveys taken, they rated higher than Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, the FarmFest headliners. They went on to play FarmFest many more times, sponsored by Jonesrud chainsaws and Morton buildings.
They have had shows at grandstands in Bemidji, Fairmont, St Charles and Pine River. They performed at many Ag meetings, the World Pork Expo in Springfield Ill, Husker Harvest in Hasting Nebraska, World Ag Expo at the Amana colonies and a winter tour of Phoenix and Tucson AZ.
Don wrote, directed and acted in made for TV pilot called “Crime Does Not Pay”. This pilot was made for the family audience and featured their family, places of interest from the Upper Midwest, acts that they had on their shows, their act and other features.
In 1992 he set up as a concert promoter and formed a company called Butterfly Stew and had shows a various Civic Centers, such as St Cloud, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Lacrosse WI etc. He had a full range of acts that was heavy in country music. The Joe Taylor agency in Nashville worked for him to provide some of the talent. From Nashville, he had Connie Smith, Jean Shepard, Bobby Rice and Jack Greene (1967 male vocalist of the year) From Hollywood we had Donna Douglas (Ellie Mae of the Beverly Hillbillies). They had 28 busloads of attendees at their first show in Mankato MN.
He is a photographer and produces an annual family calendar and has shot the candid shots at several weddings. He owns a small recording studio and has performed and recorded several albums and country and 50’s music. He writes poetic stories and narrates them.
He has sang with Lakeland Choralers chorus, Mankato Riverblenders chorus, Holy Family, Holy Rosary, St Mary’s of Madelia and St Joe The Worker choirs. He is a church cantor. He has directed six church choirs and singing groups. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and the American Legion. Was a member of the Holy Family pro-life committee and he managed the LifeFest youth festival. Formally Board Member and Membership director for the Mankato Riverblenders Chorus and also Membership director of the Mankato Council 901 Knights of Columbus.
He has been listed in Who’s Who since 1985 and is in the current edition. He has Recorded 11 albums, Written 65 stories, poems and comedy routines. Currently a licensed auctioneer, certified fund raising auctioneer, certified appraiser and certified appraisal instructor.
He is also a certified cream and egg tester for whatever good that will do. He also knows a ham when he sees one. Don is one of the most modest men around, that’s why he wrote his own bio.
Passed
A native of Lafayette MN. Life long dairy farmer. Sang duets with his sister at a tender age of 45. High School choir. Church Choir. Mankato Riverblenders chorus, Lakeland Choralers chorus and several barbershop quartets. Sings bass and has been a member of SugarLoom since it’s inception. Cute grey haired guy with an easy smile and a beautiful bass voice. Still has his own teeth. Some times needs a jumper cable on a cold winter morning to get out of bed. But, once started he can be left alone with his motor running for several hours. He is the grand old man of Sugarloom but won’t tell his age for fear of possible patent infringement charges from the former owner of his body. I’m sure the warranty is up anyway. Charlie retired from the group in 2016.
Retired
Sound Technician and guitarist. Ray Hager has a passion for both music and technology. A professional technical manager, Ray began learning guitar as a teen. He has been a church soloist and member of various musical groups over the years. With great joy and satisfaction, as a former audio-visual church ministry leader, he has helped many nationally known recording artists, religious productions, music ministers and missionaries communicate the message of Christ’s love and forgiveness. He makes his home in Mankato with his Jack Russell terriers, Minie and Maxie. Ray makes the rest of the group sound awesome.