New Ulm's Minnesota Music Hall of Fame honors small-town bands
NEW ULM, Minn. — The Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in New Ulm is celebrating 35 years.
"There are so many things in New Ulm that we've created over the years that really put us on the map," said Dayle Besemer.
Are there ever. From Herman the German on the hill, to the Glockenspiel downtown, the city loves to celebrate its mystique and its musicians.
"Old-time German bands. Playing for the street dances and the festivals and that's how we started," said Bonnie Ubl.
Bonnie is talking about the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame — a place where small-town bands actually paved the way for Prince and others.
"You should hear the reaction we get from New Ulm people. They'll come in and they'll say, 'I never knew there was this much in here,'" said Ubl.
It's the reaction a lot of visitors have, and it's what Besemer was hoping for when he opened the museum 35 years ago.
The idea came to him during a happy hour. He thought a music hall of fame would be good for tourism.
"My deal was that if we do this, we are going to be a state organization, not just a New Ulm organization. Because there's a lot of music in the state that people ought to know about," said Besemer.
Every year, there are six new Hall of Fame inductees.
"We try to do a rock band, a country band, an old-time band, we like to do a professor or an educator," said Ubl.
Most Hall of Famers are Minnesotans through and through — but not all of them — that includes "Take Me Home Country Roads" singer, John Denver. Denver met his first wife, Annie Martell, while playing at a concert in St. Peter, Minnesota. They lived in Edina for a few years where he wrote "Annie's Song" — a number-one hit in 1974.
A couple of years ago the Prince exhibit was moved from the town of Henderson to New Ulm. It draws people from across the country, and it includes a replica Purple Rain motorcycle.
To have a music hall of fame in a German town, means a good chunk of your inductees are polka bands. Some, like Harold Loeffelmacher of the "6 Fat Dutchmen," even appeared on the Lawrence Welk show back in the day.
"Harold was on a show one time and someone asked him, 'Where do you get all the concertina players from?' Oh, in New Ulm they are a dime a dozen," said Ubl.
Which is why the city is perfect for this. In what other town can you find Polka and Prince in one spot?
"I'm hoping for everybody when they come through that they are going to walk out of here and say, wow, I didn't know that about that artist. Wow, what good music. Never knew it existed," said Ubl.
The museum is open Thursday through Saturday from April through November. In a couple of weeks, they'll announce their six newest Hall of Fame inductees for 2024.
As of right now, exactly 199 people have been inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.