Traditional Singers Club

Sherry Minnick

Sherry Minnick has been performing since she was 15, when she sang with rock bands near her home town of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. She joined a bluegrass band in Oklahoma, and in Minnesota she continued with bluegrass, singing with Kate Mackenzie, Mary DuShane, Barb Montoro, and Sandy Njoes as Belle City Bluegrass, and for four years with the trio Haywire. In Minnesota she fell in love with Appalachian old-time music, and danced for two years with The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers. She spent five years with the cloggers in the Uncommon Loon String Band, playing for dance performances. She appears on a recording, The Uncommon Loons, made for a tour of France in 1996.

She performs with Rachel Nelson, and appears on her recording I’m Awesome. She also worked with Rachel and Kate MacKenzie as The Virtue Sisters. This hot trio can be heard on Arne Fogel’s album You Call It Madness.

Sherry had a ten-year association with the Great American History Theater, appearing as musician and sometimes actress in runs and touring shows of Plain Hearts, Down to Earth, Homegrown Heroes, Cowgirls, and Mesabi Red. She appears on a recording of Plain Hearts.

For nine years Sherry taught the West Bank Jubilee Children’s Shoir, which learned and performed a wide variety of music from the oral traditions of many different cultures. The Last six years Sherry taught Native American children’s choir at All Saints’ Indian Mission in South Minneapolis. She was the music director of Holy Trinity and St. Anskar Episcopal church for 20 years. She was a programmer on KFAI radio for 15 years, hosting bluegrass, folk, and traditional music shows. In a duo with John Van Orman she sang music of the British Isles as well as Appalachian ballads, gospel shouts and original songs. She also performs with Josephine Davis as The Brother Sisters, an old time duet.

In addition to performing, Sherry has conducted clogging workshops for the Minneapolis Public Schools and taught workshops in old-time guitar and clogging for COMPAS. She taught workshops in harmony singing for the Minnesota Folk Festival, Wheatland Music and Dance Camp, and Moosejaw, a festival sponsored by the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers. She has taught ballad workshops in the Edina schools and at the University of St. Thomas.

Most recently Sherry has been singing by herself—unless she engages the audience to sing with her—both from the unaccompanied ballad tradition and accompanying herself on guitar. She also plays for square dances.

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For more information, see Sherry's page at the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Association.

Here's the poster for Sherry's December 17, 2006 concert (PDF format).