Duluth Budgeteer
With a population hovering around 500, Lyle isn’t exactly bursting at the seams. But what the southern Minnesota city lacks in size, it more than makes up for in talent.
“I really enjoyed growing up there,” reminisces Six Mile Grove’s Brandon Sampson.
Though he fronts one of the most compelling outfits working the Americana circuit today, he’s not above talking up the finer points of his hometown: its close-knit nature, the close proximity to extended family and, true to the fertile land beneath his childhood feet, life on the farm.
The members of Rochester-based Americana outfit Six Mile Grove — from left: Dezi Wallace, Barry Nelson and brothers Brandon and Brian Sampson — recently celebrated 10 years of playing music together. Image courtesy of the band
Sampson’s interest in music began at the age of 8, unexpectedly enough, with a farming accident that smashed up his left hand.
“It really wrecked it pretty good,” he recalls, mentioning that a physical therapist said playing an instrument would help get his hand’s range of motion back. “That was my motivation to play guitar — to limber up my fingers — and it just kind of stuck.”
Soon after that simple twist of fate, Sampson’s younger brother, Brian, picked up the drums — and the two have been playing together ever since.
“When we were growing up,” Sampson said of his sibling and Six Mile Grove bandmate, “there was one common thing that kept us from fighting all the time: It was music.”
A great deal of credit must be given to the boys’ parents, who saw their sons’ potential and gave them their very own “band house.” (A neighboring farmhouse Sampson’s great-grandmother had left to the family when she died at the age of 101.)
“During the summer, it’d be all day long,” Sampson said, “eight hours a day just listening to these groups we heard on the radio and trying to figure out what they were doing, trying to copy that and make our own music.”
After putting in their time writing down chord progressions and trying to figure out how those musicians were making their music, the next step for the brothers — who were in eighth and fifth grade, respectively, when they landed their first paying gig — was tackling the small-town circuit.
“We played at all the county fairs and, you know, picnics and whatever festivals they’d let us play at,” Sampson said.
These early experiences would pay off tenfold in the years to come. Take, for example, Six Mile Grove’s last album (fourth overall), “Bumper Crop.” It was recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by members of the band. (The group’s lineup is rounded out by bassist Dezi Wallace and lead guitarist/ keys man Barry Nelson.)
“It comes from years of running your own sound at all these different festivals and setting up your own gear and playing your own music,” Sampson says of his group’s DIY success, “and trying to figure out what sounds good.”
Also impressive is the fact that, earlier this month, Six Mile Grove celebrated 10 years of making music together by playing to a packed house at Bunker’s in Minneapolis.
“It’s very simple: We haven’t recently had any big blowups or anything like that — we never really have,” Sampson said of his group’s longevity. “We’ve always been pretty open about our goals. We have regular meetings to make sure we’re all on the same page, and, once everybody says we’re on the same page, then we work toward that goal until another month later and we have another meeting. We just keep focusing on what it is we want to do, we communicate that and then nobody can complain because they were in, you know?”
He continued by sharing another “band secret”: If, during rehearsal, one Six Mile Grover doesn’t like what another is playing, he can say so — but he then must offer either an alternative or a suggestion for improvement.
“Once we came upon that rule, it completely solved all of the ill feelings,” Sampson said. “As long as you don’t feel like you’re being attacked in a group setting, then it’s cool.”
Recently Sampson has been playing a lot more shows sans bandmates. No, Six Mile Grove isn’t breaking up (they’re putting the finishing touches on album No. 5, in fact); he just really, really likes playing music.
“I love Americana,” he says matter-of-factly. “That’s what we sound like. That’s what we are. That’s what we stand for, really.”
The solo sets also serve another purpose: They are another outlet for the Six Mile Grove material, which he writes all the lyrics for.
“I used to get really nervous about [putting myself out there], but it’s really liberating,” Sampson said. “… I’m writing songs about my grampa — and things I felt bad about not saying to him — or just these really standout small-town folks that have a story to tell but are too afraid to tell it themselves.”
Matthew R. Perrine , Budgeteer News
Kylie Batt
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