NORTH MANKATO — One day last November, eight local musicians road tripped to St. Paul on a musical mission.
They’d booked one day at Signature Sound recording studio, and in that one day they’d planned to lay down as many tracks as possible for their new album.
By the end of the day they’d recorded the 15 songs that make up “Minnesota Moon,” the debut album from Joe Tougas & Associates.
“With the exception of one or two overdubs on a couple of songs, everything on that album is recorded together live,” Tougas says. “We did it all in one day. We just knew these tunes up and down. We knew each other instinctively.”
Technically, it’s a debut.
But if you’ve spent any time in the local music scene in the last few years, you’ve probably come across a JT&A gig, and in that gig you’ve likely heard some of the material on the album. And if you haven’t, you’ve got a chance to hear them all tonight; the band is booked to play the Circle Inn in North Mankato starting at 7.
During the next few weeks, they’ll unveil the full album (available now for pre-order on Bandcamp.com) and host a few events celebrating the release of “Minnesota Moon.”
While the identity of the band’s spiritual leader is in the name, JT&A is packed full of songwriting talent. Tougas pens several tunes, as do Kat Baumann, Michelle Roche and Ann Fee. Other “associates” include Shelley Pierce on bass, Scott Rahe on drums, Evan Bierer on sax and Ark on vocals.
But while songwriting credits in JT&A typically denote an individual, crafting and massaging each song comes down to democratic principles, a fact on display at a rehearsal this week. As the band worked through “Elvis Presley’s Autograph,” questions arose about who should really be singing what.
Ark raised a melody/harmony question.
“When we come in and sing after you sing,” she says, “you were singing with us, and in the past you didn’t.”
“I think I’m just gonna not,” Tougas says.
“You can, it sounds good,” says Ark.
“I was thinking about that and wondering, do I sing on that part?” Tougas says.
Then Baumann chimes in.
“The thing is, toward the very end, after the breakdown part, you have your distinct part, which is the melody,” she says. “Every time before that, when you join the three of us, you doubled my part and knocked it down.”
“And I’m only saying that because I’m still figuring it out,” Ark says. “I can’t sing the low part. I try to, and I really want to, but I can’t. But then, you sing the low part and it sounds awesome.”
“What if I don’t do anything,” says Tougas, “and just hand that off to you three, because that sounded really nice, too. Then we’re not risking me trying to find the note while I’m doing it.”
Fee adds, “I think if you’re in question —”
“I am in question,” Tougas answers.
“Then don’t do it,” Fee says.
Tougas says he brought the song to the group in a form he thought would need little workshopping. But when the other members began adding elements, he said the song blossomed into something even better. He says he wanted the song to have a Sun Records-ish vibe, and in its original form it did. But then Fee made a critical suggestion.
“She said, ‘You should have three women cut this kind of retro Lennon Sisters harmony at the end and repeat that line.’ And I’m like, OK, let’s try that. And it made that song 110% better.”
Joining the band
Baumann writes songs, sings and plays guitar for JT&A. She, in fact, learned the instrument to be able to play during live shows.
A visual artist by day, she’s made music all her life. She said she loves the collaborative spirit of the JT&A collective.
“Everybody’s bringing in originals, and they all sound really different,” she says. ‘We’ve got vastly different backgrounds, and that’s why I think it makes such a really cool salad.” Band members laugh at attempts to label their sound. Americana? Country? Jazz? “Mankato core,” they joke — a mix of bluegrass, doo-wop, retro rock, blues and more.
Scott Rahe, pounding away at JT&A originals and whatever the band feels like playing, is recovering from carpal tunnel surgery — on both hands.
That, obviously, left him unable to play for a while. In fact, this week’s rehearsal was his first time playing with the band for several months.
“My hands are weak, so just by holding on to sticks and doing the things I used to do make my hands start to hurt more quickly,” he says. “But it’s supposed to be that way. My muscles got really weak from the process. And the hand muscles themselves as opposed to the tendons? Tendons take forever to heal.”
But this is where he wants to be, and he loves being a part of JT&A.
“Everybody gets along,” he says. “They’re all really cool people, and they understand the assignment. So it’s really nice.
Bierer was brought into the mix to play sax on one David Bowie song. That experience left a big impression on the band (and himself), and JT&A made room for one more.
Bierer is an accomplished musician used to performing jazz standards. But he says playing original music, and getting the chance to contribute to the creative process, has been a rewarding adventure.
“I love that we make more time for originals. It gives more purpose to what we’re doing,” he says. “It’s nice to make some money playing tunes in a bar. But doing something creative with the original tunes is the real goal for me. There’s actually, there’s a much wider audience to kind of tap into with this kind of music, where people will listen and enjoy it much more readily.”