Description
In conjunction with the free Rhubarb Festival happening 9 a.m. to 3p.m. at Sylvan Park on Saturday, June 3rd, 2017 , The Rhubarb Sisters are performing a kick off concert the evening before, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 2nd, at the St. Mane Theatre in Lanesboro, MN entitled “Rhubarb’s Angels.” This show offers two episodes of “Rhubarb’s Angels.” One, written by Elizabeth Fuglestad, is called “It’s a Rhubarb-ful Life” and is loosely based on a movie of a similar title. It ends with the official addition of singer/pianist Valerie Peterson Wilson to the group. She joins current Rhubarb Sisters Elizabeth Fuglestad, Beth Hennessy, and Julie Kiehne. The Rhubarb Sisters performed on “A Prairie Home Companion” in 2007 when the show was broadcast from The Rhubarb Festival and have made countless concert appearances in Lanesboro and the region throughout their 11 years as a group.
Former Sister Peggy Hanson will appear for cameo songs and her usual comedy routine. Tim Kiehne and Peter Torkelson of the Burdock Brothers will join as well (burdock, you know, is often referred to as “wild rhubarb”). The group will be accompanied by Valerie Peterson Wilson on piano, Barb Ames on clarinet, and members of the CBB Combo: Nathan Davidson, saxophone; Jerry Barrett, trumpet; and Steve Sawyer, string bass. Curt Peterson joins the CBB Combo during pre-show and intermission music.
“What I really love is making people smile. It really is about bringing joy and sharing the things that are true,” says Rhubarb Sister Julie Kiehne. “People want to seek more of the back-home roots to their childhood. Rhubarb brings that out.” Rhubarb Sister Beth Hennessy agrees, “We’re similar to rhubarb. We’re about finding happiness in your own backyard.”
The Rhubarb Sisters were born during the second year of the Rhubarb Festival, said former Rhubarb Sister Peggy Hanson, and they just kept picking up steam. “One thing led to another and it just got out of control.” How out of control? If you’ve ever grown a patch of rhubarb, you know what an unruly piece of produce it is. One minute you’ve got a lovely little clump in the backyard and the next you’re peddling rhubarb jam and pie at the farmers market because everything in the root cellar has rhubarb in it and you can’t fool your family into eating one more bite. It’s the same for the Rhubarb Sisters.
“This goes so far beyond rhubarb,” Hanson states. “We perform for a lot for church groups, mother-daughter teas and that kind of event. Our basic message is that rhubarb is a humble thing. It’s just back by the garage.” But just because it’s humble, doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. “Especially in these economic times, we need to make the most of what we have,” Hanson said, so they make pies and cake and jam and use as much as they can harvest. “It blends with anything. It’s Midwestern values — make do with what you have. And you can hardly find it in stores,” she says. “It’s inherently noncommercial.”
So are the Rhubarb Sisters, who also travel far and wide in their house dresses and vintage aprons, singing about the wonders of rhubarb.“People respond to it. It’s very emotional. They think of home and grandma and homemade desserts,” Hanson says. And for some people, like the Rhubarb Sisters and their kin, it kind of takes over their lives. “My husband grows rhubarb,” Hanson says. “And he has a Google news alert for rhubarb. He’s on the pulse of rhubarb.”
So what does that pulse sound like? Warm up the pitch pipe and listen to the Rhubarb Sisters sing “What Shall We Do With the Extra Rhubarb” to the tune of “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor.” “We have a good time,” Hanson says. “We make our fun.” So much fun that Hanson likes to dabble in a little rhubarb standup comedy. When asked if she is the top rhubarb standup comic in the country, Hanson doesn’t hesitate, “I might well be.”