Tagged: Live on WYSO

Bella Ruse arrived at the WYSO studios with a guitar and an organ in a suitcase. In an interview with Niki Dakota, Kay Gillette (vocals, keys) and Joseph Barker (guitar) explain their affection for the suitcase organ and other unusual instruments like a kazoo shaped like a trumpet.

The Minneapolis duo formed in Febraury of 2009 and spent the rest of that year releasing three EPs and touring the Midwest and West coast. Bella Ruse just set out on their latest Midwestern tour and plans to release their first full length album this fall.

WYSO has been a home to local musicians and live music for most of its fifty plus years. In 1971 Tom Duffee came to the radio station with his brothers Dan and Jim and started a program that's still part of our line-up called Rise When the Rooster Crows.

A few years later, The Corndrinkers was born – with Tom on banjo and vocals, Linda Scott and Barb Kuhn on fiddles, Doug Smith on guitar and Al Turbull on bass. Their music keeps an American tradition alive.