When Greg Muellerleile (CHS 1966) took the Cleveland Township Hall stage for his first ever rock ‘n’ roll performance, he couldn’t have imagined he would still be performing six decades later.
The year was 1962, and with 14-year-old Muellerleile on lead guitar, his band, the Emeralds, performed hits by Ricky Nelson, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley to a crowd of about 50.
That was the beginning of a long and stellar musical career for Muellerleile, who, from 1979 to 1994, was a member of the Shaw Band, one of the most popular musical groups in Southern Minnesota.
The Shaw Band dissolved in 2004, but with Muellerleile back at lead guitar, it reunited in 2014. The band’s latest performance was at the Nicollet County Fair in St. Peter last Friday.
“I've been very blessed with pretty good health and lucky enough to play with some really talented people,” Muellerleile said. “It has really been a lot of fun.”
Muellerleile said he got his musical talent from his mom’s side, the McCabes. His mother was a sister of the late Tom (Lois) McCabe of rural Cleveland.
“We would have jam sessions every time it was someone’s birthday.”
Influenced by a guitar playing cousin, Muellerleile bought a $2 guitar and started picking out chords while listening to the radio.
The Emeralds included Gary Fahning of Cleveland on rhythm guitar, Gary Bonderson on bass guitar, Clayton Strand and later Tom Hermel of St. Peter on drums. Hermel wasn’t much into rock and roll, Muellerleile said. In exchange for him joining the Emeralds, Muellerleile had to agree to play trombone, the instrument he played in the CHS band, in the St. Peter Drum and Bugle Corps.
Muellerleile played for several bands before getting a call from Mike Shaw of Litchfield, who played guitar in the Shaw Allen Shaw band. Shaw had heard about a “great guitar player” from Cleveland.
Shaw Allen Shaw formed in 1969 and originally included Mike Shaw, Jim Allen, Terry Shaw and Danny Grossnickle. When Terry Shaw and Grossnickle left in 1976, the group added Terry Jessup on drums, Dwayne Larson on keyboards and Muellerleile as lead guitar player.
The new group was called The Shaw Allen Band until Allen, Jessup and Larson left in 1978. They were replaced by Brian Jentges on drums and Dan Wessman on keyboards. This group was known as the Shaw Band.
Playing up to five nights a week and attracting crowds of up to 1800 at times, the rock ‘n’ roll cover band had a following across the state and played locally at the New Prague, Gibbon, Glencoe and Mankato ballrooms.
“We were packing them in everywhere,” Muellerleile said. “It was quite a run.”
Muellerleile recalls the fourth gig he played with the Shaw Allen Band. It was at the Mankato ballroom on Easter Sunday, 1976.
“My wife, Cheryl (Holicky of Le Center), dropped me off. The line was a block long to get in. I felt so blessed.”
Muellerleile, known for the signature white fedora he wore on stage, chose much of the group’s music. He would work out the arrangement before introducing it to the rest of the band.
His song lineup struck a chord with their fans.
“We had a knack for picking the right tunes,” Muellerleile said. “We seemed to know what would get people out on the dance floor.”
But constant late nights that morphed into early mornings took their toll, and Muellerleile left the band in 1994.
“There was never a break. It was affecting my family.”
He got a “regular” job working for a hearing aid company in the Twin Cities.
“I became a normal citizen,” he said.
But he never completely gave up playing music. Later, with his sons, he formed Jack Diddley, which played around the Twin Cities. Meanwhile, with several additions, The Shaw Band hung together.
In 2000, the Shaw-Allen-Shaw/The Shaw Band was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in New Ulm. Two years later, it was inducted into the Minnesota Rock & Country Hall of Fame.
But by then, ballrooms were vanishing, and nightclubs didn’t pay enough, so in 2004, the group disbanded. Their last performance was in Mankato.
Through the years, Muellerleile and Mike Shaw, who both now reside in Hutchinson, talked about reuniting The Shaw Band, but it was Jentges who was the catalyst, Muellerleile said.
Finally, back in December 2014, the four original members of The Shaw Band, Muellerleile, Shaw, Jentges and Wessman, played their first reunion concert to a full house at Buster’s bar in Mankato. They’ve performed frequently since then, including at Cleveland’s Cherry Creek Day in 2016.
“Every one has been just packed,” Muellerleile said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Wessman passed away in 2018. At the fair in St. Peter, Jon Wheeler played keyboard while Muellerleile’s son played drums.
Muellerleile is also one half of a more subdued guitar duet, 100 Years of Picken, which performs classic hits from Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash and the like. They played in the Cleveland Firehall during the CFD’s 100-year anniversary celebration last summer. As they have for the past several years, they performed for the Cleveland Church of Nativity’s “Grill and Chill” summer outing this year and will be on stage in Le Sueur on Saturday, August 17.
The Shaw Band will play at Neisen’s Bar & Grill on Saturday, September 7.
Above: Greg Muellerleile (left), Mike Shaw and the rest of The Shaw Band played at the Nicollet County Fair last week.
Sources include the Hutchinson Leader, March 6, 2018 article by Kay Johnson.