In 1979, Mama Mamushka, up at Mamushka’s Supper Club in Antigo, Wisconsin, realized that her meatballs and goulash special on Friday nights wasn’t packing the place like usual.  So she hired several local boys to spice up the weekends.  They weren’t just “any boys” from the area—they were the Beguine boys.  They came from just over the border in the U.P. and were renowned all over the area for their flat-picking, high lonesome singing, and steel sliding.  Usually they held out for showcases at the county fairs each summer, but Mama’s offer of a regular paying gig with free meatballs brought them out of their seclusion.  Predictably, the joint began jumpin’, and fans would drive from as far as Hibbing, Minnesota, weekly to savor the sights and sounds of Mamushka’s.

The boys changed the band name to the “Beguine Brothers Old Time Country & Western Revue, Ltd” and held court in Antigo for the next ten years.  In 1990, Vance Winkelstein, of Capitol Records, fortuitously happened to be vacationing in the area and stopped in for a respite from the Friday Night Fish Fry he was subjected to everywhere else in town.  He recognized genius when he saw it, and after a sweaty Friday night of line-dancing and meatballs, he offered the Brothers their first record contract.

Well, as one could predict, the rest is history.  The “Beguine Brothers” (as they were known in short) quickly became an international success, releasing classic records like: “Let’s Cash Out One More Time, Johnny” and “Full-Nelson Willie” that made it to the tops of the country charts.  After national and international touring, the band started to show signs of wear and tear.  On a tour in Micronesia, lead-guitarist Jimmy Beguine decided that he had had enough, and left the band to become a preacher.  Soon after, the other brothers bickered and took to various forms of substance abuse.  Mama Mamushka eventually called them in one of their various hotel rooms around the world and told them firmly it was time to call it quits.  They agreed.  That was 1995.

As any road-hound can tell you, music is a hard thing to quit.  In 2000, accordionist Linus Beguine proposed a reunion tour in the U.P. and it was a success.  Gradually, the band has been working back into shape and healing old wounds.  Some fans argue that they’re the best right now that they’ve ever been.

Lately, the Beguine Brother line up has featured the following family members: Linus Beguine (accordion, guitar), Big-D Beguine (telecaster), Smilin’ Petey Beguine (banjo, dobro, lap steel), Doghouse Mike Beguine (upright bass), T-bone Milo Beguine (drums), Baby Mama Beguine (fiddle), and Bunyan Beguine (mandolin, banjo, guitar)...though plenty of first and second cousins are likely to join in at any time, like The Bullet and Fiddlin’ Pork Rind Beguine.