Joe Tougas & Associates is a band out of Mankato of some pretty accomplished musicians sharing stories and getting to know each other through songs. The album (Minnesota Moon) sounds like a collection of short stories you’re going to love. You can catch them in September at a number of shows around Mankato.
Please tell us more about Joe Tougas & Associates and your music.
The band combines a bunch of musicians who come from jazz, metal, folk and soul work. A lot of us had known each other for years through other music projects, but it was the shutdown of 2020 — when I was also caring for my dad, who died that July — that I had the idea to form a full band with a big sound and dream-team players. One by one, I asked, and I’m terribly proud everybody said yes. They are: Orchestra player and bass rocker Shelley Pierce; Goodnight Gold Dust percussionist, keyboardist and vocalist Michelle Roche; Soaring soprano, prog-rocker and Renaissance Fair a cappella ace Kat Baumann on vocals and guitar; Bring the Sun drummer Scott Rahe; jazz hep cat and sax virtuoso Evan Bierer, the harmonious Ann Fee and Abigail Kimble on vocals (with Kat they are known here as the Sirens of Titan) and myself on guitar and vocals. On Aug. 29 we released our first album, “Minnesota Moon,” that features original works by four of us: me, Ann, Kat and Michelle. That’s four different takes on one album, and if you were to make a Beatles comparison – and please do – I’d say it’s like releasing the White Album as your first disc. Or, if you’re into Frank Zappa as a few of us are, it would be “Uncle Meat.”
I love “Elvis Presley’s Autograph.” I’m not a huge fan of Elvis – just regular fan – but there’s something about a song that’s both familiar, yet new that always gets me. How intentional is something like that? And is it to connect to listeners or are you folks huge Elvis fans?
Thanks. I’m a longtime, passionate Elvis fan, and I know Shelley is, too, because she co-hosts KMSU’s “Shuffle Function” morning show which celebrates Elvis’ birthday and departure day each year. Beyond that I’m not sure how he ranks with the other members. But the song is inspired by a gift I received recently – Elvis’ autograph – and since the three words really lend themselves to a song title, I wrote it as a quick collection of scenes about a failed romance, a struggling musician and a fading memory of a character who swears she waited on Elvis at a greasy spoon in Memphis. It has a Sun Studios reverb and a happy, honky-tonk delivery that I hope says something about what the “life” is in “larger-than-life.”
How did you choose the songs for album? I like that many seem to be snapshots or times or eras of life – be it celebrating something “everyday” like League Night, or adventure or Alaska or maybe an annual event such as Day Drunk at Christmas.
Yeah, through the songs we are all playing and singing over somebody’s experience or their imagination or their poetry — which is a fun and effective way to get to know each other. As for the album selections, we chose the songs we like to perform live, most of all, but also to insure that there’s a range of moods and styles that a listener will find interesting and exciting. This isn’t an EP, after all, it’s 15 songs. Things need to stay interesting and I’m proud that they really, really do.
You have four songwriters in the band. How do you work together? Like Project Runway, does everyone have their own style or have you created a united sound for this project?
We actually have five, as Abigail Kimble writes some beautiful stuff too. We don’t collaborate on the creation of the songs, at least not that I can recall – those are mostly brought to the band by the individual songwriter. But then we dig in as a group, give it shape, size and sound. That part is thrilling – deciding what to add, what to subtract, where the sax and the Sirens show up… when it’s done we get weirdly giddy and geeky about it. You can hear it in the album, which was recorded on a Saturday in November at Signaturetone studios and everybody was feeling it.
Please tell us where folks can find you. Where are the upcoming shows and do you have any in the Cities?
This September, we’re playing area parks to celebrate the album release, as well as a few other spots in the Mankato area. (Mankato is a lovely hour’s drive down historic Highway 169.) We’re doing free shows at Sibley Park (Mankato) on Sept. 9; Wheeler Park (North Mankato – an entirely different city and county) on Sept. 11; The Circle Inn bar (North Mankato) on Sept. 19; and Minnesota Square Park (St. Peter) Sept. 22. We post our dates and other interesting information at joetougas.com
Mostly Minnesota 