artical by Jason Buettner June 09, 2005
Aaron Baer: From Mohawks to Ukuleles

As jazz music fills the coffee house known as the New Moon, co-owner Aaron Baer sits across from me with a bowl full of chili and some bread. He asks if I mind while he eats while we conduct the interview. I don’t mind at all so I prepare myself for a musical adventure that is sure to last longer than his lunch. Aaron Baer is 29 and looks more like a hard rocker rather then a folk musician. He has long black hair with a beard and large silver ear rings in both ears. His appearance is quite deceiving for he is a very mild mannered and polite gentleman: He says “thank you” to me for letting him eat. Aaron has been entertaining crowds with his music since the late 90’s. The amount of success that Aaron has acquired as a musician has not changed him in the slightest bit. He still offers to open for other musicians that are just getting started. He is still very soft spoken and is not arrogant or conceited in any way. Although he is now the co-owner of the New Moon, he still manages time to keep his passion for music alive. You may have seen him play some of his well known folk and jug band songs at the New Moon open mike on Tuesday nights or caught one of the many unique bands he has played with, including, The Jackson Street Polecats, Shamus Fitzpatrick and the McNally Boys, or Dr. Kickbutts Orchestra of Death. After sitting down and talking with the local legend, I decide his initial rebellion against music, his trip to the hippest music city and his first to tour to Alaska, are certainly tales worth being told. “It started with my Dad,” responded Aaron, when asked how he got into music. “There were always guitars around, and my Dad was always playing songs. I never wanted to play guitar,” a surprising response coming from a folk musician. Aaron explained that he had middle child syndrome really bad; his brother played guitar and was quite talented, so Aaron strived to become an artist. “My first actual instrument I picked up was in the school band, and that was the trumpet.” Little did Aaron know it wouldn’t be the last. He eventually began to learn the electric bass in high school. “After I learned the bass, I played in awful bands, just horrendous music, really bad metal.” Of course this is not uncommon for most young kids just beginning their musical careers, but Aaron was determined to keep learning. He eventually formed a band with his brother entitled Subliminal Shiver, Which over time slowly morphed into a funk rock sound, similar to early Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The band lasted for eight years, but in the meantime, while attending UW-Oshkosh, Baer was drawn more and more into blue grass, a dramatic shift from Subliminal Shiver. Baer recalls one night after a Subliminal Shiver show, "I stopped in a coffee shop after a show with my mohawk and saw this folk musician, and I was floored. It drew me back to what my Dad was doing." That folk musician was Lil Rev, and the experience changed Aaron’s life forever. From that moment on, Baer learned guitar and started diving deeper into the world of folk and blue grass. "It was a weird time in my life. I went from funk rock to folk." That shift led to Bear's first folk/blues duo known as Fast Eddy and the Baer that he formed with his child hood friend Paul. "After that, my goal was to construct this huge elaborate band, and everyone laughed at the idea. They said it would never work!" exclaimed Baer. Although it would be a while before the massive band of Aaron’s dream would come true, he would go on to form a group that would take the Oshkosh music scene by storm. After Baer began to submerge himself into the folk and bluegrass scene, he met Jeff Mitchell, a fellow lover of bluegrass. Their friendship and musical partnership grew, and with the addition of Nate Lehner, The Jackson Street Polecats was formed. The Polecats were unlike anything anyone had seen in years; they specialized in jug band music. With instrumentation ranging from kazoos, washboards, guitars, ukulele, and banjos, the Polecats took ole rag time folk music and successfully entertained the Fox Valley. They were around for about a year and a half, according to Baer, when the movie “O’ Brother Where Art Thou” came out. “That was the catalyst,” says Aaron. “It sucked because we got compared to the film, when in reality we had been doing jug band music long before the movie came out. But it was cool because we had jobs.”

Festivals, coffee shops, fairs, whatever the venue, The Jackson Street Polecats was a hit and in high demand around the area. “It was cool because we were getting shows all over Wisconsin. Jeff went to school at Stout, and Nate and I went to Oshkosh , so we had two home bases to get shows.” Even though the Polecats were a success, Baer never let it get to his head. “Jeff, Nate, and I were very good musicians together. We had an unbelievable chemistry. But we never got too crazy about things. We were getting shows and gaining popularity without band photos or press kits, or even an album; we just played.” Eventually Baer and the group would make an album. They decided that they were not going to sell 600 copies in Oshkosh so they would have to tour. “Our first tour, we decided to go to Alaska,” Bear recalls. “Coolest, yet stupidest thing to do; in the month that we toured, we had only six shows booked. We had no idea how to sell ourselves at all, we weren’t businessmen.”

Baer and the Polecats however, embarked on their first tour out West and played places in Montana, Oregon, Washington and Hope, Alaska. Although it was a great experience for Baer and Co., it was also a hard lesson for the life of a traveling band. “We had saved up some money to initially get out there, but it was tough. Our goal was to make enough in tips and CD’s to get us from one town to the next. We were fully prepared to sell instruments to get home. We had a list of which instruments to pawn off.” After a few more tours with the Polecats the band parted ways. Jeff Mitchell moved to Iowa, and Nate moved to Pewaukee. Then Aaron decided to move to Seattle, which would open another chapter in his musical career. “Seattle sucked,” recalls Baer. “I went there and wanted to be a small fish in a big pond, because here I was a big fish, and I never got used to the idea of me being a big fish.” Aaron explained that the Polecats were what caused that. “The Polecats created a scene. Before us you couldn’t walk around Oshkosh with a hobo suit on and still be cool; we were responsible for that.” Baer raised some money from solo CD sales and moved out to Seattle with the intentions of being a struggling musician. Unfortunately, to Aarons surprise and dismay, Seattle’s music scene wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. “It was extremely competitive, and there were a lot of amazing musicians, but it was all cover songs. Walking down the street or going to open mikes and expecting to hear original music was disappointing because everyone was playing Beatles songs.”

For Aaron, Seattle turned out to be a lonely and unsatisfactory experience in regards to music. It took him awhile to find an open mike that he actually liked, “The Coffee Messiah, my homebase, or New Moon if you will,” a place where Aaron’s original music was accepted and well appreciated. “I actually met a majority of my actual friends there.” Although it was a change of scenery that Aaron was looking for, he realized he missed home and moved back after a year. A month after his return to Oshkosh, another musical conception was born. The Irish band Shamus Fitzpatrick and the McNally Boys. “It originally started as me and Jeremy Wood, and it was his idea. He called and asked if I wanted to do an Irish band.” Shamus’ first show was in front of Jambalya on Main Street in March for the art walk. “It was freezing,” Baer recollects. Once again, though it would be another group that Baer was in that would catch wind and become popular throughout the Fox Valley. The members quickly went from two to six.

The popularity of Shamus grew, and soon they were playing bars, coffee shops, and Irish festivals all over the Midwest. Says Baer, “Brad Knapp, who was in the band, was great at marketing. He could sell any band anywhere. Brad was responsible for getting us a lot of paying gigs, big time paying gigs.” Although Aaron was now making great money, he was bored. “It was just playing Irish drinking songs in a bar. It was fun, but at the same time, I wanted to do my own music, but I didn’t want to go solo.” Eventually, Shamus would have a falling out leaving Baer on his own again. “It took me two years to create my second solo album,” said Aaron. That album, entitled The Show which was released last year in 2004, is a great mix of folk and bluegrass. With songs that can tug at your heart strings or be catchy sing alongs, it is a carefully crafted album by Aaron. The Show was originally supposed to be an album written for The Jackson Street Polecats but was never able to be done. “I thought the Polecats were more marketable. I never liked being a rock star. I always hated the limelight.” For Aaron’s CD release, he didn’t want to play solo, so he enlisted the help of some friends. “At that point, I had enough people fooled enough to jump in and play with me.” With the help of friends like Mark Powers, Aaron was closer to his dream of creating a huge elaborate band. “It was fun, but awkward; only two of us had any idea of what we wanted to project.” What Aaron wanted to create was a huge, elaborate, musical show, filled with funny skits, costumes, and a variety of instrumentation. Once again combining the elements of folk and blue grass, the dream of Aaron Baer had finally been reached. Dr. Kickbutts Orchestra of Death was created. But once again, the shy front man wanted no part of the fame. “Five months after the first show, we did another one. I wanted no part of the limelight. I did 90% of the grunt work putting together a lot of everything. A lot of people helped me, planning rehearsals, helping create jokes, costumes; it’s quite an overwhelming process.” Especially planning a rehearsal for a band that contains 17 people, who Aaron believes are just as equally important as him, namely Andrew Johnson and Eric Rumfield, “Andrew and Eric are extremely important to this group. I really look up to both of those guys; they really take the pressure off of me and make this a really fun group to be a part of.”

Aaron Baer’s musical masterpiece is the latest chapter of his experiences in life. His journey through music has been a wild one, starting from funk/rock to bluegrass and recently leading into an elaborate stage show. Baer’s musical book is far from finished, as he continues to play both solo, and with Dr. Kickbutts Orchestra of Death. He also from time to time plays with the Polecats. As well as with other various bands. You can definitely look for Aaron to continue to play music for a long time.