Sherry Minnick at Dubliner

Sherry Minnick is lucky to have come from a singing family. She made her first recording in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, at the age of four, and turned professional with The Debonaires at the age of 14. Living in the Twin Cities since 1974, Sherry has sung with a number of bluegrass and old-time bands, including with R. Dixon Smith and Sandra K. Njoes as Haywire.

She danced for two years with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, and spent five years playing for the cloggers in the Uncommon Loon String Band. She appears on a recording, “The Uncommon Loons,” made for a tour of France in 1996. In a duo with John C. Van Orman she sang music of the British Isles as well as Appalachian ballads, gospel shouts, and John’s original songs. She is featured on John’s recording, “Love, Liquor, and the Lord,” released in 2009. She also performed with Josephine Davis as The Brother Sisters, an old-time duet.

At times Sherry performs with Rachel Nelson, and appears on her recordings “I’m Awesome” and “Change Is a Thousand Hearts.” She also worked with Rachel and Kate Mackenzie as The Virtue Sisters. This hot trio can be heard on Arne Fogel’s album “You Call It Madness.”

Today, she concentrates on the unaccompanied singing of traditional music in North America and the British Isles, and the songkeepers’ function which this music represents. A recording of her favorite unaccompanied ballads, songs, and hymns, “Look Ma, No Hands,” was released in 2006. She played on “The Minnesota Fiddle Tunes Project” released in 2012, and appears, in 2014, with Shawn McBurnie (and the slight exaggerations) on “Fearsome Critters: songs about fanciful creatures from Northwoods Folklore.” She sings with Curtis and Loretta on their CD “When There’s Good To Be Done,” 2015.

Sherry worked five years with singer/songwriter Jackson Buxton, and is currently in a duet with Phil Nusbaum of KBEM’s Bluegrass Saturday Morning fame.