O′Kraut

One day several years ago, a couple of guys walked into McKees Irish Pub in Prince Albert, and asked if they could host a weekly Irish Pub night playing some acoustic music, with an emphasis on Irish/Celtic music and it’s Canadian East Coast derivatives. Pat, the owner, agreed, and the next week Prince Albert’s world famous (a guy in Korea knew about it) Irish Jam night debuted.

Pat wanted to put up some posters and invitations, and asked for the name of the group. On the spur of the moment, in a frantic effort to name a group consisting of two German guys playing Irish music, O’Kraut was born. They adopted as their motto: “Für Bier Wird Spielen”, which is German (more or less) for “Will Play for Beer”.

While O’Kraut have appeared in various configurations in the Prince Albert area over the past few years, Mario Kaun on mandolin and Don Bendig on guitar remain the core of this “itinerant jam session”. These two grew up together in the metropolis of LeRoy, Saskatchewan, and have been playing together for almost 50 years, about 30 of them with musical instruments.

Shawn Mahar borrowed Don’s guitar for a cameo appearance at that very first session, and has played with O’Kraut on a more or less regular basis ever since. Rene Krieg has been providing a second mandolin, banjolin, and youthful enthusiasm, for the last few years.

The repertoire has broadened as musicians of many musical tastes have participated in these sessions, but “good-time party music” remains a fair description of their musical style. A booking as the “Official Jam Band” for the wind up party at a Ness Creek Music Festival would appear to confirm that description.

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