At age 64, after his second heart surgery, Dan’s doctor suggested stress relief, Dan found music. He learned to play guitar, discovered his baritone voice and started writing his own songs.
His method of blending real life stories with music is heartwarming. He has been recovering from alcohol for over 30 years; owned eight companies and had 82 employees’. He pours his reconstructed
heart into his music, just like he has done with everything in his life.
Joe started playing drums in high school and by the time he was a senior, he was playing in a rock n roll band in bars at age 18. While in the Navy he won a bass guitar in a poker game and that moved him into the bottom end of music. Most recently, Joe has moved again on stage and now plays lead guitar in this band. He leans toward the blues and found that this is a good fit with this band.
Mary started her musical career with playing the piano in the the 3rd grade, and started playing flute in the band in 7th grade. When they needed a trombone player, she took the position (pun intended).
She discovered her singing voice at 16 after church members told her that they liked to sit in the pew in front of her so they could listen.
Mary's high school band director was so good that she wanted to be just like her. Her choir director was so bad that she never wanted anyone to have that problem, so she went to UW-L for both.
Fast forward, Musical Mary just finished her 11th year singing in nursing homes and is starting her 20th year teaching music at various grade levels in Wisconsin public schools.
Being in Dan Kouba and the Journeymen band is a culmination of many years of singing and playing 14 instruments. Some say she is "The Boss" because she tries to "keep the boys in line". Whatever her title,
she sure has a lot of fun performing with each of these guys who she is proud to call true friends.
Joe Sukana, born on the east coast growing up with Polka, Soul Train, American Bandstand, and Heavy Metal. The fire to find his own rhythm as evoked by the passion his parents had for R&B and Classic Rock that was born out of the 50’s and 60’s. He spent 2 decades soaking up the Florida sun, and discovering the magical drum beats of Latin music and yellow polka-dot bikini’s. He believes that music exudes the power and energy to heal when dealing with life’s many splashes and crashes. Always inspired by the percussion of life, and he has no plans on putting down the hickory sticks. ROCK ON!
John’s musical interests came from seeing Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I’ve been playing bass guitar ever since. I give my wife the credit for encouraging me to check out the Dan Kouba band and LOW and BEHOLD, now I’m the bass player.