A Rare Good Use of Crowdfunding

A while back, I had the great luck to be the “soundguy” for a Peter Ostrouschko and Dean McGraw show at Hobgoblin Music in Red Wing. Peter is mostly known as a mandolin player (His first recording was on Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks.”) or violinist, but he is a fine guitar player. I was a guitar repair student at Southeast Tech at the time and my being at the show helped draw a few of the school’s brighter students. We’d been studying the origins of steel string acoustic guitars in our lecture class and one of the origins of all things acoustic and steel is Larsen Brothers Guitars. Before that class, I’d never heard of Larsen guitars but Peter brought one with him. When I saw it, I couldn’t help oggling his instrument.

Peter asked me some questions about my interest and offered to let me play it. There is no such thing as a cheap Larson guitar. Some Larson Brothers instruments sell for more than a luxury car and I am generally terrified of antique anythings; even when they aren’t worth more than my life savings. Later, some of my classmates showed up and when I pointed out the Larson on stage they all took a look. Some of the more courageous or clueless even touched the instrument. Peter was nothing but generous and gracious to the kids who mostly pestered him with questions only a kid would ask.

Peter and Dean let me do my usual non-traditional mic’ing of their instruments and mostly made me look good with their brilliant playing and expert use of instruments and equipment. It was an all acoustic show (no pickups on any of their instruments), so they could have screwed with me all night. Peter did fool with finding the “sweet [feedback] spot” for the small condensor I used for his vocal mic and sang along with that tone once he found it. He did it with the most subtle and dry humor possible and I’d have been a lot quicker to fix it if he hadn’t made me laugh so hard. I will [I hope] never forget their version of “Pennies from Heaven” (“Benny’s from Heaven”) and the incredibly powerful instrumentals they toyed with all night. Peter’s talent is near-superhuman.

As always, the good get pounded on first (He is five years younger than me, 64.. Peter suffered a heart attack in late 2017 that required a quadruple bypass and post-op he had a serious stroke. As is typical in the US, his medical expenses are terrible. Someone started a GoFundMe page for him, titled “Help Peter and Marge Ostroushko.” If you were ever inspired to contribute to this kind of fund, this is the one to get in on. Please.