Minnesota Prairie Roots

I EXPECTED AN EVENING of patriotic music performed by the Mankato Area Community Band, the group’s usual playlist during their annual summer show in Faribault. Instead, the band surprised the audience gathered June 25 in Central Park with a mix of patriotic, comedic and even feline-centric songs. Plus more.

I’m a fan of this band, which opened their free 7 p.m. Concerts in the Park performance with the “Star Spangled Banner,” followed by a song celebrating our nation’s 250^th birthday. They ended the hour-long show with a rousing version of “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

In between, though, they played a variety of music. Singers Stephanie Thorpe and Barbara Dunker meowed their way through “A Comic Duet for Two Cats,” complete in cat ears. They hammed it up, obviously having fun with the piece.

But it was was their role as church ladies singing composer William Bolcom’s “Lime Jell-O Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise” that got the audience laughing, especially when the foil-covered salad was unveiled on the bandshell stage. That elevation of the salad reminds me of shows by the Looney Lutherans and the Church Basement Ladies, popular theatrical groups in Minnesota. It also reminds me of Jell-O salads my mom (and other women of her era) made for holiday meals or potlucks. I never cared for mayonnaise, carrots, celery, nuts or such in gelatin. Bananas in red Jell-O, yes.

I caught the Mankato church ladies just after they exited the stage, grabbing a portrait of them with their infamous salad before they ducked into an equipment trailer/makeshift dressing room and changed into costumes for their next song. They were on the move in this high-energy show.

I continued to roam the park with my camera—people-watching, dog-watching, watching for anything that might tell a story about these weekly summer concerts that have become a community staple.

For decades I’ve enjoyed many a beautiful Thursday summer evening of music and conversation at this concert series. All ages come here, settle into lawn chairs, park on benches, lounge on blankets laid upon the grass under a canopy of trees.

As the sun lowers, shadows across Central Park, the music plays on. Kids play. Adults listen. Some read. Dogs nestle on laps or in the grass. It’s an almost Normal Rockwell-like scene. Americana.

“Amazing Grace” quiets the spirit. A song about lime Jell-O brings laughter. And patriotic songs spark a sense of gratitude for America, on the cusp of celebrating its 250^th birthday in this, “the land of the free and home of the brave.”

FYI: Faribault Concerts in the Park run through August. Next up is the Ya Ya Boys playing a mix of blues, old time rock n roll, outlaw country and Americana on July 2. Little Chicago, a cover band for hits of the 60s and 70s, performs on July 9.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling