Dick Kimmel - vocals, guitar, mandolin, & clawhammer banjo

Jerilyn Kjellberg - vocals & guitar

Graham Sones - banjo & vocals

Terry Johnson - bass

Also for selected performances, DKC features Tom Schaefer on fiddle and Ian Kimmel on mandolin.

Dick Kimmel & Co is a traditional bluegrass band based in southern Minnesota.  Since the 1970's, Dick Kimmel's bands have performed throughout North America and Europe. In 2008, this band received the National Traditional Country Music Association's coveted "Rising Legend Award."  Dick Kimmel & Co's traditional style of bluegrass is laced with original songs that seem like classics, bluegrass gospel, and traditional country duets from Dick Kimmel and Jerilyn Kjellberg.  Dick and

Jerilyn have consistently received praise from the international bluegrass media.  In 2012, Dick Kimmel & Jerilyn Kjellberg were inducted into the Mid-America Music Hall of Fame "for their excellent duet singing."

Recent CD's from Dick Kimmel & Co include the award winning bluegrass gospel recording, "Dick Kimmel & Co - My Lord Keeps A Record" recognized as one of the top bluegrass gospel recordings in 2005 by the International Bluegrass Music Association.  "Dick Kimmel & Jerilyn Kjellberg - Somebody Loves You Darlin'" focuses on the duet harmonies of these two musicians.  The band's most recent CD "Dick Kimmel & Co - Dreamin'" has just been released and is already receiving excellent reviews.   

Dick Kimmel has been performing bluegrass music since the 1950's.  With his band, Dick handles lead and harmony vocals in addition to playing guitar, mandolin, and clawhammer banjo.  Dick has recorded more than 2-dozen albums, including 7 CD's for Copper Creek Records, a Virginia-based bluegrass music record label.  His Copper Creek solo recordings include "Dick Kimmel ‑ 25 Year Collection" (Copper Creek Records CD‑0143), "Dick Kimmel ‑ Wild Turkey Rag" (Copper Creek Records CD‑0115), and his clawhammer banjo release, "Dick Kimmel ‑ Fishin' Creek Blues" (Copper Creek Records CD‑0173).  In a 1994 feature article, Bluegrass Unlimited referred to Dick as the "Ambassador of Bluegrass.”  On stage, Dick's emcee work paints a picture of bluegrass music and its colorful history from information he gained as a writer for international bluegrass music magazines.  Dick Kimmel is a 2010 inductee into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, a 2008 inductee into America's Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame, and shares a 2012 induction with duo partner, Jerilyn Kjellberg, into the Mid-America Music Hall of Fame.  See the "Artist Profile" link for more information on Dick's background.

For most performances by Dick Kimmel & Co, Dick is joined by vocalist Jerilyn Kjellberg. Jerilyn has been a regular in the Dick Kimmel & Co lineup since 2002.  She shares a major lead vocal role for the band's concerts and  recordings and plays guitar in the old Carter-family thumb and finger picking style.   Jerilyn received rave reviews for her singing on the band's CD's.  For a 2003 article in Inside Bluegrass, Len Kalakian wrote: "Here is a voice that deserves to be heard...her voice and vocal styling has a quality about it that makes it memorable."  Jerilyn is a master at expressing the essence of a song, ranging in style from her sensitive treatment of "Wildwood Flower" to her hard-driving bluegrass original, "Sweetie Honey Baby."   A January 2010 concert review  regarding Jerilyn's vocals noted, "...a powerful smooth voice and an energy that was electric."  (Applewood  Pointe of View, January 2010).

Graham Sones is the most recent addition to Dick Kimmel & Co on 5-string banjo. Graham has played Scruggs-style banjo for more than 40 years. This Rochester, MN native has played and recorded with some of the Midwest's top bluegrass bands.

Terry Johnson, on bass, is the most recent addition to Dick Kimmel & Co.  A native of Balaton, MN, he grew up in a family of musicians and began playing music by the time he was 6-years-old.  Terry's father, Everette, taught him to play bass when he was 10-years old.  While in his teens, Terry was playing for his church and performing solo shows at the local retirement home.  Terry now lives in the Twin Cities and was part of several bands before joining Dick Kimmel & Co.

For selected performances Dick Kimmel & Co includes one of Minnesota's great fiddlers, Tom Schaeffer.    Dick's son, Ian Kimmel, has also become a semi-regular performer with Dick Kimmel & Co, when he isn't playing with his own band, Barton's Hollow.

Comments About Dick Kimmel & Co:

"Dick Kimmel & Co is absolutely rock-solid, professional! Look for Dick Kimmel & Co on posters as festival season next year begins to roll around.  Go to support the festival, but go especially to see and hear this band perform.  If you have even the slightest reverence for the style of bluegrass we have inherited from the first generation greats and beyond, you will walk away at evening's end humming and singing this band's songs and looking for more festival posters."  Len Kalakian, Inside Bluegrass, December 2009.

"Dick has assembled a fine band with wonderfully blended vocal harmonies and instrumentation ranging from hard-driving to softly melodic. With the deeply heartfelt vocals and stirring messages of hope and redemption, it's hard to believe that the band has never recorded a gospel album before. Jerilyn's rendition of 'Tramp on the Street' has a poignancy and sensitivity that few singers can muster. Definitely a must for fans of well done gospel music."  California Bluegrass Association web site, July 2005

"Tops in bluegrass - internationally traveled"  Mountain Music Showbarn, Custer, SD, July 1996.

"They played at the Copper Grid in Madison, Wisconsin, to a standing room only crowd of bluegrass fans...the band played and sang hard driving, straight forward bluegrass music liberally sprinkled with stories and laugher...After two encores, the crowd reluctantly let them close the show."  Carmen Burnett, Fireball Mail, May-June 2000.