Lonesome Ron, King of the Valley Yodelers

Inducted: June 2008

To describe his sound, Lonesome Ron, King of the Valley Yodelers, quotes a line in “Blues Brothers.”
There are two kinds of music, the line goes: country and western. “I play western music — the kind performed by the Sons of the Pioneers, the songs you hear in an old cowboy movie when they’re singing around a campfire,” said Ron Affolter, a solo performer.
About a third of Affolter’s material is original western songs. He plays mostly guitar, but adds a banjo or mandolin on occasion. He also plays jazz with the Mary Guentzel Quintet or folk music with the Cats.
During his 30-some years as a musician, he has performed with Donna Douglas of the Beverly Hillbillies and Jean Shepard. When he was part of the East Side Pharaohs, he opened for Jan & Dean, Boxcar Willie, The Kingsmen, Gary Lewis and Marie Osmond.

Here’s a bit more about Lonesome Ron.

Q: What’s your creative process like?
A: Inspiration for a song can come from almost anywhere, whether it be something that happened to you, a story you heard or a feeling you get when looking at the open country.
One idea was inspired by letters that a Civil War soldier from Mankato had written home to his family. I read transcripts from several of the letters and composed a song.
The inspiration from “They Were Sent To Stillwater Jail” came from newspaper articles about local robberies committed around the time that the Jesse James gang raided Northfield. These criminals were not well known like the Younger Brothers, but they all ended up in the same place.

Q: What do you cover?
A: Years ago, I started doing the yodel songs of Jimmie Rodgers. Since then I’ve been playing and singing the music made famous by Gene Autry, Don Edwards and the Sons of the Pioneers.
Yodeling came to me in an interesting way. While in the East Side Pharaohs, I sang songs that required a falsetto voice. After a few years I figured I could take this ability and apply it to yodeling.
It can be therapeutic to yodel. Like any other art, it’s similar to painting a picture or planting a flower garden, you get a feeling of accomplishment. Yodeling can also be used to keep stray cats out of your backyard.

Q: Why music?
A: When a person starts working on something they enjoy, such as music, they continue with it. Had I started with water colors I’d probably be painting pictures right now.
Like most people, I’m involved in other activities. I also teach mathematics, build Web sites and enjoy gardening.

Q: Is there a common thread that runs through many of your songs? Are they political? Observational? More on the personal side?
A: The songs I write are usually historical. The ones I cover are the traditional cowboy tunes and songs from the singing cowboy movies of the 1930s and 1940s. I don’t write or sing anything real deep or intense, just a lot of fun songs. One historical song, “My Deep Valley Home,” was based on the Betsy-Tacy books of Maud Hart Lovelace, and I based the song “The Plum Trees Will Bloom Forevermore” on the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
I wrote “House of Dakota Rose,” “Idaho Belle,” “Molly,” and “Biscuit, the Burro” from hearing about the antics of Old West re-enactors I’ve worked with at festivals.

Q: What’s the best place to play in Mankato and why?
A: I’ve played at the Rasmussen Woods Nature Center a couple of times and find it to have a nice, peaceful, intimate atmosphere.

Q: What’s a really good night on stage like?
A: A really good night is when the audience is truly interested in what the songs are saying. For instance, Bob Nolan, who was a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, wrote songs that painted a musical picture of the west.
It’s great when people listen to the words and really “get” what he was writing about. It’s also fun to play for unusual events. Last year I was performing in Missouri for a Jesse James conference and, by request, I sang a birthday song for the great-granddaughter of Jesse James. Song writing festivals are fun, too. Some of my music was selected for competition in contests sponsored by The Minnesota Folk Festival and the Highway 61 Folks Festival. These are great opportunities to observe how other songwriters create their songs.

Q: How do you unwind from a show?
A: Mostly I’ve performed at Wild West shows and festivals. There’s not much time to unwind because sometimes I’ll be playing two or three shows during the course of the day. Usually, time between shows is spent socializing with the other participants.

Q: If you made the cover of Rolling Stone, what other bands would you want the writer to compare you with?
A: Well, if they were to do an “On the Road” type of feature that took them to the Minnesota River Valley, I’d prefer a comparison to Michael Martin Murphy and Tom Russell. Michael Martin Murphy because of the traditional cowboy songs he sings and Tom Russell because he writes a lot of good songs with historical themes.

Q: Any recordings?
A: In 2003 I wrote music for a Jesse James documentary, “The Ninth Man,” based on the book by John Koblas. So I wrote the theme song and recorded two traditional tunes for the soundtrack.
The documentary won an award in California. These songs are available on the CD, “The Riverboat Cowboys,” which serves as a companion to the DVD. My version of the “Ballad of Jesse James” was selected by a film company in Wales for a Jesse James documentary. Also, in 2006 I was commissioned to yodel for a Detroit Pistons radio spot.

To watch video clips of Lonesome Ron, click here.