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T Witko
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Kelly Kiemele of Mandan was a staple in the local music scene,
playing in gigs and jam sessions several times a week and inspiring other musicians.
Kiemele died Sunday, August 25 of liver cancer. He was 64.
Kiemele’s passion for music was second only to his genuine kindness, say those who knew him.
He wanted to share music with the world.
“He’s a fine musician,” said John Lardinois, a longtime friend and fellow
band member in the Frog Holler String Band.
“He plays guitar, mandolin — anything with strings, really.”
Kiemele loved everything old — old music, old guitars, old cars, artifacts.
The history fascinated him.
He collected Native American artifacts, like arrowheads, animal skulls and bone whistles,
and loved learning the history behind them.
With the old cars and old instruments, he refurbished them.
Les Vaagen, Kiemele’s longtime friend and bandmate
in their duo, the Old Five & Dimers, called him “Lazarus”
because of the way he could “bring old guitars back to life.”
Kiemele was a native of the area, graduating from Bismarck High School in 1967.
He attended the North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton
for two years before serving as a helicopter medic during one tour in Vietnam.
He retired in 2004 from the Amoco Refinery, now Tesoro.
It is his music that will be his legacy. He loved to play,
often at informal jam sessions organized around the area.
In particular, he and other local musicians would gather at
Kiemele’s daughter’s coffee shop in Mandan,
Cappuccino on Collins, on Saturday mornings to jam and encourage new players.
For many years, Kiemele also accompanied fiddler Preston Schmidt,
a Bismarck native and now a Nashville resident. They played at fiddle contests,
Fort Lincoln and many volunteer events.
“Anyplace there was music, we would go,” said Schmidt, 27,
who said he has been playing with Kiemele since he was “waist high.”
Kiemele loved old-time music and he had a knack for
finding great but long-forgotten, tunes
. That trait is just one of many that will be missed,
said Vaagen after a long pause to collect himself.
Every time he came back to Bismarck, Schmidt said, Kiemele
would send him back with CDs of music he thought Schmidt should hear — or hear again.
Many of Kiemele’s friends gathered Tuesday
at the Laughing Sun Brewing Co. for a memorial concert.
And though they will never be the same without him, the jam sessions will continue.
“It’s part of his legacy,” Lardinois said. “It wouldn’t be right to stop.”
What he will miss most, Lardinois said, is just
“playing a good tune and looking across (to) his face to see him smile.”
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