Twin Cities musical couples love performing in tribute bands

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson meet cute in the movie “Song Sung Blue,” and they form a Neil Diamond tribute band.

Consider it a case of art imitating life because the film is based on a real-life Milwaukee tribute duo called Lightning & Thunder.

Dave and Jenny Russ of Minneapolis met via a personal ad in the Twin Cities alt-weekly City Pages — an ad looking for a musician, not a mate. They perform in a tribute band, ABBASolutely Fab. She puts on a ginger wig to portray Anni-Frid, also known as Frida, while he dresses in all black with a polka-dot scarf around his neck as the band’s drummer.

“David J. Russ is singing on every song,” said Katy Vernon, ABBA’s blond singer, as she introduced the band last week at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. “He sings all the high notes.”

Really. And he gets to sing lead on “Take a Chance on Me.”

The Russes are one of several Twin Cities couples in tribute bands. We take a look at three husband-and-wife musicians saluting the sounds of their formative years.

Tribute bands together: the Carpenters, the Everly Brothers, Jackson Browne, “Laurel Canyon” (‘60s/’70s California rock), “The River” (Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Carly Simon), “Wild Angels” (women of country, rock and pop), “Christmas on the Prairie”

“Aimée is right in my eyeline. Every time I kept looking up [from his guitar], she’s looking at me,” Boyd recalled, “and I would flub the track and she would smile.”

After the session, Boyd asked a fellow musician for Aimée’s phone number and that person declined to give it to him. So Boyd sourced the number from another singer, Mary Jane Alm, who gave Aimée a heads-up and assured her that “Boyd was the greatest guy.”

How long married: 13 years, 22 years together

Comment: “We read each other like books especially when we’re singing together,” Boyd said. “I know exactly where she’s going to go and exactly when she’s going to go there. And she knows the exact same thing about me.”

“And that started in the very beginning,” Aimée said. “That’s what we marveled at when we first started singing. It was effortless. We sing very differently but we feel stuff the same way.”

Other bands:

Both: 2 Girls & a Boyd, and Aimée & Boyd Lee

Aimée: Andrew Sisters tribute, Bee Gees tribute

Favorite songs to perform: “In the Shape of a Heart,” Jackson Browne. “We do it as a ballad, reimagined,” Aimée said. “Absolutely love how you play guitar on that. The lyrics are so gut-wrenchingly sad.”

From the Carpenters show, he loves “We’ve Only Just Begun,” and she loves doing “Superstar” because “when I was a little girl, I thought I wrote it.”

Tribute bands together: Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Cocker, Bee Gees, Robert Palmer, Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Elton John, Andy Williams & Bing Crosby, Louis Prima & Keely Smith, “Vintage Vegas,” “3 Stars Born” (Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Lady Gaga)

How they met: Fierro’s girlfriends convinced the single mother of three that she needed a night out. They went to the Narrows Saloon to see the Rolling Blunder Revue and at the end of the night, Fierro walked up to bandleader Sterling and told him, “You need a backup vocalist.”

He invited her to come sing with his trio at Tryg’s, a small club near then-Lake Calhoun.

“I was scared to death,” admitted Fierro, a church choir singer who was in her late 30s at the time.

“You should have been,” Sterling countered.

How long married: four years, singing together 19 years

Going onstage angry at each other: “It’s not that we don’t disagree on things,” Fierro said, “but I’ve never felt [angry], which is new for me in a relationship.”

Comment: “It’s much harder for women to do this business. There are some many variables that men don’t have to go through,” Sterling said. “I think this is really a great married scenario. It affords looking out for each other that other musicians don’t get. It’s a different energy. It’s a nice thing to have.”

“He looks out for all women,” Fierro added. “I always thought that performing with him before we were a couple. There’s so much respect for women and propping up and encouraging people, specifically women.”

Other bands:

Sterling: tributes to Huey Lewis, Ray Charles, Little Feat/ Allman Brothers, Elvis Presley gospel, Bob Dylan spiritual, Mick Sterling & the Stud Brothers

Favorite songs to perform: “That Old Black Magic” from Louis & Keely. “He dances like a lunatic,” Fierro said, “and I act aloof.”

For “Vintage Vegas,” Sterling had to convince Fierro to sing Judy Garland’s “Come Rain or Come Shine” from “Live at Carnegie Hall.” “She just destroys it.”

“I have goosebumps talking about it,” Fierro said.

Next gigs: Bruce Springsteen/Bob Seger, Jan. 22, Freight House, Stillwater; Robert Palmer, Jan. 24, Crooners, Fridley

How they met: There was an ad in City Pages for Holiday Ranch, a local band, looking for its third consecutive female leader singer. Dave’s number was in the ad, and Jenny called for an audition.

“I save everything from back then,” Jenny said, “even the Post-It Note that had his phone number written on it. June 28, 1995.”

But the band had a no-dating-each-other policy.

“We were friends for 13 years before we started hanging out, going to concerts and stuff,” Dave said.

“Ten,” Jenny countered.

Going onstage angry at each other: “Sometimes when she pisses me off,” Dave said, “I’ll do my husband yell at her. But we both care about the presentation of the music that we’ve never sabotaged that, ever.”

By the way, ABBASolutely Fab, like the real ABBA, features two married couples, the other being guitarists Jenny Case and Rod Smith.

Comment: “The moment in ‘Song Sung Blue’ when they were first harmonizing together, the elation that they had, we do that in the car all the time,” Dave said. “Still.”

So in the car, especially on road trips, they’re listening to harmony bands like the Eagles, Little River Band, ABBA and lots of yacht rock.

“I wanted to be Frida [of ABBA] since I was 10 years old,” Jenny declared.

Dave: Dan Israel, Those Medley Kids and a George Harrison tribute

Jenny: Saddle Sores and an XTC tribute

Favorite songs to perform: Jenny likes ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” “because it inspired me to have two divorces of my own,” as well as “The Name of the Game” and “Knowing Me and Knowing You.”

Dave likes when he gets to sing lead on “Take a Chance on Me,” for which he prerecorded the introduction “so it’s like 20 of me.”

He also loves “Telephone Line” and “Turn to Stone” because Electric Light Orchestra is his favorite band. She likes “When I Was a Boy” — “I’m gender bending but it’s such a beautiful song.”