Grammy-winning Okee Dokee Brothers: fun folk music for the whole family in Yountville on Oct. 19
Bonded in music and a love of the outdoors, Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing have been close friends since early childhood in Colorado. Now, based in Minnesota, they are a unique and prolific musical duo with a track record of award-winning albums and well-attended nationwide performances spanning the past 13 years. Their audience is families with children, and much of their content has focused on adventures in nature.
On the phone from Minneapolis last month, Mailander talked about their early days as performing musicians and their evolution as the Okee Dokee Brothers. “We were just a college bluegrass band,” he said. “We would tour around a little bit and play some bars and different public events. At family nights at community gatherings we noticed the kids dancing to the bluegrass music and having a good time. So we cleaned up our set a little bit and took out the drinking songs, and we noticed that, wow, this is a really good tempo and rhythm and just a good vibe for families.
“We had been simultaneously writing some pretty humorous wacky songs, and just got in this groove of writing what we came to know as family music. It has a good bluegrass beat to it, is inspired by nature, and has whimsical humor. We tried a couple of those out and they just felt really authentic to us. Justin and I had a shared childhood singing campfire songs at summer camp as counselors and campers, and there was just something about that which felt more authentic than singing drinking songs or hobo songs, riding the rails kind of stuff. We were just like, ‘Well, we’ll just write our own family music,’ and that’s what we did.”
In all, they have released nine albums. Their break-out 2012 recording, a CD+DVD titled Can You Canoe, won for Best Children’s Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Five albums followed between 2014 and 2023, three of which garnered Grammy nominations in the Children’s category. Aside from DVDs, which have accompanied the music recordings, they have produced two picture books, both with outdoor themes.
As touring artists, they have performed in some of America’s most prestigious venues, including Austin City Limits, Lincoln Center, the Getty Museum, Wolf Trap and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
Asked about the outdoor experiences that inspired much of their music, Mailander talked about the albums that were created before he and Lansing had their own children. “Our three adventure albums (Can You Canoe – 2012, Through the Woods – 2014 and Saddle Up – 2016) were created before we had kids, when we could go out and have 30-day camping trips where we documented the experience with video and wrote songs out there.
“In those years we saw ourselves as older brothers or uncles who were teaching little lessons and pulling pranks and telling jokes, and that was a fun angle for kids’ music for us instead of a parental role.
“Now I’ve got an 8-year-old and Justin has a 2-year-old and a 6-month old, so in recent years we have been trying our songs out on our own kids. The ones that resonate and get a laugh or that they sing around the house, we definitely pay attention. That helps us choose which songs get on the albums. And we actually record with them a little bit, so their laughter and their singing is on some of the albums. It’s a really nice thing.”
The Okee Dokee Brothers will perform at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington St., Yountville, on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at eandmpresents.org or at the venue the day of the performance.
