20 Years of Shakin' 

The Shakers were formed in 1987 when Steve, Donny and Dave decided to put a part-time dance band together to play wedding dances and private parties.

The founding three members had played together previously in several other bands.

Steve and Donny first played together back in the early seventies with Epic recording artist's "Overland Stage".

In 1978, Dave joined a band Steve was playing in called "Uglier Than Ever" (an off-shoot of the original "Uglies" band).

"Uglier Than Ever" eventually evolved into "FM Players" and in 1981, Donny joined the band as a replacement guitarist.

The three of them played together until Steve left the band in 1984. Dave left in 1986 and the band finally dissoved in 1987.

Steve, Donny & Dave had been playing full-time in bands for a range of 16-20 years and the life of playing on the road was beginning to get old. All three took 1-3 years off from playing until they were bitten by the bug to perform once again.

The band's original name was "Yuks and Bucks" but was changed to "The Shakers" because "Yuks and Bucks" sounded like a county band...(not that there's anything wrong with that). Hence, a 20 year history had begun.

"The Shakers" played as a 3-piece band for 12 years until one day a friend of the band (Pepper) heard a guy (Bud) singing karaoke and thought we should hear this guy. So one night the band was playing in a local club in Fargo when Bud came up on stage and sang "My Girl". He then sang 2 or 3 more songs and "The Shakers" decided they'd love to have Bud sing with them full-time. The feeling was mutual for Bud and on New Year's Eve of 1999, Bud became the fourth "Shaker" and the rest is history.