NEW ULM - Brenda Zitzman, a rural New Ulm native, joined the country all-girl Nashville-based band Mustang Sally as a "temporary thing" back in 2003.
"I started out it was going to be a temporary thing, you know... Just fill in, sit in with us for a few days and see if you like it and here it is five years later, still loving it and doing it," said Zitzman. "They liked me and I liked them."
The band played a concert Saturday night at George's Ballroom in New Ulm. This was the second time Zitzman has performed with Mustang Sally in New Ulm.
Zitzman said she has been with the same core group of women for the past four years now.
"We don't anticipate any more changes after this. We really like the group the way it is," said Zitzman. "We get along extremely well. It takes a lot personality-wise and talent-wise to try to get just the perfect mix. I think we have something really, really good and a good chemistry and I'd love to see it just stay the same."
Zitzman plays acoustic guitar, sings harmony vocals and occasionally sings the lead vocal part in the band.
The five women play fiddle, mandolin, bass guitar, drums, piano/keyboard, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and saxophone.
Zitzman is a 1996 Cathedral High School graduate. She is the daughter of Jerome and Lenora Zitzman of rural New Ulm and the granddaughter of Otto and Mary Hartmann of Gibbon.
After high school she moved to Nashville to attend the music college Belmont University. In 2000 she graduated from Belmont earning a degree in commercial music.
"I was already living in Nashville," said Zitzman. "You just kind of get to know the other musicians in town, especially the other female musicians because there aren't really that many. It's a very male-dominated industry, country music is. I was actually in another band at the time and we shared booking agents with Mustang Sally. Our band was dissolving it was on its way out and Mustang Sally had an opening."
The band gets its name from the Wilson Pickett song "Mustang Sally."
"Lisa, the drummer - she founded the band," said Zitzman, "She was performing one night. This was the first night that she had gathered a group of girls to play. When the DJ was going to introduce the band she said, 'What do we call you guys?' and just at that moment Mustang Sally (the song) was playing on the jukebox. So she said, 'Just call us Mustang Sally.' So now we play that song almost every night."
Mustang Sally plays about 200 shows a year. In March the band released a CD of original music.
"This is all we do for a living," said Zitzman, "It comes out to be about 250 travel days a year. We're on the road quite a bit."
The band plays at ballrooms, bars, county fairs, Harley rallys and overseas military shows. They have traveled to Korea, Japan, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.
"Our booking agent keeps us quite busy," said Zitzman.
Mustang Sally has also played many high-profile dates including opening for Big and Rich, Montgomery Gentry, Neal McCoy, .38 Special, Dierks Bentley, Trisha Yearwood and Miranda Lambert.
"You get to see how they perform and how they work the crowd, so you're always learning something new," said Zitzman. "I've always loved going to concerts. Many times we get the opportunity to talk with them after the show and they can give us pointers. We're not on the radio yet - a lot of people don't know who we are. We're just building our fan base one show at a time."
Most of all she said she enjoys the 'travel-aspect' of her work.
"I think the more I travel the more I realize that people are the same everywhere you go," said Zitzman. "If we're in Korea or if we're somewhere in Georgia, the way music can touch a person is really cool. I meet so many nice people."
She also loves all of the different foods she gets to try while traveling with the band.
"We're a bunch of 'foodies' in the band," said Zitzman. "After sound check I'm taking the band to the Lamplighter so they can experience some local atmosphere."
One thing that has been hard sometimes for her is constantly living out of a suitcase.
"We'll get back home to Nashville for a day and you're just unpacking doing laundry and then you're back out again. I miss my bed sometimes," said Zitzman. "And I don't get to come home to Minnesota as often as I would like. It's usually once a year for the holidays."
Another thing she misses living in Nashville is... Schell's beer.
"You can't find it anywhere (in Nashville)," said Zitzman. "So I always have to have a Schell's (beer) when I come home."
Her goals for the future involve having the band get a major record deal.
"They have the money and the contacts to help us get to the next level," said Zitzman. "I would love to see us get our songs out on the radio, get some hits and just tour, tour, tour and work and you know, ride it as long as we can."
