THE SHAKERS 1988 - From left, Reed Waller, lead guitar, Nate Bucklin, bass, Allan Standish, percussion, Kate Worley, guitar/keys. Photo by Fred Levy Haskell

Kate and I were performing music together as a duo years before I turned the Omaha writing chores over to her.

We belonged to Minn-STF, the Minnesota Science Fiction Society, which was very active musically. We both played guitar and sang, and we performed both folk and classical pop standards as well as original tunes by us and our friends.

We played at club parties and gatherings, as well as cons, and contributed to the work of others, like songwriter Nate Bucklin.

In 1988 when our publisher, Denis Kitchen, got access to a picture disk manufacturer, he asked us if we'd like to do an Omaha picture disk. So we got a band together, with Nate Bucklin on bass, Allan Standish, who i'd worked with since we were in high school, on drums, and David Emerson on keyboards. Drawing on the catalog of songs by our friends, like Bob Berlien and Kathy Routliffe, Sandy Andina, and Howard Ashby Kranz, and writing a few of our own, we filled out an album and produced it at Creation Audio in Minneapolis.

After the release of the picture disk, the Shakers continued to perform locally for some time, as did Kate and I as a duo.

Here is some of the music.