By Kim Hyatt

Owatonna People’s Press

OWATONNA — Summer vacation is over, or nearly, and the Americana Showcase is back to kick off another season of country, folk and bluegrass music.

On Friday, the Steele County History Center will host returning musicians Brandon Sampson, John Wheeler and Martin Zellar starting at 7:30 p.m. for two, 45-minutes sets of collaborative entertainment.

When the Americana Showcase first started in Rochester in 2008, Zellar was there to inaugurate the concert series. Two years later when the showcase opened in Owatonna, Zellar was there once again to play his alt-country tunes.

Sampson, who is the frontman for the band Six Mile Grove, said Zellar is major influence to his music not only because they play a similar style and they’re both from southern Minnesota, but “he’s a great, honest songwriter and I appreciate his music.”

They grew up about 10 miles apart — Zellar in Austin and Sampson from Lyle — and he was a big fan of the Gear Daddies, though he was too young to sneak into the venues.

Sampson said when he was “first learning to play guitar, that was about the time that Gear Daddies were pretty popular.”

Gear Daddies first got together in 1984 and quickly gained recognition across the Midwest, most notably for Zellar’s song “I Wanna Drive the Zamboni” that was featured in the movie “D2: The Mighty Ducks.”

The Zamboni song, of course, is played at hockey games and tournaments to this day.

A year after the Gear Daddies performance on Late Night with David Letterman in 1991, the band split up, but they still occasionally reunite for shows. Zellar continued on with his music career and now lives in Mexico, though he makes his way back to the Midwest for shows.

“It’s been really fun to play more shows with him and collaborate with these types of performances as we both continue to write music and play more,” Sampson said. “The audience will get an insider’s view of the songwriting process and collaboration as it happens live on stage.”

Chiming in on steel guitar throughout Friday night’s concert will be Wheeler, who plays for Six Mile Grove. For the past five years, Wheeler has accompanied the band, but he was with other acts before joining Grove.

The three guys will be “swapping songs back and forth and sharing stories” all night, Sampson said.

Music will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the Wenger Room at the History Center. Tickets can be purchased online at www.steelehistorymuseum.org or at the door the evening of the performance.

The cost is $20 for non-members and $15 for SCHS members.

The next showcase is slated for Friday, Nov. 20 that will feature Sampson, Wheeler and Dave Simonnet from Trampled by Turtles.