'Prairie Home' veteran, Bob Dylan sideman and multi-talented mandolinist Peter Ostroushko dies at 67

Feb. 26—Early on in his relationship with St. Paul's Red House Records, mandolinist Peter Ostroushko found himself at loggerheads with then-president Bob Feldman over the cost to record a new album.

"He came in with a budget higher than we wanted to spend," said Eric Peltoniemi, a longtime Red House employee. "So he said, 'Bob, can I leg wrestle you for it?' They're both very strong guys, but Peter won. It became a ritual, and with every new project, Peter always won. It was one of my favorite things."

After Feldman died in 2006, Peltoniemi took over as Red House president: "And I told Peter 'This is where the leg wrestling stops.' "

Ostroushko, who suffered a stroke in January 2018, died Wednesday. He was hospitalized over the weekend and died of heart issues. He was 67. Ostroushko is survived by his wife, Marge, and daughter, Anna, as well as a sister, Ludmilla, and brothers George and Taras.

Born in 1953 in Northeast Minneapolis, Ostroushko first picked up a mandolin when he was 3.

"'I'm your basic immigrant's kid, in a different country," he told the Pioneer Press during a 1997 interview. "My parents were trying to make me believe that I was Ukrainian, but I was actually an American, and (I) grew up listening to the Beatles like everyone else. I've got lots of different musical things going on in my mind.

"People tend to forget, but people do come from someplace, and no matter how many influences they have, they still have a neighborhood they grew up in. For me, it's a lot easier to define. I grew up in a very Ukrainian neighborhood, so I grew up listening to a lot of very intense music. That very much defines my music."

As a young musician playing Twin Cities clubs, Ostroushko caught his first big break in late 1974 from none other than Bob Dylan.

That September, Dylan recorded "Blood on the Tracks" with session musicians in New York. But several friends and allies, including his brother David Zimmerman, told Dylan the album sounded too stark. Zimmerman convinced Dylan to re-record five of the songs in Minneapolis and offered him a backing band that included Ostroushko.

At the time, Ostroushko had been in bed all week battling pneumonia. But when he got the call from his friend, banjo player Jim Tordoff, he picked up his instruments and headed to the studio.

"When Jim and I got there, everyone was packing up. They were done for the night," Ostroushko told the Pioneer Press in 2001. "Dylan came over and shook my hand and looked at my instruments and said, 'What have you got there?' I said, 'A fiddle and a mandolin.' He said, 'Mandolin? That'd sound really good on this one song.' And everyone unpacked their instruments, and we went in and recorded 'If You See Her, Say Hello.'

"For someone who is such a huge artist, it seemed like he was awfully loose about how he went about doing stuff. No one knew the song, and he kept changing the key. I definitely got the feeling that he didn't care too much about the performance, or it being slick or anything. His sole criterion was the feeling of the song; he was searching for a key he could really sing it in.

"We ran through it once, and then they hit the (record) button. We did about four takes, and that was it. I was sick the whole time, really fevered, and I woke up the next morning and the fever had broken. I thought, 'What a dream I had.' I actually didn't know whether I had gone to the studio or not.

"I called Jim and said, 'You won't believe this dream I had last night.' He said, 'Buddy, that was no dream.' "

That was just the start for Ostroushko, who went on to join the band on Minnesota Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion." He spent 40 years with the show and, at one point, served as its music director.

On Facebook, "Prairie Home" host Garrison Keillor called him a "dear family member" and wrote that "his music is his gift and his legacy."

Over the years, Ostroushko appeared on several TV shows, including "Late Night with David Letterman," "Austin City Limits" and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Filmmaker Ken Burns used his music in PBS documentaries about Mark Twain and Lewis and Clark. Ostroushko won a regional Emmy award for his soundtrack to the 2005 Twin Cities Public Television series "Minnesota: A History of the Land."

He released his first album, "Sluz Duz Music," in 1985. The following year, Ostroushko's long relationship with Red House Records began with the record "Peter Ostroushko Presents the Mando Boys."

"In the early years of Red House, the core was really (singer/songwriter) Greg Brown and Peter," Peltoniemi said. "I think they're both responsible for Red House getting off the ground.

"He was a very proud person and very generous with his talent. He's probably the finest folk artist that ever came out of Minnesota in terms of instrumentation. He ran the whole gamut of what he could do. And he was very funny. We had a lot of fun together."

Ostroushko also performed with the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, while his compositions have been performed by the Minnesota Sinfonia, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra.

The Minnesota Orchestra's Grant Meachum first worked with Ostroushko in 2017 after hearing his song "Heart of the Heartland."

"We were creating a new holiday show," Meachum said. "And 'Heart of the Heartland' is just the most beautiful melody we'd ever heard and is so evocative of winter in Minnesota."

Ostroushko agreed to allow the orchestra to incorporate the song into the "Home for the Holidays" concert and joined them onstage to perform a mandolin solo. Health issues prevented him from returning the following year, but the orchestra has continued to use "Heart of the Heartland."

"That was our direct connection, a simple two-minute piece that is part of us now," Meachum said. "Peter is a special musician."

Peltoniemi agreed.

"You have certain vocalists who, from the first note, you don't have to guess who it is. With Peter, after the first few notes you knew it was him. He had his own, distinctive style, but he was also able to blend in with whoever he was playing with. His technique was so incredible, he won the respect of classically trained players. He was truly one of the greats."