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By Ayanna Eckblad

Swarme of Beese, a trio of musicians from Austin, Texas, will host a free concert at 2 p.m. Saturday at Bohemian Brick Hall at 17509 850th Ave. in Glenville.

The group’s lineup includes singer/songwriters Lynne Adele and Stephen Canner on vocals and guitars, and Stefan Keydel on violin, according to a press release. The concert is sponsored by the Czech Mutual Benefit Society.

Adele described Swarme of Beese’s music style as acoustic Americana with emphasis on lyrics, instrumental harmonies and violin. Since 2020, the group has recorded three albums.

Although based in Texas, Adele has deep roots in the Albert Lea community as she spent most of her childhood there. The daughter of school guidance counselor Richard Maschka, Adele said music was always a part of her life growing up. Maschka was also a musician, singer and music teacher.

“Both of my parents were very musical,” she said. “There was always music in our house.”

Adele’s parents gave her a guitar when she was in eighth grade, and she said it became the instrument that stuck with her the most.

After graduating from Albert Lea High School, Adele moved to Austin, Texas, for college and graduate school, studying art history and specializing in the work of self-taught artists.

Adele later met bandmate and eventual husband, Stephen Canner, also a lifelong musician, at Austin’s SXSW music festival.

“We’ve been playing together ever since,” Adele said. “One thing led to another, and Stephen and I got married … two and a half years later.”

Originally named The Victor Mourning, Adele said the group’s music started out as “hillbilly noir” with Southern Gothic themes and an Appalachian-based sound.

In 2015, while living in Knoxville, Tennessee, Adele collaborated with researcher, artist and fraternal society enthusiast, Bruce Lee Webb, and the University of Texas Press to publish “As Above, So Below: Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930.” During the research process, Adele traced the history of many fraternal societies, including that of the Bohemian Brick Hall in rural Glenville. Being from the Albert Lea area, Adele said she was already familiar with the building but learned so much more about it while writing the book. This laid the foundation for her wanting to return to Minnesota to celebrate the building and host a concert there.

Returning to Texas, Adele, Canner and Keydel had just started producing their first album when the COVID-19 pandemic began. During this time, Adele said their music started changing, becoming broadly American rather than strictly Appalachian. The music also started more closely resembling folk music.

The new name for the group originated when Adele began researching her family’s genealogy and read the Last Will and Testament of her 10th great-grandfather, who died in 1682.

The last item included in his will was a swarm of bees, and Adele thought it would make a good name as the connotations of beehives and folk music aligned well. The group kept the 17th-century spelling, “swarme of beese,” and the name stuck.

Adele said she is excited for Saturday’s concert as she has not visited Minnesota since 2009. During the pandemic, she said, the group fell out of the habit of going to live events, and they want to get back into the live music scene.

“I’ve really been wanting to come back and visit for a long time,” she said.

She is also looking forward to celebrating the rich history of Bohemian Brick Hall. It played an important role in the history of the county, she said.

The concert in Glenville is the first stop in a “mini tour” Swarme of Beese is doing, Adele said. They will also have concerts at historic lodges in Valton, Wisconsin and Fort Davis, Texas.

“We wanted to play in halls that had a little more meaning for us,” Adele said.

More information about Swarme of Beese can be found at swarmeofbeese.com.