Nelson did a Brooks and Dunn song, as well as “Empty Places,” which he wrote. His performance was good enough to win, qualifying him for the finals on April 8. If he wins a second time, he will receive $10,000 and a contract for some playing dates.
A native of Lidgerwood, N.D., he once wanted to learn how to play the guitar. His uncle bought him a guitar, and his parents arranged for him to take lessons. After three years, Nelson decided to quit taking lessons. He couldn’t read the notes.
Then, when Nelson was a freshman in high school, John Ahrens came to the school. “He taught me more in three weeks than I had learned in three years,” Nelson said.
He began playing songs on the guitar “by ear” and formed a band a month later. After high school, Nelson was part of the Tommy Martinek Band based in New Effington, S.D.
Music was secondary to his regular job as a parts man with John Deere in North Dakota, and later in moves to Wheaton and Hector, Minn. It was at Hector where he began work at Langs Automotive and bought the owner out eight years ago. Today, the part-time musician owns the NAPA store in Hector.
The Terry Nelson Band stayed together 12 years before disbanding. The current four-piece group has been together five years. “We do a lot of wedding dances,” he said of the band’s range of 50s, 60s, country and country-rock music. The band doesn’t advertise, they get jobs by word of mouth.
The Terry Nelson Band has prided itself on keeping thevolume soft— “That’s one of our trademarks. We watch for that,” he said.
Although he has said he once had burnout from too much weekend work with the band, Nelson said music is just a hobby. “It’s the only hobby that I found where people pay you to do what you want to do.”