In 1987 while attending what would become McNally Smith College of Music in Minneapolis Willie met bassist James Voss. They’d signed on for the performance degree programs to explode their skills. Despite being a good songwriter, Willie kind of sucked on guitar and felt the need to improve. Unfortunately, studying scales and modes, and going to class with 50 shredding metal heads, all playing at the speed of light, made Wisely so self conscious that he unimproved his skills (temporarily). It didn’t really matter because he was an entertainer, a singer and a writer at heart. The Yngwie Malmsteen licks were best left to classmates.

Voss had a notion that they form a band fusing birth-of-cool jazz, gut-bucket Chess blues and add a twist, like a clarinet player. James was a versatile musician, and played in scads of ‘jobber’ groups across many styles. From his network he met Peter Anderson, a swinging Mitch Mitchell-style drummer with an appreciation for groups as varied as the frenetic Babes In Toyland, to the placid The Carpenters. Peter also loved Neil Young, free-jazz virtuoso Albert Ayler and Captain Beefheart. So now, The Trio was complete.

James played a dilapidated upright bass, freshly nicked from a school band department. Peter, taking cues from John Bonham and Tony Williams, syncopated the music with ingenuity. And then there’s Willie, trying so hard to be his heroes Paul McCartney and Mahalia Jackson, and almost always failing spectacularly. But, failure being the breeding ground of innovation, charmed local critics and driving sales of many home-crafted cassette releases. By April 1990, the band would be featured in a cover story for The City Pages weekly––Minneapolis’ Village Voice.

In November 1989 the Trio was playing at a smoky little bar in Minneapolis (yes kids, once upon a time you could smoke indoors!). Greg Wold, co-owner of the joint and gonzo trombonist, first set eyes upon the group there. He been playing  in the periphery of the Twin Cities jazz scene, but had a proclivity for inviting chaos onto stage and drama to every band. He could make the slide trombone wheeze like a steam engine or squeal like a pterosaur. After a few glasses of scotch (one for everyone in the band) he would invite himself onto stage, always proclaiming; “You are three of the most attractive young musicians I’ve ever seen.” For the next three years, Greg was the crowning touch as the group became bolder and more freaky circus-like.

In early 1992, now with a loyal regional audience, the Trio released their first album titled Raincan––their homage to the wild abandon of Captain Beefheart, which was not entirely out of context as bands like Butthole Surfers and Squirrel Nut Zippers toured the nation in the same circuits. The disk generated booking opportunities across the country, with memorable opening slots for Violent Femmes, Dr. John, Aztec Camera, Trip Shakespeare, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Jr. Wells & Ronald Shannon Jackson among others. The fact that all these bookings made good musical sense was a testament to the Trio’s omnivorous musical hungers. Invitations to perform at the nascent South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX came next, stirring activity on the regional CMJ radio charts.

One reviewer who drank the Kool-Aid said, “If stripped naked the group would still be wearing Willie’s songs. Wisely composes like a theater director. Scene One: two lovers who don’t speak the same language. The curtain rises… the song is half-rhymed in French, played to an oozy, 1960’s TV commercial bossa nova funk. Scene Two: man comprehends the scope of his lustful desires and warns the lady to BEWARE. The curtain rises…. eight minutes of screaming guitar feedback sunk to the seething six-eight pulse of the most hideous of Hammond organ tones. Amazingly though, each song is just as effective if sung by Willie with an acoustic guitar. Indeed the Wiselys are a rare band, one that is compelled by their musical frontiers and not held captive by them.”

From 1991 to 1993, the Trio toured like a UPS truck, playing endlessly in small clubs––their homemade cassettes and the Raincan CD stacking up rave reviews. Hundreds and hundreds of gigs, thousands of people and plenty of mischief later, the band needed new material. The result was Parlez-Vous Francais?, originally released on Chicago’s Pravda Records in 1994. The sessions were emotionally frayed, as members became disenchanted with endless roadwork. James moved to Christie, WI (population 27) and started a family and hair salon. Peter co-founded his own group Saucer, and Greg well, he had a career in record production and eventually advertising in mind. Things became disjointed, burning out various teams of engineer/producer teams, resulting in piles of unreleased songs and steeling Wisely’s confidence about the band and the album.