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Who's Who at Gayville Hall

	John McNeill John McNeill was born in Oklahoma , grew up in Indiana and Connecticut, and first came to South Dakota to attend Yankton College in 1962. He began playing harmonica and guitar a couple years later while earning a degree from the University of South Dakota. While a Vista volunteer in Alabama and later doing graduate study there, McNeill performed in soul bands. After three-and-a-half decades back in South Dakota, he most enjoys playing country music. Prior to his recent retirement, he taught more than 30 years at USD-Springfield and its successor, the state prison. He has been the master of ceremonies and a regular performer at Gayville Hall with his wife Susan from its beginning in 2001. McNeill has written music for documentaries and many songs. He suggested and created Gayville Hall's successful Hank Williams and Johnny Cash tributes. He is pastor of the Springfield Bible Church.
	Susan McNeill Susan McNeill is a native of Clark, S.D. She met John at Yankton College, and they married in 1966. The McNeills lived in Alabama for four years before returning to South Dakota in 1972 and eventually settling in Springfield. Susan learned bass and started performing with John after their three children -- Annie, Matthew, and Jane -- were old enough to tolerate the part-time musician's life. For several years they performed with their children in a family band.

John McNeill
John McNeill was born in Oklahoma , grew up in Indiana and Connecticut, and first came to South Dakota to attend Yankton College in 1962. He began playing harmonica and guitar a couple years later while earning a degree from the University of South Dakota. While a Vista volunteer in Alabama and later doing graduate study there, McNeill performed in soul bands. After three-and-a-half decades back in South Dakota, he most enjoys playing country music. Prior to his recent retirement, he taught more than 30 years at USD-Springfield and its successor, the state prison. He has been the master of ceremonies and a regular performer at Gayville Hall with his wife Susan from its beginning in 2001. McNeill has written music for documentaries and many songs. He suggested and created Gayville Hall's successful Hank Williams and Johnny Cash tributes. He is pastor of the Springfield Bible Church.

Susan McNeill
Susan McNeill is a native of Clark, S.D. She met John at Yankton College, and they married in 1966. The McNeills lived in Alabama for four years before returning to South Dakota in 1972 and eventually settling in Springfield. Susan learned bass and started performing with John after their three children -- Annie, Matthew, and Jane -- were old enough to tolerate the part-time musician's life. For several years they performed with their children in a family band.

Nick Schwebach (in baseball cap)
Nick Schwebach was born and raised in Dell Rapids and graduated with a degree in English and history from the University of South Dakota in 1972. He played with the "honky tonk" band Bitsko from 1976 to 1979 and then started the Public Domain Tune Band with Owen DeJong in 1979. He co-founded the Poker Alice Band in the mid-1980s. Schwebach and DeJong have toured with the Comfort Theater Company's production of "Always, Patsy Cline," as well as with Gayville Hall's Hank Williams and Johnny Cash tribute shows. They have appeared at Gayville Hall more times than any other musicians except the McNeills. He and DeJong both live near Wakonda.

Owen DeJong (left)
Owen DeJong is director of programming and classical music at South Dakota Public Radio and has played fiddle with a variety of bands, including the acclaimed Poker Alice Band, since first performing professionally in 1968. He was born in Pipestone, Minn., graduated from Denison High School in Denison, Iowa, and holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English literature and a master's degree in violin performance from the University of South Dakota. He performed extensively in Nashville with The Travelin' Band during the 1980s and has taught high school art and English. He has enjoyed his longest musical association with Nick Schwebach in the Public Domain Tune Band for 25 years.

	Brenda George (left) Brenda George was born and raised in Emmetsburg, Iowa, in the corn state's northwest lakes region and had an interest in performing from an early age. Her father played guitar and sang, and Brenda liked to sing from age 3. She learned guitar from her father and was in vocal music and band (playing the baritone sax) throughout her school years. After graduating from Emmetsburg High, she attended Iowa State University for a year before moving to North Dakota, where she joined a band named Crystal River. She lived seven or eight years in North Dakota before moving to South Dakota, where she sang with the Poker Alice Band several years and cemented her reputation as one of the best vocalists ever to call South Dakota home. She lived in Nashville from 1988 to 1990 pursuing a professional country music career, but decided to return to South Dakota. She lives in Avon with her family.
	Dan Kilbride Dan Kilbride, of Sioux Falls, has been a Gayville Hall fixture since 2006, when he first appeared here with Clay County Breakdown. Dan grew up one of 12 kids on a farm near Wakonda. After graduating from high school, he worked at Kolbergs and Load King in Yankton until 1978, when he was hired on the Spirit Mound Sub Station construction project. He heard bluegrass music for the first time when fellow construction workers from the south brought out instruments at a social gathering. Two weeks later, he bought his first banjo. Moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, on an iron-working job the next year, he took daily lessons from a two-time Tennessee state banjo champion. A year later, working in Arkansas, he studied with an accomplished player in the Bela Fleck style. Returning to Oklahoma, he played in a bluegrass group, the Meehan Valley Boys, for five years. He moved back to South Dakota in the early 1990s.

Brenda George (left)
Brenda George was born and raised in Emmetsburg, Iowa, in the corn state's northwest lakes region and had an interest in performing from an early age. Her father played guitar and sang, and Brenda liked to sing from age 3. She learned guitar from her father and was in vocal music and band (playing the baritone sax) throughout her school years. After graduating from Emmetsburg High, she attended Iowa State University for a year before moving to North Dakota, where she joined a band named Crystal River. She lived seven or eight years in North Dakota before moving to South Dakota, where she sang with the Poker Alice Band several years and cemented her reputation as one of the best vocalists ever to call South Dakota home. She lived in Nashville from 1988 to 1990 pursuing a professional country music career, but decided to return to South Dakota. She lives in Avon with her family.

Dan Kilbride
Dan Kilbride, of Sioux Falls, has been a Gayville Hall fixture since 2006, when he first appeared here with Clay County Breakdown. Dan grew up one of 12 kids on a farm near Wakonda. After graduating from high school, he worked at Kolbergs and Load King in Yankton until 1978, when he was hired on the Spirit Mound Sub Station construction project. He heard bluegrass music for the first time when fellow construction workers from the south brought out instruments at a social gathering. Two weeks later, he bought his first banjo. Moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, on an iron-working job the next year, he took daily lessons from a two-time Tennessee state banjo champion. A year later, working in Arkansas, he studied with an accomplished player in the Bela Fleck style. Returning to Oklahoma, he played in a bluegrass group, the Meehan Valley Boys, for five years. He moved back to South Dakota in the early 1990s.

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