He organized the annual Laughing Waters Bluegrass Festival at Minnehaha Park for 22 years, booked bluegrass acts at Dulono's Pizza in Minneapolis for four decades, and led the Middle Spunk Creek Boys for 53 years.
Even though he would have blanched at the appellation, Alan Jesperson was the godfather of the Twin Cities bluegrass scene.
"He knew a ton of songs," said Bruce Jaeger, Middle Spunk's mandolinist since 1983, "and he knew more about Zenith tube radios than anybody in the world probably."
Collecting, refurbishing and selling vintage radios was Jesperson's passionate day job. He provided parts to collectors all over the world and even to Zenith itself.
Jesperson died Dec. 30 of natural causes at his home in Minneapolis. He was 74.
"Al was always the impresario," said dobro player Andy Kozak, a Middle Spunk Creek Boy from 1980 to '94 who last talked to Jesperson on Christmas Day.
Jesperson hosted jam sessions at his antique radio shop and booked performers at Dulono's, once the nation's longest-running bluegrass club, until 2017. For about 15 years, he served as a host of "Bluegrass and Company" on KFAI-FM. Beginning in 1999, he organized the free Laughing Waters festival at Minnehaha Park over Labor Day weekend.
He gave his last public performance there in 2021, though Middle Spunk Creek Boys continued to rehearse on Mondays.