The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, April 13, 2007

What do you get when two well traveled brothers settle down with old acoustic and electric guitars, a distorted harmonica and decide to play roots music on a front porch in rural Northern Minnesota?

Since releasing their well-received debut album in the Summer of 2005 The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank have played Two Green Man Festivals (Duluth, MN), Two Feel Good Festivals (Central Wisconsin) and The 10,000 Lakes Festival (Detroit Lakes, MN), as well as theatres, bars, coffee shops, folk societies, colleges and barns all over the Midwest and beyond.

Teague and Ian Alexy's musical paths have gone down many different roads. Between the two they have sold over 3,000 records and have established themselves as respected independent songwriters and musicians in many different regions of the country. Up until last summer their musical roads have been largely separate. The creation of The Hobo Nephews has brought their music and their lives back together.

After growing up with Ian in Somers Point, New Jersey, Teague headed west to expand his musical horizons in San Diego. Teague briefly returned to South Jersey to co-found Spilled Milk who quickly became one of the most successful original bands to ever grace the storied Jersey Shore bar scene. Teague soon left Jersey behind again to test the musical hotbed of Minnesota where he quickly became one of the most respected performers on the independent scene touring all around the Midwest and eventually all the way out to the west coast. His newest release The New Folklore (backed by The Feelin Band) has received glowing reviews including The Minneapolis Star Tribune calling Teague "a buzz-worthy singer/songwriter."

After spending a year at Berklee Music School in Boston, Ian moved to Vermont to further study guitar at Goddard College which eventually led to a semester of study in Ghana, Africa. He spent time in numerous jazz-rock outfits including while also performing as a solo singer/songwriter. The Burlington music publication Seven Days hailed Ian as "one of the area's hottest, young guitarists with a casual precision that shows in his songwriting." Ian now also lives in Minnesota and just released his second record entitled Broken Billy.