Loehnig German Band

The Loehnig family and their cousins, the Onckens, comprise the Loehnig German Band. Hailing from McKittrick, across the Missouri River from Hermann, Marylin Loehnig was interested in the accordion at age 5 and hasn't stopped playing since. As a teenager, she and her future husband, Terry, both played accordion for Sonny Bottermuller's Peace Valley Orchestra. Returning from army service in Germany in the 1970s, the couple started playing at Hermann's Oktoberfest. Marylin took up the Older-style button-box accordion in the late 1980s. Trombonist Jim Oncken joined the band in 1990, and his son Ehren apprenticed with Marylin for button box in 1996, when they first played at the Big Muddy. Ehren, now a student at the University of Missouri, is a regular member of the band, playing songs from his grandfather that Marylin taught him as well as his own original tunes.

Big Muddy for other years