“The first time I settled up with him, he overpaid and said, ‘You kids are good. Here’s some gas money for everyone,’” Levy recounted.
With Trailer Trash leading the pack, Lee’s became a suddenly hip hub for retro-leaning country, swing and rock bands in the ‘90s, including the Vibro Champs, Jack Knife & the Sharps and touring acts such as Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, Wanda Jackson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Deke Dickerson and Watson. It also hosted punk and metal shows later on, too.
As the music scene there got turned up and more wild, Sirian remained remarkably even-keeled and unflappable. Watson said he “got to appreciate the kind of guy Louie was” the second time he played Lee’s.
“I’d just met the guy, and as he was leaving for the night he handed me the keys to the place and said, ‘Just lock up when you leave,’” Watson recalled Monday.
“We never actually had the chance to lock up, because he came back even before we left so he could clean the place,” Watson added.
“When they made Louie, they broke the mold,” sang Dale Watson, right, with Louie Sirian. / Photo by Steve Pacholl (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Sirian was known to meticulously mop the floors himself and make them shine. Oftentimes he would stay late to clean and then return in the morning to operate a check-cashing business out of the bar, guitarist Dan Gaarder remembered. He also rented rooms above the bar as apartments for transient tenants.
