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As lead guitarist of the Fendermen, rockabilly hero Jim Sundquist inspired a generation of garage rockers to pick up Fenders of their own when he scored Minnesota's first big national hit, "Mule Skinner Blues," in 1960. Sundquist, 75, died Tuesday of cancer.
Although he wound up settling in Minnesota, his career was launched in Wisconsin, where he was born in the town of Niagara, north of Green Bay. He picked up the guitar in his teens and, with rhythm guitarist and singer Phil Humphrey, formed the Fendermen -- named, of course, after the instruments they played -- in 1958 in the Madison area.
The two-guitar duo (no drums, no bass) originally focused on country standards. One night at a sawdust saloon called the Oats Bin, they started mixing in rock 'n' roll and created a stir with their hopped-up version of a Jimmie Rodgers tune. A music-store owner heard "Mule Skinner Blues"...