John J. Gross: Folk Songs Sung by the Germans from Russia

Music CD produced by Prairie Public Broadcasting, Fargo, North Dakota, 2005.

John J. Gross was born on November 7, 1924. The son of John M. and Magdalena Vetter Gross, he grew up on a farm southwest of Napoleon, ND, and attended a country school. John married Margaret Schaffer on February 3, 1947, and they raised five children. When John was four and five years old, his father would play the pump organ and sing folk songs while his mother was sewing clothes for their thirteen children.

John would often fall asleep listening to his father. Soon his father had John and his older brother, Mathias, stand beside the organ and learn the German folk songs. They sang for their grandparents and relatives as well as at namesday and wedding celebrations. John learned to sing and play by ear, and is still performing German-Russian folk music today at the age of 80.

Below is a list of songs on the CD: