South Dakota banker's music satisfies the soul

Northwestern Financial Review, Feb 15, 2001 by Hohmann, Michael

Move over, Bob Geldof - a crooning banker from Estelline, S.D. is borrowing a page from the "We Are the World" music industry charity fundraiser to support children and hunger efforts locally and worldwide.

Billed as `Banker by Day, Balladeer by Night,' Dave Johnson, CEO of Reliabank Dakota, spent last fall recording a compact disc of eight popular hits, including "It's My Job" and "You Ain't Going Nowhere." These are tunes by the likes of Jimmy Buffet, Jerry Jeff Walker, the Red Willow Band, Bob Dylan and others. He hopes to raise at least $10,000 for two international charities and a mission school on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota.

Estelline, a small town just off Interstate Highway 29 about mid-way between Watertown and Brookings, is the unlikely base for a kid who would parlay his life-long love of music and banking into a world-wide crusade for teaching free enterprise. Johnson has traveled to the Czech Republic and taught banking in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. He experienced first hand the challenges of conveying the economic concepts of free enterprise to the citizens of Eastern Europe and former Soviet states, but notes "that capitalism is taking hold, and the freedom to travel abroad is enjoyed by Eastern Europeans." More recently, he has enjoyed visiting with Czech bankers studying at the Graduate School of Banking in Colorado.

As a kid, Johnson played guitar and drums in a local rock'n roll band and sang in his mom's church choir. Later, he sang in the Augustana College Choir in Sioux Falls. These days, Johnson is singing to support the Romanian Children's Relief Network (CRN), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) International World Hunger Project, and the St. Francis Mission located on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Each organization's efforts have touched Johnson's life but especially the CRN, since Dave and his wife adopted a son, now 10 years old, from Bucharest.

Reliabank, is a family-owned bank with about $80 million in assets. Johnson is the bank's third owner; his father was the second. He expects increased competition in the new year, and hopes new banking laws will help community banks in the increasingly competitive rural banking environment. "Farm lending is really a tough business," said Johnson. The bank, however, seems to be up to the challenge. "Our assets have doubled over the past few years and we added a branch in Watertown. As Watertown goes, so goes our banking business," Johnson commented.

The CD was Johnson's first attempt at recording music, and he had a little help from his friends. Dan Mahar, a professional musician from Aberdeen, S.D., met Johnson when he wrote a new jingle for the bank and then became a customer. With two gold records, Mahar played lead, bass and rhythm guitar and sang back up on the CD. Other friends played peddle steel and fiddle. Wil Prines, the owner of the recording studio Johnson used, performed keyboards.

The CD was recorded at the Creative Communications Studio in Sioux Falls. While the CD was completed in late October, Johnson just received the CDs, and now it's time to `move the merchandise.' Johnson's goal is to sell all 500 CDs and raise at least $10,000. You can buy your autographed copy by sending a check to Dave Johnson, Reliabank Dakota, RO. Box 128, Estelline, S.D. 57234. You can also designate that your donation goes to a charity of your choice.