Samtalä | Musicians in Dialogue, is a chamber music project rooted in musical dialogue — between instruments, artists, space, and listener. Every performance is a meeting of ideas, voices, and shared presence. 

History:

Samtalä is the evolution of the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, which began in 2019 in Stoughton, Wisconsin, a town rich in Norwegian heritage. Through it’s name, ‘Samtalä’ gives a nod to where it began while opening space for growth beyond the summer season and beyond Stoughton itself.

Focus:

Samtalä creates innovative concert experiences that explore novel combinations of established, contemporary, and newly commissioned works. Through chamber music concerts and interactive children’s concerts, Samtalä participates in the evolving landscape of classical music while centering the experience of our community of listeners and musicians.

Samtalä | Musicians in Dialogue, is a chamber music project rooted in musical dialogue — between instruments, artists, space, and listener. Every performance is a meeting of ideas, voices, and shared presence. 

History:

Samtalä is the evolution of the Stoughton Chamber Music Festival, which began in 2019 in Stoughton, Wisconsin, a town rich in Norwegian heritage. Through it’s name, ‘Samtalä’ gives a nod to where it began while opening space for growth beyond the summer season and beyond Stoughton itself.

Focus:

Samtalä creates innovative concert experiences that explore novel combinations of established, contemporary, and newly commissioned works. Through chamber music concerts and interactive children’s concerts, Samtalä participates in the evolving landscape of classical music while centering the experience of our community of listeners and musicians.

One of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” (Rolling Stone), Rosanne Cash is America’s foremost musical woman of letters, a literate and incisive artist whose poignant and distinctive vocals turn every song into a revelatory tale. A singular artist at the peak of her interpretive powers, Cash has earned four Grammy awards—three for The River & The Thread (2014, Blue Note)—and 12 additional nominations. Among many other accolades, in 2021 she became the first woman to receive the Edward MacDowell award for music composition. Her acclaimed 2010 memoir Composed has been described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read.” Cash was recently elected as an Honorary American member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

 “I consider artists to be in the service industry; the premier service industry for the heart and soul. I am curious to a pathological degree and the Sword of Time hangs over me, and those two things— curiosity and the hourglass— make me feel more urgent than ever to connect, to find community, and to create. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks, it only matters that what is unsaid and what is unseen is given form and has a voice.” 

 In 2023 Rosanne and her husband John Leventhal, the six-time Grammy winning songwriter, producer and life-long creative partner, launched RumbleStrip Records, an initiative to reexamine and reissue Rosanne's early work, originally released on Columbia / Sony Music, and beyond. 

 The first two releases were a deluxe remastered version and first vinyl pressing of the 30th anniversary of Cash’s landmark album The Wheel and Leventhal’s debut solo album, Rumble Strip (2024), released 50 years into his remarkable career. 2025 begins with The Essential Collection, a new 40 song/40 year 2CD compilation highlighting Rosanne’s deep catalogue of songs including 10 number 1 hits. The album coincides with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibit, Rosanne Cash:Time Is A Mirror. The exhibit explores Cash’s more than 40-year journey as an artist, songwriter and storyteller, and how she has embodied both tradition and innovation across her musical career. It runs through March 2026.  

 Cash and Leventhal are currently writing the music to the theatrical production of Norma Rae.

rosannecash.com

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Founded in 2011, The Milk Carton Kids — Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale — swiftly emerged as a major force in the American folk tradition, blending ethereal harmonies and intricate musicianship with a uniquely powerful brand of contemporary songcraft. Their 2013 debut The Ash & Clay marked their national breakthrough, earning them their first Grammy Award nomination for Best Folk Album. Another Grammy nomination followed in 2015 for Best American Roots Performance with "The City of Our Lady" from their acclaimed third studio album, Monterey, and their 2018 album All The Things That I Did and All The Things That I Didn't Do received a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Their most recent album, 2019's The Only Ones, garnered extensive praise, with Rolling Stone highlighting that "Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan get back to the beautiful basics with The Only Ones," while NPR's "World Café" noted that "even though Joey and Kenneth are not related, their voices together create a sibling-like harmony…the duo has a strong sense of respect and reverence for the musical traditions that they've grown from.

The Milk Carton Kids were nominated for "Best Folk Album" for their new record I Only See The Moon at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. This marked the group's fourth Grammy nomination.

I Only See The Moon is out now to critical acclaim on Far Cry Records in partnership with Thirty Tigers.

"Both of us have now lived enough life to understand that maybe one of the purposes we were put on Earth for is to sing together, to write songs together, to make music together," notes guitarist/vocalist Kenneth Pattengale. "It has truly provided a direction for our lives." Ryan adds, "It's like a successful marriage in that there's always been enough there between us collaboratively in the way that we work together, sing together, play together. It's a very special thing. And I don't think we ever took that for granted.”

themilkcartonkids.com

TICKETS: $52.73

When F. Scott Fitzgerald issued his classic conclusion that ‘There are no second acts in American lives,’ he failed to envision the career of legendary Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard. A willing conspirator in the late seventies Cosmic Cowboy revolt that ushered in the mythical Outlaw era, Hubbard was a catalyst in the cultural upheaval that led to the peaceful coexistence of Lone Star music enthusiasts who comprised each end of the social and political spectrum of that troubled time. In the stellar company of iconic colleagues like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Doug Sahm and Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard was an architect of the musical legacy that continues to inspire subsequent generations of up-and-coming Texas talent. Yes, Hubbard is a Texas singer-songwriter, complete with the classic trifurcated handle fundamental chapter of the canon in his song catalog ("Redneck Mother"), and enough wild hairs in his past to qualify him as a legend. But along the way, his attention began to leave matters extraneous to his art and soul by the wayside and focus on the beauty and potential to be found in the blank canvas of, in his case, the yet to be written and recorded song. The result has been one of the most satisfying musical and lyrical journeys to witness over the last two decades. In the years that followed he evolved into a writer of uncommonly honest portraits of life, alternately mixing deep personal sagas with poignant character studies of those traveling on the dark side of the road. If one wanted to describe the sound of Ray Wylie Hubbard, one could call it American music, born from the time honored traditions of folk, country, and roots rock.

raywylie.com

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Trevor Stephenson–harpsichordist, fortepianist, and pianist–is the Artistic Director and founder of the Madison Bach Musicians. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance of 18th-Century Music from Cornell University, where he studied fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson. With his colleague, Norman Sheppard, he has made and refurbished a series of historical keyboard instruments ranging from Italian Renaissance harpsichords to Victorian pianos. He has released sixteen recordings on the Light & Shadow label and tours throughout the United States as performer and lecturer.

trevorstephenson.com

general admission, free-will donation

“Book of Fools” is the new Mipso album. Some of the songs feel pretty rock and roll. There’s a looseness and an energy to the 11-song batch, with electric guitars and barroom piano and a good groove on the kit. It has some nice harmonies, too, the tight kind you’d expect from four friends who’ve been singing together for a decade. The songs are really good ones. You’ll want to keep singing them loud in the car and in your head while you walk around the supermarket. They may stick with you for a while. 

The album came to life in the North Carolina mountains in the fall along with some long hikes along cold creeks. Then the band (aka Jacob, Joseph, Libby, and Wood) gathered in Oakland, California’s cherished Tiny Telephone Studio and stayed relaxed about the process. They invited long-time buddy Shane Leonard to play drums and produce, turned up the amps, and did a lot of it live to tape. On their sixth record–and after 1100 shows together– it felt fun to try some new sounds on the vibraphone, farfisa, mellotron, moog. Mostly they did what they do best: sing great and play great and write good songs. Maybe it’s better to think of Mipso as an American band, rather than an Americana band. Their attitude toward tradition could remind you of The Dead–or if we leave America, The Band and Fairport Convention. You have to absorb a lot of folk music to feel comfortable messing around with it. “Book of Fools” feels cozy and familiar but also strange, its songs sparkling with hand-me-down melodies and odd sounds and unanswered questions. Unanswerable questions. What would be the point in trying?

mipsomusic.com

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A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

general admission, free-will donation

40 years ago, there were three young men with drive and wit who wanted to keep a special music alive.  They believed in preserving the heritage of Western Music and presenting it to a new generation.  They believed in entertaining, and they did so… entertaining themselves as well as the audience!  And they believed in creating original Western Music to continue the tradition, not just seal it in amber as a museum piece.  What they did not realize at the time was that they would be doing the same thing 40 years later. Ranger Doug, Too Slim, Woody Paul and Joey the Cowpolka King… 40 years on, “The Cowboy Way”.

ridersinthesky.com

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John Raymond and S. Carey have been playing music together for close to twenty years since their time studying music at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. While they both received training in jazz and classical music, their careers would soon head in very different directions. Carey would become the right-hand man to Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver); collaborate as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer with the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Low, and Bruce Hornsby among others; and release four albums of his own to critical acclaim from Pitchfork, NPR, and more. Raymond, on the other hand, would become a Grammy-nominated trumpeter and composer “steering jazz in the right direction” (Downbeat); release eight albums garnering praise from the New York Times, Stereogum, and others; and teach on faculty at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the world.

In 2019, the two reunited and began experimenting on what their artistic voices would sound like together. Raymond brought in a host of musical ideas, while Carey contributed lyrics and helped shape the ideas into songs. Producer Sun Chung (formerly with ECM Records) came on board shortly after, and together they enlisted a cast of A-list musicians to help flesh out the music including pianist Aaron Parks (Terri Lyne Carrington, Terence Blanchard), bassist Chris Morrissey (Norah Jones, Mark Guiliana), and guitarist Dave Devine (Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band).

The result is their new album, Shadowlands (Libellule Editions), a stunning, genre-bending collection of songs that combines the warmth and beauty of Carey’s aesthetic with the improvisational, spontaneous nature of Raymond’s. The music ranges from intimate and meditative to soaring and anthemic, with electric moments of musical interplay throughout. It’s the kind of collaboration that feels as if it were years in the making.

youtube.com/channel

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“In today's world, there are no musical boundaries,” says Max ZT of ‘House of Waters,’ a trio that makes those words come alive as they incorporate elements of West-African, jazz, psychedelic, indie rock, classical and world music into their astonishingly unique sound. The "Jimi Hendrix of the Hammered Dulcimer" (NPR), Max ZT is an innovator of an instrument rarely heard in contemporary music. With roots in Irish folk music, Max has studied in Senegal, where he trained with the Cissoko Griot family, and India, where he studied under the santoor master Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. His unorthodox playing style has been a pioneering force in revolutionizing dulcimer techniques. Moto Fukushima is a recognized master of the six-string bass. With a background in jazz improvisation, Western classical music and the music of South America, Moto's playing is a combination of finesse, subtlety, and power that leaves audiences “slack-jawed in awe.” (Jazz Wise) Nominated for the Best Contemporary Instrumental album at the 2024 GRAMMY awards, House of Waters is at the forefront of jazz innovation. With their new GroundUp Music recording, On Becoming, Max ZT and Moto Fukushima are joined by first-call accompanists: drummer Antonio Sanchez joins them throughout the album, and guitarist Mike Stern and vocalist Priya Darshini join the innovative group as special guests. “The concept for our new album, On Becoming was tuning the collaboration, focusing on the moment, openness, presentness, composition as a connective tool, composition as an isolating tool,” Max ZT states. “And the fluidity between the two. ”According to House of Waters’ bassist, Moto Fukushima, they strive for openness married to accessibility. “I want to keep the freedom, but if we keep everything free — like certain kinds of abstract music... it can often be a little too far to communicate between us and the audience. We want to have a certain structure and balance.” House of Waters has scored an Emmy-winning documentary (ESPN), and recently re-scored three 100+ year-old French Dadaist-Era silent films in partnership with GroundUP Music and Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. They have received the South Arts Jazz Road Grant and have an extensive touring history around the world. Having shared the stage with influential musicians including Pandit Ravi Shankar, Victor Wooten, Tinariwen, Snarky Puppy, Karsh Kale, and more: “House of Waters is a band that is bending the very fabric of the musical universe as we know it.” (Onstage Review)

houseofwaters.com

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Christopher Allen has earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees in classical guitar performance.  He has studied formally with Javier Calderon (UW-Madison, DMA-2012) and Joseph Breznikar (SIUC, BA-1998, MM-2002) and has performed in masterclasses and private lessons with world renowned artists that include Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Oscar Ghiglia, Ben Verdery, Sharon Isbin, Ana Vidovic, and Rene Izquierdo.  After completing his formal education, he founded the Madison Classical Guitar Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has competed in international guitar festivals, and is currently on the faculty at Madison College, and the Monroe St. Arts Center in Madison, WI.

In addition to performing solo concerts, he has collaborated in chamber music with flute, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, bassoon, and harpsichord.  Besides classical guitar, he has been performing solo/duo concerts on the Renaissance and Baroque Lute, and has traveled abroad to study the Oud in Istanbul.

Christopher Allen

general admission, free-will donation

“I’m the messenger,” Mavis Staples says on the eve of her 80th birthday. “That’s my job–it has been for my whole life–and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do. So I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.” That message—a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy—lies at the heart of We Get By, Staples’ spectacular twelfth studio album and first full-length collaboration with multi-GRAMMY Award-winner Ben Harper. We Get By is a timeless appeal to the better angels of our nature that’s universal in its reach and unwavering in its assurance of better things to come. Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” Staples is both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer; a civil rights icon; a GRAMMY Award-winner; a chart-topping soul/gospel/R&B pioneer; a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient; and a Kennedy Center honoree. “I sing because I want to leave people feeling better than I found them,” Staples concludes. “I want them to walk away with a positive message in their hearts, feeling stronger than they felt before. I’m singing to myself for those same reasons, too.” Even the messenger needs a reminder every now and then.

mavisstaples.com

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The Brazilian “choro” (to cry), the national music of Brazil, emerged in the late 1800s in Rio de Janeiro. The music is a fusion of African-based rhythms and European forms along with representing both the social and racial diversity in Brazil.

Traversing from the plantation to the city, through upper and lower class societies, the “choro” eventually integrated into the radio and film industries. The composers and musicians suffered discrimination even amongst their own countrymen, just to perform what was to become the national music of Brazil. The music can be described as a true representation of Brazilian spirit and daily life. The most significant composer, Pixinguinha, will be featured in both the lecture and performance, as he paved the way through discrimination and breaking of social barriers with his performances in upper and lower class societies.

Dr. Maurita Murphy Marx, Emeritus Professor of Clarinet at the University of Iowa, is a native of Middleton, Wisconsin. She taught middle school band in the Stoughton public schools for two years from 1976-78. Her passion for Brazilian music was introduced to her by Dr. Rafael Dos Santos, Professor of Piano and  Jazz at UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil.  She and Rafael recorded two CDs titled Over the Fence and Red Hot & Brazilian.  Her third CD titled Te Amo Brazil is with virtuoso guitarist Michele Ramo from Italy.

In this lecture/performance, she will be joined by former student Ms. Kim Carr, 1991 music graduate from the University of Iowa, performing famous Brazilian Choros.

general admission - free will donation

Bob Mould’s 15th solo album, Here We Go Crazy, is a distillation of the unfailing melodic skill, the emotional lucidity and dynamic fluency he’s developed over more than four decades. Its turbulent vignettes are scored by Mould’s familiar bruised tunefulness, but the sound is pared back to its fundamentals, 11 songs blistering past in just over 30 minutes. “I’ve stripped things back to what excited me as a young guitarist,” he explains. “The energy, the electricity.” Mould knows Here We Go Crazy is an album freighted with darkness; “There’s soothing melodies, and there’s lyrical discomfort,” he deadpans.“ It’s manic, frantic, complex.” But no one ever came to Bob Mould for good news, for the easy answers. Pop music runs through his veins, as surely as the electricity that drives his chiming hooks into the realms of distortion, but he’s here to give you the truth, his truth. To give you songs that ring true when howled against a tornado of guitar, that compress all that “lifetime emotional content” into some kind of sonic diamond. There’s eleven of those precious gems here, sculpted to make the heaviness easier to bear, somehow. Treasure them.

David Barbe has been referred to as having the most widespread influence of any single person in the Athens, GA music scene due to his involvement with so many different artists and projects over the years, from his start playing with noise damaged groups like Mercyland, Bar-B-Q Killers, and Buzz Hungry in the 1980s and ‘90’s; to his stint as bassist in Sugar(Bob Mould’s legendary post-Husker Du band), with whom he toured the globe many times and released 3 classic records; to his work as an engineer/producer on hundreds of albums. The artists with whom he has worked include Deerhunter, Drive-By Truckers, The Glands, Son Volt, New Madrid, Bettye LaVette, and Muuy Biien. Many of these were recorded at his Athens based Chase Park Transduction studio.

"10th of Seas" marks a departure for Barbe in that he performed and recorded the entire thing by himself, playing all the instruments, all recorded to analog tape at Chase Park Transduction.

"I wanted this record to be as close to the original source of inspiration as possible," Barbe says. "I tried recording some of the songs with other people involved a few times, and it was better in some ways, but always seemed something was lost in translation. The communication became less personal. I felt like the emotional gravy is the glue, so I reverted to working like I did when I was teenager making 4-tracks. Working fast. More feeling it. Less over-thinking it."

Album highlights include: "Portuguese Door," slippery and melodically complex, and the opening burst of "Dim Bulbs," the lyrics of which contain the album's title. "10th of Seas" is a reference to exploring the outer reaches of one's mind.

Barbe says: "The phrase 'sailing the seven seas' did not mean just crossing the known bodies of water, but to go around the world and back. To sail across the 10th of Seas would indicate traversing through the unknown, to have seen it all, and then some."

Barbe toured America in support of the album backed by Inward Dream Ebb, the alter ego of Athens-based psych-rockers New Madrid, with whom Barbe has produced several albums

bobmould.com

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Spend an unforgettable evening with GRAMMY® winning musician Shawn Colvin and platinum selling singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, performing together as a duo and sharing their songs and stories.  In her nearly 30 year career as a solo recording artist, Shawn Colvin has won three GRAMMY® awards, released twelve albums and written a critically acclaimed memoir. Marc Cohn is a GRAMMY® Best New Artist winner who has solidified his reputation as one of his generation's most compelling and admired singer-songwriters.

marccohnmusic.com

shawncolvinmusic.com

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Join pianist Eric Tran for a unique musical journey as he performs and discusses Franz Liszt’s staggering solo piano transcription of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the beloved Pastoral. This virtuosic rendition brings one of classical music’s most iconic orchestral works to life through the lens of a single performer at the keyboard. With commentary illuminating Beethoven’s nature-inspired themes, Liszt’s daring vision, and Tran’s personal connection to the piece, this event offers the rare opportunity to experience a timeless masterpiece in an intimate and powerful new light.

UW-Madison lecturer, pianist and composer, Eric Tran returns to perform a piano concert with engaging commentary that will make the works easily understood by all. Tran has performed in Italy, Korea, China, Canada, and in 20 US states. His compositions have been reviewed by the SF Examiner as having “a tendency to thwart the usual expectations… fascinating”. His knack for designing an engaging program with relatable commentary has made him a Music Appreciation favorite. The concert will conclude with a brief Q&A session

ericrtranmusic.com

general admission - free-will donation

Davina Sowers and the Vagabonds have created a stir on the national music scene with their high-energy live shows, level A musicianship, sharp-dressed professionalism, and Sowers’ commanding stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting audiences one show at a time, from Vancouver to Miami and across Europe.

Much like the music, the story spurns era, expectation, and classification. The often unbelievable, sometimes harrowing, and wholly inspiring journey of Davina Sowers gave birth to her eponymous band Davina and The Vagabonds in 2004. As the tale goes, she grew up in the economically depressed Allegheny town of Altoona, PA, which she now describes as “awesome in the industrial era, but horrible for high school.” She was adopted by her much older stepfather when he was in his 80s; he passed away when she was just 13. Through him and his Edison phonograph, she first heard The Ink Spots, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and many others. “Great man. He was my angel and still is,” she says.

On her own, she vividly recalls hours in front of the record player where she religiously spun Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Simon and Garfunkel records belonging to her folk singer mom.

To this day, Davina still refers to music as “my first and eternal love.” Despite early dalliances with classical piano and guitar, she developed a heavy drug habit in high school, which morphed into heroin dependency, left her homeless, sent her in and out of jail, and brought on all manner of trouble. Kicking dope on the streets, she “got clean, started the band, and worked [her] ass off every day since.”

Davina and the Vagabonds shine every time they play. To date, they’ve performed in forty-five states, twelve European countries, and two Canadian provinces. Not to mention, they’ve earned feverish acclaim from the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and more in addition to performing on BBC’s international favorite late-night program Later… With Jools Holland and appearing on PBS’s Bluegrass Underground.

www.davinaandthevagabonds.com

Since its formation in 1965, the Wingra Wind Quintet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music has established a tradition of artistic and teaching excellence.  The ensemble has been featured in performance at national conferences such as MENC (Miami), MTNA (Kansas City), and the International Double Reed Society (Minneapolis). The quintet also presented an invitational concert on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess series at the Chicago Public Library, broadcast live on WFMT. In addition to its extensive home state touring, the quintet has been invited to perform at numerous college campuses, including the universities of Alaska-Fairbanks, Northwestern, Chicago, Nebraska, Western Michigan, Florida State, Cornell, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Paris Conservatoire, where quintet members offered master classes.

The Wingra Wind Quintet has recorded for Golden Crest, Spectrum, and the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music recording series and is featured on an educational video entitled Developing Woodwind Ensembles. Always on the lookout for new music of merit, Wingra has premiered new works of Hilmar Luckhardt, Vern Reynolds, Alec Wilder, Edith Boroff, James Christensen, and David Ott. The group recently gave the Midwest regional premiere of William Bolcom’s Five Fold Five, a sextet for woodwind quintet and piano, with pianist Christopher Taylor. New York Times critic Peter Davis, in reviewing the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall appearance, stated “The performances were consistently sophisticated, sensitive, and thoroughly vital.”

The Wingra Wind Quintet is one of three faculty chamber ensembles in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music. Deeply committed to the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea, the group travels widely to offer its concerts and educational services to students and the public in all corners of the state.

Baby Man, the new album by Fruit Bats, is like nothing else in Grammy-nominated songwriter Eric D. Johnson’s catalog. Little in the arc of his career—including Fruit Bats’ evolution from home recording project to rollicking roadshow, his solo output, and his work with Bonny Light Horseman—points the way to this album, in which his only accompaniment, aside from the occasional blush of synthesizer, is a guitar, banjo, or piano. Save for producer Thom Monahan, reuniting with Johnson for the first time since Fruit Bats’ 2019 breakthrough Gold Past Life, it’s just Johnson in the room, meaning that when the turntable’s needle meets Baby Man’s groove, it’s just him and the listener, mutually in for a reckoning.

 Working with Monahan in the past pushed Johnson to new sonic vistas, evidenced by a songbook of sprawling, ornately detailed crowd-pleasers. When Johnson produced Fruit Bats’ 2023 album A River Running to Your Heart, Monahan served as a sounding board, and their reunion started in a similar vein, with Johnson asking to borrow a microphone or two for a project that was just starting to take shape. One conversation led to another, and Baby Man came into being: an ambitious take on the sketchbook album where everything—lyrics and music—had to be newly written and recorded from scratch, everything he’d been cooking to that point left at the door. Every morning began with an empty page, every night concluded with a new song, sometimes two or three new songs, each of them terrifyingly beautiful.

Monahan’s return to the booth was vital: having mapped the outer limits of Eric D. Johnson’s musical imagination, nobody was better equipped for the deepest trip yet into his soul. Baby Man is an intimate album, but rather than deliver a stripped-down or back-to-basics approach to the Fruit Bats sound, its introspection is rendered at epic scale. “It’s minimalist-maximalism,” Johnson says of his and Monahan’s approach. “There are fewer tracks on each song—four or five at most compared to recent albums where there’d maybe be five tracks on a song just for synths—but this is me at my most hi-fi.”

 What he and Monahan do to striking effect on Baby Man is explore the full power and range of his voice. Pushed forward in the mix, Johnson’s vocals—a showstopping element of his craft—have new purpose and depth on Baby Man, breathing life into some of the rawest songs he’s ever written into being, actively finding the heart in the lyrics sometimes just hours after they’d been penned. A text sent to Monahan one morning—“I’m just trying to write a couple more songs”—later becomes the first line of “Puddle Jumper,” a finger-picked heartbreaker whose only competition for the crown of Most Emotionally Devastating Fruit Bats Song is the other eight Johnson originals on this album.

 “Stuck in My Head Again” finds Johnson pouring himself out over his guitar, his voice alternately contemplative and softly raging, straining to keep the reverie he conjures from his delicate playing from crumbling beneath the weight. It and opener “Let You People Down” are what Johnson refers to as the album’s “mission statements,” songs about love and loss and disappointment, “about how a life can get lived and wisdom can be gained, but how there’s always going to be more to learn.” It’s all there in the lyrics, but what’s striking is how Johnson processes them, how, in a room where the only heart laid bare is his own, he is at once self-effacing and tender.

 “It’s about a lot of things and it’s about rebirth,” Johnson says of title track “Baby Man,” which is slippery and true to the song and album, its dark night spent contemplating his place in life bleeding into other nights where he found himself thinking about the Los Angeles wildfires, his neighbor’s new dog, his own dog (about which he wrote the staggering “Creature from the Wild”), his songs, and songs he’s always loved. Again and again, Baby Man sees Johnson ask a central question: Is any of this worth it? The album itself is the answer, a resounding “yes” against the pain and struggle Johnson surfaced from to record it.

 At times it feels as if there is no horizon on Baby Man, barely a room beyond the space Eric D. Johnson occupies. Then the intensity of this gaze is broken—by a creaking chair, by a pattern thumped against a guitar, by the gentle twinkle of a synth, by a particularly gorgeous couplet—and suddenly one is grateful just to be in that space with him.

 There are no Fruit Bats albums like Baby Man. None until this point have demanded this kind of attention. It’s a linchpin in Johnson’s career, one that not only opens Fruit Bats up to a thrilling future but recontextualizes his past, arguing that he is one of his generation’s great singer-songwriters and will be for some time to come.

www.fruitbatsmusic.com

Albert Cummings is a distinguished American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose commanding guitar work and soulful voice have made him a standout figure in the contemporary blues scene. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Cummings developed a passion for blues music at an early age. His dynamic playing style seamlessly blends elements of blues, rock, and a touch of Texas flair, earning him recognition for his ability to deliver both raw energy and deep emotion through his music.

Drawing inspiration from blues legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King, Cummings blends traditional blues with a modern edge. His powerful performances and impressive technique have earned him a dedicated following of blues enthusiasts around the world. Known for his fiery guitar solos and emotionally charged vocals, Cummings has become a dynamic force in contemporary blues, captivating listeners with his ability to connect deeply with his audience through both his music and his storytelling.

Cummings’ career began in the early 2000s, and over the years, he has earned a reputation for his electrifying live performances and impressive technical skill. His discography spans several albums, including Feel So Good (2004), No Regrets (2006), and Someone Like You (2011), all of which showcase his mastery of the blues. His more recent releases, TEN (2019) and Strong (2022), have marked significant milestones in his career, with Strong reaching #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart, solidifying his place as one of the genre’s top talents.

With his signature blend of heartfelt storytelling, fiery guitar solos, and undeniable passion, Albert Cummings continues to captivate audiences around the world. He remains a vital force in modern blues, carrying the torch for the legends who came before him while pushing the boundaries of the genre with each new album.

www.albertcummings.com

Rhonda Vincent is a firecracker of talent that powers one of the hottest bands in any genre of music today. From humble beginnings in the tiny town of Greentop, Missouri, Rhonda’s musical heritage traces back 5 generations of the Vincent family. Her dad would pick her up from school each day, and they would sing and play till dinner. After dinner, friends came over, and they would sing and play till bedtime. She began her professional music career singing in her family’s band The Sally Mountain Show. It was an immediate “on the job training,” as they had a TV show, radio show, and made their first recording when Rhonda was 5 years old. She picked up the mandolin at eight, the fiddle at twelve, and learned a valuable life lesson as a teenager performing with her family at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. While they were playing in the pouring rain to empty seats, and what they thought, no one listening -- a week later they received a call from Hal Durham, general manager of the Grand Ole Opry at the time, and who just happened to be listening with his family around the corner. Mr. Durham loved what he heard and invited the Vincent family to appear on the Opry.

Rhonda’s life of music evolved into a successful career in bluegrass music; after being discovered by Grand Ole Opry Star “Jim Ed Brown,” and later spending what she calls her musical college years recording for Giant Records; and learning about the music business from Nashville’s best like James Stroud, Jack McFadden, and Stan Barnett.
It was her pivotal bluegrass album “Back Home Again” that transformed Rhonda Vincent into the All American Bluegrass Girl, and crowned the New Queen of Bluegrass by “The Wall Street Journal” in 2000.
A multi-award winner, with a 2017 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album, an Entertainer of the Year 2001, Song of the Year 2004, and unprecedented 7 consecutive Female Vocalist of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association 2000 – 2006 and an 8th win of IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year in 2015.
Her lifelong dream came true when she was invited to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry on February 28, 2020. Rhonda waited an unprecedented 345 days and was officially inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry on February 6, 2021.
Her powerful vocal style transcends the boundaries of bluegrass music, as evidenced in her collaboration with Dolly Parton on the Elton John / Bernie Taupin Tribute Project “Restoration” 2018.

www,rhondavincent.com

Väsen:

Väsen-Duo, Mikael Marin and Olov Johansson have, after almost 40 years of interaction and touring, refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are unique in their kind. With their playful and perfect interplay, they seem to defy the laws of physics in what appears to be a telepathic communication. The music is intense and full of humour. With the foundation firmly rooted in the traditional music of Uppland, they have always looked curiously at new musical goals. Olov & Micke have played together since 1983 when they met at Oktoberstämman in Uppsala and discovered that they had a large common repertoire and a similar way of playing. Olov & Micke started playing intensively together and released their first recording, “Det rister i Örat,” in 1985. Now they go on adventures among old fine musicians, stories and trad tunes, at the same time they continue to break new ground. They perform on a variety of stringed instruments, including kontrabasharpa, oktavharpa, three-rowed nyckelharpa, violoncello da spalla and a blue electric bass-viola.

www.vasen.se

The Fretless:

Four ferocious players, masterful composition, and a genre-bending sound—Juno award-winning The Fretless is a Canadian quartet that has firmly taken its place on the map to a progressive form of “trad”.

As The Fretless, Trent Freeman (Fiddle/Viola), Karrnnel Sawitsky (Fiddle/Viola), Ben Plotnick(Fiddle/Viola), and Eric Wright (Cello) are a supergroup of celebrated solo artists, They have been creating a singular and signature sound that dares to expand the idea of what a string music quartet can be—transforming fiddle tunes and folk melodies into intricate, beautiful, high-energy arrangements that have quickly gained a dedicated following and accolades from around the world. 

www.thefretless.com

At the intersection of tradition and innovation, the Shauncey Ali Quartet crafts evocative melodies and arrangements that feel timeless, adventurous and refreshingly new.  ​Ali draws from the deep wells of American and Celtic fiddle music, a love of improvisation and sensibilities shaped by pop, rock and Scandinavian music.  ​

Featuring Hans Holzen (guitar), Nicholas Vanhaute (mandolin) and David Havas (bass), the ensemble delivers chamber-style interplay that is virtuosic yet accessible, rooted in tradition yet unbound by convention.​

I Hear Thunder marks the long-awaited return of four-time Grammy-nominated artist Tab Benoit. Renowned for his distinctive guitar tone and Otis-Redding-esque voice, Benoit has been a captivating figure in the roots music world for over thirty years. Tab's personal growth and advancement as a songwriter and musician have culminated in a benchmark recording. His new self-produced album, I Hear Thunder, for his imprint, Whiskey Bayou Records, is a testament to his fiery exuberance that first marked his career in 1992. The record not only showcases his artistic brilliance but also his profound commitment to environmental advocacy, a legacy that extends beyond the stage into the heart of the land that inspires his bluesy soul. On Benoit's forthcoming national tour, fans will be delighted to hear the new songs and selected tracks from his vast catalog. Benoit does more than play the blues; he defines its future while paying homage to its rich past.

JD Simo... The Chicago-born Nashvillian is like a one-man crusade dedicated to keeping music real, raw, and honest. No matter the setting and no matter his role (whether it’s wingman or bandleader) J.D.’s presence infuses the situation of the moment with the music that’s been fueling him pretty much his whole life, spiced with influences that straddle both decades and dimensions. As a songwriter, guitarist, and producer he has worked with the likes of Jack White, Tommy Emmanuel, Luther Dickinson, Dave Cobb, Blackberry Smoke, and even been a member of Grateful Dead founder Phil Lesh' "Phil & Friends". During lockdown in '20, he started cutting tracks in his makeshift studio on a weekly basis. Joined by longtime collaborator Adam Abrashoff on drums and the addition of longtime friend, bassist-producer-engineer Adam Bednarik (Justin Townes Earle), they fused a proverbial soup of shared influences. Hill country trance blues of Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside and Fred McDowell. Hypnotic Afro Beat rhythms of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen. Psychedelic mind warps of Captain Beefheart, Funkadelic, and Jimi Hendrix. The old school blues of John Lee Hooker, Earl Hooker and Lightnin Hopkins. As well as the raw fuzzy indie rock of The Stooges and Nirvana. Mind Control is the product of 3 like minded buddies huddled in a humble setting, making music to make them feel good with no pretense. The songs stark revealing nature, is the product of them using the creative process for therapy and enjoyment in a messed up time. A positive theme of growth, self help and struggles with addiction and mental health lay along side a haunting, low down moody musical landscape. It's raw, funky and real. Such is life.

www.tabbenoit.com

simo.fm/about

TICKETS

It might’ve even been last night, but Steve Poltz just played the greatest show of his life. Guess what? The next show will be even greater, making that show the greatest show of his life. Are you starting to notice a trend? 

He isn’t shy about it either. Even after most likely thousands of shows (but who’s counting?), he hits the stage with the same amount of energy and always makes sure to declare, “This is the greatest show of my life.” 

It’s why he’s quietly emerged as the kind of live phenomenon celebrated passionately by a diehard fanbase worldwide and renowned as a festival favorite everywhere from Bluesfest in Byron Bay and High Sierra Music Festival in California and Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado to Cayamo Cruise (where he actually got married). It’s why his music has crept into pop culture via collaborations with everyone from Jewel and Billy Strings to Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Nicki Bluhm, Oliver Wood, and even the late Mojo Nixon. It’s why after over a dozen albums, he’s still creatively firing on all cylinders and critically acclaimed by the likes of Rolling Stone, Associated Press, Billboard, and many more. 

Nevertheless, the next gig will be the greatest show for him (and maybe for you too)…

www.poltz.com

Aaron is currently working on his Doctorate at UW-Madison. He has been a scholarship member of the Rabin String Quartet and he is returning to present a solo recital as part of our series.

A Note From Sam-- The music that my father David Grisman and his close friend, Jerry Garcia, made in the early 90s (in the house that I grew up in) is not only some of the most timeless acoustic music ever recorded, it also triggers my oldest and fondest musical memories. What I find most inspiring about this material is the way their camaraderie and their love and joy for the music, simply oozes out of each recording. My goal in starting the Sam Grisman Project is to build a platform for my friends and me to showcase our genuine passion and appreciation for the legacy of Dawg and Jerry’s music. By playing some of their beloved repertoire and sharing the original music that our own collective has to offer, we will also show the impact that this music has had on our own individual musical voices. Ultimately, there is nothing that makes me happier than playing great songs with my best friends and my hope is to share that happiness with audiences all over!”

www.samgrismanproject.net

Even among the pantheon of music’s finest artists, Del McCoury stands alone. From the nascent sound of bluegrass that charmed hardscrabble hillbilly honkytonks, rural schoolhouse stages, and the crowning glory of the Grand Ole Opry, to the present-day culture-buzz of viral videos and digital streams, Del is the living link. On primetime and late-night television talk shows, there is Del. From headlining sold-out concerts to music festivals of all genres, including one carrying his namesake, there is Del. Where audiences number in the tens of thousands, and admirers as diverse as country-rock icon Steve Earle and jamband royalty Phish count as a few among hundreds, there is Del.

Emerging from humble beginnings in York County, PA nearly eighty years ago, Del was not the likeliest of candidates for legendary status. As a teen, he was captivated by the banjo playing of one of its masters, Earl Scruggs, and decided he’d be a banjo picker, too. The Baltimore/Washington, D.C. bar scene of the early 1960s was lively and rough. Del caught a break. More than a break, really. It was an opportunity of a lifetime; joining Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in early 1963. Considered the Father of Bluegrass, Monroe transformed McCoury, moving him from the banjo to guitar, anointing him lead singer, and providing him with a priceless trove of bluegrass tutelage direct from the source.

Countless hours of recording sessions and miles of tireless touring dotted the decades. Del carried on, and carried with him the hallowed traditions of the form and its dedicated following. The passing years became certificates of authenticity. So, in the sea of grunge and R&B that dominated the music scene of the mid-1990s, it was special, perhaps even startling, to see: there is Del.

Now helming the Del McCoury Band, with sons Ronnie and Rob, the ensemble did, and continues to, represent in a larger growing musical community as a peerless torchbearer for the entire sweep and scope of bluegrass history. Those many years (not to mention a good-natured willingness to stay alert to the latest sounds and opportunities around him) earned McCoury a whole new generation of fans, including some in unlikely places.

“I’m just doing what’s natural,” says Del. “When young musicians ask me what they should do I always tell them, ‘You do whatever’s inside of you. Do what you do best.’”

No surprise that contemporary, bluegrass-bred stars sang his praises. Marquee names like Vince Gill and Alison Krauss (who first met Del at a bluegrass festival when she subbed for his missing fiddler). Yet, here too was rocker Earle recording and touring with the group. Here was Phish jamming onstage with the boys. Here was the band on TV, or headlining rock clubs or college campuses, as well as the can’t-miss appearances at country and jazz festivals. There was Del.

“We don’t have a setlist,” says Del. “We try and work in the new songs, but a lot of times it’s just requests from the audience. It’s more interesting for the band, for me, and for the audience because nobody knows what’s coming next.”

Almost unimaginable, McCoury’s sixth decade of bluegrass bliss brings new triumphs, new collaborations, and new music. With but a single change in membership in twenty seven years, The Del McCoury Band shows unprecedented stability. It has garnered the respect and admiration of the industry for its unmistakable work. Some of the achievements include: ten IBMA Entertainer of the Year trophies (most recently in 2024); in 2003, Del’s awarded membership in the cast of the legendary Grand Ole Opry; the band’s first Best Bluegrass Album Grammy award, in ’05, followed by a second Grammy win in 2014, (not to mention double-digit nominations).

“I know (having the same band) helped with my success. It keeps your sound constant,” says Del. “We really enjoy what we’re doing.”

The group traveled with the groundbreaking post-O Brother "Down From The Mountain" tour, and performed with Gill, recording on his Grammy-winning These Days, as well as country sensation Dierks Bentley. In addition to becoming something of a regular at the wildly popular Bonnaroo Music Festival, they’ve also curated and expanded Del’s annual namesake festival. One of the premier string-band events in the country, the multi-day, multi-stage DelFest showcases the new lions of the genre such as Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Greensky Bluegrass, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Old Crow Medicine Show, and legends like Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, and Bobby Osborne, plus a diversity of artists like Phish frontman Trey Anastasio and blues-rock veterans Gov’t Mule to Americana darlings The Wood Brothers and Rhiannon Giddens.

“DelFest is a great accomplishment,” says Del. “I never thought it would be as successful as it is.”

And, when Sony Music came calling, post-Hurricane Katrina, proposing a collaboration with New Orleans’ revered Preservation Hall Jazz Band, there was Del. If there was ever a collection of recordings confirming McCoury’s wide-ranging impact and spirit of musical comradery, it would be American Legacies. A wonderfully fulfilling cross-section of traditional bluegrass and the Dixieland pomp of New Orleans, the album typified the Del McCoury Band’s evolution from bluegrass vanguard to an American treasure.

“All music is related. Bill Monroe went to New Orleans and listened to jazz players. Earl Scruggs- some of the tunes he recorded were from New Orleans,” says Del. “It all fits together if you’re willing to be open-minded.”

And like any genuine treasure, the gifts keep coming. Their latest release, Songs of Love and Life, is a glorious 15-song collection. The album follows 2021’s celebrated and Grammy-nominated release, “Almost Proud,” and once again features Del touching down on a diverse set of tracks--vintage and contemporary--as he and his crackerjack band nod to icons like Kenny Rogers, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley, as well as welcomes next-generation talent, Molly Tuttle, to the party. Across his six decades of making classic albums, Del knows what he’s looking for in a song. “I like a challenge. I’ve always liked a challenge,” says Del. “I like to learn different things. Doing the same things is boring to me.”

 One listen and it’s clear as crystal. There is Del.

www.delmccouryband.com

“A beautiful voice both strong and deliberate. Her stage presence is radiant and her songs pack a big lyrical punch” — NO DEPRESSION

Caitlin Canty’s new record, Night Owl Envies the Mourning Dove is her fifth studio release and marks a return to her roots, a grittier and more electric Americana sound with echoes of her critically-acclaimed 2015 album, RecklessSkyline. Recorded live in the studio while nearly 8 months pregnant with her second child, the songs can be seen in the light of major shifts in Canty’s life, from pre-parenthood city life in Nashville to her present day filled to the brim with family and nature, living on top of a mountain in southern Vermont. 

Night Owl Envies the Mourning Dove finds Canty in the producer chair for the first time. Co-produced alongside Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter), the album was recorded live at Great North Sound Society in rural Maine over 4 days with Rich Hinman (guitars), Jeremy Moses Curtis (bass),Ray Rizzo (drums) and Kassirer (keys). Matt Loren (The Suitcase Junket) joins on backing vocals. All songs on the record are entirely from Canty’s own pen, with the exception of "Heartache Don't Live Here" written with Jamey Johnson, which serves as both the coda and encore of the album. 

www.caitlincanty.com

The Rabin Quartet is the Graduate String Quartet at UW-Madison's Mead Witter School of Music. Its members are working towards master's and doctoral degrees and serve as teaching assistants, leading orchestral sectionals, teaching string fundamentals to music education students, and performing as representatives of UW-Madison. The group is funded by generous donors and named in honor of Dr. Marvin Rabin, an internationally acclaimed music educator and Professor Emeritus at UW-Madison. As the father of the youth orchestra movement in the US, his work continues to positively impact countless young musicians to this day.

www.music.wisc.edu/events/rabin-string-quartet

On the heels of two Grammy-winning albums in succession, with her band Golden Highway—2022’s Crooked Tree and 2023’s City of Gold—plus a nomination for Best New Artist, Molly Tuttle returns with a solo album that’s her most dazzling to date: So Long Little Miss Sunshine. Recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce, the fifth full album from the California-born, Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and virtuoso guitarist features twelve new songs—eleven originals and one highly unexpected cover of Icona Pop and Charli xcx’s “I Love It.” Tuttle’s career, which began at age fifteen, has charted a course between honoring bluegrass and stretching its boundaries. On this album—a hybrid of pop, country, rock, and flat-picking, plus one murder ballad—she goes to a whole new place.

Tuttle also conceived the artwork for So Long Little Miss Sunshine, which features multiple Mollys, each wearing a different wig except for one with nothing on her head at all. She acts as a spokesperson for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. One album track, “Old Me (New Wig),” is “about leaving all these things behind that don’t serve you anymore,” she says. “Parts of yourself that really aren’t in your best interest, like low self-esteem, anxieties, and not feeling confident. Learning to own these different aspects of my personality but not letting them control me is another theme of the record that inspired the album title and the cover art... I like singing this song because there are days when I still have to tell myself to leave that stuff behind.”

Looking back on her own career, Tuttle admits that she also has pursued what interests her: “It has never been a cookie-cutter thing where I’m just going down a straight road. I always had this crooked path.”

www.mollytuttlemusic.com

At its best, harmony duo singing can transform simple math into a magic trick. One plus one, instead of equaling two, suddenly yields an unexpected third thing. An upper-case ONE. A universal hum. A deep vibration that encompasses two different points of view. On their latest release, Every Time I Think About You, brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum, aka The Cactus Blossoms, once again prove themselves to be among the most adept – and distinctive – modern practitioners of that magic. But like any great magician, The Cactus Blossoms can’t – or won’t – fully explain the illusion they create.

“Harmonies are a big part of our sound, but in some ways they’re the part we focus on the least,” says Burkum. “We put most of our attention and energy into the songs themselves and then the harmonies just happen.”

There’s all kinds of magic happening on Every Time I Think About You, a record that sounds more like a band than any other in the Cactus Blossoms discography, thanks to contributions from Jeremy Hanson (drums), Jacob Hanson (guitar) and Phillip Hicks (bass). “There She Goes” casts its romantic regret against a danceable bop beat, and the title track is a heart-wrencher about loss and letting go.

“Even if you don’t set out to write songs with a theme in mind it seems like one usually presents itself,” says Torrey. “This record keeps returning to the idea of ‘moving on’ — from one place to another, from people and situations that bring you down, from loss and grief.”

www.thecactusblossoms.com

The Early Days

Uwe was born in Germany in 1961; soon after the family relocated from Northern

Germany to Switzerland living in a small town between Bern and Zürich. The following year, in 1962, Jens was born.  Uwe and Jens grew up in a family where everybody played music - not professionally - but simply as a part of life. There were guitars, harmonicas, recorders, an accordion, and even a tenor banjo. Almost every evening they would sing together as a family. The two brothers quickly learned their parents’ German folksong repertoire and even sang harmony.  As soon as Uwe could reach his fingers around the neck of a guitar, he started playing. Jens first played the harmonica and dabbled with his mother’s accordion as well. Music came naturally to the boys; as much so as the German they spoke, music was a language of the family.  Through their parents’ record collection, Uwe and Jens were exposed to a variety of artists. Early musical influences were the likes of Chet Atkins, Hank Snow, Lewis Armstrong, and George Lewis. Later, of course, Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bill Monroe, and The Country Gentlemen, just to name a few.

Uwe and Jens performed their first public show together on the first of May, 1973.

The Teenage Years After the passing of their mother in 1974, brothers Uwe and Jens moved to Zürich and started their first band - a skiffle band influenced by the sounds of Lonnie Donavan and consisting of a guitar, tenor banjo, washtub bass, and a washboard. The ensemble quickly became quite popular performing at countless events in a widening circle around Switzerland. By the time he was twelve, Jens also subbed for various dixieland bands and the National Radio Orchestra playing the banjo. However, when Uwe’s singing interest began to lean more toward bluegrass, Jens started playing the 5-string banjo. After discovering the album “Strictly Instrumental” by Flat & Scruggs and Doc Watson in 1976, they decided to concentrate on this type of music.  In 1979, due to complicated familial circumstances at home, the two left to become street musicians traveling through Europe from town to town surviving by playing on the streets by day and in the taverns at night. Eventually they met up with The Galfano Brothers from New York and formed the bluegrass band “Rocky Road”. CBS Records offered them a recording contract in 1981. The resultant album became quite the hit,

and for a while, the brothers were traveling extensively playing well-organized

concerts and festivals.

Despite the success they experienced as a band, the two brothers yearned to head in different directions musically - Uwe wanted to move his career toward country music, while Jens kept his interest in bluegrass. In 1982 the brothers went their separate ways. Uwe became a bandleader and sideman for various country bands including his very own band “Western Sun” which was, for the next five years, one of the main touring and back-up bands for US country stars in Central Europe.

Jens went to work on the railroad to save money to go to America. Once in the US, Jens met Bill Monroe at the Bean Blossom Festival in June of 1982 where Bill asked him to play with him on stage. Bill later invited Jens to stay on his farm near Nashville, and not long after, in July of 1982, he was featured by Bill Monroe at the Grand Ole Opry. Jens decided not to stay in the US and returned to Switzerland. He worked extensively with a renowned Swiss bluegrass band while studying music and playing banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and dobro in various recording studio sessions.

Together again In 1987 Uwe and Jens reunited forming the band “Appalachian Barn Orchestra” with Christa (Jens’ wife) on bass. The trio added drums and became a very popular band in Switzerland performing at festivals and concert halls. They signed with Canaris Records and later with K-Tel.  In early 1990 they teamed up with bass player Joel Landsberg from New York; he

became the bass player for the newly-formed band, the “Kruger Brothers”. They

hosted their own live radio show on Swiss National Radio DRD3 - the “Kruger Brothers Radio Show” in a format featuring international stars. Jens also worked as sideman and kept a tight touring schedule with more than 250 shows annually playing Telecaster in at least half of them.  In 1995 Uwe and Jens decided they would concentrate all of their efforts solely on the Kruger Brothers and canceled all other obligations. On the side, Jens founded the record company “Double Time Music” with his business partner, Philip Zanon. They built a recording studio in central Switzerland where Jens worked as a studio music producer as well.

Back in the USA  In 1997 Uwe, Jens, and Joel were invited to play at MerleFest in North Carolina. They were so well received in their festival debut, that MerleFest has invited the Kruger Brothers back to the festival every year since. Not long after MerleFest, Kruger Brother management organized extensive tours throughout the US beginning in the fall of 1997.

After five years of playing almost six month out of the year in the US, it was time to make the decision to either abandon the US market or relocate the entire Kruger Brothers organization to the US.  In 2003 Uwe, Jens, and Joel moved their business and their families to North Carolina. The Kruger Brothers have since released more than twenty-five CD's on their own label. They have performed with numerous symphony orchestras, string ensembles, and guest musicians on their extensive touring schedule throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

The Kruger Brothers are members of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, the Wilkes County Hall of Fame, the International Banjo Hall of Fame, as well as the American Folk Music Hall of Fame. Both Uwe and Jens are honorary citizens of North Carolina and Calgary, Canada. The Kruger Brothers have received numerous awards including the Steve Martin Prize for

excellence in banjo and bluegrass, several IBMA nominations, Prix Vallo, and many more…

The Kruger Brothers are a true staple of the American music scene and continue to bring excellence to audiences worldwide.

www.krugerbrothers.com

Identical twin harpists Camille and Kennerly Kitt, known as the Harp Twins, have achieved extraordinary success by taking Electric Harps and Concert Grand Harps to unprecedented levels and smashing boundaries between different genres of music. 

Join the Harp Twins for a family-friendly concert full of magical winter music, Christmas classics, comedy, stories, and classic rock favorites – and you won’t want to miss the show finale featuring Volfgang Twins on double drums! Free meet & greet with the Harp Twins and Volfgang Twins immediately following the concert.

www.harptwins.com

Over the course of her twenty five year career, Susan Werner has earned a reputation as “one of the most innovative songwriters working today” (Chicago Tribune). With formidable chops on guitar (she began playing at age 5) and piano (she was a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz), along with a graduate degree in voice performance, her shows are a one-woman master class in musicianship. Although best known as an acoustic songwriter that came up through coffeehouses and folk festivals, the Chicago-based artist has written songs in the style of Gershwin and Cole Porter (I Can’t Be New, 2004), gospel music (The Gospel Truth, 2007), traditional Cuban “son” (An American In Havana, 2016), and New Orleans junk piano (NOLA, 2019). In 2014 she composed the music and lyrics to the musical theater score Bull Durham, The Musical (MGM). Her songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Michael Feinstein, and Shemekia Copeland, and her latest recording of originals, The Birds of Florida, took flight in 2022.

www.susanwerner.com

Come celebrate the community in the spirit of the Christmas season. Both the Festival Choir and the Stoughton City Band will dazzle with a variety of sacred music, plus a carol sing-along. A wonderful tradition for the whole family!

www.stoughtonfestivalchoir.wordpress.com

The Squirrel Nut Zippers bring their joyous, raucous Christmas Caravan Tour back again performing all of the hits from Holidays past. From heartwarming ballads to boisterous dance tunes, the band conjures an atmosphere nestled somewhere between the wondrous lights of Christmas and the backroom din of a speakeasy. This show is a must-see for any true music lover. The Christmas Caravan features holiday hits and classics, selections from the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ holiday album Christmas Caravan, and the finest new and old Squirrel Nut Zippers catalog music. Inspired by 1920s jazz, klezmer and old time music, SNZ’s endlessly curious and innovative leader Jimbo Mathus has concocted a show truly unique and original. This unique blend is on full display with the Holiday Caravan show, which has increasingly grown in popularity, selling out venues throughout the United States.

www.snzippers.com

 QUOTE:

“There is of course jazz of various stripes (mainly pre-WWII varieties) on this deliciously wide ranging night of entertainment, but there’s so much more: sounds, identifiable and not, emanating from mysterious times and places, not the least of which is New Orleans, their home base, a land that, forever and still, has a mind of its own.” – Relix

Aimee Mann and Ted Leo began collaborating, under the inconspicuous band name the Both, in 2013. The pairing revealed two artists with more in common than one might suspect. Mann, a generational singer-songwriter, was, in her formative years, a punk, before coming up playing in the New Wave favorites ’Til Tuesday, and eventually turning to the wry ballads for which she is revered. Leo, a New Jersey-bred punk hero, is a biting lyricist attuned to the nuances of pop songcraft. Both are fiercely independent artists, free to follow their muses where they travel—even if that happens to be a holiday variety show that mixes jovial Christmas classics with piquant original songs. A seasonal tradition for Mann since 2006, the concert includes sketches and guests from both musical and comedic realms. 

- New Yorker Magazine

Madison Area Concert Handbells (MACH) continues a legacy of nearly 30 years of sharing the unique musical art of handbell ringing with the greater Madison area. An auditioned choir, MACH performs with over 7 octaves of handbells and 7 octaves of handchimes, making the group one of the largest and finest choirs in Wisconsin.  MACH is currently led by Music Director, Nicholas Bonaccio, who also performs with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. MACH is a non-profit organization committed to bringing the unique art of handbell ringing to our communities with high quality affordable concerts, and outreach/education/accessibility for children, elderly and other area non-profits. 

madisonhandbells.org

Winner of the MAMA award for best cover band and Madison Magazine’s Best Cover Band, Steely Dane is dedicated to not only faithfully reproducing the Steely Dan and Donald Fagen songbook, but to bringing an energetic live-show experience to the crowd. Fifteen of Dane County’s best jazz and rock musicians have banded together around their passion for Steely Dan music, playing in the same configuration as the Steely Dan touring band including a four piece horn section and three background singers. Shows consist of hits and deep cuts and sometimes even complete albums and are sure to have you out of your seats singing along.

www.steelydane.com

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

The People Brothers Band’s unique brand of rhythm and soul features some of the most talented vocalists and musicians in the region. The vibrant group of longtime friends, collaborators, and multi-dimensional artists formed in 2008 as an open mic songwriting outfit and hasn’t looked back since. The band has cultivated a captivating musical alchemy through collective dedication to their craft, the Midwest music community, and each other. The People Brothers Band is united by their shared vision of uplifting friends and fans through music.

www.peoplebrothers.com

“There were already people who had deviated from Bill Monroe’s style of bluegrass,” Bush explains. “If anything, we were reviving a newgrass style that had already been started. Our kind of music tended to come from the idea of long jams and rock-&-roll songs.”

Shunned by some traditionalists, New Grass Revival played bluegrass fests slotted in late-night sets for the “long-hairs and hippies.” Quickly becoming a favorite of rock audiences, they garnered the attention of Leon Russell, one of the era’s most popular artists. Russell hired New Grass as his supporting act on a massive tour in 1973 that put the band nightly in front of tens of thousands.

At tour’s end, it was back to headlining six nights a week at an Indiana pizza joint. But, they were resilient, grinding it out on the road. And in 1975 the Revival first played Telluride, Colorado, forming a connection with the region and its fans that has prospered for 45 years.

Bush was the newgrass commando, incorporating a variety of genres into the repertoire. He discovered a sibling similarity with the reggae rhythms of Marley and The Wailers, and, accordingly, developed an ear-turning original style of mandolin playing. The group issued five albums in their first seven years, and in 1979 became Russell’s backing band. By 1981, Johnson and Burch left the group, replaced by banjoist Bela Fleck and guitarist Pat Flynn.

A three-record contract with Capitol Records and a conscious turn to the country market took the Revival to new commercial heights. Bush survived a life-threatening bout with cancer, and returned to the group that’d become more popular than ever. They released chart-climbing singles, made videos, earned Grammy nominations, and, at their zenith, called it quits.

“We were on the verge of getting bigger,” recalls Bush. “Or maybe we’d gone as far as we could. I’d spent 18 years in a four-piece partnership. I needed a break. But, I appreciated the 18 years we had.”

Bush worked the next five years with Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers, then a stint with Lyle Lovett. He took home three-straight IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year awards, 1990-92 (and a fourth in 2007). In 1995 he reunited with Fleck, now a burgeoning superstar, and toured with the Flecktones, reigniting his penchant for improvisation. Then, finally, after a quarter-century of making music with New Grass Revival and collaborating with other bands, Sam Bush went solo.

He’s released seven albums and a live DVD over the past two decades. In 2009, the Americana Music Association awarded Bush the Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist. Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Greensky Bluegrass are just a few present-day bluegrass vanguards among so many musicians he’s influenced. His performances are annual highlights of the festival circuit, with Bush’s joyous perennial appearances at the town’s famed bluegrass fest earning him the title, “King of Telluride.”

“With this band I have now I am free to try anything. Looking back at the last 50 years of playing newgrass, with the elements of jazz improvisation and rock & roll, jamming, playing with New Grass Revival, Leon, and Emmylou; it’s a culmination of all of that,” says Bush. “I can unapologetically stand onstage and feel I’m representing those songs well.”

www.sambush.com

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

With countless tunes you know from the first note, rip-roaring gigs you can count on, and a whole lot of energy you’ll take home with you, BoDeans continue to contribute to the American songbook as a tried-and-true institution. Founded and led by original frontman, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Kurt Neumann, the band’s catalog consists of generational anthems such as “Good Things,” You Don’t Get Much,” “Idaho,” and “Closer To Free,” just to name a few. However, they still reflect the soul and spirit of the modern American experience on their fourteenth full-length offering, 4 The Last Time. “The music of BoDeans has defined much of my life,” muses Kurt. “I consider myself fortunate to be able to do what I enjoy. I wanted to creatively do something positive for the world instead of just taking from it. So, this is what I’ve chosen to do with my life. The music was always about the blue-collar dream of a better life, and it still is.” 

BoDeans emerged out of Waukesha, WI in 1986 with the seminal debut, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, produced by T Bone Burnett.  Following Outside Looking In [1987], Home [1989], and Black and White [1991], Go Slow Down [1993] yielded “Closer To Free,” which famously served as the theme song for the smash hit television series Party of Five. With a sought-after discography, their music landed hundreds of television and film placements. Meanwhile, they transformed into a proven live phenomenon by supporting the likes of U2, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, The Pretenders, and David Bowie in addition to gracing the bills of Farm Aid, Summerfest, and ACL. Speaking to the group’s legacy, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame permanently entrenched BoDeans in the Midwest Artists exhibit. Most recently, 2017’s Thirteen arrived to widespread acclaim from The Chicago Tribune and Glide Magazine who spotlighted the music’s “understated grace—an attribute that no doubt fuels the steadfast approach Kurt Neumann has employed of his thirty-plus years as a ‘BoDean’.” Along the way, NETFLIX’s The Ranch also utilized over 70 tunes from Kurt, and he launched his own podcast Staring At The World. In the midst of the Global Pandemic, he wrote and recorded what would become 4 The Last Time in his Austin, TX studio. “We have a classic guitar-driven midwestern rock pop sound,” he goes on. “I wanted to make sure there was still some music out there with guitars on it. I feel like I’m getting better at this in my fifties. So, there are a lot of those big rock songs we’ve done for years. I got that vibe down on this record.” Fittingly, BoDeans kick this chapter off with the high-energy anthem “Ya Gotta Go Crazy.” It charges forward with roots-y countrified swagger punctuated by an unshakable chant and hummable guitar solo. “When Spring came in Wisconsin, everyone rolled their windows down and turned the radio up,” he recalls. “The music sounded so good. This is meant to be one of those songs that makes you crank the volume and have some fun. In light of difficult times when you’re dealing with depression or challenges, sometimes you’ve got to go out and do some shit that seems a little crazy.” Then, there’s “A Little More Time.” The stomping groove gives way to another anthemic refrain as he pleads, “Come on baby won’t you give me just a little more time.” “On the day Tom Petty died, I was really sad,” he admits. “I’ve always been astounded by how good he was— from the time I discovered him at 15 until now. This is my little nod to Tom and The Heartbreakers for what they gave me.” On “I’m A Mess,” he examines the two lives of a career musician. “I’ve done this for 35 years,” he says. “As you get older, you start a family. When you’re on the traveling circus, you feel really disconnected from your life at home. You’re a mess without the other half of your life.” “Anyone But You” unfolds as a poignant love song over dreamy piano. Meanwhile, the title track “4 The Last Time” captures the breaking point of a relationship through an emotionally charged vocal originally popularized through an early incarnation of the tune on The Ranch. “It’s about the despair you go through when a relationship is dying and you can’t save it,” he continues. “It’s a tough and painful place to be. When ‘4 The Last Time’ was on The Ranch, I got so many messages asking for a full version. I thought the title might get everyone talking since we’ve been around for so long. Is this the last time? It’s a topic of conversation when you mention the history of the band.” The opener “Loved” importantly doubles as a mission statement. With its robust guitars and wild solo, it culminates on a promise to his kids, “You’re gonna know you were loved.” “It wasn’t until later I found out my mom sent me to the ER when I was two-years-old for getting fingerprints on the dining room table,” he sighs. “I was just surviving as a kid. I have children, and I want them to know how much I love them and how much they mean to me. I didn’t get that from my parents. It’s a message to my kids that I’m going to make sure they know how important they are.” In the end, BoDeans make an impact through such honesty. “For the next year, I’m going to be showing up in towns everywhere and trying to bring people together a little more,” he leaves off. “Come to a BoDeans gig, sing along, and forget about everything else. That’s why I play nowadays. I’d like to keep pushing that message as long as I can.” 

www.bodeans.com

With countless tunes you know from the first note, rip-roaring gigs you can count on, and a whole lot of energy you’ll take home with you, BoDeans continue to contribute to the American songbook as a tried-and-true institution. Founded and led by original frontman, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Kurt Neumann, the band’s catalog consists of generational anthems such as “Good Things,” You Don’t Get Much,” “Idaho,” and “Closer To Free,” just to name a few. However, they still reflect the soul and spirit of the modern American experience on their fourteenth full-length offering, 4 The Last Time. “The music of BoDeans has defined much of my life,” muses Kurt. “I consider myself fortunate to be able to do what I enjoy. I wanted to creatively do something positive for the world instead of just taking from it. So, this is what I’ve chosen to do with my life. The music was always about the blue-collar dream of a better life, and it still is.” 

BoDeans emerged out of Waukesha, WI in 1986 with the seminal debut, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, produced by T Bone Burnett.  Following Outside Looking In [1987], Home [1989], and Black and White [1991], Go Slow Down [1993] yielded “Closer To Free,” which famously served as the theme song for the smash hit television series Party of Five. With a sought-after discography, their music landed hundreds of television and film placements. Meanwhile, they transformed into a proven live phenomenon by supporting the likes of U2, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, The Pretenders, and David Bowie in addition to gracing the bills of Farm Aid, Summerfest, and ACL. Speaking to the group’s legacy, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame permanently entrenched BoDeans in the Midwest Artists exhibit. Most recently, 2017’s Thirteen arrived to widespread acclaim from The Chicago Tribune and Glide Magazine who spotlighted the music’s “understated grace—an attribute that no doubt fuels the steadfast approach Kurt Neumann has employed of his thirty-plus years as a ‘BoDean’.” Along the way, NETFLIX’s The Ranch also utilized over 70 tunes from Kurt, and he launched his own podcast Staring At The World. In the midst of the Global Pandemic, he wrote and recorded what would become 4 The Last Time in his Austin, TX studio. “We have a classic guitar-driven midwestern rock pop sound,” he goes on. “I wanted to make sure there was still some music out there with guitars on it. I feel like I’m getting better at this in my fifties. So, there are a lot of those big rock songs we’ve done for years. I got that vibe down on this record.” Fittingly, BoDeans kick this chapter off with the high-energy anthem “Ya Gotta Go Crazy.” It charges forward with roots-y countrified swagger punctuated by an unshakable chant and hummable guitar solo. “When Spring came in Wisconsin, everyone rolled their windows down and turned the radio up,” he recalls. “The music sounded so good. This is meant to be one of those songs that makes you crank the volume and have some fun. In light of difficult times when you’re dealing with depression or challenges, sometimes you’ve got to go out and do some shit that seems a little crazy.” Then, there’s “A Little More Time.” The stomping groove gives way to another anthemic refrain as he pleads, “Come on baby won’t you give me just a little more time.” “On the day Tom Petty died, I was really sad,” he admits. “I’ve always been astounded by how good he was— from the time I discovered him at 15 until now. This is my little nod to Tom and The Heartbreakers for what they gave me.” On “I’m A Mess,” he examines the two lives of a career musician. “I’ve done this for 35 years,” he says. “As you get older, you start a family. When you’re on the traveling circus, you feel really disconnected from your life at home. You’re a mess without the other half of your life.” “Anyone But You” unfolds as a poignant love song over dreamy piano. Meanwhile, the title track “4 The Last Time” captures the breaking point of a relationship through an emotionally charged vocal originally popularized through an early incarnation of the tune on The Ranch. “It’s about the despair you go through when a relationship is dying and you can’t save it,” he continues. “It’s a tough and painful place to be. When ‘4 The Last Time’ was on The Ranch, I got so many messages asking for a full version. I thought the title might get everyone talking since we’ve been around for so long. Is this the last time? It’s a topic of conversation when you mention the history of the band.” The opener “Loved” importantly doubles as a mission statement. With its robust guitars and wild solo, it culminates on a promise to his kids, “You’re gonna know you were loved.” “It wasn’t until later I found out my mom sent me to the ER when I was two-years-old for getting fingerprints on the dining room table,” he sighs. “I was just surviving as a kid. I have children, and I want them to know how much I love them and how much they mean to me. I didn’t get that from my parents. It’s a message to my kids that I’m going to make sure they know how important they are.” In the end, BoDeans make an impact through such honesty. “For the next year, I’m going to be showing up in towns everywhere and trying to bring people together a little more,” he leaves off. “Come to a BoDeans gig, sing along, and forget about everything else. That’s why I play nowadays. I’d like to keep pushing that message as long as I can.” 

www.bodeans.com

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

During the creative explosion that was country music in the 1990s Suzy Bogguss  sold 4 million records with sparkling radio hits like “Outbound Plane”, “Someday Soon”, “Letting Go”, “Drive South”, and “Hey Cinderella". But you can’t peg  Suzy that easily… 

In the midst of her country popularity she took time off to make a duets album with the legendary Chet Atkins. In 2003 she made an album of modern swing music with Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel. An album of original music in 2007 landed her at number 4 on the jazz charts. Her folk music roots show through in the Grammy she earned for her work on Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster, and in her critically acclaimed album and book project from 2011, American Folk Songbook. In 2014 she released Lucky, a collection of songs written by Merle Haggard and interpreted through Suzy’s crystal vocals from the female point of view. Her latest offering, Prayin’ For Sunshine, is an Americana tour de force with all songs written by Bogguss. She continues to tour the world, both on her own and with fellow country radio divas Terri Clark and Pam Tills as “Chicks With Hits” and more recently, with Kathy Mattea on their Together At Last tour. So yes, you can call her a country singer if you want, but really that’s just the beginning.

suzybogguss.com

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

Michael Perry returns to the Stoughton Opera House with fresh stories, a few favorites, and the same relaxed roughneck vibe that has steadily grown his fanbase for two decades. If you've ever seen Perry live, you know to expect an evening of laughter punctuated with soulful moments, surprise tangents, and steel-toed boots.

www.sneezingcow.com

After fifteen years, six albums, innumerable sold out shows, and countless libations, Americana mavericks Horseshoes & Hand Grenades appropriately consider themselves a “family” on a wild, wonderful, and often whacky roller coaster. The bond between the quintet— Adam Greuel [guitar, vocals], David C. Lynch [harmonica, accordion, vocals], Collin Mettelka [fiddle, vocals], Russell Pedersen [banjo, vocals], and Samual Odin [bass, vocals]— fuels their creativity and chemistry on stage and in the studio. 

“Sometimes, it feels like we’re modern day cowboys on some kind of strange journey,” Adam affirms with a laugh. “We’re five friends who set out to do something we enjoy doing, meet interesting people, see old friends, and make some new buddies along the way. Because of that sense of friendship, everything seems to happen organically. It's been one hell of a ride.” 

 That’s been the case since these five musicians first met in Stevens Point, WI at college, joined forces, and hit the road harder post-graduation in roughly 2013. They have ignited stages alongside everyone from Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass, Trampled By Turtles, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Railroad Earth, to Merle Haggard and Marty Stuart in addition to appearances at festivals and venues such as Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Delfest, High Sierra Music Festival, Blue Ox Music Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheater and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

 Their six albums—Another Round [2012], This Old Town [2013], Middle Western [2015], The Ode (2018), Miles in Blue (2020), and For Old Time’s Sake (2022) take the listener through a wide range of musical and emotional landscapes, something surely provoked by the five different members all sharing songwriting duties.  Their most recent album, For Old Time’s Sake is a 13-track album that celebrates their nearly 15 years together as a band, while nodding to the musical roots that have laid the foundation of the band.

 Greuel says, “We always joked about making a “new time, old time” album. At some point we realized it was a pretty good idea and things fell into place for it to happen. Man, we just love making music together. It’s always a fulfilling and interesting process watching one another come up with the parts that make up our sound. We really do our best to honor one another’s musical curiosities, and it feels like that’s what makes us sound uniquely “us”. It’s also just a joy to be able to be yourself, and that’s been something we’ve always tried to keep at the forefront of this band.”

www.hhgmusic.com

With fiddles in hand, Madison's premiere youth violin ensemble, MadFiddle, gears up for its annual Stoughton Opera House performance. Drawing on music extracted from Scandinavian folk, bluegrass, Celtic songs, Eastern and blues folk tunes, Appalachian, Brazilian, ragtime, as well as modern acoustic artists, MadFiddle brings students between the ages of six and seventeen together for a romping, stomping, good time. MadFiddle is directed by the Madison Area Music Association's 2016 "Teacher of the Year," Shauncey Ali.  Thriving on its mad enthusiasm for the instrument, MadFiddle shows up with that blast of inherent joy that comes along with playing music with friends.

www.madfiddlelessons.com

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

Soren Staff and Beau Janke - co-founders of folk/rock/Americana outfit Them Coulee Boys - met as camp counselors in northern Wisconsin in 2011. Their weekend workshopping of Avett Brothers and classic country tunes led to original songs and adding Soren’s brother Jens on mandolin. As the years grew, the band turned into a more rollicking outfit, adding Neil Krause on electric bass and Stas Hable on drums. The band’s name is a nod to the glacial melt-carved river valleys they call home, known by early French fur trappers as coulees. Known for wild swings of emotion during sets, it is not unusual to see fans in tears and minutes later dancing with abandon. The honesty and ability to talk and sing about the feelings and emotions that shape them has endeared them to a growing group of fans and friends.

With four full-length albums and an EP behind them, including 2019’s Die Happy (produced byTrampled By Turtles’ Dave Simonett on Lo-Hi Records) and 2021’s Namesake (produced by Grammy winner Brian Joseph), the band has garnered international attention and earned press in American Songwriter, Ditty TV, Folk Alley, and The Bluegrass Situation, as well as tours with Trampled By Turtles, Los Lobos, Old Crow Medicine Show and a spot on the songwriter’s Cayamo Cruise.

2021’s Namesake found the band following a new trajectory, combining their signature take on folk-grass and Americana with comfort on electric instruments and playing rock and roll. The record lives and breathes. It’s both intimate and bombastic. It’s the sweet aunt who makes delicious pies and the wiley uncle who’s not afraid to hit a bit of the bottle. At the bottom is the acceptance that comes with family and old friends; none of us are perfect, but there’s enough love out there to make up for it.

In 2020, they were named Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Band to Watch. In 2021, they won Bluegrass/Americana Band of the Year by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry.

www.themcouleeboys.com. 

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.

Hailing from both the Appalachian and Piedmont regions of North Carolina, the Rangers have long held traditional bluegrass paramount, while possessing an exceptional ability to bring it down the mountain, and to incorporate accessible influence from all walks of the region. With the band’s last few albums, they have gained recognition from well beyond the world of bluegrass, earning a reputation as some of the most influential songwriters in Americana today.

Newcomer to this ship, Aaron Burdett, brings a soul-stirring element to the Rangers’ mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter, and a student of folk tradition. He provides a fresh, emotional context to the songbook, which “can reach out and touch your heart or slap you in the face,” to use the praise of drummer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Ashworth.

Steep Canyon Rangers is made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals.

Over the band’s esteemed career, the three-time Grammy nominees have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and appeared on some of music’s biggest stages. In 2013, Nobody Knows You won the GRAMMY Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012’s Rare Bird and 2020’s North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category.

www.steepcanyon.com

The son of a small-town farming community, Cody Diekhoff logged plenty of highway and stage time under the name Chicago Farmer before settling in the city in 2003. Profoundly inspired by fellow Midwesterner John Prine, he’s a working-class folk musician to his core. His small-town roots, tilled with city streets mentality, are turning heads North and South of I-80.

“I love the energy, music, and creativity of Chicago, but at the same time, the roots and hard work of my small town,” he shares. Growing up in Delavan, Illinois, with a population less than 2,000, Diekhoff’s grandparents were farmers, and their values have always provided the baseline of his songs.

 He writes music for “the kind of people that come to my shows. Whether in Chicago or Delavan, everyone has a story, and everyone puts in a long day and works hard the same way,” he says. “My generation may have been labeled as slackers, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t work hard – many people I know put in 50-60 hours a week and 12-hour days. That’s what keeps me playing. I don’t like anyone to be left out; my music is for everyone in big and very small towns.”

He listened to punk rock and grunge as a kid before discovering a friend’s dad playing Hank Williams, and it was a revelation. Prine and Guthrie quickly followed. The name Chicago Farmer was originally for a band, but the utilitarian life of driving alone from bar to bar, city to city - to make a direct connection to his audience and listener, took a deeper hold.

www.chicagofarmer.com

A dazzling array of musical talents will be showcased throughout the season during these hour-long programs, organized by John Beutel and sponsored by the Stoughton Area Senior Center. All Music Appreciation events are free and open to the public.