Hello all you email incipients …er… recipients. It is time to overcome my phobia to writing and or responding to emails. It behooves me to begin as a most dense calendar of events comes calling. After a holiday lull of but three shows, (only one was a first timer) we climb on back to our more usual many selections. While not going back to all of the last two months events I would mention that J T Nero & Allison Russell were a hit and we will hope they return. Also, the Peter Mulvey sponsored holiday concerts in the round were the most attended since we started them ten years ago. And New Years Eve with Randy Sabien and Mike Dowling was the most successful NYE we have ever had. We were briefly as successful as one can only hope to be in this business. It was a working vacation as we were surrounded with pleasant and attentive fans of listening music. Invigorating.

So though I have used all the types of pitches over 26 years of hawking shows I have gotten up the gumption to bore myself yet again with my own writing.

For starters, please check our web site to get times and the sequence of events (oh yes and ticket prices and the need at times to pay in advance). I am going to go outside the analog of shows coming up and just give you some information about some of them.

First and foremost:

Sam LLanas (By the way the double L produces a y pronunciation) who has continued to write music outside of his BODEANS involvement recently left the group (and took most if the identifying characterizations of their brand with him – especially his voice) to pursue a music career built around his own song writing. It represents a bold step
in Mr. LLanas life to follow his artistry where ever it may lead. We are extremely lucky to be included in his first performances with his new band. Sam will be doing songs as a solo and with the group on this Saturdays installation at the Carpe. A great opportunity to be up close to a performer who has been on so many stages where his intensity can be felt hundreds of feet away. Of course if you are a hundred feet away from a performance at the Carpe then you are outside the building. We have about 25 seats left so call to reserve. Mr. LLanas’ professionalism in writing and arranging will be easy to take in and enjoy. A feather in a small club’s hat.

We also have performers coming who have long been trekking the roads and airspace while constantly adding onto their own body of material. These troubadours have been visiting our oasis for many years now and believe me, it takes a lot of continuing song writing and honing of performance just to hold one’s ground. These returning brilliances include Cliff Eberhardt this Friday, Garnet Rogers on the 23rd of February, Steve Forbert on 25th of February, Claudia Schmidt on March 9th, Jim Post with Randy Sabien on March 30, Malcolm Holcombe on March 31, Dan Navarro on April 1st (no foolin’), and Jeffrey Foucault on April 29th.

Bill Staines, whom I forgot until last week was coming on Sunday, February 19th, certainly falls into the life long troubadour category, hell he could serve as the definition of the modern day troubadour. Make note that it will be a 7:00 o’clock performance as is the usual starting time for our infrequent Sunday shows.

The New Pioneers will be here tomorrow night at 7. In addition to their traditional bluegrass music we will have another old-time music stylist group, The Krause Family Band on Friday March 2nd. A couple of choices for string music enthusiasts.

Small Potatoes, an extremely accomplished and entertaining duo return on February 17th. They also make their living putting on thousands of miles each month of the year. It’s lucky they’re married or they wouldn’t even see each other but a few times a year…. say not a bad way to keep a relationship from… oops I digress.

We will also have performance poetry (hey it’s not a groaning response we’re looking for here, we have a poet laureate in this combo) under the banner of Obvious Dog with Bill Orth, Bruce Dethlefsen and Catheryn Coffel on Saturday February 18th.

Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin will bring their artistry here on Thursday, March 29th. As each of them also have ongoing solo careers it will be on the order of a two for one type of night except that they perform together on these tours so expect all that can be accomplished by two voices and a variety of instruments – similar to Small Potatoes.

We will be filling some other nights in March and April but it is obvious that we are, once again, loading the docket with a myriad of talent and variety. Even our own local performers will get into the act, Los Zombies on February 16 and MArch 9th (8:00), the band of many names but always the ongoing band mates of Bill Camplin ( yes, we are mated) on February 24 and March 23. And Mare Edstrom & Kenn Fox return along with MR. Fox’ Midwest Guitar Trio on March 24th.

So in my despondency over the uselessness of these countless and continuing entreaties for people to participate in our heart and soul of presenting performance there is always one person who comes along and asks “why aren’t you writing us email list folks anymore?” I hope that person is satisfied. If the name of that one person would just stay the same I would simply call them.

OH, here is one little scammy kind of experiment I would like to have all of you do. If, and I mean if, you can think of a single other person in your pantheon of friends who would be inclined to have an interest in this joint would you please forward this email to them (not all of them, just one or maybe two). Don’t forget to give them a personal note as to why it is being sent so they will blame you first.

Maybe I will do this again this year. Whatever the results it isn’t the fault of these performers if there is not a waiting list of people trying to get in to hear them.

Amen (Amend). – bill c

As I write the world is turning white. Some of us shovel, some of us prepare missives in our hovel abovel the Carpe, sitting in a chair, wrapped in mohair, the thermostat set at COLD.

We had a great December: the New Pioneers, Larry Penn, the annual Mulvey marathon, the Merry Horde, The Devil in the Outhouse, Mike Dowling & Randy Sabien, all being unaffected by the vagaries of weather, wonderful shows with wonderful audiences, creating holiday cheer enough to make the days lengthen.

Fewer shows in January, but worthy of your attention. Friday night the 13th (8:30) we have the debut performance of JT Nero and Allison Russell, who come highly recommended by many, including Peter Mulvey.

For several years Russell and Nero’s respective bands, Po’ Girl and JT and the Clouds, have collaborated extensively, but in 2011’s Mountains/Forests, released under the JT Nero banner, they tapped into the true, bewitching power of their voices together on an entire record. After a much buzzed about performance at the Kate Wolf Memorial Fest in 2011, they decided to get folks more of the same, and quick. Their first proper duo record, Birds of Chicago, Volume 1, is set for release in January, 2012.


Nero’s fractured country-soul voice wrapped in Russell’s silver and gold tones is a fine thing. Not too perfect, not at all saccharine, you’ll hear echoes of mountain gospel, street corner doo-wop, classic soul. Accompanied by just a banjo and a guitar, it’s chilling. Fired by a full band, it’s a full tilt revival. 


There’s not much Allison Russell can’t sing. She’s got a bit of the speakeasy chanteuse in her, a bit of old R & B, but with a delicacy and clarity of phrasing that Ma Carter or Loretta Lynn would surely approve of. She plays banjo, ukelele, guitar, and clarinet. She’s also a top shelf whistler. She writes gorgeous, unpredicatble songs, and makes other people’s – often Nero’s – tunes her own with startling ease.



JT Nero is a strange and distinct new American songwriter – he lists Mark Twain and Sam Cooke among his biggest songwriting influences. He is a poet of the everyday and the absurd, the lonely and the ever hopeful. When backed by the Clouds he’s a rock n’ roll preacher — with Russell and on his own, he digs deeper into the nuances of his work. The Chicago Tribune recently tabbed him as an “artist on the verge of breaking big.” If “breaking big” allows him to broaden his collection of single batch American bourbons at his home bar in Chicago, he’s all for that happening.

Saturday the 14th (8:00) will be local disembodied musicians Los Zombies, with Sonny Blood & Friends opening. Have you ever woken up from a wonderful dream and tried to hold onto its memory all day? Los Zombies’ debut album is something like that. Tote the Note was recorded in an honest to goodness Nashville studio where the Café Carpe’s own prodigal son cut his latest album (but don’t associate the undead with Satchel, please!). Guzzo Pinc, Mongoose Milford, Captain Cosmo, and the Tall Guy will be bringing their musical stylings, along with the new cd. The Zombies will begin a regular 3rd Thursday of most months gig starting in February.

Friday January 20th (8:30) the seldom-seen local discombobulated musician Bill Camplin will by joined by very capable guitarist Jason Klagstad. Sample their brand of magic on YouTube.

Saturday night January 21st (8:00) the New Pioneers will bluegrass it up all night beginning at 8 pm. They will resume their regular second Thursday of most months schedule in February.

February and the months beyond are filled with many possibilities for music lovers- Cliff Eberhardt, Sammy Llanas (formerly of the Bodeans), Small Potatoes, poetry and music with Obvious Dog & Cathryn Coffel, maybe Bill Staines, Garnet Rogers, Steve Forbert, the Krause Family Band, Claudia Schmidt, maybe Carrie Elkin & Danny Schmidt, Mare Edstrom & Kenn Fox, Jim Post and Randy Sabien, Malcolm Holcombe, Dan Navarro, LJ Booth, and Jeffrey Foucault.

Anybody like the idea of trying to do a Moth-like thing here?

As to your business, thanks, ‘preciate it.

Don’t say I never told you nothin’.
KW

A December story of ambitious delights.

Was it 2001?  2002?  2000?

Let’s go with 2001.

Peter Mulvey had an idea of doing a multiple night run of (was it three nights,
two nights, four nights?  Let’s go with three) a song swap between himself and a
rotating list of other songwriters (let’s go with three again though it may have
been four if Goody was in from the first).  By 2004 we had the now enshrined
“Redbird” quartet, the first or second inclusion of Robin Pluer and John Sieger
and the first of the Willy Porter’s participation which Mr. Porter jokingly
called the Folk-a-Dots (it remains so) for a four night run.  Every year Peter
and Bill marveled at the way the audience was able to lend extra energy to the
in-the-round (not really in the round though Bill tried it twice) feel as the
performers set up in the middle of the riverside wall.  The synergy of “passing
the guitar” and having a sideman of Goody’s expertise and taste allowed for
serendipity to be the strongest element beyond the excellence inherent in all of
these performers’ music.  So delighted were the audiences, regardless of which
of the various shows they had chosen to take in, that Peter and Bill have
been trying to expand this notion of “song swap” each year.  With many of the
performers home in Wisconsin to be with family and friends it grew to be a great
way to share the holiday season with family and audiences. These song swaps are
right in the middle of the most diverse monthly assembly of music nights ever
presented as of this December of 2011.

Contained in the 16+ evenings of music (this is where the “ambitious” adjective
comes into play) are a potpourri of styles and stories, enough to steal for a
novel and enough to keep the facts from ever being fully covered.  It includes
an 80+ (let’s call it three) gruff on the outside, cuddly on the inside sage of
blue collar sentiments and observations; a soul who found a great part of his
muse in the subways of Boston; a musicologist with a bearing-wall-breaking
record collection; a fashion maven the likes of whom Carmen Miranda gave up the
rights to years ago; an Indiana keyboardist of fine voice who hopes to get here
without detouring;  a writer who never leaves home without his ‘Dick Smith” in
the back pocket; one half of one of the most renowned Blues bands in mid-west
and Chicago history; a prolific songwriter who has spent half of his life twanging; 
a guitarist who impressed Chet Atkins and had Jethro Burns refuse to take him fishing; another performer who fishes in “The River Why” and seems to hail from Whitewater,Texas; a goo good former up-and-comer with a young performer’s learning curve still clearly pointing upwards;  a long-time vocalist with 20 something (way more than three) records and nearly as many mid-western addresses to his name; a songwriter who has written for the stage, contributed one of America’s iconic songs to our permanent history and remains an ofttimes silent observer of our human condition; a hermit who has managed to live in Nashville twice and still not be enticed by its charms or lack of; an aging narcissist (are there any other kind?); a duo who get together once a year to get picked on, a band featuring yet another g*******d painter as a front man; another band that plays here regularly only because we are equidistant from all its members;  an angelic-voiced Eastern star who knows how to pick and how to pick’em; two graduates of Berklee College of Music, one a wonderful producer and accompanist, the other being a bit Randy.

by billy c

Yes, it’s been awhile.  Too little to say, or too little time to say it.  But here’s the latest about what’s the hops at the Carpe.  Calendar to the right and at the fab new website.

Next week Wednesday the 12th and Thursday the 13th will feature Ms. Kurtz and her trance-inducing, contralto tones.  Her depth is akin to the Nina Simone not only as a vocalist but as an interpreter and writer.  A real equal opportunity purveyor of human musical expression, she defies categorization while giving a big-boned, highly emotive concentration to all she interprets or originates.  ”I’m not of the jazz, blues, folk, R&B, rock, or pop worlds enough to belong to any of them, but all of those things are in there,” she says.

Kurtz began performing as a teenager, and has had a solo touring career ever since. She opened for Richie Havens, who became a fan and lent vocals to her debut studio album, Postcards from Downtown. Dayna keeps winning over new fans in the music scene.  In the past two years she has been invited to open up for Rufus Wainwright, Antony & the Johnsons, and Keren Ann.  Additionally, she has an admirer in fellow “Living Room” habitué Norah Jones, who sings a duet with her on “I Got It Bad…” (From Beautiful Yesterday).  The legendary Richard Thompson invited her to open up for a coast-to-coast nationwide tour that found Dayna converting some of his faithful fans.

And she’s not just a riveting singer. Her guitar playing is flexible enough to take her to the musical places she visits, whether she’s plucking an open pattern with an oddly cabaret feel or strumming some attitude into the bluesy realm.  Her newest release “Another Black Feather” finds Dayna leaning more heavily on her roots and country influences than usual, in particular making generous use of her new lap steel guitar, and showcasing her prodigious slide work on other songs.

“One of the things that I seem to encounter constantly is that I don’t really quite fit anywhere,” observes Dayna Kurtz.  This observation is also accurate to the person assembling this descriptive, Bill Camplin.  And as a feeling of “soul mate” has always been there whenever Dayna is at the Carpe, this aging drama queen singer wants to enjoy the evening with her as a performer and listener.  A rare treat in an October life.  Rest assured that Dayna will be featured.  It is just the hope that an audience for either of these two might find the synergy that is expected to make for a fine and rewarding night of listening.

“Every step I’ve taken has felt really organic, and like they’ve been made at the right time,” she states, adding, “The records I’ve made feel like honest expressions of where I’m at musically, and the making of them has been joyful and interesting.”  –  Dayna Kurtz

She is dayning to share the evening with none other than our very own intrepid cantor, Bill Camplin, who also has a noteworthy set of pipes.

Then, on the weekend of the 14th-16th, there is the Lorine Niedecker Wisconsin Poetry Festival held here in Fort, with some parts at the Carpe. Click for details and a registration form.

Please note this event not at the Carpe:

What is an E-mail dilemma?

It arises slowly but surely over time as one becomes inundated with email messages from a constantly growing body of impersonal directives based on some sort of finding out about one’s own email address because you once showed support for organic tomatoes grown within 100 miles of your domicile or perhaps briefly flirted with supporting some type of “save the solar system” movement.  Whether they find you through mundane connections (surfing or directed by a friend of a friend of a friend) or the new dominate creature “ALGORITHM” (not friend of a not friend of a not friend) it serves to make you have to wade through a barrage of notices, some of which you need to make sure are not wanted by another user of the computer you used to “conveniently” share, and being constantly distracted by decision making that is less then superfluous, indeed mind-numbingly boring, that you loose all inspiration to just spend an hour, which is hard enough without distractions, trying to inform and entice one’s readership to come and hear a show, and in the process becoming one of those agents of hair pulling time wasters that you have come to loathe.
So I retreat to home improvement projects which however tedious for the unhandy handyman at least afford one a chance to accomplish something of semi-permanent value to one’s existence.  In the meantime, real friends and performers (some of whom are real friends) go wanting responses for dates to play at the Carpe or simply are owed the courtesy of a response for some wonderful thing they have done or said that affects you in a positive way.  And not being a Catholic I cannot even unburden myself with the confession of all the little sins (the big ones are easier to deal with) that I commit each day in the name of modern life and computer existence.  64 Years of thrashing and they put you on a night shift.

OK let’s keep it short.

The Pines are here tomorrow (August 19) and I think they are a wonderful example of taking that which has gone before and combining it with their own creativity to create a meaningful and understated night of music.  We have room and we also have a decent number of folks already signed up so just come on down, you won’t be alone in our small room feeling all too responsible for every gesture you might make.

On Saturday (August 20), me (also known as I and also known as bill camplin) will be joined by percussionist Alpha Stewart and will dive as deep and far into a night of song as we can.

Next week on Friday, August 26, Ernie Hendrickson and M.J. Bishop will, like the PINES the week before, give us the pleasure of seriously composed song and youthful exuberance that provides the link to a viable future, perhaps, of intimate concert performance.

Next Saturday, August 27, Fort Atkinson has its annual Rhythm On The River, which presents a couple of bands to an assembly of thousands, mostly Fort Atkinsonites, at a decibel level somewhere above 100, lasting until about 11:00 p.m. and making it impossible for anyone to find parking for a show at the Carpe and improbable that it could be heard if presented.  So come to Fort and hang out on the street, drink some beer and find one of the many friendly locals who will be willing to have a screaming conversation about the weather.  Those of you who know sign language will be all the better for it.

When next I write it may be to announce some Jason Klagstad, Bob Mueller, Paul Weherly, Alpha Stewart show on Sept. 3rd for the few folks that can not make it for one final week to the North land for the last bar hopping escapade on the old ATV.

I go now to deal with anxiety.
bc

HUBBA HUBBA OMG!!!

A shout out to a new fantabulous website, courtesy of niece Sydney Shimko. Some of you may miss the retro look of what has been called the worst website ever, but this is user-friendly, upkeeper-friendly, and just plain friendly. We’ll miss you, old website, but it’s long past time to go our separate ways.  Constructive criticism, suggestions, and any praise can go to info@cafecarpe.com.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 7:00 $7.50 — THE NEW PIONEERS
Well these guys have been playing here for so long now (about 8 years) that we may have to change their name to “The group formerly known as New Pioneers”. They have remained a favorite for audiences here at the Carpe because the room is so good to hear the five of them simply playing to microphones set equidistant from them and, more importantly, because they represent the very finest in Bluegrass musicianship including their snaggle toothed, cro-magnon ogre of a banjo player, which, come to think of it, does not reduce the number of banjo players one might guess the identity of very much.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 8:30, $2 (Yes, just two dollars) COUSIN BONES
Cousin Bones is a loud but lyrical dobro / banjo duo out of Chicago. Foot-stomping storytelling- they do drinking songs, blues, and blue-grass… Blues-Grass if you will… Home town boy Wes Heine (born @ Fort Hospital) & Mike Sviokla from Boston have been writing and performing together as Cousin Bones for four years. This is roots music for the 21st Century.

MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 6:30, NO CHARGE, Lake Front Park, Milwaukee, WI RANDY SABIEN & BILL CAMPLIN This is the northern part of the linear lakefront area of Milwaukee at the eastern terminus of Kenwood Boulevard. All concerts take place in Lake Park Picnic Area #3, just south of the playground and tennis courts (Rain merely puts the performance into the Peck Pavilion, an architectural masterpiece just a stones throw away. Multi Instrumentalist and occasional singer Randy Sabien, one of the mid-wests premier musicians landed this gig (and rightfully so) and needed someone from this area to help haul his instruments to the site. Not able to remember who could help him nor knowing where in the hell the site was, I forced him to graciously allow me to show him the way, as it were. And for a few bucks more I coerced him into billing it as the two of us. Such are the powers of club owners.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 8:30 $10 — THE PINES Benson Ramsey and David Huckfelt return and their popularity keeps growing (as I hoped it would). Born and raised in the mid-west school of understated licks, thoughtful lyrics, and earthy images their continuing evolution as a duo is a thing to behold. So come and be held.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 8:30 $8   A band of some of the finest preserved specimens representing the innocent presumptions of folks born within a decade of the end of World War II, having suffered the reality of real life and the indignities of time and having come through it all with an undying enthusiasm for playing live music and all too willing to beg your attendance to bear witness to the occasional embarrassment of being caught playing with billyc, this quintet (or quartet or trio or duo) have been able to edit the memories of appreciative audiences to create a narrative of ongoing broad acceptance of their supposedly rightful place among those who care and are cared for.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 8:30 $8   ERNIE HENDRICKSON with M.J. BISHOP Two folks of the much younger variety of country music roots influence, each equipped with their own songs and excellent voices, the tonality of which also hearkens back to the less affected purity of early Nashville and its emerging sequined performers.