After their respective sets Colin Chris and Mary will unite for culminating set of  Whimsical Tin Pan Alley Jazz, Celtic Romps and Singalongs.  They’ll likely set a record for the number of instruments on the Carpe stage:  two  Banjos,  two Fiddles, a ukelele, steel guitar, Guitar, upright cello, a mandolin and if it’ll fit, a harmonica. They did this last summer and a great time was had by all.

Banjo, fiddle, guitar, footboard playin’ COLIN O’BRIEN‘s newest  CD, “After a Song”, was recorded in Nashville last summer with some of music city’s best pickers: Larry Perkins, Matt Combs, Mark Howard and Dennis Crouch.  Those boys were so enthralled with Colin they urged him to move  there, which he and his wife, after a bit of consideration (1 or 2 minutes), did.

It was in the summer of 2011 that Nashville music legend Larry Perkins heard Colin’s set at the John Hartford Memorial Festival. Larry was side-struck. He immediately invited him down to Nashville make a record. The result, After A Song, features 12 of Colin’s originals and a band comprised of some of the late John Hartford’s band mates.

“After A Song…Bottles the lighting that was John Hartford’s engagingly off-center songwriting” – Jon Weisberger, The Nashville Scene.

Colin even played John Hartford’s banjos for the sessions! In addition to his solo work Mr. O’Brien has also recently formed The Colin O’Brien Stringband. It’s a veritable acoustic supergroup featuring some of Music City’s finest players, Matt Combs, Mike Compton and Todd Phillips. The group will be releasing a live recording “Live at the Station Inn” in very early 2013.

Colin has recently signed on with Nashville Artist Management and Promotion Company Rockin’ Robyn Productions.

Originally a jazz-guitar major at the University of WI-Stevens Point, MARY GAINES truly found her musical voice studying jazz cello under the tutelage of the great Richard Davis (bass player with artists ranging from Sarah Vaughn to Van Morrison) at the UW-Madison. Mary is also known for her amazing voice–often compared to Bonnie Raitt but definitely her own. She (along with her husband, Chris) has done extensive work as a session musician, appearing on albums such as Smashing Pumpkin’s Gish, several Freedy Johnston, Willy Porter, and Carrie Newcomer albums, and scores of others.

A founding member of Madison’s Harmonious Wail, The Common Faces, The Bob Westfall Quartet, and The Moon Gypsies (the latter three co-founded with Mary Gaines), CHRIS WAGONER has had his foot in just about every musical circle in Madison. Classically trained as a violinist, (he also plays ukulele, hawaiian guitar, accordion), he met Mary while attending the UW-Madison. Switching to an alternating diet of jazz and classical violin studies, while playing in bands ranging from rock, blues, bluegrass, and country, to folk and jazz, Chris has been an in-demand performer and session musician in the region for almost two decades.