Most people mention the voice first. It comes from deep within. Sounds like it means what it says. Then come the lyrics and the stories — ones about workers and lovers, mothers and sons, the dying and mourning, the prideful and the abused. Ones about the Midwest and the beauty and difficulty that characterizes life around here. There is a humanity in the songs that recalls the work of some of the folk tradition’s finest architects.
The songs linger. Exhale. Persist.

SIMON BALTO‘s work has garnered praise from critics both local, regional, national, and international. The Irish music publication Deadly Music! has compared his songwriting to top-of-his-game, Blood on the Tracks­-era Dylan. The Chicago-based music curator Music Means Family said the following: “An unbelievable talent, his layered folk ballads are reminiscent of Baez and Dylan, Guthrie and Prine. There is a deeply satisfying componentto each of his songs – a reminder of home, woodsmoke, and the first traces of your breath as winter begins to settle.”

He has been featured on Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, Big Top Chautauqua’s Tent Show Radio, Daytrotter, and has supported and shared stages with a wide range of artists in recent years, from Jason Isbell to Johnnyswim, Field Report to Anderson East, Peter Mulvey to Communist Daughter, Charlie Parr to Horseshoes & Hand Grenades.

In 2016, he will release Murmurations, a full-band record that features Shane Leonard (Kalispell, Field Report), Ben Lester (S. Carey, The Tallest Man on Earth, Aero Flynn), Steven Hobert, Kevin Rowe (Buffalo Gospel), and Amanda Rigell (Count This Penny).

Joining Simon for the evening will be Madison singer-songwriter WHITNEY MANN. “Whitney Mann is the best kept secret in Wisconsin. She’s raw, she’s real. Whitney sings and writes from the heart, you can’t ask for more than that in a musician.”
– John T Selman, Production Manager, Willie Nelson and Family   Whitney Mann is an old soul with a child’s glow. Her story is only beginning. It’s the story of a poetic farm girl from Michigan who grew up to open for Loretta Lynn. It’s the story of a young woman whose voice will break your heart but whose songs will bring you back for more.