Cafe Carpe

LOGAN METZ/tba
2026-08-21 20:30 (America/Chicago)

HARMONIOUS WAIL
2026-08-22 20:15

KAREN JOHNSON
2026-08-28 20:00
Please call 920-563-9391- ideally before the day of the show, to reserve seats and to let us know if you will be dining with us.
KAREN JOHNSON grew up in West Allis, WI, surrounded by music. One of her favorite memories is listening to old country tunes with her dad while riding along in his old pick-up truck. At a young age, Karen learned to play the Tamburitza and sing harmony as a member of the American Croatian Silver Strings Tamburitzans. Now playing the guitar, she has been performing at various venues since 1998, however, the Carpe’s listening room is truly special and one-of-a-kind!
Karen sings songs of her favorite artists including Joan Baez, Nanci Griffith, Alison Krauss, and Suzy Bogguss, to name a few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dclx2nwDJNY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6pYX8uK25o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z6AN79G3TE

THE BOSTON IMPOSTERS
2026-08-29 20:00
Ticket link follows bio:
THE BOSTON IMPOSTERS are a husband-wife singer-songwriter duo and music educators based in Southeast Wisconsin. Davey Harrison and Maire (pronounced like Mary) Clement began collaborating many years prior, but their duo was officially founded during their time living as Midwestern Imposters in Boston. The duo blend beautiful harmonies, accompanied by acoustic guitar, mandolin, and banjo to craft heartfelt original songs. Inspired by traditional, classic and contemporary folk music, The Boston Imposters write about their lives and experiences, inspired by the people who have been a part of their journey.
“Hearkening back to the traditional folk duos of the 1950s and 1960s, The Boston Imposters represent the genre at its most pure: two capable voices, supported by sparse-yet-effective instrumentation, working together to earnestly share stories anyone can relate to.” – Elena See, FolkAlley.com

CORKY SIEGEL/ ERNIE WATTS/ KALYAN PATHAK
2026-09-05 20:15
Details and ticket link will be on their way

ANCORA STRING QUARTET
2026-09-09 19:30

PAUL SPRAWL
2026-09-10 19:30
Paul says, “I quit my day job in Sept. 1997 and embarked on the long and winding road of being a full-time performer who writes and records his own songs and performs all over North America and in Europe. My songs are of a rootsy Americana sort. As much as anything else, I’m coming from a country blues place, but even people on the streets in Mississippi generally don’t know what country blues is anymore. That’s alright, because people like it when they hear it! ”
“PAUL SPRAWL is a fine songwriter and very original guitarist whose music reflects his colorful experiences as a constantly traveling musician. “— Lee Townsend – producer/manager of Bill Frisell, also produced Loudon Wainwright III, Joe Henry

JOHN STANO/ JOHN SIEGER
2026-09-11 20:15
Two Milwaukee songwriters will share the evening.

Singer/songwriter JOHN STANO’s sound is a distinctive blend of acoustic and slide guitar, stellar rack harmonica, expressive vocals and insightful songwriting developed over many years of performance and study. He sometimes adds a little mandolin, cigar box guitar or banjo to the mix as well. His style can be described as a combination of Folk, Americana and Country Blues. Initially self-taught, John went on to study American fingerstyle guitar at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and harmonica with national blues legend, Jim Liban.
“If there’s an unsung hero in American Music right now it just might be JOHN SIEGER… His voice is a study in emotional grace, one that touches all the places inside us that need touching… Sieger shows us that walking down a familiar sidewalk and grabbing melodies from thin air is a holy pursuit, and then carving words into the music takes things right into an eternal quest for permanence.”— BILL BENTLEY, BENTLEY’S BANDSTAND // AMERICANA HIGHWAYS
Songwriter, singer and guitarist JOHN SIEGER has a long resume. His band the R&B Cadets ruled the dance floors in Milwaukee in the 1980s, playing a mix of his originals and obscure soul tunes unearthed by bandmates Paul Cebar and Robin Pluer. Their debut, “Top Happy,” for Twin/Tone Records, turned out to be their finale. In the late 80’s his band Semi-Twang recorded for Warner Brothers Records. Both bands have regrouped in recent years and since then, Semi-Twang has released three more collections of his songs, most recently and ode to his hometown, “Kenosha.”
Other Sieger songs have been covered by a long list of great artists including Dwight Yoakam (Don’t Need It Done), Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads (Rev It Up), The Bodeans (The Strangest Kind), Flaco Jimenez (I Found Out), Robbie Fulks (You Break It – You Pay), Phil Lee (I Hope Love Always Knows Your Name, Neon Tombstone) and Greg Trooper (My Bluebell, Real Like That and others). Recorded but still waiting to be released, is a version of “Salty Tears,” sung by Etta James.
“Sieger on Songs,” his column at UrbanMilwaukee.com, is John’s ongoing love letter to the music he digs.

ROUND ROBIN w/ TRICIA ALEXANDER
2026-09-16 18:30, 2026-10-21 18:30, 2026-11-18 18:30 - 20:30
Round robin led by TRICIA ALEXANDER– (performer, poet, healer, “with a voice, music and lyrics that resonate the heart”) done informally, not from the stage, no microphones. This is a lovely gathering of singers, songwriters, musicians and music appreciators, poets, and storytellers held somewhat regularly on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.
Traditional Round Robin protocol applies – everyone is part of the circle and has an opportunity to: play, pass or request a song from someone in particular or from anyone in the circle.
Everyone is welcome to attend. $5 cover for musicians and audience. Come early and have a bite to eat- therein lies our sustenance.

AN EVENING with ABBIE GARDNER
2026-09-25 20:30
Named a “triple threat” by Bluegrass Unlimited, ABBIE GARDNER has made a name for herself as one of the the only solo dobro troubadours in the country. Don’t let her infectious smile fool you, beneath that radiant exterior lies the soul of a fierce and fiery slide guitar player.
You might know her best from her work with Americana darlings Red Molly, but Abbie Gardner centered her own gritty, sweet tales of love and loss on her 2022 solo album DobroSinger. It reached #11 on the Billboard Blues chart. She’s a Kerrville New Folk Finalist (2025) and was nominated for Folk Alliance International’s Artist of the Year (2025). Her live show is truly unique – heartfelt vocals and warm stage presence, backed up by top notch picking on an instrument that is more typically in the background. Come for the heartfelt, intimate ballads and stay for the raw, bluesy picking. Gardner’s got all your musical bases covered.

​ ​”Abbie is leaving her mark by trailblazing a new path. She has fused her dobro playing, singing, and songwriting into a seamless vehicle of musical expression. If you have never seen Abbie live you owe it to yourself to do so… and if you have seen her live…you know what I am talking about.”– Mike England, Bluegrass Unlimited“DobroSinger is a masterclass in how to deliver a song, taught by an artist who is at the top of her game”– Ron Olesko, Folk Notebook​“The playing and singing are both impeccable and loaded with personality. You can hear every nuance of the slide, smooth one moment or rattling slightly at the end of a phrase like punctuation; and her intimate, pitch-perfect vocals—wistful, playful, confessional—sound like they’re dancing with the guitar.”– Blair Jackson, Acoustic Guitar Magazine

LAURA VEIRS
2026-10-16 20:30
LAURA VEIRS returns with Temple Songs, her first album in four years—and the first she has written,
recorded, arranged, produced, and performed entirely on her own. “I didn’t know if I would write songs
again,” says Veirs, who spent the intervening years building a backyard studio, getting married, blending
a family with four teenagers, deepening her visual art practice (painting), and expanding her music
teaching. “Turns out that period was a gathering phase. When I made the commitment to recording the
album myself, the muse caught me again and it came together very quickly.”
Written and recorded in three months in the fall of 2025 in Veirs’ backyard “Temple of Bloom” studio,
Temple Songs marks a new level of artistic independence. While 2022’s Found Light (co-produced by
Veirs and Shahzad Ismaily) was a declaration of autonomy, Temple Songs goes further: every creative
decision—what to record, how to record it, and how it should sound—was Veirs’ alone. Made with just two
mics and a laptop in a 10’ x 14′ room, the album feels unmistakably “Veirs-ian,” yet strikingly new.
Veirs embraced the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi throughout the process, choosing not to pitch-correct
vocals or edit out rough edges. “I wanted to make something that sounds as organic and human as
possible,” she says. Mixing by Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker) adds sympathetic finishing touches to
Veirs’ 14th solo album.
Because the Temple of Bloom wasn’t built for recording, the studio itself became a collaborator. Veirs
paused takes for rain on the skylight—or let it stay. She waited out neighbors’ conversations, raced to
finish a sensitive vocal before a stump grinder roared to life, and included the presence of resident
bluejays, passing crows, and other neighborhood sounds. These ambient intrusions lend the album an
intimate, lived-in authenticity.
Influences range from Mac DeMarco’s commitment to trusting his personal taste to the anarchists and
feminists of the late 1800s and their rallying cry, “no gods, no masters.” “It was hard to get the white man
off my shoulder,” Veirs says. “I wrestled with a lot of doubt. But there were many happy accidents and
eventually I found a flow—seeing the studio again, for the first time since my 20s, as a private place for
exploration.”
Clocking in at a concise 30 minutes, Temple Songs’ 11 tracks capture a songwriter in peak form. The
album is intimate, dreamy, brave and quietly defiant, built around Veirs’ intricate fingerstyle nylon-string
guitar, vulnerable vocals, and bold electric guitar embellishments. “Arc Still Bends” reflects feelings of
contemporary futility, offset by a hopeful chorus. “River’s Song,” an ode to one of Veirs’ children,
showcases her gift for simplicity and emotional precision. “Pulse” veers into art-experimental territory,
culminating in a cacophonous duet between electric guitar and sax. “No Masters” is a sparse, punk rock
call for collective self-determination, while “Sunlight and Doom” incorporates elemental fragments from
the ancient Greek lyricist Sappho.
Veirs played guitars, bass, drums, tambourine, percussion, and sings vocals; the only outside contribution
is saxophone by a secret special guest. She used no click tracks and no electronic instruments, working
by feel and intuition while watching bamboo sway outside her studio window. At 52, three decades into
her career, Veirs reconnects with herself through a radically new process—one that feels both fresh and
profoundly earned. She also designed the album’s calligraphy and paper-collage back cover art,
extending the project’s handmade ethos.
“I needed to make this to connect more deeply with my taste, aesthetics, and confidence,” says Veirs.
Longtime fans will recognize the core of Laura Veirs here—unfiltered and renewed—and new listeners
will discover an artist fully inhabiting her creative powers.
(Tickets will be $35 day of show.)

JESS KLEIN
2026-10-17 20:00
JESS KLEIN came to this world to pull firebrand power and childlike joy from our darkest shadows. Her acoustic-driven, hook-laden story songs revel in the polychrome of human experience – joy, rage, sensuality and resilience. The New York Times calls her “A songwriter with a voice of unblinking tenacity.”
Jess has toured the globe performing in pin-drop listening rooms, cozy theaters and at raucous festivals in front of tens of thousands of fans. She has toured nationally and internationally supporting Arlo Guthrie, Josh Ritter, Damien Dempsey, John Fullbright and Jonathan Byrd and has opened for such legends as Ani DiFranco, Steve Earle and Alejandro Escovedo. Jess has appeared on Good Morning America and NPR’s All Things Considered and has performed at the Newport, Winnipeg, Falcon Ridge and Philadelphia Folk Festivals as well as Fuji Rock Festival in Japan.
Jess’s live shows are known for their intimate and soulful atmosphere. Whether solo with just her guitar or backed by a band, Jess performs with a raw, emotional intensity. Her emotive vocals, and poignant storytelling invite her fans on a journey through themes of love, loss, and resilience.
The Bluegrass Situation hails Jess’s work as “one part grassroots social activism, two parts alt-country guitar rock — a combo we can certainly get behind.” Klein’s newest album, 2023’s When We Rise, harnesses this potent combination with themes of empowerment and the joy of overcoming set to a dynamic and deeply introspective roots-inflected soundtrack.

BOUNDING MAIN
2026-11-07 20:00
BOUNDING MAIN is a maritime-themed a cappella vocal group that sings richly harmonic versions of maritime songs. “Beautiful Harmonies with a Maritime Flair!” Their shows are filled with spirit, humor and harmony; their arrangements of traditional nautical music bring the listener into the world of fellowship, adventure and romance.

Each member of Bounding Main — Dean Calin, Christie Dalby, Gina Dalby, Jon Krivitzky and David Yondorf — is a music and theater veteran, with backgrounds as varied as falconry to juggling to stage combat! Since 2003, their performances and CDs have been well received with brisk US and international sales. They have performed at music festivals, maritime festivals, tall ships events, maritime museums, renaissance faires, folk music venues and corporate events on both sides of the Atlantic.
The group calls its headquarters Grayslake, Illinois.

BLACK WILLOW STARLING
2026-11-13 20:00
BLACKWILLOW STARLING are a Milwaukee-based acoustic duo who perform Pagan, folk, and Celtic music. Both Nora and Michael Tinker Tierney have decades of experience in national and international playing and performance.
Since the release of their debut, self-titled album in June of 2024, Blackwillow Starling have appeared at Pagan Spirit Gathering and the International Pagan Music Award ceremony. Their 2025 performance schedule includes WinterStar in February, Paganicon in March, Pagan Spirit Gathering in June, and Starwood in July. More festivals and venue dates to be announced.

Their music can be streamed on every major service and has been featured on Pagan/Wiccan media and folk outlets such as International Pagan Radio, The Cauldron, Songs of the Pagan Tribe, CeltCast, Wyldwood Radio, DruidCast with Damh the Bard, Irish and Celtic Music Podcast, Sidvalley Radio Folk Show, Tarottunes, and Pagan Artist Spotlight Podcast. They have also been featured presenters on Full Moon Circle broadcasts with Circle Sanctuary.
Blackwillow Starling released their debut album in June, 2024. The “What the Folk is This?” radio program rated the disc as #13 for folk album of the year. Multiple songs from the release have cracked both the International Pagan Radio top 20 and The Cauldron top 10 with their song “The Answerer Sword” holding the #1 spot for 2 weeks. “Sun King”, “Between Times pt 1”, and their version of “Wild Mountain Thyme” have also placed in The Cauldron top 10 chart. The International Pagan Music Awards have bestowed a nomination for Pagan band of the year for 2025.
Nora, a classically schooled vocalist, sings about the elements of the natural world and wonder of spirit. She works with Celtic-based rhythmic patterns and folk stylings in Blackwillow Starling. She finds pure joy in the art of song. Michael “Tinker” Tierney has strong familial Celtic ties, regularly tours and performs live with multiple projects, and enjoys cleverness and outside the box creativity in writing and performing.

KELLY HUNT/ KELLEY SMITH
2026-11-14 20:00
This will be a great evening with two women of unique talent. Ticket link follows bio
Memphis-raised singer-songwriter, KELLY HUNT, paints stories as old and offbeat as her Depression-era tenor banjo and parlor guitar, reimagining traditions of folk & old-time music with innovative vigor. Interweaving poetic lyrics, lilting melodies, and intriguing arrangements, Hunt casts a spell which No Depression describes as “the musical equivalent of a book you can’t put down, one you’ll want to revisit again and again to catch every nuance and turn of phrase.” Hunt’s 2019 debut album, Even The Sparrow, was a finalist for the International Folk Music Awards “Album of the Year.” Her sophomore album, Ozark Symphony, was recorded with Grammy-winning musician & producer Dirk Powell and released on Compass Records in 2023.
“Standing shoulder to shoulder with contemporaries like Gillian Welch and Rhiannon Giddens…folk music harking back to the stripped-down sounds of Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie.”— American UK
“Uncanny is Hunt’s innate ability to summon the same vigorous energy of classic folk players, all while pushing forward to modernize the instrument’s role in contemporary songwriting…She delivers her lyrics with an earthen frankness that can’t be taught. ”— Jonathan Frahm (Popmatters)
“Once in a while, a musical project comes along that truly captures the spirit of America…Kelly Hunt’s OZARK SYMPHONY does exactly this […] If you’ve ever been enchanted by the lyrical power of Lucinda Williams or felt the emotional tug of Nanci Griffith, then you’re about to meet your next obsession.”— [Grateful Web]
“Kelly Hunt weaves an enchanting spell with her atmospheric music […] Hunt’s vocals draw us in like a siren calling from rough seas, asking us not to dash ourselves on the rocks but to find shelter in her soothing tones.”— [Folk Alley]
Minnesota songwriter KELLEY SMITH is a wallflower who fancies old poetry and grandpa sweaters. All at once whimsical and haunting, Smith delivers deeply affecting lyrics with wry charm and a time traveler’s voice. Prone to melancholy and daydreaming, Kelley spent her childhood roaming the woods of the north country. To this day, her longing for that landscape runs deep and seems to find its way into her songs in one way or another.
Raised by musicians, Smith always had music in her bones, but it wasn’t until she was 40 and a mother of four that her first record, Moon Child (2022), came to be. “These organic and unvarnished songs reflect life experiences that could as easily come from past lives as they could from Kelley’s soul.” – Rieder Homestead Concerts.
”Her rustic sound, combined with relatable gut-punchy lyrics has been resonating with audiences up north and beyond.”
– Southern Minn Scene
Since 2022, Kelley has had the honor of sharing stages with artists such as Charlie Parr, Kelly Hunt, Wild Horses, Dave Simonett, and Alan Sparhawk. Every once in awhile she tucks into old dive bars with her banjo to play folk songs.

LONESOME BILL CAMPLIN
2026-11-21 20:00
