Cafe Carpe

CHRIS WAGONER & MARY GAINES/ JOHN PARROTT & GLENN ASCH
2024-05-10 20:00 - 22:30 (America/Chicago)
Buckle up for a great night featuring 2 virtuoso duos who each do a set, and end the evening doing something all together. Buy tickets following the bios.
Glenn Asch & John Parrott / Mid-Century Pop, Western swing, Jazz and Rural Music + Originals (violin, guitar, vocals) will begin the show.
GLENN ASCH & JOHN PARROTT have been steady musical compatriots over the last 10 years. Anyone who has heard the Chris Hanson band knows about Glenn’s taste and virtuosity on the violin (and he literally wrote a book about jazz violin, titled “Deluxe Anthology of Jazz Violin Styles”) while John’s songwriting, vocals and his lively bounce on the acoustic archtop guitar in the rhythm section are hallmarks of that much-praised band. A long trail of credentials follows them both, from Glenn’s chair in the violin section of the Milwaukee Symphony, to John’s rhythm guitar adventures with renowned jazz mandolinists Jethro Burns and Don Stiernberg and local Milwaukee clarinet legend Chuck Hedges.
Gaines & Wagoner / Original and Vintage Jazz, Blues & Americana (violin, cello, mandolin, lapsteel, ukulele, guitar and lots of vocals) will do the second set.
GAINES & WAGONER are the award-winning multi-instrumental husband/wife duo of Mary Gaines and Chris Wagoner based in Madison. Co-founders of several popular Wisconsin-based bands over the past nearly 40 years: Harmonious Wail (vintage string jazz), Common Faces (folk-soul), The Moon Gypsies (Americana/Roots-Rock), The Bob Westfall Band (new acoustic), Graminy (class-grass) and The Stellanovas (vintage jazz and blues). Wagoner was voted Violinist of the Award in the 2023 Wisconsin Area Music Awards and both are recent inductees into the Madison Area Music Awards Hall of Fame. Innumerable local, regional, national and international album credits include Willy Porter, Freedy Johnston, Peter Mulvey, Carrie Newcomer (10 albums on Rounder Records), Tret Fure, and work with producer, Butch VIg on many indie and major-label projects including Smashing Pumpkins genre-defining 1991 Platinum album, “Gish”.

WRITE ON THE RIVER OPEN MIC
2024-05-11 16:30 - 18:00
As part of a day celebrating Fort Atkinson poet LORINE NIEDECKER’s birthday, pen your verse or prose and come share them or bring along a beloved piece to recite.
Other events throughout Saturday
Sidewalk Chalk 9am to 11:30am
Let your creativity flow onto the pavement at the Farmers Market.
Pedals and Poems Bike Tour- morning
Starting at the Farmers Market. Pedal through key locations significant to Lorine’s story. Departure is set for the morning.
Birthday Celebration at the Museum 10am to 2pm
Join us in honoring Lorine with a slice of birthday cake at the museum.

LONG MAMA/ Maximiano
2024-05-11 20:30 - 22:30
Ticket link will follow the bios.
LONG MAMA
Long Mama’s music blisters with the heart and grit of someone who has lost hard, loved harder, and licked her burns until they stung then silvered. In a drafty attic just west of the Milwaukee River she grew up on, you’ll find songwriter KAT WODTKE (Wood-key) raking through notebooks in search of a salve: words, stories, and sounds to temper the dumpster fires we never mean to light.
KAT teams up with guitarist ANDREW KOENIG and drummer NICK LANG, a pair whose chemistry adds dusky afterglow to Wodtke’s musical landscapes, as well as upright bass ace SAM ODIN from Horsehoes and Hand Grenades.
​Poor Pretender, Long Mama’s debut album released October 2022, embraces a rich spectrum of light and shadow, heat and cold. The ten-song collection’s palette of country, folk, indie rock, and punk reflects its makers’ coming-of-age in the rustbelt crossroads of north, south, east, & west. Engineered by Erik Koskinen and recorded live over a long, snowy weekend in Cleveland, Minnesota, the record showcases the band’s particular ability to conjure the beautiful in the broken, the silver in the ore.
Their friend MAXIMIANO will do an opening set. When singer-songwriter Max Janairo (they/them) performs by themself, they go by their full first name: Maximiano. For the last year and a half, Max has been writing and releasing music as part of the local band Crawlspace, during which time many songs that didn’t fit that group’s aesthetic were stored away. Since the band’s break-up, these songs have found new life and new meaning. Riding waves of indie folk orchestration, Maximiano’s plaintive voice conveys the heartbreak, love, and growth that continue to define the artist’s musical experiences. In live solo performances, Maximiano offers an intimate experience, one that lets the communal love of music overtake and renew the emotion of these songs.

CHARLIE PAINTER
2024-05-16 19:30 - 21:00
Ticket link follows bio.

CHARLIE PAINTER is a self-studied, self- producing, Madison-based guitarist, band leader and teacher since 2008. With 15 years of weekly/monthly residencies under his belt, Painter’s multi-conceptual approach is informed by years of performance, transcribing records by ear, and a recent mentorship under NYC Jazz guitarist Jordan Klemons since 2020.
*2022 Jazz At Five Performer
*2023 MAMA winner (Best Jazz Album – guitar on all tracks)
He will be appearing here with JEFF WEISS on upright bass. (Jeff played bass in Madison’s Harmonious Wail for six years and other big groups like The Big Payback.)

LONESOME BILL CAMPLIN
2024-05-17 20:00 - 22:00
Please call 920-563-9391 to reserve seats and to let us know if you will be dining here that evening.

ANCORA STRING QUARTET
2024-05-18 19:30 - 21:30
The quartet consists of Benjamin Whitcomb-cello, Wes Luke- violin, Robin Ryan- violin, and Sahada Buckley- viola.
For this spring program, they will be performing a late string quartet by Mozart, specifically the elegant D major quartet K575. To contrast with this, they have the very expressive second string quartet by Tchaikovsky. Finally, as a departure from both of these, they will perform Janacek’s first string quartet subtitled “The Kreutzer Sonata”, which was inspired by the Tolstoy novella by the same name.
Reminder to diners to please come an hour early.

pat mAcdonald
2024-05-19 18:30 - 20:30
Ticket link follows bio. We will open at 4:30, and will be serving food.
Since his techno-folk pioneering Timbuk3 days, pat mAcdonald has been tinkering in relative obscurity. His one-man electro-blues experiments of the late ’90s/early 2000s led to the Lowebow-driven proto-rock of Purgatory Hill. Life- threatening illness in 2016 brought a long pause.
Now, five years cancer free, he’s writing, rediscovering the six-string, and reanimating his pre-T3 acoustic roots with finger-style remakes from his back catalog. The new songs flirt with a twisted spirituality, hints of hope & optimism embraced and defaced by his trademark darkish humor.

SARAH MORRIS/ JILLIAN RAE
2024-05-24 20:15 - 22:15
Buy ticket link follows bios.
2018 Kerrville New Folk winner SARAH MORRIS’ endearingly honest, expertly penned songs deliberately miss the forest for the trees. Armed with a poignantly relatable rainy day ache in her sunlit voice, she weaves a winding path of masterful storytelling and timeless Americana melody that invites audiences to join her in celebrating the magic of our everyday minutia. Twice named the Midwest Country Music Organization’s Songwriter of the Year, Sarah has shared stages with greats like JD Souther, earned international airplay, and reached notable positions on the Americana Music Association and Euro Americana charts. Sarah’s fifth album of original material, Here’s To You, was released on May 5th, 2023.
Lauded as a “triple threat on vocals, fiddle and composition” (Star Tribune), JILLIAN RAE is a fiercely unique spirit who cares more about making authentic music than about conforming to expectations. The Minneapolis-based, classically trained violinist turned country fiddler has become a commanding international presence— writing powerful genre-bending songs, heading up her own critically acclaimed indie rock band, and backing up Grammy-winning acts like The Okee Dokee Brothers.

SAM KNUTSON/ Jeff Stehr
2024-05-25 20:00 - 22:00
Buy tickets following bios:
SAM KNUTSON is a singer-songwriter from Iowa City. His most recent album is Donkey Island. He is happy as a pig in *#*@ in a listening room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=d0-gRGmjEDU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7yy5pdcBYRQ
From the Shepherd Express: “Sam Knutson’s 2022 release Donkey Island is a collection of observational folk songs. “Already Gone” recalls John Hartford’s breezy melancholy, while “Prayer for the Downtown” leans into the lineage of fellow Iowan Greg Brown. The album’s sparse instrumentation allows Knutson’s songwriting to shine. In fact, his Bandcamp discography reveals a songwriter ripe for discovery. Milwaukeean Jeff Stehr’s fondly recalled Jamaica-centric combo The Tritonics and his current project Still No Tomatoes present him in collaborative settings.”
Opener Jeff Stehr is a glass half empty cognoscenti songwriter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His songs are mostly wordplay and present-day doomsday reportage propelled by one drop rhythms and held aloft on ukulele wings and guitar strings. Jamaican ingredients conspire and collaborate with folk, pop, rock and blues influences to get into your head and steal your heart, but all genres are accomplices.   When not performing solo, Jeff (guitar, ukulele, harmonica, vocals) is one third of Still No Tomatoes, a project launched in 2022 with his Tritonics bandmate Mike Lizzo (trombone, baritone horn, melodica, vocals) and recently expanded to trio format with the addition of bassist Mark Walczynski.
A perceptive reviewer’s comments on one of Still No Tomatoes’ duo shows last year noted observed…
“In the diminutive Milwaukee ensemble “Still No Tomatoes”, Jeff Stehr plays guitar and ukulele; Mike Lizzo, trombone and baritone. Although their music is mostly original, the texts of the proudly quirky duo are concerned with the familiar tropes and preoccupations that have long populated the American songbook.Yet the band comes across as triumphantly new. Perhaps it is the orchestration that allows for this impression. When was the last time that you heard a ukulele and trombone duet? When they sing together, their voices are intervallically close; the sound soft and certain. Lizzo plays his trombone or baritone softly as if loudly would be impolite. They take water from a fountain of diverse experience and dip into a deep pool of genres. What to call it? Currently, they describe their music as “Hodgepop”. This is accurate. Stehr takes generously from the songbook of his experience, plays around with the hodgepge he finds, and writes music that ranges from the witty to the poetic. Despite the impatience of its name, “Still No Tomatoes” is ripe for the table.”
Jeff is the co-founder and band leader of the Jamaican roots-inspired ensemble the Tritonics and has also been a member of the Best Westerns, the John Sieger Combo, the Mike Benign Compulsion, Mark Truesdell & The Lost Pioneers, World Roots, Brave New Groove and C-Food Buffet, who once accidentally opened for Jimmy Buffet at Alpine Valley Music Theater in 1990.

SONG CIRCLE w/ TRICIA ALEXANDER
2024-05-29 18:30 - 20:30
Round robin song circle 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 last Wednesday (switched from Thursday) 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.

TODD ALBRIGHT/ Adam Kiesling
2024-05-31 20:00 - 22:00
Ticket link follows bios.
TODD ALBRIGHT is a country blues, twelve string guitar player and vocalist based in Detroit, Michigan. Grounded in the pre-war era of the blues tradition (1880-1939), Todd is a mindful purveyor of blues history. His repertoire upholds musical pillars such as Blind Willie McTell, George Carter, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly. His life’s work continues the distinguished tradition of the very roots of American music as told by the African American musicians who created it.

Todd’s vigorous, gritty and soulful performances are accompanied by stories of the masters and a deep intuitive sense of respect for craft, providing audiences with a meaningful experience while creating a transcendent moment. One of the top blues guitarists in the world, Todd is the only contemporary twelve string player in his genre.
Todd began playing the blues while still a teenager, some twenty-five years ago. Initially, he was drawn to the sound of the finger-picked style and has since immersed himself in the foundational music and narratives of American culture. Over the years, Todd has shared the stage with artists such as Roy Book Binder, Charlie Parr, Paul Geremia, and Dakota Dave Hull.
Todd’s first full-length LP, Fourth Floor Visitor, was released by Jett Plastic Recordings out of Detroit, Michigan (2017). His latest album, Detroit Twelve String: Blues & Rags, is out now on Third Man Records (2017).
ADAM KIESLING will open. His favorite thing to do is play his guitar and back up a good oldtime fiddler. He got his start playing bass as a teenager in south-eastern Wisconsin, and ended up playing more guitar after moving to the Twin Cities in the early 90s, where he fell down the rabbit hole of flatpicked fiddle tunes à la Norman Blake and the country blues of Mississippi John Hurt. Adam started playing old-time string band music around 2000 and spent some time with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, the Mill City Grinders, and also had a stint as the bass player for Pert Near Sandstone from 2010 to 2014. In addition to performing as a solo artist, Adam’s main musical output has been with Corpse Reviver, a Minneapolis-based trio who focuses on the music found on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. His latest solo recording, Down The River I Go, was released in September of 2023.

ACOUSTIC OPEN STAGE
2024-06-01 18:30 - 20:30
This is an acoustic open stage, sound system set up in advance, just stand up and play.
Share your songs (or stories- storytellers welcome) in a two song (think 7-9 minutes) rotation with whoever else is there to play, being respectful of others.
Please support our business by buying drink and/or food.

SETH BERNARD
2024-06-06 20:00 - 22:00
TICKET LINK follows bio.
SETH BERNARD came to an understanding early that music, poetry and art, along with activism, farming and earth science, all intertwine into one great work. Probably because of the crowded farm dinner table, where books of poetry, tapes of jazz, blues, rock n’ roll and traditional music, guests of all kinds, and even the occasional raptor being rehabbed all shared space. Some folks call this “folklife,” and in Seth’s music it’s as likely to show up through a Casio SK-1 or a Gretsch electric as much as a fiddle or high harmony.
In recent years, Bernard has launched the Clean Water Campaign for Michigan, a social movement using storytelling and music to uplift the groundswell of support for water issues, and Title Track, a non-profit organization engaging creative practice to work for clean water, racial equity, and youth empowerment.
“I know that the future of music is in good hands with people like Seth around to be its caretaker. More importantly, I know the future of our world is in good hands.”– Greg Brown, Folk Legend
“This music not only swings, rocks, and grooves – it matters. It’s the voice of a real community, with a sound and a message the world needs to hear.” – Bill McKibben, Author, environmentalist, journalist
“The argument for the most influential human in the Michigan music uprising of the past decade may begin and end with one Seth Bernard.” – Jack Clark, Red House Concerts

MARK STUART
2024-06-07 20:00 - 22:00
Ticket link follows bio.
MARK STUART spends every year as a full-time working artist and musician. Mostly performing his own unique shows, doing singer-songwriter concerts, he can be witnessed excelling as a band guitarist at hometown Nashville, Tennessee gigs or sessions, too.
Notable artists such as Freddy Fender, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, and Steve Forbert have employed him for his musicianship. In a duo act with his artist wife, Stacey Earle, he spent thousands of days on tour and released many albums on their own independent label, Gearle Records.
Whether it be Cambridge Folk Festival, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, MTV, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival, Merlefest, or countless small festivals and theaters, Stuart’s storytelling, guitar playing, vocals, or songs have caught the attention of music lovers.
When asked to define Mark Stuart’s music it is virtually impossible, as his versatility screams out loud. Rock, blues, folk, country, and more are evident in his performance. Electric, acoustic, slide guitar-all make up his musical toolbox. Travis-style, Chicago blues, honky tonk country, finger-style folk-all are there when you hear him. His songs are oftentimes autobiographic pieces, but, can be constructed from the viewpoint of a lifelong troubadour who is paying attention to the world he sees around him. He could, at any given time, toss a Paul McCartney or John Fogerty or Woodie Guthrie song into his set.

THE FLYING CHAUCERS
2024-06-08 20:00 - 22:00
THE FLYING CHAUCERS aka Daniel Connolly and Keralee Gueneviere —
began auspiciously and explosively in 2013 when K stumbled upon D’s gig on a subzero night in a famous Chicago dive bar. With her face towards a Guinness and her back towards the band, Keralee heard Daniel’s empyrean harmonies and delicatatious finger pluckings; then turned around to “face the music..”
Since then, in the great bardic tradition, The Chaucers have sung together and separately to Kings & Queens, commoners and communists, miscreants and magistrates, luminaries and lay-bouts, the pretentious and the still-pretending in Chicago, Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville, Wisconsin and points beyond…
And…. if you aren’t too darn careful they are going to come to your house and sing to you! Join in the fun wherever you can find us; two hot meals, a bed and some scratch for the road keeps us going a long, long time. Influenced by the great Crosby Stills Nash, Neil Young, Fairport Convention, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt, John Prine, Wilco, America’s Best Contacts, The International House of Pancakes, Harry Nielson and oh yeah America’s biggest ball of twine!

3 legged SHITUNAUTS-day 1 of 4 Thursday
2024-06-13 20:00 - 22:00
WILLY PORTER RANDY SABIEN BILL CAMPLIN
(Peter Mulvey found something worse to do.)

3 legged SHITUNAUTS- day 2 of 4 Friday
2024-06-14 20:30 - 22:30

3-legged SHITUNAUTS- day 3 of 4 Saturday
2024-06-15 20:30 - 22:30

SHITUNAUTS- day 4 of 4- Sunday
2024-06-16 18:00 - 20:00
WILLY PORTER RANDY SABIEN BILL CAMPLIN
(Peter Mulvey found something worse to do.)
We will open at 4, and are serving food. Please come at least an hour early if you plan on eating here.

ROD MACDONALD
2024-06-20 19:30 - 21:30
ROD MACDONALD ticket link follows bio
Some of you may know Rod from the days he played at Charlotte’s Web in Rockford. His visits to the Midwest are rare, so take advantage of this opportunity.
Rod MacDonald is an American singer-songwriter, novelist, and educator.[1] He was a “big part of the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich Village clubs”,[2] performing at the Speakeasy, The Bottom Line, Folk City, and the “Songwriter’s Exchange” at the Cornelia Street Cafe. He co-founded the Greenwich Village Folk Festival. He is perhaps best known for his songs “American Jerusalem“, about the “contrast between the rich and the poor in Manhattan” (Sing Out!), “A Sailor’s Prayer”, “Coming of the Snow”, “Every Living Thing”, and “My Neighbors in Delray”, a description of the September 11 hijackers’ last days in Delray Beach, Florida, where MacDonald has lived since 1995. His songs have been covered by Dave Van Ronk, Shawn Colvin, Four Bitchin’ Babes, Jonathan Edwards, Garnet Rogers, Joe Jencks, and others. His 1985 recording “White Buffalo” is dedicated to Lakota Sioux ceremonial chief and healer Frank Fools Crow, whom he visited in 1981 and 1985, and who appears with MacDonald in the cover photograph. Since 1995 MacDonald has lived in south Florida, where his cd, “Later that Night” was named “Best Local Cd of 2014” by The Palm Beach Post [3] and reached the top ten in national roots music charts. His first novel, The Open Mike, about a young man in the open mike scene of Greenwich Village, was published on December 5, 2014, by Archway Publishing.[4] On May 1, 2018, MacDonald released his 13th solo recording, “Beginning Again,” on Blue Flute Music.[5]

MIKE COMPTON & JOE NEWBERRY
2024-06-21 20:30 - 22:30
MIKE COMPTON and JOE NEWBERRY, masters of old-time mandolin and banjo/guitar, dig deep into early country music and blues. Their duet-singing, two-man string band ranges between traditional songs, instrumentals, ‘mother’ ballads and original tunes. It’s not about the number of notes with Compton and Newberry, but telling the truth and respecting the song. More bio following ticket link.

Mike Compton is a Grammy award winner, IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year nominee, a steady sideman for John Hartford from 1994 until Hartford’s death in 2001, and mandolinist for the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Mike is inarguably the world expert on Bill Monroe-style bluegrass mandolin, and is also steeped in old-time fiddle tunes, early string band music and Delta blues. He’s entertained from Carnegie Hall and the White House to our house.
Known far and wide for his powerful banjo playing, Joe Newberry is a prize-winning guitarist, songwriter, and singer to boot. In addition to his work with Mike, Joe plays with fiddler and step-dancer April Verch. He was a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, and was a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions. He won the songwriting prize for “Gospel Recorded Performance” at the 2012 IBMA Awards for his song, Singing As We Rise, and was co-writer, with Eric Gibson, of the 2013 IBMA Song of the Year for They Called It Music.

JOY CLARK
2024-06-22 20:00 - 22:00
JOY CLARK is a New Orleans-born singer-songwriter, lyrical guitarist and composer who creates soulful compositions that celebrate peace and the undeniable power of love. Her intricate rhythms and warm melodies reveal a sweet vulnerability that have enchanted audiences around the world. Growing up the daughter of a minister, she learned to create an atmosphere ripe for an emotional experience. She believes music is her ministry and intimacy is her superpower. Listen to Joy’s latest single “Good Thing” wherever you get your music.
SistaStrings say “Joy Clark is hands down one of our favorite musicians making music right now. With meaningful lyrics and her own distinct style of guitar playing, this will certainly be a night you don’t want to miss!!”
(You may have seen her perform with her (and our) pals Allison Russell and SistaStrings.)

SONG CIRCLE w/ TRICIA ALEXANDER
2024-06-26 18:30 - 20:30
Round robin song circle 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 last Wednesday (formerly Thursday) 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.

GRANT PEEPLES/ The Rough and Tumble
2024-06-28 20:00 - 22:00
A self-described “tree-hugger that watches NASCAR,” GRANT PEEPLES is known for his axe-sharp socio-political tunes, raucous humor and heart-gigging ballads. More bio follows ticket link.

He is the recipient of the Focus Foundation Award for Creative Excellence, which cited the “humor, compassion and wisdom of his songs,” and their “unflinching social insight and cultural acuity.” Grant tours coast to coast, and is a regular performer at The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, the 30A Songwriters Festival, and The Florida, Folk Festival. January 2019 marked a second tour in The Netherlands, where FolkForum.nl described him “…a pure storyteller, in the best American folk tradition…” and his show “…one of those gems that you will remember for a long time…”
Gurf Morlix, who has produced Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen, and Slaid Cleaves—has produced five of Grant’s records, including his most recent release of original songs, “Settling Scores Vol II” (2018), and a special release, ‘Bad Wife,’ (Feb 2020) a collection of songs written by women songwriters, a tribute to women in the year of the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote in the US.
Grant has invited The Rough and Tumbleis a toe-tapping bluegrass/Americana duo from New Hampshire, to open for him
“The Rough & Tumble make music that’s progressive folk style, rooted in acoustic bluegrass, with lyrics that are provocative and sensitive on each side as you flip the coin.” ~ Americana Highways

BILL CAMPLIN & MICHAEL HECHT
2024-06-29 20:00 - 21:30
Please call 920-563-9391 to reserve seats and let us know if you will dine here that night.
Literary artist MICHAEL HECHT will read excerpts from speeches or literature, and BILL CAMPLIN will sing a song between each excerpt. Readings this time will be from Jimmy Baca,Van Gogh, Mary Oliver, Tennesee Williams, and Hecht himself.
They have done this collaboration many times with different readings, and really enjoy the concept, as have those in attendance.

CLOSED JULY 3 thru JULY 11
2024-07-03 08:00 - 2024-07-12 11:30
celebrating our independence

PIPER ROAD
2024-07-12 20:30 - 22:30
PIPER ROAD for this run is:

Randal Harrison – Fiddle
Bob Mason – Mandolin
John Widdicombe — Bass
Mike Schmidt- Banjo
Barry Riese — Guitar – Vocals
Bill Kangaroo — Washboard

Piper Road Spring Band was born into the age of rock & roll with individual backgrounds diverse as classical, cowboy, folk, blues and Dixieland. Influenced by some live performances of Doc Watson and Bill Monroe and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band release of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” in the early 1970’s, they put away the electric amps and guitars and developed a unique acoustic/bluegrass style. They never completely abandoned their musical roots and have blended Irish fiddle tunes with American country, big band, novelty and space-aged Grateful Dead inspired jams.
The band continues to swing! With their strong bond of friendship, commitment to quality musicianship and continuing support of a strong fan base, Piper Road invites you to join them as their show hits the road. The current Piper Road roster has accumulated over 100 years of experience performing together.

DRIFTLESS REVELERS
2024-07-13 20:30 - 22:30
Buy tickets below. Bio will follow ticket link.

A DRIFTLESS REVELERS show will lure you in with their joy–keep you dancing with their search for the cosmic groove in the confines of stringed instruments–and will send you on your way with flashbacks of the Driftless Revelry found only in the essence of the intangible reaches of notes once played– that then fall silent.
“Scrappy string-based freak-folk, featuring songs like ‘Meat Raffle Mambo,’ ‘Wisconsin Saturday Nights’ and ‘Jesus Shaves’ that both revere and good-naturedly poke fun at state culture — [The Driftless Revelers] may remind listeners of Lou and Peter Berryman or even the old Free Hot Lunch! band.”–Isthmus Magazine, Madison, WI.

​”It’s a little ‘out there’: Driftless Revelers release American Fork Standards–Volume One Magazine, Eau Claire

The Driftless Revelers formed in the second spring of the first global pandemic of the 21st century, with one ear turned toward the shellac platters and Victrola virtuosos of the early to mid 20th century, and the other ear glued to the soundscapes of the 1960’s & 1970’s American freak-folk scene.

​Featuring the original songwriting of Ben Nelson, Matthew R. Sayles, and Jerod Kaszynski, the Driftless Revelers will pleasure a crowd with plectral banjo tones, the mournful wailing of resophonic steel guitars, and the up-right bass bellows of an era that can’t quite be defined, but revels in the timeless ephemera of weird old-time American music.

​With influences as varied and eccentric as a proper musty smelling thrift store record collection, the band grooves merrily through early roots blues and jazz music, to hillbilly and string band howlers, all the way into the not-quite folk but not-quite psychedelic realms of their own creation. bellows of an era that can’t quite be defined, but revels in the timeless ephemera of weird old-time American music.

LES OISEAUX/ Sam Landowski
2024-07-17 19:30 - 21:30
Please call 920-563-9391 to reserve seats and to let us know if you will be eating here that night.
Otherwise known as the glocal celebrity couple PINCYNTH, Jeremy Pinc and Cynthia Holt are spreading their “ailes” and taking off in a new artistic direction. Expect to be transported to new heights by their soaring harmonies and migrate across lakes of poetic beauty as LES OISEAUX dip their beaks in the feathered nest that is LE CAFE CARPE.
Home-grown Sam Landowski opens.

ORDINARY ELEPHANT
2024-07-18 20:00 - 22:00
Full bio follows ticket link.

Mesmerizing folk duo ORDINARY ELEPHANT has spent the better part of the last decade on a never-ending tour that’s earned married couple Crystal and Pete Damore widespread critical acclaim and made fans of luminaries like Tom Paxton and Mary Gauthier. In 2017, the pair took home the International Folk Music Award for Artist of the Year on the strength of their breakout album, Before I Go, and two years later, they returned with the similarly lauded Honest, which the Associated Press hailed as “one of the best Americana albums of the year.”
The band’s new stripped-down, self-titled collection is the purest distillation of their sound yet, showcasing the arresting power of the couple’s gorgeous harmonies and intricate fretwork. The songs are timeless, rooted in rich, character-driven storytelling, and the performances are similarly transportive, fueled by delicately intertwined banjo, guitar, and octave mandolin. Though the songs were born out of a period of deep uncertainty, the record itself is a work of profound self-assurance, one delivered by a duo whose personal and professional lives embody the limitless possibility of honest, organic collaboration. Press play on Ordinary Elephant and you’ll hear more than just a husband and wife; you’ll hear the sound of sincerity and commitment, of patience and gratitude, of learning to let go of expectation and revel in the simple beauty of the moment.
“I’m a big fan of Ordinary Elephant—their intimate songs, the weaving harmonies, and the stories that draw you in as if you were gathered around an enchanted campfire.”- Eliza Gilkyson
“It is pure. It’s masterful. It is brilliant in the simplicity of two voices and two instruments spinning together, intertwining in utter beauty and perfection, even in its imperfections.”- Red Line Roots
“Ordinary Elephant showcase folk music at its best. Commentary of social issues, a focus on the importance of family and seeking out the highest human aspirations, delivered with tender care and precision – never over-playing or needing to throw in tricks.”- Listening Through The Lens
