CLOSED on the 4th of July
2019-07-04 08:00 - 23:00 (America/Chicago)
CLOSED

OPEN STAGE
2019-07-06 18:30 - 21:00

NEW PIONEERS
2019-07-11 19:00 - 21:30
This five piece bluegrass ball of fire featuring vocals, banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass and mandolin appears here regularly on the 2nd Thursday of the month- except when they don’t. Its various members have been involved with traditional music locally, regionally, and nationally for many years.
The Pioneer’s lead singer and guitarist, Jerry Wicentowski, has been described by country music historian Bill Malone as “One of the finest singers in bluegrass music”. Jerry has also performed and recorded with such bluegrass greats as Tim O’Brien, Andy Statman, Byron Berline, Tony Trischka and others. Mike Schmidt of Spring Green, Wisconsin, is the group’s banjo player. This former French horn player has been a Nashville session musician and member of the popular Wisconsin-based bluegrass bands, Alive ‘n’ Pickin’ and the Piper Road Spring Band. He also performs occasionally with his wife Lori. Bruce King of Art Stevenson and High Water – also formerly of Alive ‘n’ Pickin’ – is on mandolin. Bruce and Mike are veterans of the Great Northern Bluegrass Festival in Mole Lake, WI – performing there every year from 1977 to 1982. Fiddle player Paul Kienitz is a member in good standing of regional bluegrass favorites, The Nob Hill Boys. Bass player John Jirak also has played banjo with various folks in the northeastern WI and Madison areas, most notably with the Green Bay based Fox River Flyer. As a bass player, he’s performed shows with the Chicago Bluegrass Band, Miltown Ramblers, Krause Family, Old Cool, Spare Time Bluegrass Band, Bob Steeno and The Old Truck, and Down From the Hills, and currently Madison’s newest, Kettle Moraine.
Like them on Facebook.

COMEDY/ OPERA- "FISH FRY"
2019-07-12 18:30 - 20:00
A surprise addition to our schedule:
“FISH FRY: COMEDY, OPERA and a SECRET RECIPE, a collaboration of two talented Madison-based companies, TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater and Fresco Opera Theatre.
It’s Guys on Ice meets Chopped for A Night at the Opera. In this production, Sal, host of the best fish fry on Lake Cattywompus, announces a series of challenges to find a successor. Action, intrigue, unexpected romance, and arias from famous operas (but with new lyrics) take the stage. Join us for good fun, and, of course, singing fish.
If you can, please call 920-563-9391 to let us know you plan on coming. Donations will be accepted.

THE BOSTON IMPOSTERS
2019-07-13 20:30 - 22:30
Now Boston-based, these Midwesterners return home for a family reunion and seize the opportunity to perform here.
THE BOSTON IMPOSTERS are Maire Clement and Davey Harrison.
Davey is a string musician. Hailing from England, he plays mandolin, guitar, and banjo. A classically trained singer, he mainly uses his voice to perform his own contemporary folk songs.
Maire is a soprano and singer-songwriter. Her highly diverse voice crosses genres effortlessly. For more info, see MaireClement.com
Please call 920-563-9391 to reserve seats.

ROD PICOTT/ Jim Hoehn
2019-07-18 19:30 - 22:00
Seventeen years ago ROD PICOTT dropped his tool belt, picked up an acoustic guitar and released his first album Tiger Tom Dixon’s Blues. The acclaimed debut put a nail in the coffin of his construction career and ignited his second career as a singer-songwriter.
July 19th 2019 finds Rod releasing his eleventh album, titled Tell The Truth & Shame The Devil. The new album is completely acoustic, featuring only guitar, harmonica and Picott’s weathered vocals. Many of the songs on Tell The Truth & Shame The Devil are influenced by a health scare that Picott endured in the winter of 2018. The condition was hunted down and solved but the weeks long incident of a freight train running through his chest played a profound role in the writing and recording of the album.
Alone with his modest recording gear, Picott set about making an album as honest, raw and uncontrived as his spine would allow. Already known for the intimacy and vivid narratives of his previous work, Tell The Truth & Shame The Devil opens the door wider still. The songs are confessional and honest. The recording itself is unpolished and raw. Tell The Truth & Shame The Devil takes a small turn away from the blue collar anthems he’s been lauded for and finds Picott exploring his own inner life with the same deft and revealing hand he’s honed over the last nineteen years. Rod Picott’s health is now in check.
Picott’s eye for the revealing detail and sense of empathy has brought praise from music critics since his debut.
“Picott sings with a bare and bones grace reminiscent of Springsteen’s Nebraska and the off the cuff lyrical and musical directness of the late Jason Molina. Too many important artists fly under the musical radar today, and Picott is yet another valid wordsmith that needs to be heard.” – Glide Magazine
Jim Höehn will do a short opening set at 7:30.
Jim is a career journalist/author/songwriter who has carved out a surprisingly successful niche as a performing songwriter. During his journalism career – much of it spent as a sportswriter – Hoehn has covered everything from plane crashes to murder trials to the Super Bowl and the Hong Kong 7s rugby tournament.
As a source of family editorial pride, he’s also the guy who broke the Jeffrey Dahmer story for the National Enquirer. As a songwriter, he’s opened for the likes of Warren Zevon, Rodney Crowell, Roger McGuinn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Don Williams, Marty Stuart, James McMurtry, Todd Snider and many others.
Please call 920-563-9391 to reserve.

PIPER ROAD
2019-07-19 20:30 - 23:00
Tickets will be sold through Brown Paper Tickets. Click on Buy tickets to get yourself some:

PIPER ROAD is:
Randal Harrison – Fiddle
Bob Mason – Mandolin
Mark Hembree — Bass
Barry Riese — Guitar – Vocals
Bill Kangaroo — Washboard
Piper Road 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.

LONESOME BILL CAMPLIN
2019-07-20 20:30 - 22:30

SCOTT AINSLIE
2019-07-24 20:00 - 22:00
SCOTT AINSLIE has studied with elder musicians on both sides of the color line – in the Old-Time Southern Appalachian fiddle and banjo traditions, as well as Black Gospel and Blues. He plays this music with affection, authority, and power.
Armed with a variety of instruments – vintage guitars, a fretless gourd banjo, a one-string, homemade diddley bow (aka cigar box guitar) and carefully chosen historical personal anecdotes of his encounters with senior musicians across the South – Ainslie brings the history, roots music, and sounds of America alive.
Ainslie has spent more than 30 years looking for the right story, the right set of facts, the right piece of history, to introduce a song. He offers a personality, a moment in history, a vignette to entice you into a song and to give that song a chance to wake and breathe among us like a living thing.
Ainslie transcribed the original recordings and published a book on Delta blues legend Robert Johnson [Robert Johnson/At The Crossroads (Hal Leonard, 1992)], and has an instructional DVD on Johnson’s guitar work [Robert Johnson’s Guitar Techniques (Hal Leonard, 1997)].
“Durham resident Scott Ainslie led the way, accompanied by his trusty National Steel guitar and a heart full of the best of Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, and Blind Blake. His set was a combination of extremely well-played blues and brief sorties into the history of the music, the musicians, and even his guitar. ” The Spectator, Durham NC
Please call 920-563-9391 to reserve.

SONG CIRCLE w/ TRICIA ALEXANDER
2019-07-25 18:30 - 21:00
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 regularly on the last Thursday of each month (except sometimes, like this time, when it is the second to the last Thursday).

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.

BEN DE LA COUR- brand new addition to schedule
2019-07-27 20:30 - 22:30
An unexpected show just fell in our lap. The talented Nashville songwriter BEN DE LA COUR would otherwise have been wandering aimlessly after a gig cancellation, so we lassoed him into performing here.
There may even be a surprise guest. or two.
What happens when the unstoppable force of our dreams meets the immovable object of reality? It’s unclear… but Ben de la Cour is hell-bent on finding out.
Raised in Brooklyn, Ben was playing New York City dive bars with his brother a full decade before he could legally drink. A high-school dropout and former amateur boxer, he received his education by listening to his parent’s record collection – full of everything from Bob Dylan and The Everly Brothers to Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the tender age of nineteen he spent a year in Havana training with members of the Cuban national boxing team before moving to London with his brother to revive their doom metal band, Dead Man’s Root. They lived in a van and toured around Europe until 2008 when de la Cour returned to the states with a head full of softer, bruised, but no less intense acoustic songs later described by No Depression as “brimming with urgent authenticity”.
Following a short stint in Los Angeles, Ben passed through New Orleans on tour and decided to stay. He released Ghost Light in 2011 but was soon on the move again, this time winding up in Nashville where he crashed on friends’ couches and worked as a doorman until finding his footing.
De la Cour’s second album Midnight in Havana came out in 2016 on Flour Sack Cape Records and was met with critical acclaim from outlets like The Huffington Post, No Depression, and The Nashville Scene, with one journalist dubbing him “a vitriolic Leonard Cohen”. That same year he won the prestigious New Folk Competition at the 2016 Kerrville Folk Festival.
“I like stories that are specific and I don’t like them to be preachy” Ben continues. “If I think I’m being preached to or if there’s an agenda at play – I’m out of there. I think a lot of people feel that way. When I say I think this album is about dissolution, I mean it on a personal level. How do we cope with this feeling of being lost and unmoored? What happens to relationships when they fall apart? What happens when the unstoppable force of our dreams meets the immovable object of reality? Well, what usually happens is that it turns out our dreams aren’t quite as unstoppable as we once thought!”
In 2018 Ben de la Cour released The High Cost of Living Strange, eight tracks of his self-proclaimed Americanoir style – weaving what Maverick describes as “rich and uncompromising narratives of lyrical fierceness and rough beauty” with a unique blend of instrumental backing and the occasional glimpse of gallows humor. Along with his unique perspective towards songwriting and his lyrical attention to detail, de la Cour has a veracious studio ideology; live tracking, minimal overdubs, no headphones, one room, and just a couple of days. “I’m like a bargain basement Cowboy Jack Clement!” he jokes.
The High Cost of Living Strange debuted at #22 on the Euro Americana Charts and received high praise from American Songwriter, No Depression, NPR and Daytrotter amongst others as well as fellow songwriters and sometimes touring partners such as Adam Carroll, Jon Dee Graham and Rod Picott. Ben de la Cour currently spends over a hundred days a year on the road touring the U.S, Canada and Europe.
Come enjoy, and give alms de la Cour.
If you can, please call 920-563-9391 to reserve seats.
