The Sugar Maple Concert Series is thrilled to welcome Ray Bonneville to the North Street Cabaret Friday, November 15. Tickets here!

Packing his 9^th studio album, At King Electric, acclaimed songwriter and master of the groove, Ray Bonneville has a pack full of new songs to share.

Ray Bonneville is a poet of the demimonde who didn’t write his first song until his early 40s, some 20 years after he started performing. But with a style that sometimes draws comparisons to JJ Cale and Daniel Lanois, this blues-influenced, New Orleans-inspired “song and groove man,” as he’s been so aptly described, luckily found his rightful calling. 

Born in Quebec, his family moved to Boston when he was 12. He served a year in Vietnam as a Marine, struggled and overcame drug addiction, earned a pilot’s license in Colorado, then moved to Alaska, then Seattle, and Paris and New Orleans. But it took a close call while piloting a seaplane across the Canadian wilderness to make him decide it was time to get busy writing songs – gritty narratives inspired by a lifetime of hard-won knowledge set against his gritty, soulful guitar and harmonica playing.

He’s since earned many accolades, including a Juno Award for his 1999 album, Gust of Wind. His post-Katrina ode, “I Am the Big Easy,” earned the International Folk Alliance’s 2009 Song of the Year Award, and in 2012, Bonneville won the solo/duet category in the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge. He has guested on albums by Mary Gauthier, Gurf Morlix, Eliza Gilkyson, Ray Wylie Hubbard and other prominent artists, and shared songwriting credits with Tim O’Brien, Phil Roy and Morlix, among others. Slaid Cleaves placed Bonneville’s “Run Jolee Run” on his lauded 2009 album, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away.

An Austin, TX resident since 2006, Bonneville still puts the rhythms and soul of New Orleans into much of his music. His songs carry a groove and momentum that’s uniquely his — and will always be a part of him, no matter where he roams.

The Sugar Maple Concert Series moves outdoors this summer in collaboration with the Biergarten at Olbrick Park. The line-up includes:

June 15, Saturday – Caravan Gypsy Swing (5:30 – 7:30PM)
June 22, Saturday – SpareTime Bluegrass (5:30 – 7:30PM)
July 20, Saturday – Benefit Day for Community Shares; No Name Stringband (5:30 – 7:30PM)
July 26, Friday – Mal-O-Dua (5:30 – 7:30PM)
August 10, Saturday – Oak Street Ramblers (5:30 – 7:30PM)

We are also pleased to present the Second Folk Friday events at Bos Meadery!

The Second Folk Friday is a free folk showcase featuring local Americana, folk, and bluegrass musicians on the second Friday of each month. The June show features Corey Mathew Hart.

Join us in our support of local music and music venues!

If you are looking for some hot music to get you through the cold days of winter, look no further! The Sugar Maple folks are supporting, sponsoring and featuring a number of artists and events in the coming weeks.

Nickel&Rose, Carl Nichols (guitar) and Johanna Rose (upright bass) playing Folk, Blues, Jazz and Country with world music influence, kick things off January 24th at the North Street Cabaret. Details here.

The Cajun tunes of T’Monde will spice things up when they take the stage at the North Street Cabaret on January 31. T’Monde is the Acadian phenomenon that Offbeat Magazine has called “a creative fusion of classic country and out-of-the-way Cajun.” With a combined 10 GRAMMY nominations between members Drew Simon, Megan Brown, and Kelli Jones, T’Monde brings influences ranging from early Country music to ancient French and Creole ballads to present day Cajun music. Details here.

The music keeps coming when The Tillers hit the town! The Tillers will be heating up the Rathskellar February 2 as part of the UW Winter Carnival. Details here.

Bring the whole family to the 18th annual United Way Bluegrass Fundraiser on February 10 and dance away your winter blues. Band line-up and ticket info here.

And finally, join us as we welcome Lula Wiles back to town on February 28! details here.

For these events and more, check out the our Facebook page.

We’re thrilled to welcome Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore to the North Street Cabaret on Thursday, November 8 at 8 pm as part of the on-going Sugar Maple Concert Series.

Grammy Award winner Mollie O’Brien became known to the rest of the world as a singer’s singer when, in 1988, she and her brother Tim released the first of three critically acclaimed albums for Sugar Hill Records (Take Me Back, Remember Me and Away Out on the Mountain). Eventually, Mollie recorded five equally well-received solo albums (Tell It True, Big Red Sun and Things I Gave Away for Sugar Hill Records, and I Never Move Too Soon and Everynight in the Week for Resounding Records). Additionally, she was a regular on the nationally syndicated radio show A Prairie Home Companion from 2001 through 2005. She’s long been known as a singer who doesn’t recognize musical boundaries, and audiences love her fluid ability to make herself at home in any genre while never sacrificing the essence of the song she tackles. O’Brien has primarily focused her efforts on the fading art of interpretation and the end result is a singer at the very top of her game who is not afraid to take risks both vocally and in the material she chooses.

Husband Rich Moore has busied himself in the Colorado music scene for many years. While staying home with the kids when Mollie and Tim toured, he held a day job and continued to perform locally with a variety of Colorado favorites, including Pete Wernick and Celeste Krenz. Not only is Moore known to produce some of the funniest onstage running commentary, he’s also a powerhouse guitar player who can keep up with O’Brien’s twists and turns from blues to traditional folk to jazz to rock and roll. He creates a band with just his guitar and, as a result, theirs is an equal partnership.

Tickets on sale here

On their sixth full-length studio release, North Carolina-based Nu-Blu delivers a set of songs that range from the melancholy to the exuberant, and at every step they prove they?ve got a knack for finding their way into the deeper parts of you. 

Hailing from Siler City, the textbook definition of a picturesque small southern town, Nu-Blu’s heart and soul is husband-and-wife duo Daniel and Carolyn Routh. Carolyn’s caramel-coated soprano is one of the band’s defining traits, at times a tender lullaby, at times a freight train headed straight for you, but always unwinding a surprising tale. Daniel is the group’s backbone, a multi-instrumentalist and backing vocalist who also runs the band’s business. Calder Baker on vocals and banjo, and Justin Harrison on mandolin and fiddle round out the quartet’s warm, layered, Appalachian sound. Together they deliver upbeat, blazing-fingers pick work just as well as gentle, heartwarming ballads, and they do it all with a natural togetherness that can’t be faked, forged over hundreds of shows on the road.

North Street Cabaret
Thursday, May 24, 2018 at 8 pm

General Admission
Advance $10
Day of show $15