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by dasspunk on Apr 5th, 2012

Mark your calendars for the the 2012 Kick Off Concert! Saturday April 28th, 2012 at 5pm at the High Noon Saloon. We are presenting a special early family friendly concert featuring Dave Landau http://www.happytrails.biz/ (children’s entertainer extraordinaire) and the Cash Box Kings acoustic set, featuring Oscar Wilson, Joel Paterson, Beau Sample and Joe Nosek!

During the show take advantage of early bird, two-day, bargain basement price fest tickets priced at $25.00 each. Tickets are available at this price only on this day! You can also sign up for to volunteer at the fest, or join are mailing list. Tickets to the concert are $10 per person and available at the door. Humans 12 and under free with adult (so no excuses about not finding a baby-sitter)! Food will also be available for purchase from the Brass Ring.

by dasspunk on Sep 18th, 2011

Mike Compton will be playing a VERY rare solo performance at the Cafe Carpe, in Fort Atkinson, on Wednesday, Sept 21st (8pm). Mike will be playing and singing tunes off of his soon to be released solo record, including many of his unreleased original tunes.

You’ve probably heard Mike’s mastery of the mandolin from his work on two award winning projects: “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” and “Down From the Mountain”. And maybe you’ve caught him with The John Hartford String Band (or maybe with John himself!), The Nashville Bluegrass Band, or with Elvis Costello. But unless you live in Australia, you’ve probably not seen his solo show.

Now’s your chance!

The Carpe is in downtown Fort Atkinson, right off the Rock River and features excellent food, great beers and a great sounding, intimate listening room. Seating is very limited at the Carpe so reservations are recommended.

To reserve seats ($10) call the carpe at 920-563-939.

by dasspunk on Aug 7th, 2011

Please join us Friday, Aug 19, 2011 at 9pm at the Crystal Corner Bar for an evening of rockabilly, roots, & Bluegrass from Nashville with Sugar Maple fest alumni Jeff & Vida! This is their first show in Madison since their debut at the 2007 Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival. And this time, they have their full, five-piece band as featured on their 2010 release “Selma Chalk” heralded by Bluegrass Unlimited “contemporary bluegrass at its finest.” Sharing the stage is Madison’s native folk son, Josh Harty, and his band!

The first 40 Festival Volunteers & Friends (ages 21+) sporting an official Sugar Maple t-shirt get FREE admission! And perhaps a party favor, or two, but you’ll have to join us to find out. Grab your Sugar Maple shirt, and a friend or two, as we celebrate the volunteers and friends who make the Sugar Maple Trad. Music Fest a huge success!

by dasspunk on Apr 23rd, 2011

The Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective will host the Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival Kick Off Show on Friday, May 6th, 9:00 PM at the High Noon Saloon, in Madison, Wisconsin. The kick off show with feature two artists that played the Festival last year: The Modern Sounds and the Currach.

The Modern Sounds is a Chicago based trio featuring Joel Paterson on guitar and vocals; Beau Sample on string bass and vocals; Alex Hall on drums and vocals. This big little band is dedicated to performing traditional American music; specializing in rockabilly, hot jazz, western swing, classic blues and everything in between.

The Currach, features Darl Ridgley on bodhrán, Josh Perkins on guitar and Daithi Wolf on fiddle. This group is a Madison institution in the Irish traditional music scene, treating audiences with lively jigs and reels—“the stuff that’s been played in Irish pubs for hundreds of years,” according to Daithi Wolfe.

During the show, fans will have the opportunity to purchase weekend passes to the 2011 Sugar Maple Festival at a special Kick Off Show price of only $25! Amongst the acts lined up for this year’s Fest are Chulrua, a traditional Irish band who delivers music that has been handed down from generation to generation in Ireland, and folk legend Greg Brown, whose songwriting has been recorded by the likes of Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Shawn Colvin, and many more.

by dasspunk on Mar 10th, 2010

Shotgun Party returns to Madison to headline the 2010 Sugar Maple Festival Kick Off Concert at the High Noon Saloon, Friday, April 30th. The show also features Frog Water (2009 alumns) and Jim James and the Damn Shames. During the show we will be announcing the lineup for the 2010 Sugar Maple Fest and you’ll be able to purchase the ever popular extremely early, early bird special price on a weekend pass for only $20! The Kickoff Concert starts promptly at 8pm (21 and up) and is a modest $10 cover charge.

The original Shotgun Party trio met in a little Texas dive bar in 2006. They got their start performing weekly at Austin’s own Continental Club. Sparks flew and now Shotgun Party, the Austin based trio, really knows how to fire up a crowd! Their original songs are beautiful and timeless drawing influences from early blues, country, bluegrass and depression era swing. Katy Rose Cox’s fearless fiddling is simply virtuosic. Miss Jenny Parrott’s gorgeous vocals and addictive songs will bring you to your knees …and
introducing Shotgun Party’s newest member, (and Madison native) Andrew Austin-Petersen on show stopping upright bass! The group became an instant sensation at the 2009 Sugar Maple Music Festival!

Frogwater features a cross-pollination of musical styles: Celtic, Bluegrass, old-time, and blues. Their performances are particularly influenced by their love of Irish and Scottish music. Alongside Susan Nicholson’s flashing fingers on the fiddle, husband John adds his prowess on Celtic, Blues, and fingerstyle guitar.

Jim James and the Damn Shames started playing together in Madison in 2002. UW Grad Student and freelance arts & science writer James Travis leads the quartet’s original Americana Rock tunes that suit the front porch to the main stage.

8PM: Frogwater
9PM: Jim James & The Damn Shames
10PM: Shotgun Party

by dasspunk on Dec 8th, 2009

So yah hey… the Sugar Maple Concert Series is a year-round celebration of the past, present and future of the annual summer Sugar Maple Festival. This year’s series kicks off this Thursday (Dec. 10th) with two fantastic bands: Mountain Heart and The Hot Seats. Technically, this will be both of these bands first Sugar Maple experience but both bands have already have deep ties to the fest. To that end here’s what may be the first of many installments of the Six Degrees of SugarMaple…

jasonMountain Heart’s bass player Jason Moore has recorded for Michael Cleveland’s solo albums, and toured extensively with James King. (Michael appeared with Audie Blaylock and Redline at the 2006 Sugar Maple Fest; James King appeared for the Sugar maple Concert Series March 2009.)

aaronAaron Ramsey, mandolinist for Mountain Heart, won the 2002 MerleFest mandolin competition at age 17. in March of 2006, he became a member of Randy Kohrs’ band, the Lites, playing bass then mandolin and recorded mandolin and bass on several cuts of Randy’s two most recent recordings, I’m Torn and Old Photographs. (Randy Kohrs appeared on the mainstage artist Jim Lauderdale and workshop artist Randy Sabien during 2007 Sugar Maple Fest.)

hot.seatsThe Hot Seats have recorded and/or shared stage with Adam Tanner (2008 SugarMaple Fest); Hunger Mountain Boys (2006 Fest); everybodyfields (ibid); FoghornStringband (2005 Fest and 2006 Sugar Maple Concert Series); Karl Shiflett (2004 Fest); Carolina Chocolate Drops (2008 Concert Series); The Wilders (2005 and 2006 Concert Series); Forge Mountain Diggers (2007 Concert Series).

And the list goes on…

by dasspunk on Nov 21st, 2009

Mountain HeartSome looked forward to 2009 as the year of change, while others argue it’s the same-old, same-old. Ironically, the two themes will fuse December 10 when the Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective presents two innovatively charged, traditional music groups at the High Noon Saloon in Madison.

Mountain Heart (from Nashville, TN) and The Hot Seats (from Richmond, VA) simultaneously illustrate their own breakthroughs in traditional music, while reaching deep into the genre’s roots. Perhaps each groups’ sound is not your average pick-and-grin, but rather the echo each others holler across the wide
gorge from which they came.

Both bands make their Madison debut as part of the 2009/10 Sugar Maple Concert Series. Advance tickets are available for $12 at www.high-noon.com, or at the door for $15. Ages 21 and over only.

by dasspunk on Sep 24th, 2009

A quick video clip from last night’s Volunteer Holler featuring Frank Solivan II and Dirty Kitchen.