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

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…

Mountain 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.)

Aaron 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.)

The 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…

Some 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.

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

The Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective will be kicking off the Sugar Maple Concert Series with our 3rd annual Volunteer Holler, Wednesday, September 23rd at the High-Noon Saloon! The concert series as a year-round celebration of the past, present and future of the annual summer Sugar Maple Festival. While the event is open to the public, it offers special nod to more than 100 volunteers who power the non-profit organization and it’s annual summer festival. These volunteers are welcome to attend the event for free.

Headlining the show is former member of the prestigious US Navy Country Current band, Frank Solivan II. Bluegrass Unlimited calls Solivan is “a major talent,” while Bluegrass Breakdown writes, “It would be relatively simple to describe Frank using standard marketing jargon and cliché terms of praise, but his creativity and unparalleled artistry seem to begin where those descriptions leave off” (Bluegrass Breakdown). A multi-instrumental master, Solivan sings with power and passion, writes articulate songs that go straight to the heart, and combines the pure, hard drive of classic bluegrass with twenty-first century sophistication. His quartet Dirty Kitchen, features a venerable line-up of nationally-connected pickers like banjo player Mike Munford, who has toured the world with top notch bluegrass artist like Tony Rice, Peter Rowan, the Rice Brothers
and Lynn Morris.

The show starts at 8pm with Kristy Larson Honky Tonk Trio. Country music historian, author, musician and WORT radio host Bill Malone describes Kristy Larson as “one of the shining lights of Madison roots music”. Her light burns even brighter as she joins forces with husband and multi-instrumentalist Mark Roeder. Together, they’re a midwestern Rawlins and Welch.

The Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective will be hosting this year’s Sugar Maple Kick-off Concert Saturday, April 18th at the High Noon Saloon (8pm). The show, sponsored by Rutabaga Paddlesports, will feature three great bands and offer one night only early-bird Sugar Maple Festival weekend tickets for only $20!!! We will also be officially announcing this year’s fantastic Sugar Maple Festival
lineup.

Tickets for the show are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. You can purchase advanced tickets online or at the High Noon Saloon.

Band Schedule:
8 pm Art Stevenson & Highwater
9 pm Joel Paterson (a rare solo appearance)
10 pm Art Stevenson & Highwater
11 pm Sloppy Joe

Come on down and see some great music, and get a great price on some Sugar Maple Festival tickets!

Madison will get a rare opportunity to see great gospel and bluegrass music when the James King Band hit’s the stage at the warm and intimate Frequency just off the capitol square (map). The show is Wednesday, March 18th, from 6pm. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door.

James King is considered among the leading voices in traditional bluegrass, summoning timeless echoes of Appalachia with a voice that is equal parts urgent, yearning, and tender. King’s interpretations of bluegrass gospel classics both vintage and modern are so uniquely suited to the powerful longing and commitment that underpins every note he sings.

“In an age where much bluegrass and country music is a product of stacked harmonies and polite, well-mannered vocals, James King is a rarity: an honest-to-God mountain soul singer who likes it loud and hard, who’s not afraid of emotion and sentiment. James King has carried his heart songs to festivals all over the country, and won his share of rave reviews and industry awards. Like generations of Virginia singers before him, he does best what great singers have always done: he finds a good song, and he tells a good story. Even Carter Stanley could not have asked for more.” –Charles Wolfe

The Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective is a non-profit organization supporting the art of traditional music and dance throughout the greater Madison community. We provide educational and performance opportunities that bring together people of all ages to celebrate diverse musical tradition.