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August 2 - 3
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Sugar Maple Music Festival presents Red, White and Bluegrass at the High Noon Saloon on Sunday July 2.
Celebrate our nation with some local bluegrass music this holiday weekend! The afternoon will feature some of the area’s best traditional bluegrass inside along with an open-jam outside on the patio.
Willie Jones and his Dime Store Posse Country weepers, crooner classics, more…
Sortin’ the Mail Keepin’ the “ass” in “Bluegrass” since 2012… with:
Bobby Batyko, Alex ‘The Kid’ Genova, Lonesome Willie Jones, Evan Childress and Brad Astor
Milkhouse Radio We’re a Madison area stringband specializing in bluegrass and ringing the rafters with country, blues, and fusion covers of whatever strikes us right.
Milkhouse Radio features Brad Astor on Upright Bass, Scott Baumann on Banjo, Michael Farnsworth on Guitar, Jen Paulson on Fiddle, and Bruce Stein on Mandolin
Down From The Hills plays bluegrass music inspired by the likes of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs & John Hartford. Our music features both instrumental solos & vocal harmonies. Recently, we’ve added Cajun music to our shows, with Pat on the Cajun button accordion.
Northern Comfort Bluegrass The group Northern Comfort Bluegrass have spent many years playing and singing bluegrass and traditional country music. Their sound comes straight from the heart and features high lonesome vocals and harmonies, a driving beat, and tight instrumental passages.
Doors open at 12 pm with music starting at 1 pm. $8 cover
Molly Tuttle released her EP “Rise” earlier this month and the songs show Molly’s strength as both a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Ron Wray of No Depression reviewed the EP and says, “The young lady has a way of writing songs that are deceptively simple yet musically deep and with provocative picking.”
Molly is on tour this summer showcasing “Rise” and you can catch her on the Sugar Maple fest main stage Saturday August 5. Molly will also be offering a rhythm guitar workshop on Saturday at the festival’s Roots & Reason stage. Check back for workshop schedule details.
This year Sugar Maple Fest will go out with a “yippee-ki-yay!” The Radio Wranglers will be playing Midwestern Swing on the Main Stage Saturday, August 5th from 9 PM until we all ride off into the sunset together.
The Radio Wranglers are from Wisconsin, but you wouldn’t know it by the looks of them. They dress and sound like the vintage Country and Western, Western Swing, and Honky Tonk artists who inspired them—the likes of Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, Milton Brown, Jack Guhrie, Tex Williams, Webb Pierce, Hank Thompson, and Hank Williams.
Headed up by twin fiddle team, Blaine and Ruthie McQuinn, the Radio Wranglers perform both original songs and classic covers backed by the highly experienced hands of Danny Tyksinski (lead guitar), Ed Novak (rhythm guitar), and Peyton Lencho (bass).
The Radio Wranglers’ range spreads far beyond America’s Dairyland. They’ve had the pleasure of playing at Opryland and the Nashville Boogie Vintage Weekender & Car Show (twice) in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2015, the Radio Wranglers were even nominated for an Ameripolitan Award for Western Swing group.
With such talent on stage, the festival is guaranteed to end on a high note. The Radio Wranglers will make you want to dance till the cows come home!
Keep up with the band’s latest projects and gigs, and listen to their Hillbilly Swing Favorites here. You can also follow them on Facebook.
~written by Jennifer Phistry
Grab your partner, or someone else’s, and dance to the sultry sounds of the Sweet Sheiks at Sugar Maple Fest 2017. This Milwaukee-based quintet will send you straight to the Big Easy with antique pop tunes inspired by jazz of the 1910s, ‘20s, and ‘30s. They may be relatively new to the scene, but their style and musicianship won’t give them away. These cats are red hot!
The Sweet Sheiks feature not one, but two, vocalists—Jen Müttin-Schrank and Ousia Lydian. Jen also plays guitar, musical saw, and washboard, while Ousia plays the violin and sometimes wows the crowd with her hypnotic whistling. The remaining band members are just as charming and talented with Garrett Burton on banjo, Andrew Spadafora on clarinet, and Aaron Johnson on tuba. See them on our Main Stage Saturday, August 5th.
If you’re not familiar with the Sweet Sheiks, you might recognize some of the artists who influenced them. The list includes performers of early twentieth-century jazz and blues, such as the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Eddie Condon, Wingy Manone, and Blind Willie McTell.
Get a preview here, and follow the band’s upcoming shows and antics by visiting their Facebook page.
~written by Jennifer Phistry
The Sugar Maple Music Festival is pleased to welcome festival artists Big Sadie and The Tillers back to Madison!
Big Sadie is a Chicago-based acoustic band fronted by Elise Bergman (upright bass, vocals) and Collin Moore (guitar, vocals). Defined by rich, intricate harmonies and rustic yet sophisticated instrumental arrangements, Big Sadie takes a modern yet timeless approach to American roots music.
Big Sadie, presented by Madison Music Sessions , will be playing at Maven Vocal Arts on Friday June 16, 2017 at 7 pm. Tickets and information here.
The Tillers got their start in August 2007 when they started thumping around with some banjos and guitars and a big wooden bass. Their earliest gigs were for coins and burritos on the city’s famous Ludlow Street in the district of Clifton. The songs they picked were mostly older than their grandparents. Some came from Woody Guthrie, some were southern blues laments, and many were anonymous relics of Appalachian woods, churches, riverboats, railroads, prairies, and coal mines.
Their look didn’t fit the stereotype. They were clearly recovering punk rockers with roots in city’s west side punk rock and hardcore scene. The punk influence gave their sound a distinctive bite, setting them apart from most other folk acts- a hard-driving percussive strum and stomp that brought new pulse and vinegar to some very old songs. But their musical range soon proved itself as they floated from hard-tackle thumping to tender graceful melody, all the while topped by Oberst and Geil’s clear tenor harmonies.
Musically, the band wears many hats. Their sound has proven to be an appropriate fit with a wide range of musical styles- traditional folk, bluegrass, jazz, punk rock and anything else they might run into. They have shared the stage with a broad swath of national touring acts, ranging from renowned folk legends such as Doc Watson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Guy Clark, Country Joe McDonald, Jerry Douglas, Iris Dement, Pokey LaFarge and The Carolina Chocolate Drops to rambunctious rock daredevils like the Legendary Shack Shakers.
You can catch The Tillers on Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 8 pm at the High Noon Saloon. Tickets and more info here.