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August 2 - 3
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Making their first-ever Sugar Maple appearance, Saturday’s headliners The Travelin’ McCourys bring an unmatched pedigree and an effervescent, adventurous spirit to the festival stage. Ronnie (mandolin) and Rob (banjo) spent 20 years on the road with their father, the bluegrass legend Del McCoury. Together with Jason Carter (fiddle), Alan Bartram (bass), and Cody Kilby (guitar), they are artfully bending their mastery of traditional bluegrass stylings toward exciting new combinations of old and young, traditional and inventive.
The Travelin’ McCourys have collaborated with the Allman Brothers Band, Phish, Dierks Bentley and Keller Williams, among others, yet they always manage to maintain the tight, sometimes joyful, sometimes high and lonesome vernacular that is the essence of bluegrass. It helps that each of the five band members have been recognized by the International Bluegrass Music Association as the best at their instrument, with bassist Alan Bartram winning the award most recently in 2018.
For a taste of the Travelin’ McCourys’ unique approach to a bluegrass standard, listen to their blistering version of “John Henry” from DelFest 2016…
…or how they can slow it down and adapt nontraditional material with their soulful take on the Grateful Dead’s “Loser”:
Expect the best of traditional bluegrass, and a healthy dose of the unexpected, with the Travelin’ McCourys at this year’s Sugar Maple Festival.
–written by Brad Wolbert
Purchase Sugar Maple Music Festival tickets during the month of May and take advantage of the early-bird ticket price! Two-day passes available here for $25 each.
This year’s line-up includes The Travelin’ McCourys, Pieta Brown, The Tillers, Sam Broussard, Hubby Jenkins plus more. Any one of these performances would be worth the ticket price alone!
Mark your calendars for the 15th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival, August 3-4 and get your early-bird tickets now! Early-bird prices in effect through May 31, 2018.
Last year, the nonprofit Four Lakes Traditional Music Collective (FLTMC) gave a scholarship to Madison’s MadFiddle, a youth fiddle ensemble led by musician and teacher Shauncey Ali. We recently followed up with Shauncey to learn what he did with the scholarship and this is what he told us.
“I wanted to use the scholarship to impact as many young people as possible, while also touching on a youth population for which private violin lessons might be less common.
In December, I constructed a 40-minute “History of American Folk Music” presentation that was equal parts lecture and performance. It outlined a historic overview of the development of folk music in the U.S., emphasizing the impact that immigration and slavery have had on existing genres.
I presented a series of assemblies at Glendale Elementary School, to a student body that is 75 percent Hispanic, African-American and Asian.
Then in April I did a brief residency with Glendale’s fifth grade strings class, which occurs concurrently with recess. I was amazed to learn that these students had elected to learn a stringed instrument over running around on the playground. It was very special to share traditional fiddle tunes and songs with students for whom this experience was new.”
We at the Sugar Maple couldn’t be more impressed – or humbled. Glad we could play a small part in this important work that connects youth with music and history.
The Sugar Maple Music Festival is pleased to sponsor the Simply Folk 2018 Shindig!
Wisconsin Public Radio is taking the show Simply Folk on the road for an evening of music featuring three great Wisconsin bands: Art Stevenson & High Water , Joseph Huber and Nickel&Rose.
Great live music, food, drink and a lively dance floor combine for a festive evening celebrating music and community in Wisconsin.
Hosted by WPR’s Dan Robinson, the show will be recorded for later statewide broadcast.
Iowa-and-Alabama native Pieta Brown’s elegant hybrid of folk, country and sultry swing has entranced listeners lucky enough to have caught one of her countless performances during nearly two decades of touring, or to have listened to any of her seven albums or those she has appeared on for the likes of Mark Knopfler, Calexico, Iris Dement, and Mason Jennings. Her first exposure to American roots music was through her father, folk icon Greg Brown, and growing up among musicians led her down creative paths of composing songs, writing poetry and, eventually performing her music with others.
While Pieta has virtually made an art form of collaboration, it’s no surprise that her songwriting tends to orient itself around the connections between people. With her ethereal singing and haunting lyrics, set against a background of guitar and banjo twang, Pieta achieves a compelling intensity that is both infectious and profound.
–written by Brad Wolbert