Madison performer David Landau keeps a very busy schedule. He can be seen every Monday evening from 5:30-6:15 at Madison’s Harmony Bar & Grill performing for young audiences. His original songs, written and performed with a focus on children, appeal to audiences of all ages with wit and infectious enthusiasm. “Most of the songs I write for kids” he says, “I write from the point of view of a lion tamer. Kids love to move and pretend. It is easy to make them GO, but you also have to be able to make them WHOA.”

Videos of David’s songs such as Icky Sticky Bubble Gum and A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track (among many others) can be found on his Youtube page. In 2022 David was voted Performer of the Year by the Madison Area Music Association. Icky Sticky Bubble Gum was one of the first songs he performed for kids and has become a phenomenon with over 22 million listens on Spotify. 

Discovering his love of performing
While teaching first grade in Verona, Wis., from 1991-2002 the school would occasionally hold assemblies with entertainers who would perform for the kids. One day the performer was late and David took out his guitar and performed Icky Sticky Bubble Gum for all 600 kids in attendance. It’s something he did regularly in his class of 20 students and it was just as successful with the larger audience. That was the day he caught the bug and decided to make a career change.

In addition to his “King of Kids Music” status, David can also be seen around Madison playing guitar and singing in the Cork ‘n Bottle String Band, a long-time local favorite bluegrass band. This high energy six-piece bluegrass band has been playing together in one iteration or another since 1996.

Picking up the guitar
David grew up with three siblings in the small town of Shullsburg, Wis., where his father was a large animal veterinarian and his mother was a computer programmer. He discovered music in college. His roommates at the time are now his bandmates in the Cork ‘n Bottle String Band. “I noticed that girls were really drawn to that type of thing and I asked [my roommates] to teach me how to play. They even let me borrow their guitars to practice on before I could afford one of my own.” He now lives in Madison with his wife Wendy and their cat Rosey Pearl.

A Sugar Maple tradition
Sugar Maple Music Festival thanks David for his 21 years of performances for all the kids (young and old) attending the festival. His love of teaching is apparent to anyone watching his performances and how his young fans love him back. He is constantly blown away when his former first graders show up at his shows with kids of their own. 

Check out one or both of David’s performances at this year’s Sugar Maple Music Festival. He performs on the Roots & Reasons stage on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. 

(Pony Bradshaw performs at Sugar Maple from 6:15-7:05 p.m. Friday.)

Six days after performing at the 20^th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival in Madison Friday, Aug. 4, Americana star Pony Bradshaw will play for the first time on Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium.

It’s one of many stellar moments during Bradshaw’s yearlong tour to support his acclaimed album, “North Georgia Rounder.” Bradshaw hangs his hat – usually an Atlanta Braves cap, not a cowboy one – on soulful crooning and southern literature influenced lyrics.

Here’s a sampling of a few of his finest lines:

“Oh, we’re shaping little lies
On the tips of our tongues”
“Van Gogh”

“Put me in a ten-by-ten
And let me sit with all my sins”
“10×10”

“Daddy brought me back a bona fide gas mask
All the way home from Desert Storm”
“Safe in the Arms of Vernacular”

“Washed in the blood of the things we kill
Be it time, or man, or that big coal hill”
“Holler Rose”

“She danced a rustic dance, hallelujah on the mountain
Bucking to the rhythm of old Appalachia”
“Foxfire Wine”

“I wiped away the tears like they was flies on the melon”
“Holler Rose”

(The Wildmans perform from 2:45-3:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5 at the 20^th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival at Lake Farm Park in Madison. They’ll also participate in a session on the intimate Roots & Reasons Stage at 4:20 p.m. And then they’ll conclude with an old-time jam in the Jam Tent at 5 p.m.)

Launched by instrumental competitions and access to vintage old-time music, brother-and-sister Eli and Aila Wildman embraced the genre. Growing up in a tiny town tucked in the Appalachian Mountains, they had the fortune of living in Floyd, Virginia, home to FloydFest (a major festival where they had some of their first performances) and a cradle to talented, like-minded performers.

At Sugar Maple, the Wildmans will be joined by a drummer, and they’ll mix a set with favorite cuts from their first two albums as well as tunes from a completed new one, which is expected out later this year. It will launch them as a full-time band with sky’s-the-limit aspirations.

Eli, 22, and Aila, 20, spoke by phone recently.  

Sugar Maple: Your hometown – Floyd, Virginia – is listed as population: 450. How rural is that?

Eli: “It’s about as rural as you can get.”

Aila: “There’s one stoplight in this town. We travel only about seven miles to get to the grocery store, so it’s not bad.

It’s isolated, but it’s an important place for old-time and Appalachian music.

Eli: “It’s a place that exposes you to music of this tradition: Appalachian and string music. We might not have been exposed in the same way if we grew up in a small town that was not a cultural center. There are not too many places like Floyd.”

Were you encouraged at a young age?

Aila: “There’s a lot of encouragement for young kids to play music in Floyd. Eli and I were both part of teaching in the JAM program. It stands for Junior Appalachian Musicians. It’s an afterschool program for Floyd elementary school children.”

Did you get a lot of students?

Eli: “There were a bunch of kids! It’s been done in a few counties. The accessibility of adults to teach this music is here in Floyd. And we were able to get those lessons, too.”

How old were you when you started?

Aila: “We saw and heard so much throughout the town that when I was 5 and Eli was 7, we told our parents that we wanted to play music, and they got us private lessons.”

Was there a time when you changed to play the music that’s popular with your generation?

Aila: “We listen to so many different types of music. But there never was a draw to play a type of music just for the sake of it being popular.”

You’re both students at the prestigious Berklee School Music in Boston?

Eli: “Aila is working on her last semester, and I just graduated. … Berklee is another place we got to experience a lot of different genres. I played electric guitar up there and did country stuff and jam band stuff. Aila, you did that neo-soul band ensemble …”

Aila: “I got a chance to do a really fun R&B band with some experienced players.”

Are Berklee students open to what music you play, or do they snicker at tiny Floyd, Virginia?

Eli: “It’s cool. There is every genre you can imagine there.”  

Aila: “You think of (old-time) music and its tradition, and it has an older generation that’s kept it alive. At Berklee, when I expose my friends to this type of music, I find that it’s received very well.”

Were you always singers?

Aila: “I’ve been singing as long as I can remember in my room with no one listening. It came very natural to me.”

Eli: “I’ve definitely taken to singing in recent years.”

What crowd do you draw?

Eli: “It depends on the venue and what setting. At a festival, you get people of all ages.”

Aila: “In general, our audience is a broad age group. That’s what I like to play for.”

Have you been to Madison before?

Aila: “We haven’t been to Wisconsin.”

It seems so idyllic to travel the country playing old-time music. Is it that fun?

Alia: “It is.”

Eli: “It’s so much fun.”

What’s the best part of it?

Eli: “It’s cool to be on a stage and have new faces in front of you and everyone having a good time over and over.”

Alia: “It’s awesome to go to places you wouldn’t normally visit and connect with people you normally wouldn’t connect with. You get to see the cool pockets of America.”

You guys are so young. Is the momentum there to keep going and to push a new album?

Eli: “We’re ready to go full-time with a band. We’re getting ready to go for it next year.”

Alia: “Absolutely!”

Big Richard performs from 9:00-10:25 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4 at the 20th Sugar Maple Music Festival, Lake Farm County Park, Madison. Before that, they’ll play with Madison Youth Arts at 7:15 p.m. on the intimate Roots & Reason Stage. They’re also at Union Terrace on Thursday, Aug. 3.

Multi-genre band Big Richard – featuring all women – wants to shatter glass ceilings. The first night closer at the Sugar Maple Music Festival also wants to educate, to entertain and to enlighten.
Big Richard cellist Joy Adams explained how the quartet has emerged from the music scene with old-time flavored tunes and a kick to their sound.

Sugar Maple: You played solo on two Emmy and one Grammy-winning soundtracks: Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Godless.” That’s amazing.

Adams: I worked with the composer Carlos Rivera when I lived in Miami. He got the trophies. I have certificates.”

SM: And you have a doctorate.

Adams: “Yes, I’m a certified nerd.”

SM: Was that needed to teach at a university level?

Adams: “It’s a very competitive field to teach at the university level. A doctorate puts you at the highest pay level. When I got my master’s at the University of Miami, I wanted to stay there, and I did a pile of research on the cello and American fiddle music. It made sense.”

SM: It’s difficult to figure out how the four of you got together.

Adams: “We had known each other. I played in a band with Emma a little bit and played gigs with Eve. I knew about Bonnie. Emma said, ‘You know, what would be a killer band: You, Eve, Bonnie and myself.’ Then Eve got a call from a bluegrass festival in southern Colorado, and they wanted an all women.”

SM: Why did they want all women?

Adams: “They looked at their entire lineup and realized they only had men. So, Eve remembered Emma’s idea for this lineup, and we got together. We weren’t taking it seriously.”

SM: If this was a movie, it would seem corny. You came together and, snap, it sounds great.

Adams: “You’re right. A lot of times when you have a band you spend years dialing in your sound, and you have discussions about arrangements and whose role it is to play what part. Somehow, when we rehearsed for the first time, we had the same wavelength. It happened naturally. We saved 2,000 hours of practicing together. That never happens. And I’ve played in a lot of bands.”

SM: Then in May 2021 you played what you expected to be the band’s one and only appearance.

Adams: “It was a one-off show, but it rained during our set, and we only played a half hour. We had all these songs, so we played a second show. We played on a truck bed and lots of people showed up. We just kept going. It’s too much fun.”

SM: Were all four of you ready to launch a band?

Adams: “That was one of the weird silver lines of the pandemic. Each of us had big projects going on and then the pandemic put a halt to that. I was supposed to be on tour with Nathaniel Rateliff’s band. Everything cleared out. It was a hard time to be in the arts.”

SM: It’s difficult to call Big Richard a bluegrass band with nostalgic harmonies to a rock-tinged tunes.

Adams: “It is hard to pin down. It leans toward the ‘old-time’ side. We draw a lot from the south Appalachian old-time music, which is a little grittier and even more ‘punk rock’ than bluegrass. Emma’s voice is like indie pop, a sultry kind of thing going on, and then Bonnie’s voice is very dark country and rock ‘n’ roll. And Eve and I come from classical backgrounds. Every song is a 180 degree turn from the last song. It’s not bluegrass even if we play bluegrass festivals. We have old-time songs, but we also cover Radiohead (‘Creep’), Britney Spears (‘Toxic’) and Billie Eilish. Then we have a ton of original tunes that are topical like climate change and women’s issues. We touch on a lot of things with a lot of humor. We’ll ruffle feathers. Expect to have fun.”

SM: Who’s Richard?

Adams: “We get asked that all the time. Bonnie started saying on stage that all our middle names are Richard. But it’s a dick joke.”

SM: You’ve played cello for Bruce Hornsby, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, Nathaniel Rateliff, Gloria Estefan, and Barry Manilow. What’s a good backstage story?

Adams: “Gloria Estefan is tiny. She’s a force of nature. She’s such a massive presence on stage. Super friendly – and not everyone at that level is. I lived in Miami and played in an ensemble that played with all these people.”

SM: You toured with Nathanial Rateliff.

Adams: “He booked a full international tour, and he basically took out his horn section and put in a string quartet. We played 10 shows and the pandemic hit.”

SM: Nathanial’s opening for Willie Nelson and headlining a sold-out Madison show (August 7 at the Sylvee).

Adams: “I don’t know how anyone Willie’s age (90) gets on a tour bus. Touring is hard even with the poshest arrangements. Willie – and Del McCoury – still play whole shows. It’s insane. I’m 34, and I’m just tired.”

SM: How does Big Richard tour?

Adams: “We own a van. We do 10- or 14-day runs. We’re also doing a workshop for youth in Madison. It’s good to see representation out there. If you’re a little girl, seeing a band of all women on stage having a lot of fun and pushing things with a great deal of energy, it’s inspiring. If we can push these kick-ass little girls to be the next generation of music, that would be our goal. And it’s good for boys to see women crushing it onstage, too.”