That’s right folks. The leaves are budding, birds are chirping, and festival season is approaching! The 4th Annual Brooklyn Bluegrass Festival has announced its lineup for this year. There are several SWBMAI member bands playing, including Jefferson County, Squirrel Hunters (this is their debut festival performance), Liberty Bluegrass Band, the High 48’s (traveling all the way from Minnesota), and Tangled Roots. There will also be several other great bands performing Friday and Saturday. It is a great festival, and we strongly recommend checking it out! It is great to have bluegrass right in our backyard.

This year’s lineup features:
Friday:
7pm - Jefferson County
8pm - The Henhouse Prowlers

Saturday:
10am - Instrument Workshops
11am - Open Mic
1pm - Pick’n Up Speed
2pm - John Fabke and the Lonesome Aces
3pm - (This is the) Squirrel Hunters
4pm - Llama Mamas
5pm - Liberty Bluegrass Band
6pm - The High 48s
7pm - The Kraus Family
8pm - Tangled Roots

Tickets are: $10 Friday eve; $20 all Saturday; $25 both days; 12 yrs and under, no charge; and $7/night camping

Brooklyn Bluegrass Festival is an outdoor, old fashioned bluegrass festival, sponsored by the Village of Brooklyn, with rough camping in a beautiful 15 acre Legion Park. The Festival is located in Brooklyn, Wisconsin, a short 20 minute drive south of Madison’s beltline on Hwy 14 and 2 miles west on Hwy 92. Google Map

Want to hear the best bluegrass musicians in the world playing in a relaxed outdoor wooded setting? Would you like to hear and jam with some professional musicians jamming around the campfire and telling stories from the good old days? Want to check out instruments for sale by vendors, dealers, and private parties? Why not join other SWBMAI members and friends on a journey to Bill Monroe’s 42nd annual Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN, June 14 - 21, 2008!

Join us for either the full 8 days (Sat. thru Sat.), or just come for a couple of days. We have (3) RV campsites reserved together, with water and electricity, located under a big shade tree. We have room for some added tents in this area, and there are plenty of campsites for rough camping in other areas. Of course there are motels and hotels about 7 minutes away for non-campers.

Call or email Bruce Nichols for more information. 608-273-4807.

Curly Seckler will be appearing with The David Grisman Experience in San Francisco at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. Curly is a pioneer of Bluegrass and a personal favorite. He played with Flatt and Scruggs, Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass, as well as fronting his own band for many years.

Of interesting note (especially to mandolin players and historians), David Grisman was recently able to purchase Curly Seckler’s old F-2 Gibson mandolin - the instrument Curly played all through his tenure with the Foggy Mountain Boys! It is being restored by Gibson and may be ready in time for the festival.

This weekend, September 8 and 9, is the East Troy Bluegrass Festival. Located on the historic East Troy Village Square music starts at 10 a.m. and lasts until 6 p.m. Bring your own lawn chair and your instrument. There is plenty of jamming including a band scramble. You’re in for a toe-tapping good time listening to an abundance of bluegrass music which includes both local and national bands along with contests and an inspirational gospel service on Sunday.

Saturday, September 8th 10:00 Open Stage - showcase your talent for next years main stage.
11:30 Fiddle Contest
1:00 Spring City Grass
2:00 Jefferson County
3:00 Band Scramble
4:00 Sub-Atomic Ramblers
5:00 Carolina Road Band

Sunday, September 9th 10:00 Gospel Service - On Eagles Wings & Timberlee Christian Center
11:30 Banjo, Mandolin & Guitar Contests
1:00 Round the Bend
2:00 Men of Constant Sorrow
3:00 Siegmund Family
4:00 - 6:00 JD Crowe and The New South

2007 has been a great summer for Bluegrass here in the dairy state! The calendar was chock full of great festivals and shows. We applaud all the hard work the folks and organizations put into hosting these fabulous fests and look forward to doing it all again next year!

But now that summer is officially at an end and we’ve all had time to reflect, which was your personal favorite Wisconsin festival? Here’s your opportunity to place your vote. Feel free to add a comment on your experience as well…

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The 8th Annual Archie Festival was again a huge success. There were roughly 1200 or more spectators. I want to thank Jim Hodges for doing a super job as M.C. Thanks Jim!

They decided to call it Archie Fest, thanking me for bringing good Bluegrass and Old- Country to the Mondaux Dam area. It has been rewarding to have all these wonderful musicians come and perform. We had a very good group from the Madison area. The people enjoyed their music very much. Attending were Ellis Bauman, Denny Egstad, Patti Graham, Maggie Siefried and Gene Kezer from Mazomanie. We also had a lady from British Columbia, Canada, so I guess it was an international event!

I want to thank all the musicians that made this a success, including: Dean & the Honkeytonk Heartbreakers, The Chippewa Valley Boys, Mondo Diablos, Ole & the Bottom Feeders, Family Ties, The Lang Bothers, and Archie & the Wild Cats.

Archie Fest will be held next year on July 12, 2008.

This past weekend was the 10th annual LarryFest in LaFarge, WI. It was a real hoot. The festival sold out the Wednesday before it started, and it’s easy to understand why. Nestled on a beautiful maple farm in the Kickapoo Valley, LarryFest had several great bluegrass, old-time and folk performers on stage. Only 1,000 tickets are sold, making it a wonderful atmosphere to see lots of great music in a beautiful setting without the hassle of a larger festival.

Friday was a great day with cool temperatures and fabulous performances from bands such as New Bad Habits (old-time), Druha Trava (Czech bluegrass band) and the Wilders (old-time country). Friday evening was headlined by Mountain Heart and the crowd really loved their upbeat music. There was a nice bonfire rolling all night and plenty of good pickin’ to be had.

At 8 a.m. on Saturday morning it began to rain and never stopped, but plenty of festival-goers were not deterred. People took shelter underneath the large tents or faced the rain to see great performances by folks such as Jack Lawrence (who often plays with Doc Watson) and String Ties (a regional bluegrass band). There was even a square dance taking place in the mud during the New Bad Habits afternoon show!

Following sunset, the rain fell with increasing intensity, so the show was moved into the large garage behind the main stage. Special Consensus played a fantastic set that had all the mud-covered folks dancing. Thunder was crashing and lightning was striking, so the band had to take a quick break to avoid electricution (in fact, the bass player felt a shock or two and played the rest of the set unplugged). But they kept on playing and the good times kept rolling. The Wilders closed out the night with a high energy set that kept everyone moving and kept them from remembering that the skies had opened upon us, washed out the only road in and out of the fest, and left folks’ cars so stuck in the mud that they had to be towed out by a tractor. All in all, it was a great festival and we will be looking forward to LarryFest 2008.

More than 2,000 people came out on August 12, 2007 to hear music and ride the Wisconsin & Southern’s beautifully refurbished passenger train at the Gandy Dancer Festival in Madison’s Central Park. A nice variety of music and train-related programs, locally prepared food and beverages and seating in the shade of tents helped to create a mellow, family-friendly atmosphere.

For the first few hours of the festival the crowd included a large contingent of parents and grandparents bringing kids to ride the train. Many of them enjoyed music on the main stage while waiting for the train. Jefferson County kicked off the festival at 11:00 a.m. with Round the Bend following at 2:45 p.m. As often happens at outdoor festivals, the kids enjoyed dancing in the open space between the seating area and the stage.

Meanwhile, in the Train Show Tent, Ellis Bauman enjoyed a steady stream of traffic at the SWBMAI table. Informational brochures were available along with a sign-up sheet for people who are interested in learning more about the organization. Tee shirts with the new SWBMAI logo were selling well.

Members of Jefferson County led an enthusiastic Bluegrass jam at 2:45-4:45 p.m. Don Meyer, General Manager of Mid-Continent Railway Museum, co-sponsor of the festival, enjoyed seeing people moving about the festival grounds carrying their instrument cases. Leo Edelstein, emcee in the Train Show Tent, described the jam as “well-attended and lively.”

The festival ended with sets by the Nob Hill Boys and headliners, the Alan Munde Gazette. By this time, Bluegrass fans predominated in the audience, and they responded warmly to both bands.

The festival steering committee would welcome feedback from SWBMAI members while preparing to consider whether there might be a Second Annual Gandy Dancer Festival. Direct your comments to Carolyn Hegeler or Johanna Fabke.

There’s also a nice write-up of the Gandy Dancer fest in the Wisconsin State Journal.

The Reiman Foundation presets the Second Annual Juvenile Diabetes Festival, Saturday, October 6 at Wehr Hall in Milwaukee, WI (map). An evening of great music, food and drink, and a silent auction, this years lineup feature:
The James King Band
Jerry Wicentowski and Lucky Break
Sawdust Symphony
Jefferson County
Liberty Bluegrass

The research being done is extremely costly. Festivals like this help fund that research. At 55 years old, I recall losing several childhood friends to juvenile diabetes. There was not the level of testing, education or research in those years. Now, thanks to the efforts of the families who started the JDRF, the survival rate is much more promising and provides a better quality of life. You can help make it even better! Please come and support a fine cause while enjoying some of the best Bluegrass music in the area!

Saturday, October 6, 2007. Show starts at 5 PM, doors open at 4:30 PM. Advance tickets are $20.00, $25.00 for adults at the door, children under 12 yrs. free. Students will be $10.00 in advance and $12.50 at the door with I.D. Go to www.libertybluegrass band.com for reserve tickets and driving instructions.

The good folks at the Kickapoo Valley Acoustic Music Association, Inc. (who have an equally long name as we do at SWBMAI!) are hosting their 10th annual LarryFest! The festival is Auguest 17-18th and held on the maple syrup farm in the Kickapoo River Valley (the map is as close as I could figure).

LarryFest is widely known for it’s great entertainment and fantastic late-night jamming. So bring your guitfiddle (or equivilant) and prepare join in the festivities!.

This year’s lineup features…

FRIDAY
3:00 - 3:45 Molly Sternke
4:00 - 4:45 Heartsfield
5:00 - 6:00 New Bad Habits
6:15 - 7:15 Mark Waelti & Larry Crane
7:30 - 8:30 Druha Trava
8:45 - 10:00 Wilders
10:30 - Midnight Mountain Heart

SATURDAY
12:00 - 12:45 In-Laws
1:00 - 1:45 Mike and Amy Finders
2:00 - 3:00 Les Petite Poulet Playboys
3:15 - 4:15 Wilders
4:30 - 5:30 Jack Lawrence
5:45 - 6:45 String Ties
7:00 - 8:00 New Bad Habits
8:30 - 10:00 Special Consensus
10:30 - Midnight Wilders