By Julie Cherney

Madison was once again graced with musical virtuosity last weekend, in the form of the Kruger Brothers. Hailing from Switzerland via North Carolina, they epitomize the brother duet with their familial harmonies and tight musicianship, expanding on traditional bluegrass while continuing to honor it. Their Sunday night performance at the High Noon Saloon was nothing short of amazing and was received with two standing ovations.

The real treat, however, was the afternoon workshops. I was lucky enough to attend the session conducted by banjoist Jens Kruger. In addition to being incredibly knowledgeable about the banjo, music theory and musicianship, his compassion, kindness, humor and passion flowed like a mountain waterfall. He made each of us attendees feel as if we were his equal, that we could all be masters (after 3000-4000 hours of practice that is) and that we were all artists. Additionally, he reviewed basic concepts but in a way that was new and unique. After the three hour session, which flew by, I was reinvigorated and motivated again to dedicate time and effort to my instrument.

We are so lucky to have musical masters come to our city fairly often. If you are in need of inspiration, a bit more education, or motivation, I would highly recommend attending an instrument workshop. The connections you make to the instructor and other participants are as golden as the technical information you go away with.

By Bruce Nichols

Recently I visited two coffee house open mic sessions that are listed in our SWBMAI calendar of events to see what they were like. One has just started, and one has been going for two years. Each had an audience of 20 or so local people enjoying the music.

The first event (just started) was at the Books & Brew Coffee House in Milton, Wis., and was hosted by Tom & Nancy Garrett of Janesville , and included  myself, Jim Hodges and his 14-year-old grandson, and two other dulcimer players. Tom played his mandolin, gourd banjo, and open-back banjo. Nancy and two others played dulcimers, Jim and grandson played guitars, and I played banjo. A variety of acoustic music was played without amplification in this attractive old mill building with exposed wood beams and soft chairs and couches to sit on. This was a fun event with open conversations between the musicians and audience. Local musicians are encouraged to contact Carla at 608-868-3371 for details of this 6:00  to 8:00 PM Thursday night event. The management would like some Saturday events in the future.

The second event was held at the Cross Roads Coffee House in Cross Plains, Wis., and is held on the first and third Friday of each month from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM. Starting it’s third year and run by Joe Snare, a variety of local musicians support this open mic and play popular, folk, blues, and other kinds of music. Bluegrass musicians are invited, but none came this night. Guitars and keyboard were amplified, and microphones were available for vocals and violin. While many of the events are open mic with sign up sheets, some evenings are invitation only. It is suggested that musicians wishing to play should call ahead to get on the schedule. Performer capabilities ranged from beginner to advanced. I did not know anyone, but would like to convince a couple of players to come to our Monday night Dry Bean jam.

We have an opportunity to present our wonderful music to new people at these coffee house events. There is no charge and the public does come. I hope our musicians will come to play at some of these future events.

Being the President of SWBMAI, I am embarrassed to say that I saw Monroe Crossing for the first time this past weekend at the Portage Center for the Performing Arts. Can I use the excuse that I have only lived in the Midwest for a short while? They put on a fantastic show. Not only did they display excellent musicianship, they kept the audience captivated with interaction, stories and jokes.

Monroe Crossing played a nice mix of original tunes, traditional bluegrass and gospel numbers. The show was so entertaining that the two children sitting in the front row were bobbing their heads along with the band until they finished the final set which was way past their bedtimes. Fiddler player Lisa Fuglie wowed the audience with her phenomenal voice, and 25-year old Benji Flaming impressed with his excellent banjo rolls. The guitar, banjo and bass player mesmerized the audience with their instrumental talent and their fancy shoes. The band sang beautiful leads and harmonies throughout the entire show.

Monroe Crossing is from Minneapolis and is a SWBMAI member band. They are next scheduled to play in Wisconsin in Appleton on March 8th.

Dot’s Tavern is well known to the folks down around Belleville, WI. It’s been in operation for more than 60 years. You won’t find it online or google maps… but you’ll find it in the basement of an old house if you turn off HWY 69 onto Henry Rd. in Basco, Montrose, WI.

I found it last night for the first time… but it won’t be the last! Hand Picked Bluegrass and Jefferson County Bluegrass Band where playing and it was quite the time. I took a few pictures with my phone. I apologize for the quality, but you’ll get the idea from them.

This weekend, some friends and I headed south for Trad Fest at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Trad Fest is an annual event with old time string band music from all over the country. We were too late for the potluck on Friday night so we decided to stuff our faces with world-renowned Chicago pizza! We did arrive just in time to square dance off a little bit of our food-induced lethargy to the Portland-based Foghorn String Band. Once the dancing was over, old time jams began all over the school, and I had the wonderful opportunity to play fiddle tunes with “Chirps” Smith, one of the Midwest’s finest fiddlers.

The next day, I took a Ballads singing workshop with Rhiannon Giddens from the Carolina Chocolate Drops. This was the most powerful workshop I have ever taken. Although Rhiannon is a classically trained musician (she has performed in several operas), her greatest strength as a singer is not necessarily her singing technique (which is excellent), but instead the rhythm and emotion that she brings into her songs. This was apparent in her body and in her voice. She brought in the syncopated rhythm of the chain gang while she sang; she poured her heart out as she sang about a woman whose man had gone missing or about the death of Poor Lazarus. The insight that she shared with us about how to sing was as powerful as sitting next to her as she sang, which sent chills up my spine.

Saturday evening there was a concert with Garry Harrison and the New Mules, the Chocolate Drops, and Foghorn String Band. Each band performed a different flavor of old time music, and it was great to have the variety of great fiddle tunes and great singing numbers.

by Joe Davis

The other evening my wife, Connie, and I went along with our new banjo playing friend, Jim Carrier, to the Café Carpe in Fort Atkinson to hear Jerry Wicentowski and the New Pioneers. Before I go into the particulars of the music I encourage all bluegrass fans to catch this group. Individually, the members are some of the top musicians in the state and collectively, they are what everyone ought to expect when going to hear a bluegrass band.

Quality musicianship, fast fiddle tunes and driving banjo are synonymous with bluegrass, but the real key to the music (understood by the experts) is the singing; bluegrass is grounded in solid singing, both solo and group and this band has surely got it covered. I really don’t think I have to talk at length about Jerry Wicentowski’s stellar reputation – he is, without doubt, one the top practitioners of this art form anywhere in the country. And, it is an art form. The trio singing, with Bruce King (mandolin) and Mike Schmidt (banjo) joining Jerry is excellent – “Sitting Alone in the Moonlight” and “On & On” are just two examples of how good it gets with this band. And, the occasional duets were just as professional (and I offer this as my highest compliment).

I would be selling this band short if I didn’t mention the instrumental proficiency – and this ranges far beyond the excellent solo work done by Bruce and Mike and the stellar fiddling of Paul Kienitz, fiddler extraordinaire – beyond the leads though this band does the hard and very necessary work of solid back-up and exceptional interplay among the musicians. Mike Schmidt’s back-up banjo is hard driving and it, along with Jon Peik’s rock solid bass playing, keeps this band on track. I also want to make special mention of an often overlooked part of bluegrass; a part which Jerry has down and that is rhythm guitar. I know it’s fashionable to think of bluegrass guitar in the mold of Bryan Sutton and Tony Rice, but there is nothing more essential to the pure bluegrass sound than a guitarist, like Jerry, who knows how to ground a band and keep it centered.

I know that if you are reading this review you already love bluegrass – well, get yourself and your friends to the Café Carp on the second Thursday of each month – you will be more than pleased. And, a special message to the members of various bands around the area – come out and pay your dues; listen to some masters do it in person like it ought to be done and take some lessons, some soul, some expertise away with you.

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.

On Monday, August 6, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands thrilled close to 100 listeners at the High Noon Saloon in Madison –a fine showing on a Monday night after a weekend filled with fine music in the Madison area.

In her typical style, Lewis melded old-time, traditional country and bluegrass music with newer instrumental expressions and songs. Most of the tunes were recorded on her newest album, The Golden West, with one of the finest bands in her career, The Right Hands. Lewis plays fiddle and guitar; her musical partner of 20 years, Tom Rozum, mandolin; Craig Smith, banjo; Todd Phillips, bass; and Scott Huffman, guitar.

A broken fiddle string at the start of show didn’t slow things down much. The rest of the band jumped in with an upbeat traditional “Clinch Mountain Back Step”, and Laurie returned to the stage before the tune ended to play a fine fiddle break, along with a great duet with Craig on banjo. In the second set they performed the originally intended opening instrumental, Bill Monroe’s, “The Golden West.” This included a rousing final break with the banjo head and fiddle aligned almost vertically together just behind the mic.

Beyond Lewis’ amazing talent and energy as a singer and fiddler, her own compositions captivated the audience. Her “Your Eyes” (recently #6 on the Bluegrass Unlimited monthly survey) combines the sweetness of irresistible love, with hard drivin music, and a kind of naughty, sassy streak that both rocks and endears. And, as an example of the contrasting themes she represents, the slower, more ballad-style waltz, “A Hand to Hold,” can bring tears to your eyes. It’s a reflective looking back on life by a couple who’ve “shared a rocky road,” but “have something gold”: “a hand to hold.”

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Although this is the fourth year for the Sugar Maple Festival, this was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to attend. This will definitely be put on my “must do” list for next summer! This festival is a well organized family event, thanks to promoter Jef (AKA Pertz) Pertzborn along with many volunteers. I arrived at 4 p.m just as the Magnolia Sisters started their Cajun style music which brought a good number of dancers to the dance floor. The crowd continued to dance throughout the night to an assortment of music like gypsy jazz, western swing and old time. Many families and friends arrived with blankets and coolers and sprawled out on the lawn to enjoy a perfect evening of music. The last band of the night was the Mark Newton Band featuring Clay Hess; they put on a great bluegrass show.

I helped staff the SWBMAI table and enjoyed meeting new and old bluegrass friends. We were kept busy selling our new t-shirts and handing out literature about our association and upcoming bluegrass events in the area. We received many compliments on the shirts and our new logo.

During the night I had an opportunity to walk the grounds and listen to the jamming area, enjoy the fun in the kid’s area, had some great food from the vendors and took in some workshops. Our very own SWBMAI President did a fine job interviewing Beth Lawrence, the bass player for the Mark Newton Band.

Pertz, thanks for a great festival!

Want to share your photos from the fest? Email ‘em to us!