The festival is held at the Mondeaux Dam Lodge in the scenic Chequamegon National Forest. This year’s band lineup includes Archie, Jim & friends, Big Daddy and the Feather Pickers, The Lang Bothers, Staff Infection, Mountain Sky & Friends, Prairie Smoke, Northern Comfort, the Mad City Jug Band, and Dick, Goldie & Mark.

Admission is free (no carry ins allowed) Food and beverages will be available on site. Bring your lawn chairs.

Mondeaux Dam Lodge is located in North Central Wisconsin in the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest just 20 miles north west of Medford. The lodge offers a full lunch and dinner menu, boat, canoe, paddleboat & pontoon rentals, a shower area for campers and a small camp store.

Blue Tickets – Fiddle ($525 value, with bow and case) donated by Lane Venden (www.laneslutherie.com) plus two violin lessons with Wisconsin State Fiddle Champion, Shauncey Ali.

Yellow Tickets – Paul Woolson Guitar (www.WoolsonSoundCraft.com) – $3000 value, solid Koa body, spruce top with case – plus four guitar lessons by Bob Westphal.

Green Tickets – Your choice of: Hand-sewn quilts donated by Sharon Manion & Mary Jo Brechtl; Digital video recorder ($150 value) donated by Bruce Brechtl; Hand-braided leather mandolin strap ($100 value) donated by Debra Amesqua; or Two mandolin lessons with Simms Delaney-Pottoff. First green ticket drawn wins choice of prizes, second green ticket gets choice of remaining prizes, etc.

Raffle tickets – $5 each or five for $20 (in any combination of ticket colors) – may be purchased from members of the SWBMAI Board of Directors and key volunteers at area jams and festivals. Tickets are also available at Lane’s Lutherie (4269 W. Beltline Hwy) in Madison. The drawing will be held at 8:00 P.M. on December 6, 2010, at the Dry Bean Saloon (5264 Verona Road) in Madison during the Monday Night Jam and Open Mic. Thanks for your support and good luck in the SWBMAI Raffle!

You need not be present to win. Raffle winnings are taxable income and subject to reporting as required by law. Purchase of raffle tickets is not tax-deductible.

The jam is sponsored by SWBMAI, and will take place as always at the Germania Parlor of the Up North Bar, 524 East Wilson Street in Madison. Plenty of free parking is available in the Essen Haus parking lot. The jam starts at 7:00 p.m.; a $5 donation is suggested.

Okay, let’s try again!  I missed last month’s Third Tuesday Beginner’s Bluegrass jam class, stuck in an airport after a delayed flight at the end of a trip. Ah, traveling!  So I never got a chance to try out this group of traveling songs.  But I’m still in travel mode — I will be heading off to Colorado next week — so they’re still apropos. So here’s the group of traveling songs I got together last time — with an addition (”Going To The West”) that we’ve played before.

A Lonesome Road To Travel – 3/4 time, Key of D — chords:  D   D7 G   A

(links to charts for these songs can also be found at: http://webpages.charter.net/dnance/songs/ )

Robert L. Doerschuk of All Things Strings says, “Missy Raines harbors different priorities. She has chops to burn, but that’s not as important to her as finding the right note, dropping it in the pocket, and either letting it ring or clipping it short to let the silence speak in the aftermath.”

Her band on this tour includes Ethan Ballinger, a protege of Matt Flinner, Dominick Leslie, and Robert Crawford on drums. See missyraines.com for much more info about Missy and her hot band.

For reservations and directions to the concert, call Jim or Nancy Nikora at 608-233-0150 or e- mail Nancy at nancy@blue-note.com. Make your reservations now as seating is limited.

Bill Malone, Madison’s encyclopedia of American music, will talk on the Rotunda Stage at 6:45 about the origins and meaning of bluegrass music along with special comments about the Osborne Brothers. A few recorded selections of songs will illustrate Malone’s main points. Comments and questions from the audience are welcome.The session is free.

That’s sure to put you in the mood to head upstairs to Capitol Theater at 8:00 for the American Bluegrass Masters Tour, starring Bobby Osborne. In addition to leading a family steeped in musical legacy in its own right, Bobby is the last living person who actually performed alongside the great Bill Monroe. Come for the living history or just the foot-stompin’, knee-slappin’ rhythms.

Tickets for the Bobby Osborne concert may be purchased on line at the Overture Center web site or by calling the Overture box office at 608-258-4141.

Here’s the info for this month’s first-Tuesday facilitated Beginner Bluegrass Jam.

Tuesday, 4/6/10 from 7:30-9:00pm at the Germania parlor area (youth friendly) of The Up North Bar, 514 E Wilson St. Madison, near the Essen Haus at the corner of Blair and Wilson streets. Plenty of free parking behind the Essen Haus.

Formal instruction and facilitation will run from approximately 7:30-8:30pm (as soon as I get there after my lessons at Spruce Tree Music). The Jam is sponsored by the Southern Wisconsin Bluegrass Music Association. A $5 donation is requested, but not required. Check out www.swbmai.org for all things bluegrass in Wisconsin!

This month we will talk a bit about “fill licks” and try to use them in our jam songs. We’ll start with the following list to get us started and also go around the circle with song suggestions from you.

Katy Daley, key of G (2 chords, G & D)
You are My Sunshine, key of A (3 chords, A, D, & E)
Foggy Mountain Top, key of G (3 chords, G, C, & D)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Key of G (3 chords, G, C, & D)
Long Journey Home, key of A (3 chords, A, D, & E)
Nine lb Hammer, key of G (3 chords, G, C, & D)
Cripple Creek, key of A, instrumental (3 chords, A, D, E)
Sitting Alone in the Moonlight -waltz, key of A (4 chords, A, Ab, D, & E)

The jam exists to encourage beginning bluegrass players and to help each
other learn. The goal is to enjoy playing music together.

Tuesday jam Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=263735051942

Hope to see you at the jam

We’ll all meet again on Monday,  April 4, starting at 6:30 p.m.

The blues — and particularly the country blues artists of the 1920s and 1930s — had a major impact on bluegrass music, and we’ll be taking a closer look at the blues at the Instructor Led Jam this Tuesday evening, March 30.

As usual, the jam will be at the Germania Parlor at the back of the Up North Bar, 524 East Wilson Street in Madison, from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Players of all abilities are welcome. A $5 donation is suggested.

Getting familiar with the blues is one of the best ways to be “ready for anything” in a bluegrass jam. We’ll learn what a blues is, and look at some common blues chord structures. Once you know these, you’ll be able to play along with songs you’ve never heard before, as soon as you recognize they’re based on the blues!

I’ll pass out a simple blues scale for guitar and banjo that can be adapted to many different keys, so you can play a blues lead instantly — well, almost instantly. And of course, we’ll play along on some famous bluegrass and country songs that are blues, or based on the blues.

Here are some songs I’ve put in a songbook on Chordie.com, which you can find by clicking here:

1. Blues Stay Away From (Delmore Borthers)

2. Corrine Corrina (Bob Wills)

3. In The Highways (Carter Family)

4. Orange Blossom Special (Bill Monroe)

5. T For Texas (Jimmie Rodgers)

A couple of other songs are at the following links:

Lonesome Road Blues (Bill Monroe)

Sitting On Top of the World (Doc Watson)

If you have any questions you can reach me at 608-516-2136. Look forward to seeing you there!