The Krause Family Band

krausefamilyband.jpg News: The Krause Family Band is celebrating the release of their new CD “On This Bright Sunny Day”, Friday, June 1st at the Wild Hog in the Woods in Madison.

The Krause Family Band is based in Middleton, WI. The girls are sisters, and daughters of Rick. The boys, (though for sure enough older than Rick), have been “adopted” as sons to make this a legitimate family affair. This group tries its hand at the old and new-timey, time honored bluegrass, gospel, and a pretty fair number, increasingly, of originals.

The band is:

  • Rick Krause - (guitar/vocals)
  • Katie Krause - (vocals)
  • Ruthie Krause - (fiddle/vocals)
  • Jim Nikora - (mandolin)
  • Pete Olig - (bass/vocals)

Jim, Pete, and Rick have years of playing all types of music in their bag, and still play in various jazz, blues, c&w, Celtic/folk, rock and roll, and gospel/worship settings. All three write songs.

Katie is recent grad of Edgewood college in music, (emphasis on voice/piano), and plays piano/sings in worship/prayer settings. She is also a songwriter, and has been singing with her dad since about age 11.

Ruthie is an art therapy student at Edgewood college, presently. She took up fiddle in the 5th grade orchestra, and began singing harmonies with pop and sis right thereafter. Ruthie’s also composed some songs and instrumentals.

Jim Nikora brings a virtual lexicon of fiddle tunes, (Irish, Scotch, American, etc), as well as well as jazz influences to the band. Jim also studied with the late, great Jethro Burns, when he lived in Chicago.

This band line-up has been together since spring of ‘05, mostly playing venues with other groups, (thanks to Jefferson County Bluegrass Band and Prairie Smoke), with the occasional private event. Our first studio recording, “On This Bright, Sunny Day,” is due out in March. It includes 11 cuts; (9 originals and 2 trads).

As Rick says, “We’re pretty basic and low tech folk, but you can usually count on us to be at the gig on time!” You can reach Rick at thekrausefamilyband [at] hotmail [dot] com or (608)-827-6189.