Date/Location/Tickets

Performer or Event

Saturday & Sunday
Sept. 20-21, 2008 
WILLY STREET FAIR

See www.willystreetfair.com
for full details & logistics

WILLY STREET FAIR! Mad Folk makes its debut as part of the community event!

For more information on this year's fair, visit www.willystreetfair.com

Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008
8:00 pm
First United Methodist Church
Madison

TOM PAXTON
Returning to Madison for the first time in 8 years!!

With special guests SMALL POTATOES

Tom Paxton has become a voice of his generation, addressing issues of injustice and inhumanity, laying bare the absurdities of modern culture and celebrating the tenderest bonds of family, friends, and community.
     In describing Tom Paxton's influence on his fellow musicians, Pete Seeger has said: "Tom's songs have a way of sneaking up on you. You find yourself humming them, whistling them, and singing a verse to a friend. Like the songs of Woody Guthrie, they're becoming part of America." Guy Clark adds: "Thirty years ago Tom Paxton taught a generation of traditional folksingers that it was noble to write your own songs, and, like a good guitar, he just gets better with age."
     Paxton has been an integral part of the songwriting and folk music community since the early 60's Greenwich Village scene, and continues to be a primary influence on today's "New Folk" performers.
[More at Tom's website - click here]
 

Saturday, October 25, 2008
7:00 pm meeting
8:00 pm concert
Wil-Mar Center
Madison

ANNUAL MEETING NIGHT
& Concert by JOHNSMITH

     Members who attend the meeting at 7pm will get to choose officers, and learn who has been selected to receive the Helen Schneyer Folk Music scholarship for the coming year. And by attending the meeting, members will get a free CD from the Madfolk archives, and reserve the best seats for the Johnsmith concert to follow!
     Those who attend the concert (a mere $10 at the door) will be treated to the heartfelt music of a self-described “blue-collar songwriter.”  Johnsmith is a past winner of the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk festival, and was recently featured on the "New Dimensions" program on NPR. His latest CD, Break Me Open, portrays John’s earthy brand of spirituality and finds him stretching his songwriting wings expressing the harder sides of life and love. He is accompanied by some fine acoustic musicians, including Native American chants and flute cameos by Bill Miller, and harmony vocals by Suzi Ragsdale, Sally Barris and his daughter, Elisi Smith-Waller.

 NOT A MEMBER?  Non-members who attend the concert will be given a complimentary membership until the end of the year, which includes a subscription to the MadFolk Newsletter, containing the coveted centerfold “refrigerator cover” with all the folk music happenings in the area.
IF YOU ARE MEMBER: Why not bring a friend who is not a member? This is their chance to see a great show and try out membership in Mad Folk, too! 
 

Saturday, November 22, 2008
8:00 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church
Madison
 

CLAUDIA SCHMIDT

More than three decades as a touring professional have found Claudia Schmidt traversing North America as well as Europe in venues ranging from intimate clubs to 4,000 seat theatres, and festival stages in front of 25,000. Among her credits are numerous appearances on Public Radio International's "A Prairie Home Companion" and starring role in an hour-long documentary called "I Sing Because I Can't Fly," produced by KTCA TV in St. Paul. She has recorded fourteen albums of mostly original songs, exploring folk, blues, and jazz idioms featuring her acclaimed12 string guitar and mountain dulcimer playing.  A musician who has always hated categories, she describes herself as a "creative noisemaker," which has irritated some critics but delighted many audiences, who learn to expect anything at a Schmidt concert, hymn, poem, bawdy verse, torch song, satire, and the gamut of emotions.  Her live performances are not to be missed!

Much more information is available at Claudia's website.

Opening the show will be Tom Kastle. Tom has spent over two decades "on the road" and "on the water" as a singer, tall ship sailor and captain, songwriter, and teller of tales, both personal and those steeped in tradition. As half of the maritime folk duo Tom & Chris Kastle, he toured throughout the United States as well as Ireland, Scotland, Poland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand delighting audiences and producing 11 recordings plus a soundtrack for PBS (WTTW Chicago). After taking most of a year off to captain a tall ship in South Haven, MI, Tom has relocated to Madison, WI and is releasing his first solo CD, Across the Centerline.
 

Thursday, January 22, 2009
7:00 pm
The Brink Lounge
Madison

GARNET ROGERS

Barely out of high school, Garnet Rogers was on the road as a full- time working musician with his older brother Stan. Together they formed what has come to be accepted as one of the most influential acts in North American folk music. Since that time, Garnet Rogers has established himself as 'One of the major talents of our time." Hailed by the Boston Globe as a "charismatic performer and singer," Garnet is a man with a powerful physical presence - close to six and a half feet tall - with a voice to match. With his "smooth, dark baritone" (Washington Post) his incredible range, and thoughtful, dramatic phrasing, Garnet is widely considered by fans and critics alike to be one of the finest singers anywhere. His music, like the man himself, is literate, passionate, highly sensitive, and deeply purposeful.

Resolutely independent, Garnet Rogers has turned down offers from major labels to do his music his own way.

"Garnet Rogers may be the greatest male interpreter and vocalist performing in the contemporary folk scene... a first rate writer...musical integrity and powerful performance... "
      - Sing Out Magazine
"I have found strength and comfort in his songs. This is good and rich and big music. Welcome one and all. Come on in. Get down."
     - Greg Brown
 

Friday, February 27, 2009
8:00 pm
Wil-Mar Center
Madison

VANCE GILBERT

Vance Gilbert burst onto the singer/songwriter scene in the early '90s when the buzz started spreading in the folk clubs of Boston about an ex-multicultural arts teacher and jazz singer who was knocking 'em dead at open mikes. The word spread of this Philadelphia-area born and raised performer to New York; Shawn Colvin invited Vance Gilbert to be a special guest on her Fat City tour. Gilbert took audiences across the country by storm.

Gilbert is currently promoting his ninth release, which he describes as follows:
"...All I wanted to do was write as if I was someone else. I was in no way out to imitate the various songwriters that I allude to in the notes before each song. I was more shooting for a sense or a 'vibe' in the lyrics and music that was reminiscent, to my mind, of these various artists. Sometimes that sense was inadvertent, occurring to me when the song was half written. Other times I purposely tried to 'write like that..' More than anything else, this stretch of 'writing as someone else' has been one of the most inspirational and notebook-filling exercises I've done to myself since my days of writing children's theatre."

"The lyrics alone are better than almost anything else you've heard"
     - Ft. Worth Star Telegram
"Gilbert has earned an unusually deep affection and loyalty from his fans. He is that rare performer for whom people lean forward in their seats as eagerly between songs as they do during them. These 'Vance-heads' see him over and over again, always expecting to be surprised, never being disappointed."
     - The Boston Globe
"Boston based, Philadelphia raised guitarist Vance Gilbert is among the quintessential musical poets of the 1990’s. His lyrics are highly personal, his tenor vocals fluid and enthralling...... musical risks punctuated by passionate vocal delivery, brilliantly intuitive guitar playing, and immeasurable courage.....gives you a feeling of utter joy"
     - DIRTY LINEN
 

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
7:00 pm
Brink Lounge
Madison

SUSAN WERNER

A Mad Folk favorite! With 6 albums under her belt, an active touring career throughout the U.S. and a string of accolades from the likes of The Washington Post, The Village Voice and The New Yorker, Susan Werner has become one of the defining artists of the folk music genre. Her songs effortlessly slide between folk, jazz and pop, and are delivered with a sassy wit and classic midwestern charm.

"Susan Werner, a clever songwriter and an engaging performer, brings literacy and wit back to popular song."
    -The New Yorker
"(SusanWerner is) a triply blessed artist who sings adroitly, plays the piano smartly and, best of all, writes songs of genuine distinction and high craft..."
    -Chicago Tribune

Saturday, March 21, 2009
8:00 pm
Wil-Mar Center
Madison

ANNE HILLS

Though collaborative work is the keystone in Anne’s career, it is her singing and interpretive gifts that have received the most attention. 1998 saw the release of Anne’s performances on two of the most talked about compilations of the year, placing her voice along side Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, The Roches, Ani DiFranco and The Indigo Girls on Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (The Songs of Pete Seeger) and What’s That I Hear? (The Songs of Phil Ochs). Other projects include the occasional tour with Priscilla Herdman and Cindy Mangsen (Voices of Winter in 1998, and Turning of the Year in 2000), which was featured in the arts section of the January 1998 Sunday New York Times, and her performances with the legendary songwriter Michael Smith. Anne and Michael’s duet recording Paradise Lost and Found was released in the fall of 1999 on Redwing Music label.

   As a singer, actress, writer, and musician Anne Hills has continuously built a reputation of merit. During her career, she has received numerous honors including, most recently, the 2006 Pennsylvania Partner’s in the Arts Project Stream grant award (for the 2007 premiere of An Evening of James Whitcomb Riley). In 2005 she received the same grant for her premiere of The Heartsongs of Opal Whiteley. She was also the recipient of the WFMA 2002 Kate Wolf Memorial Award, and The Kerrville Music Foundation’s Outstanding Female Vocalist of the Year Award (1997). Her duet children’s recording, Never Grow Up, released in 1998 with Cindy Mangsen on Flying Fish Records, was chosen for the coveted Parents’ Choice Award.

“Anne Hills is such an exquisite singer that it’s understandable that people might be swept up in the pure beauty of her voice and thereby overlook her writing. That would be a mistake. For me, Anne’s writing, in songs like ‘Follow That Road’ and many others, is as direct, melodic and deep as any work being done today. She is quite simply one of my absolute favorite songwriters.”
     - Tom Paxton
 

Friday, April 17, 2009
8:00 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church
Madison WI

SPARKY & RHONDA

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker perform throughout the U.S. as well as overseas, singing songs and telling stories from the American folk tradition. Sparky Rucker has been performing over forty years and is internationally recognized as a leading folklorist, musician, historian, storyteller, and author. He accompanies himself with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, banjo, and spoons. Rhonda Rucker is an accomplished harmonica, piano, banjo, and bones player, and also adds vocal harmonies to their songs.

Sparky and Rhonda are sure to deliver an uplifting presentation of toe-tapping music spiced with humor, history, and tall tales. They take their audience on an educational and emotional journey that ranges from poignant stories of slavery and war to an amusing rendition of a Brer Rabbit tale or their witty commentaries on current events. Their music includes a variety of old-time blues, slave songs, Appalachian music, spirituals, ballads, work songs, Civil War music, cowboy music, railroad songs, and a few of their own original compositions.

"Sparky and Rhonda put on a good concert, with plenty of heart, soul, and good feeling. It is always a joy to see and hear them."
     - Loyal Jones, Director, Appalachian Center
"Sparky Rucker is unique! He'll make you glad to be alive and struggling."
     - Pete Seeger
 

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
7:00 pm
Brink Lounge
701 E. Washington Ave. Suite 105, Madison, WI

with
KAREN SAVOCA & PETE HEITZMAN

Karen Savoca puts her heart into a song the way a great actor throws herself into a role. Her supple, soulful alto is "both sex and spirit, growling and whispering the listener into submission." Savoca is a gifted songwriter, drawing you into her world with humor and compassion, telling her stories with such grace and ease, you feel as though you've been invited to her table for supper. Savoca composes and records on a variety of instruments, but opts for the primal combination of voice and drum in live performance, and the groove is deep and satisfying.

Pete Heitzman's "inspired and transcendent guitar work is central to their signature sound." You might hear a cello, a pedal steel or a rutting elk. With this broad pallet of tones and textures he paints the ideal landscapes for Savoca's engaging songs. An innovative and sensitive accompanist, Heitzman is so full of surprises that he has been called  "a human aurora borealis."
 

Saturday, May 9, 2009
8:00 pm
Wil-Mar Center
Madison

TRACY GRAMMER

 “Music for me is a language like no other; it is my channel of authenticity. I know I'd only be telling half the truth without it..”
     - Tracy Grammer

Formerly half of a duo with the late Dave Carter, Tracy Grammer now tours internaionally with songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jim Henry (Deb Talan, Mark Erelli, The Burns Sisters). With acoustic and electric guitars, beautifully matched voices, dobro, mandolin and violin, this duo shares original songs, instrumentals, and pays homage to Carter and other stellar writers while charting a brand new course for themselves in the musical landscape. Grammer says, "I’ll keep on singing, and I’ll keep on telling my story, however that evolves. Working with Dave Carter was the first step on what I hope is going to be a long and fruitful road for me: the endless quest for authenticity through music.”

Grammer's much anticipated solo debut album, FLOWER OF AVALON (Signature Sounds 2005), showed up on "Best of" lists and listener polls around the country, and was the #1 most-played album on folk radio across the United States for 2005.   She has releated three titles since, the latest being a Christmas album in 2007.