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Volume 39 No. 11 November 2013 Jason Wilber set to play Madison House Show November 10th Jason Wilber gives a great house Jason has some very funny songs guaranteed to enjoy yourself. Don’t concert. At ease in front of an audi- as well. “The Ballad of Amazing miss it! Show will start at 6:00, doors ence, and very personable, he is a Grace and Sideshow Dan” recounts a open at 5:15, feel free to bring an ap- pleasure to watch perform. From society of circus freaks and their ro- petizer to pass. We request a dona- Bloomington, Indiana you’ll notice mantic connections. “King For A Day” tion of $15 to $20 per person. Please a soft hint of a Southern accent, but has Jason telling what he would do if contact Darlene at dbuhler@charter. just a hint. His songs range from very he was Elvis Presley for 24 hours – net to reserve a seat. funny to sad and introspective. But he including a shout out to Hamburger definitely has a talent for songwriting James. He says he got his inspira- that you will notice. tion for “The Quakertown Optimists Mad Folk Concert Tickets For many years he has been John Club” from a newspaper article whose When you see this symbol – ee Prine’s guitarist, and if you already headline read simply “Optimists Club – you’ll know that you’re read- like that folk music / Americana genre, calls it quits.” ing about a Mad Folk sponsored you will like his repertoire. You may event. Advance tickets for Mad have seen him on David Letterman A favorite is “You Don’t Know Folk shows are available online and more recently on The Colbert What You’re Getting’ Into.” It’s very at www.madfolk.org and at these Report. His “In Her Veins” is a soul- upbeat, and the clever wordsmithing outlets: ful song about loving his wife and lov- make this song very catchy and fun to ing his music and sometimes having listen to. If you go see Jason, you are to leave one for the other. Another • Orange Tree Imports, 1721 Mon- touching song of his talks about vis- roe Street iting his family in Southern Indiana and discovering that His great uncle • Spruce Tree Music, 851 East had owned a fiddle. This was surpris- Johnson ing to Jason as no one in his imme- diate family has a musical talent like Purchase tickets ONLINE for Mad he does. “My great Uncle Jim had a Folk concerts via Brown Paper fiddle that I never did hear him play…” Tickets: “Down In Russell Square” was in- https://www.brownpapertickets. spired by touring the English Gardens while in London. “Watching Picasso” com/producer/10879 details having the night off from John You can also purchase advance Prine in St. John’s Bay, Newfound- tickets by mail. Send a stamped land. They went to see this folk singer self-addressed envelope with and were amazed at what a talented your check payable to Mad Folk, man this was on this tiny little stage in PO Box 665, Madison, WI 53701. If an equally tiny pub. all else fails, call 608-846-9214 for information. Madison Folk Music Society Show Hosts Discuss Having Shows in their Homes Dave Wallner For years my wife Anne and I de- other musical stuff. Minutes later, the clean up a bit, get the beer and soda on bated hosting folk music house con- two broke into a lovely verse in Latin! ice and the snacks prepared, and we’re certs. How do we find musicians to That’s a moment you wouldn’t get at ready to roll. The process takes about perform? How much work would it be? some huge arena show. two hours. (No doubt about it, host- Would anyone show up? Would we Great memories abound. Patchou- ing a party is always a good excuse to lose our shirts financially? Finally, two li’s Bruce Hecksel’s fingers move on vacuum up the dust balls and pick up years ago, we took the plunge and nev- his guitar like lightning, and his wife the dirty socks.) er looked back. Eighteen months and Julie has a voice that reminds listen- We have a tradition of inviting the nine shows later, we are in the groove. ers of Joanie Mitchell. Vance Gilbert’s performers to our home for a meal prior It’s a blast. wild and crazy stories and stage pat- to the concert. We usually order carry- Our very first performers were sing- ter had us in stitches one moment, and out Chinese, Cajun or pizza to keep it er-songwriter Josh Harty and Sims Del- his voice soared like an angel the next. simple. And we’ve offered a free bed to aney-Potthoff, the main man and man- Nobody does it better than Garnet Rog- a couple of our musical guests if they dolin whiz with well-known Madison ers, with his powerful voice, haunting don’t mind a bit of spartan living. group Harmonious Wail. We had a full lyrics and stunning guitar work. And I We get asked questions like, “do house, and an enthusiastic crowd, that doubt there was a dry eye in the house you worry about strangers coming night. That successful beginning set us during Brother Sun’s beautiful songs. into your home?” and “do people ever on the search for more old and new fa- Speaking of work, how tough is it get drunk and obnoxious at your con- vorites and more concerts. We followed to do a house concert? Once you get certs?” And the answer is an emphatic up with western Wisconsin’s fine folk a system down, it’s not as much work no, we have never had trouble with our duo, Patchouli, guitar master Harvey as you might think. We start by select- guests. No complaints from neigh- Reid from Maine, Chicago jazz singer ing a musician or group we like, and bors, no unannounced visits from the Typhonie Monique with pianist Ben make a phone call to the performer or police or fire marshals. Every concert Lewis, Vance Gilbert from Boston, Joe send a message to an agent offering has gone smoothly and easily, and Jencks from Chicago, Madison’s own dates and a financial commitment. We each has been a real joy. Mark Croft and Jon Vriesacker, Garnet pledge that all the money we take in on So why do house concerts? For Rogers from Canada and Brother Sun, ticket sales goes to the performers and Anne and I it’s a pretty simple answer: a marvelous folk trio with Jencks, Greg we always set up a table for CDs, T- we love live music; we enjoy building Greenway from Boston and Pat Wictor shirts, etc. community through our concerts and from New York. In November, Randy Once the date and details are set, sharing a beer with our friends; and we Sabien, a Wisconsin legend on the vio- we send out a promo message to our want to keep the Garnett Rogers and lin and mandolin, and Café Carp owner email list of contacts (we are up to about Vance Gilberts and Josh Hartys of the Bill Camplin , will play to another full 125 friends, neighbors and music lov- world alive and on the road doing their house, followed by the wonderful Ann ers who have shown up at past shows). wonderful thing. Yes indeed, music Reed from the Twin Cities. Our search The artists will put up word about the makes the world go around. Come join continues for more great music later house concerts on their websites and us. this winter and into the spring. that helps us sell a few more tickets. Michael Tuten Listening to live music in an inti- Ditto with the Madfolk website. We’ve mate house-concert setting is a true also had some shows announced on Carol and I have been doing joy. People show up eager to listen and Simply Folk on public radio. Our policy house concerts on a sporadic basis the musicians can feel the love and at- is to require advance notice and pay- for over ten years now. We started tention. For each show we’ve hosted, ment so we can monitor the size of the when we lived down town on John- the performers stay late, sign CDs, an- crowd and make sure we have enough swer questions about their music, and money raised to pay the performers. son Street and have continued the even give impromptu lessons for bud- During the colder months our home tradition in our home on Madison’s ding musicians. After his January 2013 holds 45 people, and we can squeeze South Side. concert ended, Joe Jencks stayed to about 10 more onto our screened front The performers we host are, for talk with Eric, our elementary school porch for summer shows. the most part, ones that we have music teacher neighbor. While Anne On the day of a concert we move and I did the dishes in the kitchen, the the furniture around, set up the folding heard before and are delighted to boys chatted about fret techniques and chairs we’ve scrounged from friends, welcome into our home. We also consider requests from friends to and with children’s musician Justin magazine, “Mosaic represents his host performers who are unfamil- Roberts as part of the Not Ready most promising effort yet, an album iar to us and have from time to time for Naptime Players.

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