Upcoming Shows

Michigan Rattlers, The Flood Brothers, The Tritonics

TodayJanuary 18, 20198:00pm $12.00

Substitute (Who tribute), Brainstewed. (Green Day tribute)

TomorrowJanuary 19, 20198:00pm $12.00

With a look and sound that captures The Who at the height of their 70s peak, Substitute plays the songs that have become part of rock legend. From the hits (Pinball Wizard, Who Are You and Won't Get Fooled Again) to lesser-known classics (The Seeker, Bargain and The Real Me), Substitute is becoming a regular at some of the....

Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound

FridayJanuary 25, 20198:00pm $15.00

Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound bring forth a funky, lyrically charged racket that is explosive, yet intimate. Taking cues from the dance bands of western Louisiana (and his native Midwest,), the streets (and 45's) of New Orleans, touring African and Caribbean combos and the soul, funk & blues of his youth, Paul Cebar is a....

Recently Added Shows

Ronnie Nyles, That's What She Said

SaturdayFebruary 2, 20198:00pm $10.00

Singer/ Songwriter Ronnie Nyles has long been revered as one of the premier women entertainers of the Midwest. Her career has taken her on many musical journeys throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. These tours have Ronnie headlining concerts and festival engagements as well as opening for national....

Michael Henszey

FridayMarch 29, 20197:30pm $15.00

Michael Henszey is releasing a new EP in March 2019 called "Play On," delivering powerful story telling with his rock-influenced Irish tenor voice. Defying genre, the EP project delivers tunes influenced by Prog Rock, Folk, R&B and Country. On the title track "Play On," Henszey speaks to the challenges of making original....

No Quarter (Led Zeppelin tribute)

SaturdayMarch 30, 20198:00pm $15.00

In September 1998, No Quarter, The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience was brought together in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bound and determined to create the most mesmerizing and accurate portrayal of the band, each individual member was selected to portray both the presence, sound and playing styles of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page,....

Arielle

ThursdayApril 4, 20198:00pm $15.00

Hi! I'm Arielle. I'm a gypsy traveling, guitar-wielding, song-writing, flowy clothes wearing lady. I've got a hippie heartbeat, with an edgy rocker spirit. I was born in the USA, but the world is my home. A few of my favourite past-times are hugging fans, cuddling animals and traveling, whilst tasting the towns tasty local....

Jeremy Enigk, Tomo Nakayama

MondayApril 8, 20198:00pm $20.00

The National Parks

MondayApril 15, 20198:00pm $13 advance / $15 door

The National Parks was formed by Brady Parks in 2013 in Provo, Utah and has since independently released three studio albums. Upon the release of their debut LP, Young (2013), the band climbed to #13 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart and with their sophomore record, Until I Live (2015), the 5-piece became a Billboard....

Mike Edel

WednesdayApril 17, 20198:00pm

"What is the future, if this is now?" asks Canadian-born Mike Edel on his upcoming album THRESHOLDS due out March 1st. This question, echoing throughout groove of the song "Challenger," similarly echoes throughout Edel's entire record, produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla. THRESHOLDS is a compelling departure....

Pundamonium: The Milwaukee Pun Slam

FridayApril 19, 20198:00pm $10.00

Pundamonium is a slam-style pun contest. One by one, 15 contestants make puns based on prompts. Then they do it again. Each contestant is immediately judged by five members of the audience, who have been selected before the show to be judges. They rank each punner on a scale of 1 to 10, often with hilariously long....

Terry McBride

SaturdayMay 4, 20198:00pm $20.00

Born and raised in Texas, Terry grew up in Lampasas, a small ranching community about seventy miles northwest of Austin. After receiving a guitar for his ninth birthday from his father it wasn't long before Terry was playing in local bands and spending summers on the road with his dad, the late Dale McBride, who was a....

Terry Reid

SundayMay 26, 20198:00pm $25.00

The 5.6.7.8's

TuesdayMay 28, 20198:00pm $20.00

Japan's 5.6.7.8's formed as an all-girl band in Tokyo in the mid-1980s, earning fame initially with their covers of American rock 'n' roll and surf-reminiscent tunes. Soon after forming in 1986, the 5.6.7.8's started churning out their own hits, and after a score of lineup changes the band began touring in Japan and....

Joe Richter

FridayMay 31, 20198:00pm $12 advance / $15 door

Doug Stone

FridayOctober 4, 20198:00pm $25.00

Alternative Concert Group Presents

Randy Bachman

TodayJanuary 18, 20198:00pm $67 / $47

At the Grand Theater, Wausau, WI.

Tickets on sale at grandtheater.org or at the Grand Theater box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:30pm and 9:00am-noon on Saturdays from September through May.

Randy Bachman

TomorrowJanuary 19, 20198:00pm $55 / $45

At the Pablo Center for the Arts, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at pablocenter.org.

Randy Bachman

SundayJanuary 20, 20197:30pm $70 / $50

At the Barrymore Theatre, Madison, WI.

Tickets on sale at barrymorelive.com, or by phone at 608-241-8633 (Mon-Fri noon-5pm).

Randy Bachman

TuesdayJanuary 22, 20197:30pm $75 / $55

At South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center box office, online at southmilwaukeepac.org/tickets, or by phone at 414-766-5049.

Wynonna and The Big Noise, Hope Country

ThursdayJanuary 24, 20197:30pm $47 / $57

At the Pablo Center for the Arts, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at pablocenter.org.

Celtic Tenors Present: The Irish Songbook

FridayMarch 1, 20197:30pm $50.00

At the Wilson Theatre at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at the Marcus Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com or 414-273- 7206.

Gaelic Storm

WednesdayMarch 6, 20197:30pm $32 - $42

At the Pablo Center for the Arts, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at pablocenter.org.

Under The Streetlamp

SundayMarch 10, 20197:30pm $47 - $59

At the Grand Theater, Wausau, WI.

Tickets on sale at grandtheater.org or at the Grand Theater box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:30pm and 9:00am-noon on Saturdays from September through May.

Gaelic Storm

WednesdayMarch 13, 20197:30pm $25 / $30

At UW-Stevens Point Laird Room, DUC.

Tickets on sale at the UWSP website.

Dream Theater: The Distance Over Time Tour

SundayMarch 31, 20197:00pm $38 / $55 / $75 / $95

At Miller High Life Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at millerhighlifetheatre.com or at the box office Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

John Prine

FridayMay 24, 20198:00pm

At the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Appleton, WI.

Tickets on sale at TicketMaster, the Fox Cities PAC box offices, or by phone 920-730-3760.

John Prine

SaturdayMay 25, 20198:00pm $73.50 - $103.50

At the Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, WI.

Tickets on sale at Overture.org, the Overture box offices, or by phone 608-258-4141.

Quick Calendar

Lifelong friends and deep-north natives, Michigan Rattlers play heavy-hearted folk-rock with an aching dose of Midwestern nice. Graham Young (guitar), Adam Reed (upright bass), and Christian Wilder (piano) began writing music and performing together in their Northern Michigan high school.

"Petoskey is a small place. Beautiful, but secluded. It's hard to start a musical career in a place where there are more deer than people."

Still, they regularly played every bar, cafe, and stage in town, developing a musical chemistry informed by the likes of AC/DC, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Seger, and more.

After a few years apart, Reed and Young settled down in Los Angeles, recorded a short demo, and began playing locally. The demo found its way into the hands of super-producer Johnny K (Plain White T's, 3 Doors Down), and they cut the bulk of their first EP at NRG Studios in just one day.

"My favorite music is recorded that way," continues Reed. "You get in a room, plug in, and cut songs live. The energy of the recording comes directly from the physical performance, and it puts the listener into that specific time and place."

This self-titled Michigan Rattlers EP attracted glowing reviews from No Depression, Bluegrass Situation, B3 Science, and Rolling Stone, who named the band one of their "Ten New Country Artists You Need To Know" in 2016. They spent the rest of that year and much of the next touring in support of this release.

In September 2017, Pianist Christian Wilder was added to the band's lineup. Now a trio, the group headed into the studio to record their newest EP, Wasting the Meaning. Comprised of three cover songs, the project was conceived as a way to explore deeper into the recording process and pay homage to some of their favorite songwriters.

The Flood Brothers are Alt/Country with a further than folk feeling. Piano driven and harmony equipped their songs get off the gravel and hit the songwriter highway. Five piece with an Austin City Limits variety of styles.

The Tritonics perform original music inspired by the Jamaican roots styles of rock steady, ska and reggae, as well as crucial standards of those genres by artists like Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson and Toots and the Maytals. The Tritonics also reinterpret and revitalize (Ital-ize!) classic rock standards, anointing them in the name of Jah with stripped down, Jamaican roots-style arrangements, one drop-centered rhythm and harmony-heavy vocals.

Michael McDermott burst onto the scene in his early 20s with his exceptional debut, 620 W. Surf and subsequently found himself touted as Rock's 'Next Big Thing'. MTV, Rolling Stone, The New York Times and even author, Stephen King added their appreciative nods and having the backing of Giant Records and prestigious producers like, Brian Koppelman and Don Gehman, seemed to go a long way towards assuring his success - overnight success.

The missteps and failures that followed, the collapse of an industry that once embraced him as its next sensation, are troubles and travails that either ruin a person completely, or they force a change of attitude and staunch determination to gather one's resolve to not only survive, but overcome. McDermott vowed to do both. Ten albums in, it's resulted in Willow Springs (Pauper Sky, June 17, 2016), one of the most honest, daring and defiant recordings of McDermott's career. Named for the small town where he now resides with his wife and young daughter, it reflects a certain circumspect about his life, the situations he's encountered, while realizing that ultimately, his fate resided in his own hands.

"This is an album of reckoning I suppose," McDermott reflects. "There was a real cacophony of change going on in my life at the time... being a new father, losing my own father, leaving the city for the country, dealing with sobriety, grief, death, mortality, shame and forgiveness. It was a veritable emotional tsunami and yet somehow I had to navigate through it all. That journey is reflected in these songs. Willow Springs is the name of the place where I took refuge and had to confront a lot of things".

Recorded at his home in the country and fan-funded, Willow Springs finds McDermott behind the boards as producer for the first time with longtime producer and collaborator, Lex Price doing the mix. Having enlisted a stellar support group of musicians -- including multi-instrumentalist, Price; guitarist, Will Kimbrough; keyboard player, John Deaderick ; sax player Rich Parenteau; and McDermott's wife, Heather Horton on backing vocals - McDermott found himself able to craft the unassuming yet cutting sound he envisioned.

Indeed, the results bear out the fact that Willow Springs is the most honest and expressive album of McDermott's extraordinary 25 year career. Songs such as, 'These Last Few Days', 'Getaway Car', 'Half Empty Kinda Guy', 'One Minus One' and the title track, convey all at once, a sound that's both reflective and confessional - borne by stark emotion and a tattered, battered delivery that's both sobering and sublime. McDermott remains more determined than ever, and Willow Springs is the result. "My enthusiasm is only matched by my desire to continue to evolve as an artist" he insists.

Accolades and kudos can be accumulated one minute and quickly dissipate the next. After all, the music biz is a fickle beast and it doesn't matter how much you pleased the masses last year, last month or even last week, but rather, about what you offer today.

Today, McDermott has offered his best.

Kudos to Michael McDermott - overnight success.

The boys from Signalfire are back again to answer the call for rock and roll. Now performing as a two piece rock band, the fire burns brighter than ever. With the release of their new three song EP, Deuces Wild, you might think the latest incarnation of Signalfire has adopted a 'less is more' approach. Shame on you. Less isn't more. More is more. It takes exactly one spin of Deuces Wild to realize the jams within pack more riffs, more melodies, more grooves, more swagger...just plain MORE. The new songs are straight gasoline. The live shows are a lit match. Light it up!

2014 was a banner year for the rock and roll torchbearers. April saw them release their whiskey-fueled magnum opus, 'Mrs. Saturday Night'. It's the audio equivalent of your fifth shot and suddenly everyone at the bar is looking real good. They're jams that get under your fingernails and just won't wash out. Each song is packed with melody and rhythm that transcends reductive labels like 'rock music'.

Receiving attention from the press for their standout single 'Let It Out', Signalfire were honored with a featured artist spot on Reverbnation for a week. Their new rock jams led them to a prime slot at the world's largest music festival, Summerfest, in their hometown of Milwaukee. Not to deny other cities a taste of Mrs. Saturday Night live and in person, Signalfire then hit the road and shared the love with fans all over the Midwest before taking a victory lap around Milwaukee, culminating in a main stage opening slot for national touring act Tantric. They've also had their music featured on numerous tv shows, including UFC Presents, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Now entering their second decade as a rock band, it's clear Signalfire won't be burning out any time soon.

Grace Under Water is a alternative rock band from Milwaukee WI.

Forming in the summer of 2017 by Kanoa Azinger and Tim McClure ( both formally of the retro rock outfit Passing Sirens).

Grace Under Water initially started out as a duo/recording only project. Upon recording multiple songs and spending long hours in the studio; the pair once again had the itch to form a new band and reached out to bassist Tom McCartan (Wicked Realm) and Geoff Slater (Lost in a Name).

With an introspective and melody based approach Grace Under Water is truly a one of a kind band. With influences such as Stone Temple Pilot-Jeff Buckley-Stereophonics-Tears for Fears- Silver Chair-Red Hot Chili Pepper-Nine Inch Nails-Sevendust to name a few. Grace Under Water truly is the cats pajamas. The band is scheduled to release their first official single "Worth Breaking" Feb 2 followed by a special performance at Shank Hall Feb 9th 2019 @ 8pm along side fellow Milwaukee rockers SIGNALFIRE and A LEGEND ALONE.

A Legend Alone is an American Alternative Rock band from Milwaukee, WI. The band formed in the winter of 2014 after the dissolution of our previous project Vincent. David, Corbin, and JJ decided it was time for a new musical direction and, after adding Tony, formed A Legend Alone. They are currently writing music for their first release.

MARTY FRIEDMAN released his first solo album, Dragon's Kiss, on the influential Shrapnel Records. His tenure with Cacophony and Megadeth have created some of the most memorable music and jaw dropping guitar solos ever heard. He's received gold and platinum awards from throughout the globe and continually pushes the boundaries of music. Fluent in Japanese, Friedman currently resides in Japan where he is a fixture on Japanese television and was recently appointed a Japanese Heritage Ambassador to promote the countries upcoming Olympic games.

Marty Friedman began his career as a Shrapnel solo recording artist and later joined forces with Jason Becker to form the unrivaled dual guitar unit, "Cacophony", who have a strong influence on today's top guitarists. Amassing worldwide acclaim as a guitar superstar, he came to the attention of Megadeth. Racking up sales of over 10 million records with Megadeth, Friedman continued to record solo records, often embarking on adventurous musical forays far removed from his work with Megadeth, including an album with Golden Globe winner Kitaro.

In a bold move, he left the legendary Megadeth to pursue new musical goals and has succeeded tremendously. Friedman's many accomplishments make him currently the only musician to be a fixture in the top class of the Japanese domestic as well as international music scene.

His music performance (songs from "LOUDSPEAKER") on national TV with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and charting high with his own music and with Japan's top artists, has spurred Friedman into new celebrity territory.

Now residing in Tokyo, Friedman has become a television celebrity appearing as a regular on 5 major networks, he can be seen on mainstream hit TV programs almost every day in Japan.

His latest offering, "LOUDSPEAKER" is exactly the kind of record that Friedman fans have been waiting for. While aggressively breaking through cutting edge uncharted musical territory still in spots it is reminiscent in style of his first solo record "Dragon's Kiss."

Before joining Megadeth in Feb.1990, Marty was in a band called Cacophony, which released 2 albums (among their indie label's highest selling) and toured the U.S. and Japan. This band highlighted the potent guitar playing of Marty and fellow guitarist Jason Becker (who was to join David Lee Roth's band and record an album with him in 1990). Marty has received extremely high acclaim and many awards around the world for his unmistakably 'Marty-esque' way of playing the guitar.

Marty is from Washington D.C. originally but has lived in many places including Hawaii, Germany and California, giving him an odd and interesting approach to making his music. He currently resides in Tokyo.

Pioneering post-punk band, the Gang of Four were formed in the bricolage punk rock fallout culture of late seventies Leeds -- a place where art was a mirror and guitars were machine guns. Gang of Four tore up the template and made sense of the question marks thrown up by year zero.

They redesigned rock in the punk aftermath, taking the incendiary energy of the form and criss- crossing it with funk, stripping away the baggage of rock excess and creating a new stripped-down music that was full of agit energy, heavy grooves, shrapnel guitars and politically charged lyrics matching the fervour of the times. Swerving trad rock rhythms, the beats were invented from scratch and every instrument played a pivotal role in the sound in a non-hierarchical structure.

In short, they came up with post punk.

The band then bounced around the music business releasing a series of albums that have been a direct inspiration to a diverse selection of bands who wanted to deconstruct rock music without losing its sense of excitement, from the surrounding post-punk generation to the big bands that followed. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, INXS, R.E.M., U2, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana and Massive Attack have all spoken of their debt to Gang of Four.

More recently, the band's influence has become almost universal--now everybody talks about Gang of Four. From Franz Ferdinand to St Vincent, from Sleater Kinny and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem to Nine Inch Nails: today's creators of angular rock music have GO4's influence and imprint all over them. The band is reaching an urban audience with Frank Ocean sampling them on his latest album and Pharrell name-checking the band in his interviews.

Inevitably GO4 disbanded in 1984 but reformed later that decade, since then releasing a series of albums that emphatically demonstrate their capacity for invention and twisting energy. The line-up now includes Thomas McNeice--the bass player joined in 2008--and John 'Gaoler' Sterry, who has supplied vocals since 2011.

Urgent, dangerous and intense and a bass sound you would kill for, the Gang of Four are, somehow, one of the best young bands in Britain. Full of energy and intensity and zig-zag darting runs across the stage, they explode with the vim and vigour of ideas, like all great bands in their early days.

Except this band is built around a near-60-year-old guitar player, GO4 founder Andy Gill, whose pursuit of perfection has left him as the gang of one. Gill is as vital as ever at the heart of the project. This is no smash-and-grab raid on past reputation. Gang of Four are at the top of their game.

Their upcoming album Happy Now is the perfect synthesis between a modern take on the classic sound--a pop touch with those timeless angular guitar lines and fractured rhythms--with a fast forward vision. It's this combination of electronics and the jagged guitar lines pursuing 21st century grooves that achieves a striking balance between the band's fundamental sound and its restless embrace of the now and the new. Overlaid with Gaoler's melodic vocals, the result is a body of anthemic songs of modern confusion, in the band's best and most consistent work since their post- punk years.

The album also captures the energy of their live show which is seriously good. McNeice's bass is fierce, sharp, full of post-punk grind. He looks sharp and lean, dangerous as well, with his suicide runs across the stage, all the while locking in tight with the pounding rhythm section. Meanwhile Gaoler is delivering his impassioned vocals, flailing away lost in the dark energy groove provided by Jonny Finnigan and Tobias Humble. All of this complements and highlights Gill's steel-eyed resolve and six- string invention.

The Gang of Four was always more than 'just a band'. It's an idea. A quicksilver place that is there to be grabbed by those that dare. Gill has drilled the band super-tight and infused them with that spartan, post-punk, spare aesthetic that sets them up perfectly for this modern dance.

The 2018 Gang of Four are glorious. They sound enormous. They are exciting and have more than a whiff of danger and revolution about them. Gill radiates intensity and still plays the guitar like it's sparking with Hendrix electricity or an AK47 Wilko scratch clatter, and his band of young droogs add a youthful exuberance and energy that electrifies the songs and makes Gang of Four a thrilling exercise in reinvention.

After nearly a four year hiatus away from the music scene, Milwaukee hard rock heroes, Two Fifteen, have reemerged. Coming out swinging in 2019, Two Fifteen, have a fresh new album, and are ready to throw down their patented wild onstage antics, which have made them one of the midwest's most "must see" live acts.

Formed in 2009, Two Fifteen started out as an alternative grunge band. Over the years, their genre defying music has grown and evolved into what can only be described as "alternative metal". Their new album (releasing February 2019) features hard rock hooks, face melting guitar solos, and catchy melodies that will have you begging for more. The current line up consists of original core members Church Creed (frontman), Eric Peters (drums/vocals), Johnny Ruckus (guitar), and two new gunslingers Corey Schmidt (guitar) and Corey Fritschka (bass)- aka "The Two Coreys".

Two Fifteen's music has been featured all over television and the world wide web. Including ESPN, NBC Sports, and the last four consecutive years of spots on Saturday Night Live skits. They've played the smallest holes in the wall, to the world's largest music festival (Summerfest), and everything in between. Opening up for several national acts and direct support for regional tours, Two Fifteen bring an unmatched live performance, that is interactive with the audience,and moves people to become one with the moment.

But why exactly do they call themselves "Two Fifteen"? Well that is a question you should personally ask the band.... the answer might blow your mind.

Conniption is an American Heavy Metal band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Band members Michael Brigham (lead vocals/guitar), Cody Dziuk (bass guitar), Bill House (lead guitar/vocals), and Andy Martin (drums) are known for blending New Wave of British Heavy Metal, American Hard Rock and Thrash Metal.

Conniption formed in December 2007, emerging with an old school thrash sound on their debut album, "A Method to Madness." While touring throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, the band continued to work on their next album. Released in May 2013, "Kamikaze" was influenced by hard rock, heavy metal and progressive rock. The band released their third album, "Time has Come," seven months later in December 2013.

Conniption has performed as direct support of Testament, Metal Church, Iced Earth, and Flotsam & Jetsam, as well as playing the Wisconsin State Fair and Summerfest, the largest musical festival in the world. They have also performed as local support for Megadeth, Trivium, Opeth, GWAR, Cannibal Corpse, and All That Remains. Conniption has been nominated for a third straight year for a WAMI Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Band in Wisconsin (2012, 2013, 2014) and has been invited to perform at the awards show this year.

Conniption is expanding from the local Milwaukee area into the Chicago and Minneapolis markets, and go national from there... this is only the beginning!

Amberstein, formed in 2013, is a powerhouse of a hard rock band. Based in Milwaukee, WI, Amberstein is comprised Andrew on drums and vocals, Ivan Mallory on guitars and vocals, Brock Betz on lead guitar, and Jake Warne on bass and lead vocals. As an all original band, they combine elements from their individual influences to create a unique and high energy brand of hard rock. Songs with soaring choruses and meaningful lyrics of Warne set over the technical prowess and unshakable hooks of Betz's guitar riffs all in line with the aggressive and extremely musical rhythmic progressions of Andrew's drumming make for a listening and visual experiences that leaves one feeling satisfied and inspired. Add three part harmonies into the mix and you have Amberstein; a very hard working band with promise and expectations beyond their wildest dreams.

With deep feeling and top-shelf talent, houserocking blues masters The Cash Box Kings play tough, real deal classic Chicago blues with boundless energy. They also deliver raw, passionate Delta blues, jumping proto-rock 'n' roll, and steamrolling "bluesabilly," their original mix of Chicago blues and Memphis rockabilly. As anyone who has ever been to one of the band's raucous performances will testify, The Cash Box Kings know how to throw a party. They're fueled by the powerhouse harmonica work of Madison, Wisconsin-based songwriter Joe Nosek and the huge, gritty vocals of Chicago bluesman Oscar Wilson. Their original songs range from humorous stories of Internet love to harrowing tales of Chicago's violent gun epidemic. Every song they perform--be it a striking original or a scorching Chess, Sun or Vee-Jay cover--explodes with contemporary authority and radiates old-school authenticity. According to Grammy Award-winning blues legend Charlie Musselwhite, "The Cash Box Kings play with real taste and feel. Not only is it good blues but it's a jumping good time, too! I ain't lyin'!"

Joe Nosek founded The Cash Box Kings in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001 and, since 2007, has co-led the band with the charismatic, larger-than-life vocalist Oscar Wilson. Over 20 years apart in age and coming from vastly different backgrounds, the two form an unlikely pair, combining Wilson's indisputably authentic inner city Chicago blues vocals with Nosek's harmonica, songwriting and singing talents. The music they create is brilliantly displayed on The Cash Box Kings' Alligator Records debut, Royal Mint. According to Wilson, "The Cash Box Kings is a throwback to the golden age of blues with some kickin' fresh young blood. Joe is my best friend in the music world--the band is a marriage made in heaven for both of us." "Oscar is godfather to my oldest son," says Nosek. "We have each other's backs. We're family."

Royal Mint features 13 hard-hitting songs, including six impressive originals. From the wry, politically-charged Build That Wall to the chilling Blues For Chi-Raq to the funny and too true If You Got A Jealous Woman Facebook Ain't Your Friend to the timeless versions of songs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Clifton Chenier, Amos Milburn and Jimmy Reed, Royal Mint shuffles, jumps and gets down and dirty, fueled by the band's unmatched musicianship. According Nosek, "Royal Mint is our strongest album. The band is at its absolute best."

Nosek refers to the group of top-notch traditional players who comprise The Cash Box Kings as "a blues collective." Live and on record, members of the "collective" appear in different combinations for different performances, creating an anything-can-happen experience. In addition to co-leaders Nosek and Wilson, the full ensemble includes world-class guitarists Joel Paterson and Billy Flynn, drummers Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith and Mark Haines, bassist Brad Ber with newest member Lee Kanehira (replacing their longtime pianist, the late Barrelhouse Chuck) rounding out the band.

In their first six years, The Cash Box Kings won a large and loyal audience across the Midwest. Wilson joined the band in 2007, bringing with him an instantly commanding stage presence and an authoritative vocal style that gives fire-breathing power to the music. A self-taught musician and singer with an encyclopedic knowledge of almost every blues song known to man, Wilson--standing 6'1" and weighing over 300 pounds--is a natural-born entertainer and a perfect foil for Nosek and the band. Born in 1953 on Chicago's 43rd Street (aka Muddy Waters Drive), Wilson grew up in the company of many famous blues artists. Junior Wells, Elmore James, Big Smokey Smothers and close family friend David "Honeyboy" Edwards were all regulars at weekly Friday night fish fries/jam sessions at the Wilson home. Throughout his adulthood, Wilson held regular jobs but was always welcome sitting in with Chicago blues mainstays Melvin Taylor and Johnny B. Moore. His vocal inspirations range from Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Albert King to Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter but he mostly sings like Oscar Wilson. Award-winning harmonica giant and vocalist Rick Estrin (leader of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats) says, "That guy can really sing."

A self-described blues fanatic, Nosek, born in Wisconsin in 1974 and raised in Chicago, spent his youth soaking up as much blues music as he could hear, both live and on record. In his teens, he began sneaking into blues clubs to watch Junior Wells, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Sunnyland Slim and others. Nosek recalls, "Seeing those guys work made a huge impression on me and propelled me into wanting to learn how to play the blues." He took up harmonica, quickly cultivating his own aggressive, fluid style.

After moving to Madison in the early 1990s, he began sitting in with artists such as Clyde Stubblefield and Luther Allison. Finding like-minded musicians hell-bent on playing raw, rough-edged, hard-charging blues, Nosek formed The Cash Box Kings. They released their first album, Live! At The King Club, in 2003, instantly earning praise from critics and fans, and gaining a reputation as one of the hottest live bands on the circuit.

The Cash Box Kings have earned devoted fans in both Chicago and Madison, the two cities where band members live. They regularly headline Chicago venues like Buddy Guy's Legends and Rosa's Lounge, and have played major festivals across the U.S. and Europe. They've blown away audiences at the Chicago Blues Festival, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, the Doheny Blues Festival, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Cincinnati Blues Festival, the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), the Moulin Blues Festival (Netherlands), the Lucerne Blues Festival (Switzerland), the Baltic Blues Festival (Germany) and the Edmonton Blues Festival (Canada). They have also performed in Belgium, France, Spain and Uruguay.

With eight previous releases to their credit and hundreds of live performances under their belts, The Cash Box Kings have won widespread acclaim throughout the blues world. Their 2013 release Black Toppin' won the 2013 Blues Blast Music Award for Traditional Blues Album of the Year. It was also nominated for a 2014 Blues Music Award in the same category. Their last release, Holding Court, was nominated for two 2016 Blues Music Awards (Best Traditional Album and Album of the Year) and the band was also nominated for the Band of the Year Award. They've been featured on NPR Music as well as in the pages of No Depression, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Living Blues, Vintage Guitar, Blues Blast and many other publications. Living Blues said, "This accomplished band of musicians captures the vibe of traditional blues and flawlessly spins it in innovative ways."

According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, The Cash Box Kings are a natural addition to the label. "I love this band because they combine the classic Chicago blues style with contemporary lyrics, true blues vocals and terrific musicianship. Oscar Wilson's voice is a soulful roar like Muddy Waters' and Joe Nosek plays powerhouse harmonica in the James Cotton tradition. Billy Flynn and Joel Paterson are world-class blues guitarists. The whole band can deliver jumping party shuffles or down-in-the-alley gritty blues. Their fresh songs bring wry humor to subjects like current politics, the pitfalls of social networking and life on the tough streets of Chicago."

Nosek agrees, saying, "We're very happy about finding a new home with Bruce Iglauer and the good folks at Alligator Records. As blues musicians who grew up in Chicago, becoming a part of the Alligator roster is a great honor for us. It's the label that has released some of our all-time favorite blues records."

With blasting harmonica, soul-deep vocals, original songs and sizzling guitars, The Cash Box Kings boast an array of talent to satisfy blues lovers of every shape and size. On Royal Mint they make old blues new as they continue to create new blues classics, with, according to Elmore magazine, "just the right amount of juke joint grit." Living Blues says The Cash Box Kings are "straight from the golden era of the blues," boasting "an impressive line-up of A-list players. Joe Nosek feels Little Walter and Slim Harpo in the essence of his soul. Singer Oscar Wilson could be right out of [Chicago's famed] Checkerboard Lounge in its glory days. The Cash Box Kings are a dancing and listening pleasure."

Jonathan Richman has been writing songs, making records and performing live for most of his life, winning fans and making friends around the world with his guileless honesty and playfully catchy compositions. He's revered by countless fellow artists, and has built a remarkably loyal international audience through his tireless touring. His deceptively straightforward songs embody timeless qualities of humanity, optimism, emotional insight and a boundless sense of humor, untainted by cynicism or transient notions of hipness.

The records that Jonathan Richman has made over the past 30 years have long held a special place in the hearts of his fans. He began playing guitar at the age of 15, and in the early 1970s formed the Modern Lovers, whose raw, minimalist sound and emotionally forthright songs helped to lay the groundwork for punk rock. But by the time the group's landmark debut album (including the much-covered "Road Runner," a Top Five single in Europe) was released in 1976, Jonathan had already moved on to a quieter sound and a gentler lyrical focus. Since then, he's continued to record and tour prolifically, first with a series of Modern Lovers lineups, later on his own, and eventually as a duo with drummer Tommy Larkins. Over the years, Jonathan's music has absorbed a multitude of influences, from doo-wop to country to a variety of international styles, without sacrificing the artist's effervescent personality.

Jonathan's fans have remained fiercely devoted over the years, and his audience expanded substantially in the 1990s, thanks to his frequent guest spots on TV's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, his prominent appearance in the 1998 film comedy smash There's Something About Mary, and the inclusions of his Modern Lovers classics "Ice Cream Man" and "I'm A Little Airplane" on Sesame Street.

For much of his career, Jonathan has toured almost almost nonstop around the world. "Traveling and playing for new people in new places is one of my favorite things," he notes. "It's great playing places that are off the beaten track. You can learn a lot when you play in a little town in Holland or Western Australia, and you learn different things than you would learn playing a big city. This year we're going to try to play in Extremadura, which is the southwest of Spain--we might become the first American entertainers ever to play there. I'm hoping that we can able to play the Canary Islands soon.

"Playing shows and making records keeps been getting easier and more fun," Jonathan states, adding, "Me and Tommy play totally different than we played two years ago. We already play a different style than we played on that live DVD, and the way we played then was totally different from the way we played three years before that. I still feel like we're just starting out, and I still learn new stuff every night."

Greg Koch and the Koch-Marshall Trio consist of American guitarist Greg Koch, his son Dylan Koch on drums and Hammond B3 specialist Toby Lee Marshall. At the heart of this organ trio is a blues sensibility - but Koch's compositions are an amalgam of rock, funk, jazz and country served up with heavy grooves and dynamic improvisations delivered with no small dose of humor and occasional wild abandon.

Milwaukee native Greg Koch has forged a successful career as a guitar player's guitarist. He has been called "fiendishly talented" by author and former editor- in-chief of Guitar Player Magazine Tom Wheeler and "scary good" by guitar phenom Joe Bonamassa. In addition to his 15 releases on multiple record labels which feature his unique take on a variety of American guitar styles and his versatile compositions, Koch is widely known for his lengthy tenure as an international ambassador for Fender Guitars which listed him in their "Top Ten Unsung Guitarists" on Fender.com. He is also a best-selling author and video instructor for music publisher Hal Leonard. Greg is a contributing columnist for a variety of guitar magazines including Guitar Player Magazine which listed Greg's "Chief's Blues" in their "40 Badass Blues Solos You Must Hear" and Premier Guitar. For the last few years Greg is renowned for his wildly popular internet videos (which number in the thousands with views exceeding 50 million) originating from the legendary Colorado guitar shop Wildwood Guitars.

Dylan Koch gravitated to the drums early on in his life using kitchen utensils to play along with music as soon as he could walk. After digesting an early diet of Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell and John Bonham, Dylan was mentored by the legendary Tom Brechtlein (Chick Corea/Robben Ford). In high school Dylan participated in the Jazz Institute at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and furthered his studies at the McNally Smith School of Music in the Twin Cities. While still in his teens he performed with young guitar guns Tallan Noble Latz and Jared James Nichols and has performed alongside his father with such artists as Robben Ford, Little Feat's Paul Barrere, Jon Cleary, David Grissom, Roscoe Beck and Malford Milligan. Dylan was recently nominated for drummer of the year by the Wisconsin Area Music Awards (WAMI).

Toby Lee Marshall's screaming B3 is the perfect compliment to the musical stew that is the Koch songbook. Hailing from the Twin Cities area he came from a musical family, playing piano for years until falling under the spell of the sound of the organ while at a baseball game at age seven. His fascination for the Hammond B3 took hold after his Dad took him to see Steve Cherewan playing with Dr. Mambo's Combo at their legendary residency at Bunker's in Minneapolis. Steve mentored Toby in the ways of the B3 and he hit the ground running landing a gig with bluesman Lonnie Brooks while still a teen. He would go on to travel the world as a member of Bernard Allison's band. After taking a hiatus to spend some family time, Toby is returning to music with a vehemence and the Koch-Marshall format gives him a long leash to let his freak flag fly, providing groovy bass lines, sinuous chordal work and incendiary solos.

The trio blends the explosive guitar manipulations of Greg, the groove-centric, power-pocket playing of his son Dylan on drums (who share many telepathic musical moments) and the glorious, Hammond organ stylings of the uber-talented Toby Marshall, Greg’s compositions are properly portrayed in the blues drenched, funk, chicken-fried, gospelly, jazz-rock panorama in which they were conceived.

Early on, Roy discovered his love for the blues and slide guitar...and for making music that's "deep and funky." Born in Redding, California in 1950, Roy began playing guitar at twelve years of age. A year later at age 13, he was performing in a rock 'n' roll band that wore gold lame jackets and played Little Richard and Chuck Berry tunes. He discovered the great blues players early on, especially when his older brother brought home an album by Robert Johnson. Thus began his love of the blues, slide guitar in particular, which had an immediate effect on Roy, who was indeed named after the King of the Cowboys. Through the years he developed a distinctive style of playing slide guitar that not only emerged, but one that is instantly recognizable.

During the 1960's Rogers frequented the San Francisco rock clubs where he saw many of the blues greats who inspired him. Roy performed with various groups until 1976, when he and harmonica player David Burgin formed an acoustic duo and recorded an album Rogers And Burgin: A Foot In The Door for Waterhouse Records. They also played on the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest movie soundtrack before the duet ran it's course. Rogers then formed his own band in 1980, the Delta Rhythm Kings, hit the club circuit, played a few more movie and television gigs, and toured Europe with the 1982 San Francisco Blues Festival Revue (recording an album with that Revue in Paris).

In 1985 he released his first solo album, Chops Not Chaps on his own label, which received widespread radio play and was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award. In 1987, Blind Pig released his second solo album, Slidewinder. It includes fantastic duets with Hooker and New Orleans piano great Allen Toussaint, as well as songs with his own band. The rave reviews in the national press and extensive radio play that followed further enhanced Roy's growing reputation. Roy's third solo release, Blues On The Range was also issued on Blind Pig in 1989 and continued to win new fans to his incredible slide guitar, arrangements and songwriting skills.

Shortly after returning from Europe, Rogers was asked to join John Lee Hooker's Coast to Coast Blues Band. During the four years he toured with Hooker as a featured guitarist/vocalist, Rogers established a strong personal and professional relationship with the venerated blues legend. Said Hooker, "I just can't say enough good things about Roy. He plays so good. Some of the best slide I've heard, best blues I've heard. He gets real deep and funky, and he masters whatever he plays." Near the end of his tenure in Hooker's band, Roy began to open shows as a solo act, giving him a chance to perform some of the classic country blues and original compositions he'd been perfecting for years. He then went on to produce the historically important four recordings for John Lee Hooker. "The Healer" "Mr. Lucky" "Boom Boom" "Chill Out" - some tracks involving co producer credits with Ry Cooder and Van Morrison.

Roy's musical talents were featured on the soundtrack for the 1990 film The Hot Spot, which he recorded with Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal and which also garnered a Grammy nomination. In 1991, Rogers hooked up with another Bay Area artist, harmonica virtuoso and vocalist Norton Buffalo to produce the highly acclaimed release R & B. The album is a true American array of acoustic tunes from blues to ballads capturing the incredible chemistry of these powerful performers. The cut "Song For Jessica" received a Grammy Award nomination in 1991 and another track, "Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox" was made into a performance video which received airplay on many outlets, including The Nashville Network.

The duo came back in 1992 with the Blind Pig release Travellin' Tracks, featuring live performances as well as studio tracks where they are joined by a rhythm section on several cuts. The dynamic interplay between the pair is undeniable and the release furthered the artist's already outstanding reputations.

The 2000's have been a VERY productive recording period for Roy, greatly expanding his collaborations with other artists, as well as his own solo recordings. In 2002, he recorded a last album with Norton Buffalo titled Roots of our Nature. In 2004 he released his first-ever live recording of his own band, featuring some very special guests (the video of which became part of the PBS TV series, Music Gone Public). The self-released Everybody's Angel was recorded with Shana Morrison who toured with Roy extensively in the early 2000s. In 2006 he collaborated with Reidar Larsen for a release in Norway of The Crossing. In 2009 he recorded Split Decision for Blind Pig records. Roy then teamed up with Ray Manzarek and their joint efforts produced three recordings in eight years -- Ballads before the Rain, Translucent Blues and Twisted Tales. Starting out as a duet, they soon formed a band together and toured throughout the U.S. and also in Europe. Their collaboration and friendship has been wonderfully captured in a documentary film to be released in 2017. Roy's 2015 release Into the Wild Blue (June 2015) proves he and The Delta Rhythm Kings are at the top of their game. StringShot, Rogers' additional band formed in 2015, features renowned Brazilian guitarist Badi Assad and harpist/violinist extraordinaire Carlos Reyes; their self-titled album debuted in August of 2018.

Whether he's squeezing out the deepest blues or playing the funkiest soul grooves, legendary blues and soul giant Tommy Castro knows how to ignite a crowd. Over the course of his still-unfolding career, the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter has released 15 albums ranging from horn-fueled soul and R&B to piping hot blues to fiery rock 'n' roll. He's performed all over the world, earning countless fans with his legendary, sweat-drenched, exhilarating live shows. Castro's band, The Painkillers--bassist Randy McDonald, drummer Bowen Brown and keyboardist Michael Emerson--have now been playing together over four years. After hundreds of live shows, they have coalesced into one of the telepathically tightest units Castro has ever assembled, making them one of the most in-demand live roots music acts performing today. Billboard says the band plays "irresistible contemporary blues-rock" with "street-level grit and soul."

With the group seemingly hitting new heights with every performance, Castro knew the time was right to answer his fans' demands for a live album. Killin' It--Live captures the band at the peak of their creative and improvisational powers, and features one unforgettable, unpredictable performance after another. "This is the best band we've ever had," says Castro. We really got something going on beyond just being good musicians. Every song we play live now has that right feel--all the dynamics. It allows us to jam out more on stage. Killin' It--Live is what you hear when you see us live."

Featuring songs from throughout Castro's career, Killin' It--Live was produced by Castro and engineer/songwriter Ron Alan Cohen and recorded at venues in Texas, New York, Michigan and California during 2018. The album includes eight Castro originals spanning his entire career and two Castro-ized covers, each showing a slightly different side of his multifaceted musical personality. From fan favorites She Wanted To Give It To Me and Make It Back To Memphis to newer classics like Lose Lose and Two Hearts to Taj Mahal's arrangement of Sleepy John Estes' Leaving Trunk (a song Castro has never recorded before but has been playing live for years), Killin' It--Live is a nonstop, spirited mix of blues, rock and soul, with rollicking, hypnotic grooves fueled by Castro's animated, fervent vocals.

Born in San Jose, California in 1955, Tommy Castro first picked up a guitar at age 10. He fell under the spell of Eric Clapton, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Mike Bloomfield and other blues-rockers. Almost every major rock and soul act, from Ike and Tina Turner to Janis Joplin to Elvin Bishop to Taj Mahal, toured through the area, and Castro was at every show. He saw John Lee Hooker, Albert King and Buddy Guy and Junior Wells at the same local blues bar, JJ's, where he often jammed, dreaming of one day busting out. Mixing the blues-rock he loved and the soul music he heard blasting out from his Mexican friends' lowriders, Tommy started to create his own personal sound and style. He honed his guitar skills and intense vocals, learning how to capture an audience as he performed on San Jose's highly competitive bar scene. As his reputation spread, Tommy played in a variety of Bay Area blues and soul bands, soon making a name for himself as a hotter-than-hot live artist bursting at the seams with talent. In 1985, he was recruited to become lead singer and guitarist for the regionally popular blues band NiteCry, gigging regularly throughout Northern California.

Castro joined Warner Brothers' artists The Dynatones in the late 1980s, performing all over the country. He formed the first Tommy Castro Band in 1991, releasing his debut album in 1996 on the Blind Pig label. In the mid-1990s The Tommy Castro Band served as the house band for three seasons on NBC Television's Comedy Showcase (airing right after Saturday Night Live), bringing him in front of millions of viewers every week. During the 1990s and into the 2000s, Castro recorded a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Blind Pig, Telarc and 33rd Street Records, as well as one on his own Heart And  Soul label.

Castro joined Alligator Records in 2009, releasing Hard Believer to massive acclaim. He won four of his six career Blues Music Awards, including the coveted B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year Award (the very highest award a blues performer can receive). His next release, 2011's Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue--Live!, was a boisterous and searing collection of highlights from a series of live performances anchored by Castro and an all-star collection of blues giants, including Rick Estrin, Michael "Iron Man" Burks and Joe Louis Walker. His relentless road-dog approach--gig after gig, night after night--has won him loyal, lifelong fans everywhere he plays. The Washington Post says Castro is "phenomenal and funky" with "soulful vocals and inspired blues-rock guitar."

Castro formed the first incarnation of The Painkillers in 2012, and by 2014 (with Brown and Emerson taking over drums and keys respectively) they had become a lean, mean four-piece lineup, delivering soul-shaking, muscular music. The current band released Method To My Madness in 2015 and Stompin' Ground in 2017, with critics shouting praise and admirers cheering the group's every move. Castro had stripped his music down to its raw essence with the new, smaller band, creating a larger than life sound. Blues Revue said simply, "Tommy Castro can do no wrong."

Live on stage, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' road-hardened musicianship brings an unmatched passion to Castro's blue-eyed California soul and hard-rocking, good-time songs. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Castro's music as, "funky Southern soul, big city blues and classic rock...silvery guitar licks that simultaneously sound familiar and fresh." No Depression says "Castro plays gritty, string-bending blues like a runaway soul train...a glorious blend that rocks the soul and lifts the spirits." Killin' It--Live captures the live power and raw passion of Tommy Castro & The Painkillers. It's the next best thing to being there.

No matter the form, when it comes to art, there are a number of different tacks to take. Some artists continually push their work across new horizons. Neil Young, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Joni Mitchell come to mind, in that regard. Others -- Claude Monet, Jason Isbell, and Bonnie Raitt, among them -- stand a bit more still in order to continually refine the capturing of their vision. Singer/songwriter Peter Bradley Adams falls into the latter category of perfectionists chasing their own perfection. With A Face Like Mine, he may well have caught it.

There's a confidence, a completeness in the song cycle that listeners have gleaned throughout Adams' illustrious career, but A Face Like Mine, his sixth solo effort, brings it all into sharp focus. As Adams sees it, "On the long plod of finding my voice as a singer and a writer, the singing has slowly developed from the sound of a scared guy to someone who believes what he's saying and the writing, I hope, has become less rigid -- both in the lyrics and the phrasing."

Less rigid, indeed. Adams' brand of Americana nestles his often delicate, always heartfelt voice in the warm embrace of gentle guitar, tasteful dobro, subtle banjo, supportive bass, and unhurried percussion. The result is a sonic scape that, in turn, wraps itself around the listener like a soft blanket on a cold day. With A Face Like Mine, Adams further refines the simple musical sophistication that has become his trademark.

Throughout the self-produced set, Adams tells tales of love and loss, homes and hearts. The territory he mines is a deliberate mix of fact and fantasy. "I feel like I'm, firstly, a storyteller, but it's inevitable that my own stuff gets in there deep. And it's funny how, sometimes, I don't realize it until the song is done," he offers. "At the same time, there are times where I take very directly from an experience or a relationship, but I try to be very careful when that happens. I don't want to ever sound like a journal entry."

Regardless of the details, there's always a philosophical bent that is often more under than on the surface, firmly grounding Adams' songs even as they stretch outward. By his own admission, Adams is a seeker who spends considerable time wrestling with matters of faith, though he's the first to admit he doesn't have any real answers. "I honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing... nor do I have the language for any of this stuff," he says with a laugh. "But there is a constant tug on me in that direction and, the older I get, the more present it becomes. Music can often be the most direct way to step into that river."

That seeker's heart is the tie that so often binds these songs together. Whether the search for place and purpose is of a spiritual or geographical nature, few writers capture the journey as thoughtfully as Adams. An Alabama native, Adams says he feels most comfortable in motion and doesn't have a strong sense of being Southern, even though his music is rooted in that world in so many ways. The first verse of the album's mesmerizing lead track, "Good Man," exemplifies his plight: "This old house is falling down. Every step I take makes a hollow sound. Should I walk away? Should I push on through? What in the world can a good man do?"

Even as Adams goes on to sing of "laughing eyes with a touch of grey" and walking "a mile across the kitchen floor" in order to set various scenes, he leaves room for the listener to crawl inside his stories and make them their own. Striking that balance is the songwriter's eternal struggle, but one Adams seems to have mastered after years of toiling on his own and collaborating with co-writers like Kim Richey, Caitlin Canty, and Todd Lombardo.

"I don't think I'm very good at co-writing because my process seems so weird and long and tedious to me," Adams confides. "It's hard to allow someone into that space, but there a few folks where our sensibilities are aligned and we're not just trying to bang out a song in a day. I want to feel as close to the songs I co-write as the ones I write alone. Writers like Kim Richey have such an economy and depth to the ideas that come out of their mouths and hands -- there's wisdom there. I want to be more like that."

In addition to this release, Adams is currently putting his classical composition studies to work on a piece for violin and piano -- an aspect of his craft and education that got set aside somewhere along the way to now. "I've wondered a lot why I spent all that time studying music in school and how my composer hat fits in with or hinders my songwriting," he says. "Some of it was definitely useless to me, then and now. But some of it has left its mark on how I listen, and how I think of arranging songs, and how I communicate with players who are playing on them. Also, writing in such an extremely simple and constrained musical language makes all your choices much more delicate, so I spend a lot of time crafting even the simplest melody."

A Face Like Mine's songs were composed all over the world, from Alabama to India, and they dig into topics are disparate as the desperation of addiction ("Lorraine"), the grappling of self-image ("Who Else Could I Be"), the vitriol of politics ("We Are"), and the genetics of suffering ("A Face Like Mine"). "We Are" and "Who Else Could I Be" were originally written for a dance piece that Gina Patterson choreographed for the San Angelo Civic Ballet. Even so, Adams made sure the songs could stand alone in their own world no matter what else was swirling around them -- confidence and completeness in action.

As a work of musical art, A Face Like Mine fulfills the promise of Peter Bradley Adams. And rarely has an artist's standing still sounded so divine.

Three good reasons why it's hard to remember a time when an album like Jeremy Enigk's Return of the Frog Queen sounded shocking:

1) At the time of its release in 1996, there was no other album like it.

2) In the 22 years between then and now, its marriage of seemingly opposing sensibilities--English folk and American punk; orchestral chamber pop and progressive rock; surreal, pastoral, fanciful lyrics that burn to express personal, emotional, and spiritual quandary--has become the blueprint for so much great music that a young listener can be forgiven for thinking that things were always just like that.

This isn't to claim some kind of Velvet Underground/Big Star status for the album, but it is to say that you can draw a straight line between Frog Queen and elements of Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, Rufus Wainwright, Destroyer, the Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Joanna Newsom, Bon Iver, and many, many other artists who have come to define the past two decades of indie music.

3) It's getting harder to remember anything anymore.

But Return of the Frog Queen is worth remembering. Or discovering. And most definitely celebrating. Though you rarely see it turn up on lists of 50 Best Things of Whatever Year We Wish We Still Lived in Because the Present Is Such a Consummate Drag, the album was an indisputable innovation in the world of '90s indie rock, rewriting a litany of unwritten rules about sound, subject matter, and solo identity for lead singers of successful bands.

THE BACKGROUND

As you probably know, Enigk was the singer/guitarist of Sunny Day Real Estate, the Seattle quartet widely credited as the Big Bang of the post-hardcore, indie rock variant of emo that would spend the next decade morphing into a massively commercial enterprise.

You can't blame Sunny Day Real Estate for that, though. They were just a young, powerhouse band who happened to be several years ahead of their time.

SDRE's debut album, Diary, and its first single, "Seven," was a seismic event, not least in the lives of the band members. It was released in May of 1994, one month and two days after Kurt Cobain's suicide was discovered. Diary became Sub Pop's biggest-selling album since Bleach--a distinction that lasted until the next decade.

The story of the band's splintering during the making of their follow-up album (LP2)--and triumphant reunion a few years later--has been well-told elsewhere. But for our purposes, it's worth bearing in mind that the break-up drama formed the background from which Return of the Frog Queen emerged.

In the space of about two years, Jeremy Enigk had joined a band with some friends, toured the world, sold way more records than anyone had anticipated, been heralded with hyperbolic--not to say unwarranted--praise, become a significant voice to a lot of young listeners, experienced a religious epiphany that he spoke of publicly, and watched the band buckle and fall apart, much to the dismay of a public that was only just starting to figure out how to broadcast its anxious speculations and judgments on the internet.

By the time the band broke up, he had been loved, respected, celebrated, criticized, vilified, and reproached. He was 21 years old.

One might expect a person might respond to all this sturm und drang by making noisy, chaotic, electric guitar-driven music of the kind his now-defunct band made its name with. One might expect someone whose character and even sanity had been widely debated in public might want to write a definitive statement about his identity, his ideology, his id.

But Jeremy Enigk didn't do either of those things. He made Return of the Frog Queen instead.

ENTER THE FROG QUEEN

The songs that formed the basis of Enigk's first solo album were about as far from the sound of Sunny Day Real Estate as you could imagine--unless all you'd heard of them was "Pheurton Skeurto," the little piano songlet that sounds (delightfully) out of place on Diary.

Spare acoustic guitar figures and solemn, almost plainsong melodies are the foundational elements, which Enigk and his two key collaborators, producer Greg Williamson and arranger/conductor Mark Nichols, build up into astonishingly dynamic worlds of sound. But for all the swoops and bends, the unconventional entrances and exits, the arrangements remain organic, and perfectly united behind the singular human voice at the center of it all.

From the very first strum on "Abegail Anne," the music is stately, mysterious, vaguely mystical, and not even remotely interested in the ironic detachment still popular in those days.

If anything, the arrangements, and the stupefyingly strong vocals, are flagrantly theatrical. Enigk sang hard over loud instruments in SDRE, but nothing prepared you for the versatility of his voice on Frog Queen. From a raspy whisper to conversational chest voice to clearly differentiated levels of high end--choked scream, melodic scream, head voice, falsetto, whatever you want. (And just a wisp of an unconscious British accent.)

But even at the peak of crescendo, as on the staggering climax of "Shade and the Black Hat," on which Enigk wails "WON'T YOU STAY TONIGHT?" at the top of his range while the orchestra whips up a maelstrom--this music feels unfailingly intimate, while somehow remaining intensely private.

This is the central enigma (enigkma?) of the album: How can a song be both intimate and private? How can music that feels like fearless personal revelation grow more opaque the more closely you examine at it? Consider the author, and what his life was like at the time these songs were written and recorded. It's easy to imagine a 21-year-old rock star manqué feeling overwhelmed, overexposed, overanalyzed, hungry for a kind of solace in which sound precedes meaning.

And yet, meaning is all over the record if you're looking.

In among the pleasing, suggestively abstract imagery--"dallow water," and "this dubious day," and "window morning dream paradise"--Enigk plants lines that don't require much interpretation at all if you've ever been anywhere near a break-up of a band or any other relationship, ever worried about what strangers might be saying about you, ever felt unseen, ever re-ran edited versions of old arguments in your mind, ever believed in something so fiercely that you were willing to lose friendships over it.

"Wait for, wait for me..."

"I've heard rumors..."

"No one knows my name..."

"What I've seen tears me inside..."

"Then the writing on the wall

said he is only the way
You said it was bad timing

at least we had timing at all."

These lines are crucial, but they're also non-sequiturs, there for you to discover if you're looking, but the songs still work beautifully if you never do.

But beyond the literal, there's a spirit of fabulism in the lyrics--hardly a surprise on a record named after amphibian royalty. Who is this "Abegail Anne"? Where is this sleepy, enchanted "Lewis Hollow"? What does "hi, hey" mean? And how does he proceed so artfully from idle, drowsy contemplation of a lizard in a castle, observing the tremors of its "dreary heart," to the roaring, soaring cascade of frustration bursting forth at song's end? Who is being addressed, and by whom?

Trying to tease out the puzzle of these artfully esoteric lyrics has proven to be one of the album's most durable pleasures (or possibly frustrations, if you prefer things spelled out). As time passes, the words might seem meaningless or profound depending on who you are, not who Enigk was.

It makes for an odd spin on the idea of self-revelation. The album unquestionably opens a window onto an unorthodox artist, pursuing an unorthodox process, to arrive at a most unorthodox production. But as with any great artwork, the real subject is the person looking at it.

ONWARD AND INWARD

Even after two decades, it's difficult to find a name for the atmosphere conjured by the album. There are traces of Incredible String Band pastoralia, but also a strain of Pink Floydish unease. Bowie between Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory. It's not dark exactly, but only because your eyes have adjusted to candlelight. It feels mystical, even metaphysical.

Emphasis on "physical."

Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover nailed it in two sentences from his review:

"He pounds a piano and howls like his wife just left him for his best friend, as the violins, violas, and cellos scrape at their strings as if to break them, and the flutes, piccolos, trumpets, trombones, French horns, and clarinets blow like they were hired by a wolf to blast a few recalcitrant pigs' houses down. The waves of classical countermelodies are extraordinary, adding on to each other to create an 1812 Overture anvil clarion call, a roar so dense, so overpowering, it's like gasoline exploding, even more so as they back Enigk's fevered wail as if he were long past desperation."

Return of the Frog Queen was the very last thing anyone would have expected to come out of the singer of Sunny Day Real Estate, or really, the Pacific Northwest at that time--which was not long past a different kind of desperation.

Without knowing or intending it, Enigk and his collaborators made a record that pointed the way out of Seattle's mid-'90s post-boom-years malaise, which had no shortage of talent and desire, but lingering ambivalence about ambition, and no clear sense of cultural direction.

And then all of a sudden, here came an utterly singular demonstration that when all else fails, the most reliable direction is usually inward.

It's unlikely that a generation of hopeful teenage garage bands formed as a response to eager suburban teens getting an earful of Return of the Frog Queen. Maybe it's just a coincidence then, that in the years following the record's release (and the breathtaking live shows Enigk played with a stripped-down version of the 21-piece orchestra that plays on the record), indie music from the Pacific NW outwards, got more expansive, more idiosyncratic, a little riskier, and a lot weirder.

But it was for sure never the same.

Awash in vintage synths, revved up by 21st century guitars, and swagged out in chic thrifted threads, Cherry Pools harness harmony between distinct eras. The Toronto, ON quartet--Martin Broda [singer], Matt Krumins [guitar], Talyn Prior [bass], and Sean Medeiros [drums]--introduce a style that would fit right in during an eighties-set teen love story or booming over North American festival fields on their 2017 debut EP [Weekday Records/Sony Music Entertainment].

"We wanted to write fun, summer anthems that are relatable," explains Martin. "They're primarily about relationships and the ups and downs that come from being in them. At the same time, there's a catchy vibe you can get down with. We wanted to marry our influences into something fresh."

Cherry Pools represents the culmination of a lifelong artistic journey for the musicians. Most recently, they operated under the moniker of Curses, built an international fan base through rigorous touring, and earned the endorsement of Alternative Press, Exclaim!, and more. In 2017, they underwent a pronounced progression. Martin turned his attention towards fusing the sounds that impacted him the most from his formative years through today. Under the influence of Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Justice, MGMT, Tame Impala, and more, the four-piece arrived at a creative cross-section of inspirations. "It was about merging the modern and vintage," he goes on. "We wrote really catchy and rhythmic vocal hooks that people could easily digest. It's very simplistic and straightforward. That was the spirit."

The boys recorded in Toronto alongside Juno Award- and MMVA Award-winning producer Anthony Kalabretta. Together, they unlocked a cohesive and coherent vision that unfolds on the EP. On "Caught in the Stars," ethereal keys and handclaps entwine with lyrical conjurations of sharing kisses, chemicals, and cassette tapes as Martin's falsetto resounds to the heavens. "It's a summer romance," he explains. "You're trying to go back in time and relive this moment when you were madly in love." That sense of sonic intoxication carries through the energetic and enigmatic "Forever Young" punctuated by his cinematic lyricism. "It's about this mysterious girl who you never went past the whole flirty stage with," the frontman continues. "She's trying to recapture that passion by staying forever young. Physically, it's not going anywhere, but she thinks she can reach back to that feeling." Then, there's the clever and catchy "Hollywood," which doesn't sugarcoat "poking fun at the stereotypical Hollywood girls who are way to cool for school." "I don't get too metaphorical with my lyrics," he admits. "What you hear is what you get. These are my personal experiences I've encountered throughout the years. I don't hold anything back when it comes to getting a point across. I transfer that in a cool way." Every element coalesces into Cherry Pools. From the timeless sonic blend down to the mid-century inspired fashion aesthetic, the music ultimately functions as an escape. "We want everybody to have a good time in the end," Martin leaves off. "We're all about bringing positive energy. If we can pull people away from everyday life and leave them feeling inspired, that'd be amazing. If we can bring that joy out of someone, we're doing our job well. Come to our show and tell your friends about it."

New Wave Fest is proud to present an evening of high-energy retro future sounds from national and local bands that bring the 80s into today! The line up will include the SXSW, Van's Warped Tour duo The Fantastic Plastics, the legendary Xposed 4Heads, Dream Pop duo The Quilz and local New Wave favorites Radio Radio. The event is sponsored by WMSE.

THE FANTASTIC PLASTICS
Describing themselves as "The Future of The Future", The Fantastic Plastics mix new wave, synth punk, and electro elements with Orwellian and Sci-Fi inspired lyricism. The band is a two piece live act, consisting of Miranda Plastic on Moog Synth/Theremin, and Tyson Plastic on Guitar, as well as video installations, custom costumes, and more. Following a stint in Brooklyn, where they made an impact at stages like the Van's Warped Tour, CMJ Music Marathon, Northside Festival, the Chris Gethard Show, and the Kotaku/io9 Cosplay Ball.

XPOSED 4HEADS
The legendary Xposed 4Headsis a witty, social satire art rock band with high-energy and colorful performanceslike a mash up of B-52's and Devo.Lead by Mark G.E. and his 'band' of Milwaukee luminaries and veterans Kelp Chofs, Carter Hunnicutt, Andy Stilin and Greg Barta, which includesStar Girls Theresa and Linda. Xposed 4Heads headlined the 2017 DEVOtional Devo fan festival in Cleveland, OH and has songs playing on radio stations all over the US and abroadwith music from their latest album Urgency Squad.

THE QUILZ
The Quilz are an Indie Synth-Pop duo consisting of producer Sage Schwarm & singer Becky Heck. Despite rumors that Becky is an artificial being, created during a freak electrical accident while Sage was working on a cover of DEVO's "Girl U Want", nothing could be further from the truth. We assure you miss Heck is a real girl. Anyway, since the "incident", The Quilz have been busy writing, recording & performing throughout the Midwest. A seven-inch flexi-disc and a 9 song CD is available now, and their full-length LP, entitled "Fishing For Ketchup", is due to drop Spring/Summer of 2018.

RADIO RADIO
Great danceable music with a punchy rock and roll edge. That's New Wave. That's Radio Radio. Since 2009 this band of top MKE musicians has been playing songs no other band is covering, and in a way that makes you feel you are witnessing the real thing live for the first time. Artists like The Clash, Duran Duran, New Order, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Devo, Talking Heads, Gen X, Flock of Seagulls, and a flock of b-sides and one-hit-new-wave wonders.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers are musical beacons of the Southwest. Over the last fifteen years, the Arizona-based quartet has delivered vivid lyrics, addictive guitar riffs, and a full-bodied rhythm section on more than a dozen studio and live albums. The Independent marks the group's newest release and seventh studio effort, which raises a metaphorical glass to the road less traveled and champions the courageous.

After landing in the top ten of Billboard's Internet Sales Chart for six consecutive albums--all on independent labels and twice at number one--RCPM is poised to lead the charge for a Spanish-infused, roots rock revolution. The band's annual music festival in Rocky Point, Mexico, known as Circus Mexicus, is a testament to their growing fan base. What began as a rooftop show thrown together with extension cords and wooden pallets has blossomed into a pilgrimage that draws thousands of "Peacemakers" to the beach town every June. "There's something about our music that celebrates what's uniting versus what's dividing," says Clyne.

Irony played an integral role in the creation of The Independent, whose first track emerged from a stifling case of writers block. Armed with his guitar and battling creative blockades, Clyne unleashed the phrase "I ain't got the words for this" and as a result the first lyrics for the album were realized. "Ain't Got The Words" leads The Independent, exposing hearty vocal grit and liberating honesty.

The album features guitarist Jim Dalton, bassist Nick Scropos, drummer P.H. Naffah, and Clyne on vocals and rhythm guitar. While Clyne pens the bulk of the Peacemaker's tunes, a long stretch of Northern California highway set the stage for Dalton's lyrical debut. Traveling along the Causeway between Sacramento and San Francisco, RCPM's tour bus came to a screeching halt. "The bus driver screamed back at us and said, 'Guys I got nothing!'" recalls Dalton. "I grabbed my guitar and started strumming. The words 'Just another California breakdown' came tumbling out."

The inspiration behind Dalton's guitar-laden, hard luck tune "California Breakdown" remains one of the band's favorite memories to date. After alerting fans via Facebook to their sidelined 40 ft tour bus, The Peacemakers received more offers for a ride than they could accept. Devout fans piled RCPM's gear onto a landscape trailer, loaded the musicians into their cars, and headed into the sunset for the San Francisco show.

The title track off The Independent is a representation of the group's Southwest influences, delivering an instrumental collaboration that evokes desperado imagery and draws inspiration from old west greats like Sons of The Pioneers. Inversely, the track "Geronimo" is a radio-ready anthem that begins with dark undertones and mariachi roots before building into an uplifting call to arms that chides, "Time to sing a new battle cry, get up out of limbo, step into the blue sky, geronimo!"

The reoccurring themes of independence and chance arguably stem from RCPM's decision to record the album in Naffah's Somos Studios, which also found the drummer in the role of producer. Clyne is no stranger to Naffah's talents, as the pair originally began playing together in the celebrated 90's alt-rock act The Refreshments. Clyne credits Naffah for being a solid component in his 100+ song repertoire.

Riding into the music industry on their own terms has been a longstanding philosophy for the band, and in this case created a sense of freedom that allowed Clyne & company to make an unapologetic album that's pleasingly rough around the edges. Rich with commanding vocals, melodic bass lines, tambourine, and a hint of keys, The Independent embodies the spirit of RCPM.

"The Independent is a double entendre," says Clyne. "It represents the solo sojourner, but it also frames the idea of moving forward as a collective group in the name of independence."

Traveling off the beaten path works to the advantage of Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers. Clyne has successfully spearheaded the production of his own ultra-premium sipping tequila called Mexican Moonshine Tequila, orchestrated an out of country music festival, and guided a band whose fan base has grown exponentially over the last decade. Clyne notes that the lyrics off the track "Right Where We Want 'Em" sums up the sentiment of The Independent. The song speaks of encouragement and unlikely victory, stating, "Out numbered, out flanked, out muscled, out ranked and out gunned." Clyne sings, "Take another long trip off a short plank, at a dead run. We got 'em."

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers "got 'em right where we want 'em now."

During the Seventies when disco and punk were the rage, only a handful of bands were daring enough to play hard rock and heavy metal music. "You could almost count those bands on one hand," said Starz lead guitarist Richie Ranno. "They were Aerosmith, KISS, Queen, Ted Nugent, Starz and Angel. We kept the flame alive between the original hard rock groups and heavy metal today."

All together Starz recorded four studio albums, Starz, Violation, Attention Shoppers, and Colesium Rock and gathered critical acclaim with their ability to mesh the smooth with the hard. "We loved pop melodies," admitted Ranno in retrospect, "and we also loved heavy guitars. We liked to combine hooks with a harder edge. Our singer Michael Lee Smith had a great sense of melody. In the course of four albums, we only used orchestrations or keyboards once, preferring to mix heavy rock productions with melodic overtones."

Their success has been documented in the historical chapters of hard rock and heavy metal. In Kerrang's critical listing of the 100 greatest heavy metal albums of all time, Starz was listed at #94, with Violation at #84. In a similar poll in Hit Parader magazine, Violation was listed at #82. Starz's greatest asset was their live performance and until a chance meeting between Metal Blade's founder and Starz guitarist Richie Ranno, one of rock's greatest secrets was buried in the archives. At the height of their career, Starz released a special "radio only" live record intended for broadcast, bot not liscenced for sale. It was called Live In Louisville and only a scant 2,000 copies were pressed. It was heralded by Kerrang as the greatest live record never released!

"One day" Richie said, "out of the blue, I got a letter from Brian Slagel, who wrote that he was a big Starz fan and was interested in re-releasing the Starz albums for the first time on CD. He asked if I owned the liscenses to any of the records, and I told him I had the rights to the live record." Starz Live In Action is a combination of the famous Live In Louisville performance recorded in 1978 with another concert taped in Cleveland in 1977. Together it is over sixty-five minutes of classic Starz music, covering songs from all four studio albums and the famous "Waitin On You/Colesium Rock" medley which includes a clever collection of the greatest rock guitar riffs of all time.

"We always considered ourselves a live band," Richie confessed. "In fact, we toured with Peter Frampton in major halls before we even had any product to sell! We felt confident that we could get any audience up on their feet and got encores wherever we played." This same spirit is captured on Starz Live In Action. If you are a Starz fan, this special recording is a must for your collection. If you are unaware of this great band, consider these thoughts. Many of the Eighties most successful bands were influenced by Starz, from Cinderella and Poison to Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe. Tom Keifer said the first concert he ever went to was a Starz show... "They really kicked ass," he remembered. Jon Bon Jovi met guitarist Richie Ranno backstage at a Bon Jovi concert in New Jersey and took the time to tell 30,000 screaming fans that when he was young, he looked up to Starz. They were the band he imitated when practicing in the garage. In Jon's words, "What ever your dreams may be, always shoot for the Starz!"

Terry Reid, 'Superlungs' as he's affectionately known, is without doubt one of the greatest rock/soul voices this country has ever produced or is indeed likely to. A Terry Reid concert should be a cherished memory for any self-respecting fan of the greats of British music.

Terry turned down the front man's job with Led Zeppelin, recommending his mate Robert Plant instead, a similar offer and rebuff to Deep Purple. Aretha Franklin's stated that The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Terry Reid were the best England had to offer in 1968. He underwent two World Tours with The Rolling Stones, US tours with Cream, UK tours with Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac, The Isle of White Festival in 1969 and Glastonbury in 1970, played at Mick Jagger's wedding, before soured record deals resulted in Terry leaving Britain for America nearly 40 years ago.

All true, but the full story includes numerous collaborations with Graham Nash, covers of Reid songs by Marianne Faithfull, The Hollies, The Raconteurs (the hugely popular 'Rich Kid Blues'), film soundtracks, including a song in George Clooney's recent film 'Up In The Air', and a catalogue of 6 studio albums, including the seminal album 'The River', re-released to critical acclaim in 2002 and the 1976 Nash produced 'Seed of Memory'. A Reid song 'Horses Through a Rainstorm' also features on CSN's box set.

More recently, Terry's been working with up and coming French band Shine and The Alabama 3. Following a Glastonbury return in 2009, he played a three night residency at Ronnie Scott's in London, one of only a handful of non-Jazz artists invited to help mark the legendary venue's 50th Anniversary. He played to packed houses, critical acclaim, and returned in 2010 and 2011 to sell out 3 consecutive nights.

In May 2011, he toured Ireland for the first time in 30 years and released a new live album 'Live In London' which included several previously unreleased tracks. Uncut Magazine presented a show featuring Terry at The Jazz Café and he toured England, including several sell-out shows. A return to Glastonbury, headlining the Spirit of 71 stage followed.

2012 turned out to be an important year for Terry Reid. In May 2012, Rumer featured Terry's song 'Brave Awakening' on her new album Boys Don't Cry, (which entered the UK Album Chart at No3). Terry returned to the Isle of Wight Festival for the first time since 1971 in June. In August 'America's Got Talent' Winner in 2010, Michael Grimm, included Terry's song 'Without Expression' on his latest album, Gumbo. In the spring, DJ Shadow had invited Terry to write the lyrics to a new track for his forthcoming 'Reconstructed' album -- This became the song 'Listen' and the official video got 400,000 plays on Youtube in late 2012.

Joe Richter sings from the heart, emotes his truth with sweet melodies and telegraphs no pretensions in his approach to the microphone. He loves the songcraft of his musical idol Billy Joel as well as Ryan Adams. Richter's early inspirations included Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Jack Johnson and, well, Elvis.

Richter's songs are personal yet hold broader meaning. A song to his wife, Emily, also rings true to a world wracked with violent events.

"We look around and we hear the sound of a world so down, the pain the hurt and the fear, our love drowns it out, I love the love that I feel for you, I love the way you love me too, I can't get over you."

Richter's first-ever full-band recording "Revival" showcases the sound he envisioned when entering the studio in 2017 with some of Milwaukee's finest session players. Joe's Milwaukee music pal Willy Porter lends solo guitar support on the lead single "Happy Tears" that dropped February 26th.

"I wanted to put a full band behind the music," says Richter.

Richter released a solo acoustic album in 2012 entitled "Grace." The title track of that EP was taken from a recording session in Nashville, TN at Castle Recording Studios in 2008. He also formed a band called Joe Richter and Those Fabulous Tremtones to play Milwaukee night club gigs.

Since then, the former factory assembly worker has applied himself tirelessly to gigs around southeast Wisconsin performing his own material as well as in-demand covers. He's willing to play "Piano Man" but he'd rather go deeper into the Joel library.

The new album's title connotes gospel, and Richter is fine with that, but says it's more about his musical transformation, improvement and growth. His day job changed as well when he returned to school to learn respiratory therapy, a skill he employs at a hospital in Milwaukee's central city.

In 2017, Richter debuted as lead vocalist in the Daryl Stuermer Band performing the songs of Genesis and Phil Collins. Stuermer has been a member of the Genesis and Collins touring bands for decades.

Not bad company for singer-songwriter Richter, who one Milwaukee radio disc jockey described as delivering songs "full of pure wonder, delivered with exquisite pop sensibility and lyrical phrasing like a heart-warming conversation."

Richter's "Revival" received several nominations in 2018 at the Radio Milwaukee Music Awards which included album of the year, artist of the year, and song of the year for "Wisconsin Fall", which finished as a finalist in the top 5.

He is poised to share his musical talents and heartfelt songs through a wider audience that gets just how much he wants to reach them with his songs.

Doug Stone, a contemporary country star, found his mark in music as a lonesome baritone balladeer, although he was very adept at hard-up-tempo country. Doug began at age five learning guitar from his mother an avid singer and guitarist. At age seven he was given the opportunity, by his mother, to open for Loretta Lynn. Life presented Doug a drastic change with the divorce of his mother and father. Doug, as result, moved in with his dad. As his youthful years past, Doug played at skating rinks, local bars or any money making project to help his father make ends meet. In the daytime Doug worked as a mechanic, something else that came to him naturally.

Doug had already past the age of 30 when a Nashville manager paired him up with Epic, his first record label. He debuted in 1990 with the single, "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)," the first release from his 1990 self-titled debuted album "Doug Stone" for Epic records. This album produced a handful of chart-topping singles. Following these songs was his first number one, "In a Different Light". In addition, the single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Both this album and its successor, 1991's I Thought It Was You, earned a platinum certification from The Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of one million copies. Two more albums for Epic, 1992's From The Heart and 1994's More Love, were each certified gold. Stone has charted --twenty-two singles on Hot Country Songs, with his greatest chart success coming between 1990 and 1995. In this time span, he charted eight Number Ones including: "In a Different Light", "A Jukebox and a Country Song", "Too Busy Being in Love", "Addicted to a Dollar, and "Why Didn't I think of That" to name a few, plus fifteen more Top Five singles.

In early 1992, Stone found that one of the arteries in his heart was almost entirely blocked. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery and took time off to recover, just as his third album, "From the Heart," was released. With a gold certification for shipments of 500,000 copies, "From the Heart" included two Number Ones among its four singles: "Too Busy Being in Love" and "Why Didn't I Think of That." The other two singles were "Warning Labels" and "Made for Lovin' You," at No. 4 and No.6 respectively. One month later Stone released an album titled "The First Christmas."

In June 1994 Stone discovered that he was having breathing problems, which were affecting his singing. Doctors at Vanderbilt University's medical center failed to find any problems in his throat. A second consultation revealed a lump in his nostril but amazingly it was not cancerous. While Stone was undergoing treatment, his Greatest Hits, Vol.1 compilation was released in late 1994.This album included the new song "Little Houses, "which debuted on the charts in October 1994 and peaked at No. 7 in early 1995.

Stone made his acting debut in the 1995 film "Gordy." "Gordy," a heartwarming story featured Doug as Luke McAllister, a struggling musician. Gordy paved the way for stone's acting career and as well featured several of his songs. In 2011 Doug moved on to another movie role, "When the Storm God Rides," a Thomas E. Kelly film.

Always the adventurer, in 2000 Doug suffered a broken ankle and a cracked rib after crashing his ultra light plane in Robertson County, TN. An experience that would put him back in the studio recording the self-inspired single "Caught Dead Living", based off of Doug's "larger than life personality", and love for living life to it's fullest.

In April 2012 Doug Stone and Dr. Gerald Murray of Muscle Shoals, Alabama signed a management contract. Murray is the former manager of George Jones and the late Vern Gosdin. In 2014 Doug released the album "Doug Stone 'The Demo's': 20 Years of Life".

Now- 28 years, 8 #1 singles, 15 Top 5 singles, and millions and millions of album sales later- the singer of timeless country hits like "A Jukebox with a Country Song" and "In a different Light" is still running the roads hard performing to dedicated fans all across the nation. With a new record slated for release in the Fall of 2018, Doug Stone continues to produce pure country gold.

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