February 2023

A rising band out of Milwaukee, WI - Lake Drive continues to reach a growing fanbase with their emotionally compelling catalogs & vibrant stage presence.

Their music takes inspiration from some of their favorite artists, creating an incredibly diverse yet pinpointed sound that has been described as: pop rock, alternative emo, indie rock.

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Jacob Slade is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Milwaukee, WI. He challenges the boundaries of folk, pop, and indie to create a refreshing new take on acoustic music. Drawing on influences from Bon Iver, Nick Drake, and Phoebe Bridgers, his thoughtful lyrics and gently layered instrumentation help to create soundscapes that intrigue the listener. Aside from his solo project, Jacob stays busy playing in other local bands such as Social Cig and House Tree, and producing/recording with many other local artists.

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Ugly Cousin is a Milwaukee based indie rock band. Inspired by the DIY sounds of anti-folk and the noise of the 90s underground scene, Ian and Grace make noisy sarcastic pop songs.

The best Nirvana tribute band is NIVRANA. Bringing the most authentic nirvana experience to crowds across the U.S. NIVRANA is the only tribute to Nirvana that gives you the original stage performance, gear and sound just as it was in the 1990s. Once again, you can hear the music that made the era special, because NIVRANA puts Kurt, Krist and Dave back on the stage together as though they never left. If you want the music performed by a band that defined an entire generation with their catchy melodies, energetic shows, torn jeans and flannel, hire the tribute band NIVRANA for your next live music event.

Birthed in 2009 at Brady Street's legendary 'Up and Under' open mic night, The Appalachians power-house Rock N' Roll sound quickly resonated throughout the Midwest opening for Baraboo's 'Phox', regional tours, festival appearances including 'Summerfest' and Appleton's 'Mile Of Music'. After two studio albums, the band found themselves at crossroad of careers, and personal lives, taking a hiatus from 2015-2020. The Appalachians marked their return with their 2021 single 'Outside' after front-man Adam Sutkiewicz's (PRON: SUH-KEV-ITCH) battle with a rare sarcoma cancer. The group was hailed 'Top 28 must-see Summerfest Acts 2022' by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in their opening slot for Boston alt-rock group 'Guster'. The Appalachians throw the first punch at the New Year with guitarist Ryan Walkoe and their fierce grunge-thriller 'Killer Ritalin' released 2.10.23.

Featuring some of the area's busiest and best-known rock keyboardists, Keys for a Cause pays homage to those legends of piano and synth-driven progressive rock. January 2020's inaugural event honored the work of Rick Wakeman; this time it's all about Keith Emerson. Proceeds will benefit the Humane Society.

Classically trained Twila Jean is a long-time Wisconsin music educator-turned-rock performer. Keeping a busy schedule in both Milwaukee and Madison (Bands Bella Brutto and The Eric Look Band, Duo John & TJ), she's thrilled to be joined by several of her musical besties in this wild and somewhat daunting endeavor in playing the music of progressive rock giant Keith Emerson. Performers include Carter Hunnicutt, Terry Michaels, Tony Jefferson, Rob Wessel and others brave enough to jump on board!

Milwaukee based recording artist Carter Hunnicutt has been throwing fingers at the black and whites throughout the Milwaukee music scene since the early eighties. His keyboard prowess has graced stages and recording studios as an integral part of Those Xcleavers, The Flat Rabbits, The Xposed 4heads and The Clancy Carroll Project. These days he presents his original material fronting the Swivels where he sings, plays keys, guitar and harp, and he also plays kick ass rockabilly as keyboardist for the Rock-A- Dials. Carter played at the last Keys for a Cause featuring music of Rick Wakeman. Someone at this event gave him access to a cape, next thing you know he's got a key-tar and chaos ensued! Carter is excited to take a stab at the music of Keith Emerson in the upcoming Keys for a Cause, where he will assemble an ensemble of his bandmates to tackle some very challenging material.

Milwaukee keyboardist Terry Michaels lives and breathes progressive rock. Having started his musical journey as a mere seven-year-old taking accordion lessons, he soon discovered The Beatles and his world was never quite the same! His primary instrument switched to drums, but he also studied guitar, bass, and piano, and by age sixteen he was playing in several area bands. His late teen years were another turning point for him as progressive rock acts like Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Deep Purple rocked his world. Deciding that progressive rock music was the genre for him, he jumped back into classical piano lessons, theory and harmony instruction, and electronic music classes. And the rest is history! Terry is a founding member of Milwaukee's progressive rock band Lyndenthal. Terry and his ensemble performed much of Rick Wakeman's "Six Wives of Henry VIII" at Keys for a Cause 1, and so the question remains, "What Emerson works will Terry present this time?"

Percussionist Tony Jefferson is a walking, breathing encyclopedia regarding knowledge of progressive rock, winning the prize for seeing the most national touring acts in this genre. His percussion expertise runs the gamut from classical to jazz, rock to funk, and he is beloved by all who have had the privilege of sharing the stage with him. Tony has been playing music--drums, percussion, and vocals--for forty-five years. Bands and collaborations include Cyrus, Mobius Trip, True Heart Susie/Quark Quintet, The Freddie Lee Band, Faith, Hope & Love, Lyndenthal, VIVO, Warren Wiegratz Jazz Group, Drive With Horns and Mini-Drive Quartet. Tony's guidance during Keys for a Cause 1 set the stage for what was to come, as he was the first person to suggest we tackle the music of Keith Emerson next! Game on.

Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Rob Wessel has been making music in the Milwaukee area since the late 80's with bands Beacon, Thick Aza Brick, and original progressive rock groups Concept of Innocence and Lyndenthal. Rob's compositions for Concept of Innocence can be found on several streaming platforms, and his work with Lyndenthal includes not only some of his writing but also guitar, bass, and vocal tracks. Rob is currently writing and recording more progressive rock in his studio, and plans to independently release what he considers his best work to date. We're delighted to have Rob join us in this keyboard-driven craziness that is the music of Keith Emerson!

It has been said that progressive rock is not only a mix of classical music and rock, but also an aggressive, masculine genre. In "The Making of Brain Salad Surgery," Greg Lake states that those tender ballads we all love, interspersed within fast-paced musical gymnastics and constantly changing meters, provided much-needed balance to their albums. Francesca and Tom bring this tenderness to our evening. After many years of terrorizing Milwaukee stages separately, Francesca and Tom joined forces four years ago to conquer the world. So far, so good. Francesca's singing brings a silvery beauty to her fresh, creative songwriting, in a setting anchored by the solid foundations and decorated by the eclectic ornamentations of Tom's guitar playing.

It's a foreboding time to make pop music. But like a sunbeam peering through a haze of wildfire smoke, Early Eyes have somehow persevered through dashed dreams, fractured relationships, historic social justice uprisings in their own hometown, and a society tearing apart at the seams to make an album that is both responsive to the chaos and wearily optimistic.

"It almost feels like Look Alive! is a direct response to the pandemic," bandleader Jake Berglove reflects. "It was like, oh, my goodness, all of our capitalist anxieties just came true! We took all of that anxiety and angry energy and put it into making a really fucked up album."

"The album was not just an expression of all of our frustrations, but also an escape from it," adds guitarist Joe Villano. "And I feel like the process of making it really carried us through the year."

Look Alive! vibrates with angst, punctuated by computerized glitches and disintegrating threads of abandoned melodies that echo in the distance before roaring back to life. A track like "Chemicals" will begin with Early Eyes' signature buoyant and catchy pop-rock, but as the song progresses it grows more ominous before shattering apart in an earthquake of rattling, subterranean bass.

Early Eyes signed to Epitaph Records in January 2020 and put out their first singles with the label that march--just as the pandemic brought the entire music industry screeching to a halt. As weeks turned into months, and as their city of Minneapolis imploded in a catastrophic moment of fury, grief, and protest, the band alternated between doing what they could to support mutual aid efforts and holing up in the studio to channel their complicated emotions into song. Along the way, they also parted ways with their previous rhythm section, further escalating their sonic reinvention.

"It kind of gave us an entirely new identity," Jake says. "It almost feels like we're completely different people. The three of us who were remaining wanted to pursue this new direction with the band and kind of embrace the chaos that comes with living in 2021." Away from the gaze of the public, they were free to make whatever best captured their mood in the moment. "We would write stuff previously with the understanding that we are writing to play live," guitarist John O'Brien says. "And then when playing live stopped being a thing that we had to worry about immediately, we were able to approach the songwriting process with a different mindset, being more production oriented, creating impossible textures and sounds."

Whether you are an 'ol timer that grew up listening to Mr. Cash in your tractor or a young soldier driving your tank across the deserts of the Middle East with the Man in Black in your headphones, the Church of Cash will bring his music, with style and energy to fans everywhere.

What the Church of Cash has that no one else can match is their loyalty to the song and the message that Johnny left to all of us. The band merely keeps this word alive with a youthful spirit that has entertained audiences completely.

Damaged Justice is Chicago's female fronted Metallica tribute band, formed in 1996 by drummer Robert Masliansky. Robert kept the band together through the thick and thin of Metallica's career and the local Chicago music scene. It's the band's long-term goal to play every single song in Metallica's catalog live on stage. In the short term, Damaged Justice aims to please Metallica fans of every type; with set lists routinely comprised of tunes spanning the entire Metalli-collection.

The Rural Alberta Advantage (The RAA) recently released The Rise EP featuring 6 new songs including 'CANDU'. It is the first new offerings of music from the award-winning trio since 2017's album The Wild, and the first recordings since the return of core band member, Amy Cole. An ongoing series of new songs and EPs will be shared through the year as they're written and recorded by the band, with more new music to be released in early 2023.

The RAA's music connects us to untold stories and an unpacked history we all have a part in owning, reflecting on, learning from and possibly seeing from a different vantage point: the overview effect. Alongside the series of new music over the next year, the band will be touring as they continue to drive the musical conversation with their fans, in real time. Expect to hear more new and yet-to-be-released songs make their live debut on this upcoming tour!

Since his neo-psychedelic Green On Red days, Chuck Prophet has been turning out country, folk, blues, and Brill Building classicism. THE LAND THAT TIME FORGET is something different, a weather vane picking up signals from outer space -- or maybe it's the Heartland.

Priced out of his beloved hometown, San Francisco, Prophet found himself re-energized in Upstate NY just a few miles from the Vermont border -- and made a record that is much a 21st century exorcism as it is America.

The songs inhabit a world where a Fast Kid might be on the run from the truant officer or a handsy boss...or the Immigration Service. These are love songs that turn political on a dime (Love Doesn't Come from the Barrel of a Gun), and melodic hallucinations about kicking back in the Oval Office after hours "talking to my baby, saying baby, let's not fight."

Where else besides a Chuck Prophet LP are songs going to come at you from both the Tenderloin and an English roundabout, with stopovers in Nixonland and a love-struck mirror on a Saturday night while a workingman tries his Best Shirt On? With special appearances by the ghost of Johnny Thunders and Willie Wonka and John the Baptist and the train that brought Abraham Lincoln home one last time.

In Waving Goodbye, a young girl leaves small town attitudes behind to conquer the world one gig at a time. Then there's a dance Marathon, lost in time and reborn as a reality show. According to Womankind, men had their run, but it's over. (The good news is he can still try to sing his way into her heart.)

And it all leads up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where a singer has his say, in two and a half loping verses and a middle eight.

Here's Chuck:

"Have any of you been to a 24-hour Walmart on the outskirts of Pittsburgh after midnight lately? It was just me and a couple tweakers roaming the auto parts aisles. We got along just fine. Long story short, I fixed that guitar by my lonesome and am playing it right now. I'm kind of proud of that."

"I will say this, though, about Ohio. Some of my truest hard earned fans are in Ohio. Go on and call it a fly-over-state, but not while Chrissie Hynde is in earshot, unless you want a vegan boot up your ass. All I'm saying is that a state is a lot more than which candidate won by how many votes. I mean you gotta feel sorry for the conservatives. The only songs they can play at their rallies without getting hit with a cease and desist order are by Ted Nugent and Charlie Daniels. And those two sure aren't shy about expressing their opinions."

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT got off the ground in the Money Belt, only to find its legs in the Borscht Belt. Musically it has deep roots, from the Southern Delta to the discos of Munich. There's a kind of folkish inevitability to it, lots of acoustic instruments, on top of each other and side by side. But as much as folk music is the soil all music grows from, it never hurts to have a boiler room. So, there's always a rhythm section shuffling under your feet here.

Written mostly with longtime co-conspirator klipschutz, this LP steps out of Chuck Prophet's comfort zone ("two guitars, bass, and drums"). After nailing three tracks in S.F. with Grammy-winning alchemist Matt Winegar, Prophet confesses, "We hit a wall. Schedules. Money. Towed vehicles: a thousand large to get one van out of lockup."

So he went out on tour, a solo tour. Driving through the Catskills he dropped into Kenny Siegal's Old Soul Studios, in a "5-bedroom Greek Revival listed on the National Registry," Chuck and Kenny immediately began to argue. Over anything. Whether it was too hot or too cold (according to WHOM?). At the end of the day -- "a very long day, three weeks of them -- let's just say Kenny's the man. At Old Soul, musicians drop in, sometimes complete blind dates. We did everything live. The drummer gigs with Kevin Morby. The bass player, out of some jazz scene. Piano player, an honorary Bad Seed. A mish mash of personalities and styles. Turns out you can make a lot of noise with acoustic instruments, if there are enough of them."

When asked about his life, Prophet is candid and evasive all at once: "What do you want to know. Death, health issues, financial hijinks, I've had them all the past few years. We lost my dad and we lost Stephie's dad too. The basement flooded. My shoulder went out. I got hives over 80% of my body; was quarantined. The only break I caught was when the ear, eye, nose, and throat doctors were all in the same building. Oh, and I almost got killed about seven times in rented cars in snowstorms, lost on the way to gigs. Hey, maybe we should talk about songs instead."