30-MINUTE MUSIC HOUR
From time to time we'll stream live productions from our studio. On Tuesday, April 22, the following artists performed on the 30-Minute Music Hour:
- The Kissers
- Victoria Vox
- Blake Thomas
Watch on
demand or on the Wisconsin
Channel.
THE ORIGINAL PILOT
Jeff Burkhart
Recorded live January 14, 2008
Jeff Burkhart is a Madison-based singer-songwriter with a range
of musical styles as broad as his smile. Burkhart has performed in Cajun,
bluegrass, and old time bands. His current focus is traditional country
as practiced by his honky-tonk quintet, The Dirty Shirts. For his 30 Minute
Music Hour performance, Jeff brought along a nice handful of original
songs—a unique blend of mountain-side tunes with urban sensibilities. A
back-porch musician for the digital age, we welcome Jeff to the 30 Minute
Music Hour.
RECENTLY ON THE 30-MINUTE MUSIC HOUR
Blake Thomas
Recorded live April 22, 2008
Blake Thomas for coming to perform for
us today. We'd be lucky to have him under any circumstance but he's
especially generous to come in on a moments notice. Blake was actually
in the wings for our June taping and so we get him a bit early.
His music has been described as "contemporary folk goes to honky
tonk heaven," and the more closely you listen to Blake, the more
you hear. He's a trickster lyricist and a beautiful, emotive singer.
The Kissers
Recorded live April 22, 2008
Irish
rock purveyors the Kissers are one of Wisconsin's best-known and hardest-working
music exports. The rowdy five-piece group is led by bassist/lead singer
Ken Fitzsimmons and includes banjo, mandolin, fiddle, drums and electric
guitar. The Kissers started out nearly ten years ago as a Pogues cover
band. Fitzsimmons says the band is made up of members who "were
rock musicians who learned Irish music." The result gives their
sound a special American blast that's captured in their new CD, Live
Candy Ratz, recorded over a two-night
pub stand.
Victoria Vox
Recorded live April 22, 2008
Victoria Vox's influences range from Laurie Anderson
to Don Ho and the Pittsburg Tribune calls her "one of the purest musicians
touring the country today." Baltimore-based Victoria Vox is coming
off a special guest appearance at the New York City Ukulele Festival.
A recovering rocker, Vox now puts the four string ukulele front
and center in her music as can be heard in her popular CD, Flea.
She's become so accomplished on the ukulele that KoAloha Ukuleles
of Honolulu now proudly sponsors her—quite a feat for a mainlander.
Vox is touring with songs from her new CD, Chameleon, a
tour that will take her from all over the East Coast to Madison
and, in May, to the Paris Ukulele Festival.
Poi Dog Pondering Acoustic Quintet
Recorded live March 25, 2008
Under the artistic direction of Frank Orrall, Poi Dog Pondering has been
making music since the mid-eighties when members began composing and performing
in their hometown of Honolulu. "Poi Dog" is Hawaiian slang meaning "mutt." After
a barnstorming tour of the mainland, they made Austin home before moving
once again to their current base of Chicago. That's where their project
work has ranged from composing the soundtrack for a Brazilian silent feature
film to a re-invention of "Carmen" performed with the full Chicago
Sinfonietta. At one point, Poi Dog recorded Orrall's soulful compositions
for Columbia Records before executives decided the band's sound was too
eccentric to market. Poi Dog's visit with us coincides with the band's April
1 release called "7."
Lis Harvey
Recorded live March 25, 2008
Lis Harvey will be the first 30 Minute Music Hour guest who is recognized
in the "Guinness Book of World Records." In the fall of 2002,
Harvey completed a record-setting fifty-states-in-sixty-days-tour. That's
the most consecutive concerts in the most states in the least amount of
time ever. Yet, Harvey is as much about quality as she is about quantity.
Her music explores the border of romanticism and road-hard realism. The Washington
Post says, "she's a romantic, all right, but not the empty-headed
kind." Harvey began her classical piano training at the age of five
before – several years later – being poisoned forever by a Fender
Strat. Prior to landing in her current home of Madison, Harvey attended
art school in North Carolina and performed music and pizza delivery in Los
Angeles. Her willful, wistful original songs have won awards all over North
America.
Peter Mulvey
Recorded live March 25, 2008
The Irish Times says, "Peter
Mulvey is consistently the most original and dynamic of the U.S. singer-songwriters
to tour these shores."
Mulvey cut his songwriting teeth busking the streets of Dublin before
moving to Boston and eventually heading back to his hometown of Milwaukee.
Mulvey's incredible talent on the guitar runs the gamut of styles – from
slack-key to jazz to precision finger picking. His songs revolve
around, as he calls it, "the small facts of living." Rolling
Stone describes his voice as, "lush and hushed, with
surrealistic beauty." In addition to the respect Mulvey enjoys
critically, he's also known as a hard charging touring performer.
His recent, "Look Ma, No Gasoline Tour," was a ten-day,
300-mile concert tour of Wisconsin to which he rode entirely on his
bike. Mulvey will be performing music from his 10 CD catalog, solo
with guitar.
melaniejane
Recorded live Feb. 19, 2008
Milwaukee-based singer/songwriter melaniejane performs solo in
a set that will showcase her unique talents on guitar, cello, and piano.
melaniejane is a past recipient of the Wisconsin Area Music Awards, "Female
Vocalist of the Year." In addition to her pop music composition and
performance, she's also is a cellist with the Racine Symphony
Orchestra and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School
of Music.
John Sieger and the Subcontinentals
Recorded live Feb. 19, 2008
Milwaukee-based John Sieger and the Subcontinentals are one of the best alt-country twang bands in the Midwest. While Milwaukee is his home, Sieger is a recovering full-time Nashville session player and songwriter for hire. The band, including Sieger, is a five-piece oufit that includes three electric guitars, bass and drums.
Tani Diakite
Recorded live Feb. 19, 2008
Tani
Diakite (tan-NEE JAH-kee-tay) is a native of the Wassoulou region
of Mali. He now lives with his American wife and their toddler in
Madison. He grew up in a small village with earthen homes and thatched
roofs. Instrumentally, Diakite plays a Kamele Ngoni — a
stringed, long-neck gourd instrument that has been outfitted with
an electronic pick-up made from old radio parts. The instrument's
name means "young person's harp." His music is a mesmerizing
mix of traditional melodies from Mali, blended with traditional American
delta blues. He is also a wonderful vocalist with a warm, yet excitable
tone. He will be supported by a guitarist, bassist and percussionist.
Robbie Fulks
Recorded live Jan. 15, 2008
Chicago-based Robbie Fulks is a frequent visitor
to Wisconsin venues. The "alt-country
hillbilly giant" has played the stage at the Vatican of country music,
The Ryman Auditorium (The Grand Old Opry) in Nashville. Fulks is
known for his flashy flat picking but even more so for his songwriting,
having penned old-time country hits such as "She Took Too Many Pills
(and Died)" and "The
Buck (Owens) Starts Here." A big supporter of the folk and traditional
music scene in Chicago, Fulks makes frequent appearances at that
city's famed Old Town School of Folk Music. The six-foot-five Fulks
is a consummate live performer and is known for his irreverent
stage antics. Last year's New Year's Eve show in Madison included
an original rap song in which Fulks named (by heart) nearly 100
persons who died the previous year.
Willy Porter
Recorded live Jan. 15, 2008
Milwaukee-based Willy Porter is among the country's elite finger-style
acoustic guitar players. He's opened shows for performers ranging
from Jethro Tull to Tori Amos. Frets Magazine calls him "a genre
defying maverick," one
who the Guild Guitar Company is proud to sponsor. Porter's also
a gifted songwriter with four CDs of original material. He tours the country,
playing night clubs, bars and theatres solo and with his band.
Pat MacDonald
Recorded live Jan. 15, 2008
Sturgeon Bay-based Pat MacDonald is best known for his 1980s band
TIMBUK III. The band hit it big with MacDonald's song "The Future's
So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)." Singer/songwriter Jackson Browne
calls MacDonald, "one
of the country's preeminent lyricists." Browne travels to Sturgeon
Bay each summer to appear in MacDonald's annual "Steel Bridge Music
Festival," a two day fest that raises funds to preserve the old steel
bridge that crosses into Sturgeon Bay. MacDonald also owns (together
with Browne) and operates The Holiday Motel in Sturgeon Bay which
he's partially converting to studio space so musicians can stay
and record. MacDonald tours clubs all over the country. His latest CD, released
in January of 2008, is a solo effort called "Troubadour of Stomp."