CELEBRATING 20+ YEARS OF SCARY GOOD MUSIC

All shows are at the North Madison Congregational Church, 1271 Durham Rd, Madison. See you here soon!!

You can read this first, or scroll down to the shows:

Ticket Sales or Reservations:

1A: You don’t need reservations. Usually. Each show will tell you if it’s sold out. Reservations just guarantee you a seat, and the earlier you reserve, the closer you’ll be. In most cases, we reserve space for walk-ins. get there at 6:30 if that’s the case!

1:To reserve seats or for more information for these shows please send us an email. All seats are assigned and reserved in the order in which they come in, so if you reserve early, you get good seats.

2: If your browser doesn’t respond to the link, try workdog(at)mindspring.com or if all else fails, call Charlie Shafer at 203-668-3735. Yeah, you get my weird voicemail (contractor by day) but leave a message if I don’t answer immediately. Just leave your full name and number of seats, and I’ll get back to you.

3: No online ticket sales for a few reasons. It costs money, which means we’d have to raise prices. Yuck. So pay at the door regardless, cash or check. It also means that we’d have to refund money in the event of a snowstorm or something, and that’s a pain in the neck. We go by the honor system: you reserve, try to show up.

We are the only concert venue with a mission.We want to educate, inspire, and yes, entertain. Not to waste space here, please look at the “workshops: the mission” page to see what we mean.

Summer:

Low Lilly

July 23, afternoon/evening

Rettich Farm fundraiser to benefit the Madison Land Conservation Trust

Yes, a summer outdoor barbecue fund-raising evening featuring Low Lilly. A trio from Vermont, one, (Lissa) is a Fire In The Kitchen vet, that fits right in to our musical wheelhouse. Excellent musicians all, great singing… why bother going on. If you’ve been to our shows, you know we don’t mess around when it comes to talent. Hopefully we can fit them in to our regular winter programming soon. (BTW, that’s the worst part of my job… trying to give shows to all the really deserving artists. I could go every night for years and never get caught up.) The food: Field House Farms farm-to-table goodness, menu TBA. The cause: The Madison Land trust and their newly-acquired Rettich property along the Hammonasset River. They’ve already over-spent their budget on clearing debris and derelict outbuildings from the property, and still have some maintenance to do. Seating will be limited to the number of cars that can fit onto the parking area of the property. We’re figuring 50 cars, so cram as many as you can (well, within reason) into a car. Price TBA, too, but it’ll probably be like last year, $60 for an adult, and quite a bit less for kids. Details to follow.

Coming this fall season:

Upstate Rubdown

Saturday, September 23, 7:00 PM

Here’s he deal: Three fantastic women up front on vocals, and 4 guys holding down the noise end of the fort. It’s funky, it’s beautiful, it’s all over the place. It’s outrageously fun, for sure, and might be my favorite season-opener. Who else takes old string-band soul, throws a baritone sax in, mixes in three great singers, and then makes a point of performing tunes you think you might have heard 60 years ago, but aren’t quite sure…( maybe because you’re not 60 years old, for one thing.) It’s jug band meets gospel, gutbucket meets Galax, it’s… aw, who knows.. Anyway, this will be one of the more funner nights we’ve had in quite some time..

Adults, $20, kids high school and under, $5.00

Mike Marshall and Darol Anger

Saturday, October 14, 7:00 PM

Yup, it’s the great re-schedule from last season. There’s no point in repeating how great and significant they are, and most all of our regulars know the history behind these two legends, anyway. Suffice it to say, it’s really big, and a rare performance. Adults, $30, kids high school and under, $5.00. And Mike is quite the gourmet, so I gotta come up with some pretty awesome ice cream ideas…

Molly Tuttle

Saturday, November 18, 7:00 PM

Molly and her band are either a throwback to the days of front porch picking’ with Doc Watson, or a vision of the future, where we’ve gone beyond marveling at virtuosity and are back to just music. I’m thinking she’s both, and I’m also thinking it doesn’t matter. Right now, she’s catching all sorts of attention for being this incredible flat picker, which she is, but that’s short-selling her. She’s a great singer, too, and a Berklee grad, so we love that, but even that’s all just “stuff.” A couple of years from now, you’ll all be in awe of her musical ability to make.. wait for it.. beautiful music. She’s doing that right now, but we just have to wait for all the fanzines and blogs and such to calm down and actually listen to the music instead of the skills. No matter what, but the time she gets here in November, she’ll be too big for the room.

Adults, $25, kids high school and under, $5.00

December:

A tentative holiday-ish show with Jeremy Kittel and the band.

Jeremy’s got a new Bach album that is superb, and of course the guys have been here before, so you know how good they all are. How much holiday music will be in there? Well, maybe not a lot, but then, there will be some Bach. How cool is that? A few details to go, but it’s looking good.

January:

Ironing out details with:

The Mammals

Gotta see if I can talk Mike and Ruthy into turning the second half into a huge contra dance. I forget how long ago it was, up at the old Champlain Valley festival, now long gone, where the Mammals rocked the dance tent. Unbelievable. Like two hours straight of just plain cranking. Let’s see how it plays out…

The Seamus Egan Project

Saturday, February 17, 7:00PM

Seamus, former leader of the now-defunct supergroup Solas, gets the chance to put together another all-star band to do all the things that he wished he had time for with Solas. This won’t be some stuffy retrospective. Yeah, while he will go back to the pre-Solas days, he’ll also be presenting bunches of new compositions that push the boundaries of what Irish music is all about. Any regular to the series knows we’re not into stuffy trad music, no matter where it’s from. Seamus will push the boundaries yet again, no worries there.. Adults gotta pay $25, kids high school and under, $5.00

The East Pointers

March 10, 7:00 PM

It’s no secret we love the musicians from the far northern maritimes of Canada. From Beolach years ago, to Vishten, to Ten Strings and a Goatskin, it’s all about huge amounts of energy and skills. The East Pointers have already made a name for themselves around the world, literally, and we’re thrilled to have them as this year’s emissaries from the Canada.