CELEBRATING 20+ YEARS OF SCARY GOOD MUSIC WITH A MISSION

Looking to play here? We like to hear from musicians we don’t know about but… if you want to see if you’ll fit, look at this page here.

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 all cases, we reserve space for you late-planning walk-ins. Get there at 6:30 if that’s the case!

1B: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. If the link isn’t working for you, the email is: workdog(at)mindspring.com, or call Charlie at 203-668-3735. Leave a message if he can’t hear the phone due to tools powering away.

1C: Pay at the door, always. Cash or check is fine. We don’t do the pre-pay thing because we’re too lazy to figure it out. Plus, if you’re sick or something, you’re already miserable, and losing the price of a ticket makes it worse.

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. Virtually EVERY concert is a fundraiser for a local non-profit.

SUMMER 2018

Pretty Much Every Weekend:

Sunday afternoons at 4

YOU! (when you join the Skunk Misery Ramblers). Admission: Zero. Fun: Unlimited. 

Our all-ages, all-abilities fiddle club open to adult beginners, those looking to dust off their high school orch-dork skills after 30 years, kids not loving the classical scene, etc… There’s the Skunk Misery Ramblers section on this site that tells all, or use the email for reservations above for more specific questions. But join. It’s fun, educational, gets the brain working. 

July 29 (Sunday afternoon)

The ANNUAL MADISON LAND CONSERVATION TRUST Barbecue/Concert/multi-activity fundraiser at the Rettich Property with:

The Page Turners 

Freshgrass award-winning and festival favorites The Page Turners come to the Rettich Preserve along with their good friend Ethan Hawkins on guitar too really make the evening a barbecue/multi fun thing to remember. The party starts at 4, with birding demonstrations (cool ospreys all the time, by the way…) Madison Art Society displays with the artists, beekeeping talks, stone wall building talks, and more. Then at about 5, it’s a relaxed start with some great music and food with the every-superb Field House Farm. Stephanie’s menu will be determined by what looks great that morning out in the gardens. The chef, David Borselle, is a restauranteur who is a “Best Of” award winner in Contemporary American Cuisine. Hey, The Page Turners are an award winner in Contemporary American Cool Music! What a great coincidence! For tickets, you need to go to this official site at Field House Farm’s website, right here, so Stephanie knows how much food she’s gotta pick.

FALL 2018

We’re not wasting time getting right to the drop-dead brilliant players, here. 

September 15, 7:00 PM

Harpeth Rising

They’re back, and cooler than ever. Sure, those who made the first show will remember their  crazy good skills, but they’ll also remember the fantastic music, and the utterly entertaining great time they provided. Adults, $25, kids high school and under, $5.00

October 20, 7:00 PM

NIGHT TREE

Straight out of The New England Conservatory (well, maybe a couple of years after graduating) comes this incredibly fun and eclectic group. It’s a big band, 6 members, with some pretty unique instrumentation. The sound comes from every nook and cranny of the planet. Scandinavia, Appalachia, Klezmer, classical, and so on. Nothing gets left out of this pot o’ musical goodness. Too much fun. Adults $25, kids high school and under, $5.00

December 1, 7:00 PM

GENTICORUM

It’s our annual sort-of holiday show. This time, we put the challenge to good friend Yann Falquet and his band Genticorum. The standard-bearers of Quebecois music, they’ll sprinkle in some of the traditional Christmas tunes you’d be likely to hear way up north. Adults $25, kids high school and under, $5.00

January 5

John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band (J2B2)

John, of course, has been to the series before with his Quintet, all gypsy-jazz. But long before that, he was a founder of The Desert Rose Band along with Herb Pederson. This takes us back to those times…sort of. Here, John ups the ante and stays in a more traditional bluegrass-styled groove (but, hey, its John, so  there are fireworks other bluegrass bands just can’t deliver) that mixes old and new. It’s easy to forget that this Grammy-winning guitar player was voted “best guitarist” by all sorts of different organizations, jazz, bluegrass, rock, blues.. There’s nothing John isn’t best at. That simple. This is going to be way too much fun, and just in time to let you down from the holidays gently. Adults $30, kids high school and under, $5.00