The Valley Main Stage
Saturday 7/25/09
Woody Tasch - Slow Money
10:00-10:45
Woody Tasch has three decades of experience working along the boundaries of venture capital, social investing, and philanthropy. He is Chairman and President of Slow Money, a 501 c 3 formed in 2008 to catalyze the flow of investment capital to small food enterprises and to promote new principles of fiduciary responsibility to support sustainable agriculture and the emergence of a restorative economy. In addition to heading up Slow Money, Woody is Chairman Emeritus of Investors' Circle, a network of angel investors, family offices, and social purpose funds and foundations that has invested $133 million in 200 early stage sustainability-promoting ventures and venture funds, since 1992. He is the author of the recently published Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered.
Nick Shattuck
11:00 am - 12:00pm
Nick Shattuck is a singer/songwriter based out of La Crosse, WI. He sings acoustic soul with hints of blues, folk, and rock. Nick's inspirations derive from his day to day observations as well as personal experiences. Songs from the soul, that is his motto.
The Viroqua Men's Choir
12:30-1:30pm
Performing everything from barbershop and show tunes to spirited hymns, the Viroqua Area Men's Chorus is a top notch act. The group’s 43 members hail from throughout the area, from Elroy to Viroqua. The VMC has opened the season for the La Crosse Loggers baseball team and has sung at the Vernon County Fair for many years.
Lawful Contra-band
2:00-3:00
Traditional Barn Dance
The Squeezettes
2:00-3:00pm
"Milwaukee's only female accordion group" features Sarah (aka Ms Bubbles Galore), Linda (Ms Tiny Bubbles) and Pamela (Ms Big Surprise) on the squeezebox. Sarah runs the lead vocal front of the bunch with the gals doing some swinging background- Meoooooowww, Meoooooows etc. Tuba player Mike C. is a brew master at heart but he knows how to belch out a note or two hundred when the gals say "pretty please". Mike E., vocalist and percussionist extraordinaire is the newest addition to the band. The band is often joined by local legend Tom Schwark to croon out his 30s radio voice and add his mandolin to the mix.
The Eric Nofsinger Band
5:00-6:00pm
The Eric Nofsinger Band (ENB) is a 5 piece band from southwestern Wisconsin who play a mix of new country, classic country hits, some rock tunes and a few originals. La Farge's own Eric Nofsinger is no stranger to country music fans in the area; since he was 13 Eric and his fiddle have been rocking county fairs, clubs and festivals throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. Rounding out the band are Kyle Scott of Reedsburg on steel guitar, Mark Gruenenfelder, Blanchardville, vocals and bass, Wally Barger of Blue Mounds on drums, and Mike Hericks, Sparta on vocals and lead guitar. The band has shared a stage with many of country's luminaries, from Grand Ole Opry legend Bill Anderson to BR549.
The Bryan Cherry Band
6:30 - 7:30 pm
Standing at the junction where Soul, Pop, and Rock 'n' Roll meet is Bryan Cherry, a band that stretches musical boundaries all while sounding unmistakably familiar. Consistently dancing over the lines of genre classification, Bryan Cherry's product exhibits nothing more than a love for music deeply rooted within each member. Songwriter and vocalist Bryan Cherry has a sound distinct to himself. Songwriter and guitarist Sean Williamson brings his own blues-rock and jam band-based voice out at every opportunity. Drummer Chad Clausen plays with the Bonham quality everyone wishes they had. Bassist Matt Turner plays like Matt Turner. The result is a music whose sound proves that it is still possible for both power and beauty to be heard and more importantly felt down to the deepest bone in your body.
Brett Dennen
8:00-9:00pm
Brett Dennen is a nature-lover and has been involved with the Mosaic Project since its conception. It focuses on empowering children to create peace, helping their communities to bridge differences, and break down stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Dennen also invites like-minded non-profit organizations to distribute information and express their messages on stage before his concerts (www.lovespeaks.org).
Mitgee Evers Band
10:00pm - midnight
The Mitgee Evers band is a jam/improv/jazz fusion/funk/bluegrass band. They do a little of it all.
Sunday 7/26/09
The Tercels Gospel Hour
10:00-10:45am
In an effort to bring our living room/kitchen to the stage, the Tercels play songs in the round. Switching instruments and taking turns leading songs, the Tercels put the "rev" back in revival. From Bill Monroe to John Prine with a few re-worked traditionals, the Tercels promise to lift your spirits and sooth your soul.
Beef Slough Boys
11:00-11:45am
The Beef Slough Boys originated several years ago, when two mild-mannered school teachers on an afternoon fishing trip drifted into the cursed Beef Slough, an Upper Mississippi backwater channel near Alma WI with a long and strange history. Jeff Morgan and Scott Lowery returned from fishing with tales of a bone-chilling encounter with an amphibious Voodoo Mama, who transformed them into Lester and Lou Slough, cursed to wander the Mississippi river bluff region plying their unique and curious musical trade. To this day, they continue playing what has become known as "Sloughgrass", a gumbo of riverboat rags, string band blues, free-range originals and early country classics. Lester and Lou have recruited several other vagrant musicians to join them in their murky mission, including the current lineup of Pryce Taylor on bass, Mike Johnston on fiddle, mandolin and piano, and Jim Reineke on banjo, mandolin, mandocello and autoharp.
Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts
12:00-12:45
The band came together in 1998 when Allen Moody and Mark Shepard performed at the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, Sinsinawa, WI. The two played guitar and banjo respectively and accompanied Liz Henderson, farmer and family farm advocate during her keynote address. It was nice. At some point Jim Pierce was brought in for his harmonica skills and as the three goofed around with their instruments around the campfire they began to morph in to something like a band. Finally, Mark brought in Jeff Bartovics and the circle was complete. The boys began to call themselves Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts and the very next year wrote their first song, a parody of Country Joe McDonald's "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" and called it "The Monsanto Rag." This first effort opened the floodgates to a stream of audacious and irreverent material. The band's lyrics are often acerbic, yet can sometimes pull at the heart strings. It is music "by farmers, for farmers and the folks who eat the food they raise," meant to entertain, but always to educate and inform.
Patchouli
1:00 - 1:45pm
Punk Rock Meets Poetry
Bruce Hecksel's primary instrument is acoustic guitar. In addition to intense study in many styles from fingerstlye, flamenco, classical, jazz, flat picking, and folk, he studied concert piano, choral compositions and plays bass guitar and percussion on stage. But Bruce started his guitar adventure in a punk rock band named Be Safe Be Seen. At a Canadian music festival in 1991 his electric guitar and amp were stolen and he was left with only his acoustic guitar, which he took as a sign and never played an electric guitar again. As lyricist and lead vocalist of Patchouli, Julie's background is in words. She began reciting poetry when she was seven. She walked around with her steno notepad and recorded all her observations of her young life. Dabbling in violin, drums, and trombone throughout school she worked many of her poems into acapella pieces that she and friends would perform. When she and Bruce met they put the poetry to music and Patchouli began. Julie now plays multiple instruments on and off stage 6& 12 string guitars, upright bass marimbas, flutes and hand drums.
Organic Heroes Keynote Panel
2:00-3:00
5-WATT
3:30 - 4:30
5-Watt is a rock band from Viroqua, WI, in the heart of the Kickapoo Driftless region, performing all original songs which blend multiple genres and influences together into a unique sound accessible to all. They formed in 2007 and in 2008 self released their debut album, Dangerous Charm. With musical backgrounds as diverse as themselves (their roots range from nearby Richland Center all the way to Germany), 5-Watt offers an engaging live show, and is constantly writing new material and enjoys bringing new songs to the stage.
