A native of Virginia and Washington state, Bryan Bowers is an autoharp virtuoso, humorist, and story weaver. He spans generations of music and every human emotion in his performances that cover his own marvelous songs as well as powerful renditions of great folk tunes. In 1993, he was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame whose membership includes Mother Maybelle Carter, Kilby Snow, and Sara Carter. The Coffee House is honored to have this world-class artist on our stage.
Opening for Bryan is Rick Fitzgerald, a veteran of the Portage Road Songwriters Guild, has delighted Coffee House audiences with his pure vocals, and masterful guitar and autoharp playing, with influences that include Bryan Bowers, John Denver, and Bill Staines. Rick was the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Champion, and runner-up in the International Autoharp Championship at Winfield. He is currently on the board of directors for the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering and chairman of the Make Our Own (MOO) Music Gathering.
Eccentric Acoustic is a trio featuring Ruth Williams on mandolin, Sandy Stehling on guitar, and Scott Emmons on bass. They perform a wide variety of music, ranging from swing era jazz and country blues to more contemporary country, folk, and Americana. Ruth Williams started singing harmony while doing the family dishes with her sister. She currently sings with Milwaukee’s Bel Canto Chorus. Ruth forsook the autoharp for the mandolin some years ago and has been a stalwart member of the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra for more than twenty years.Sandy Stehling began playing guitar as a way to avoid studying while attending UW-Madison. His transcript shows the success of this strategy. The lively folk music scene on campus at the time was a major influence. He has been heard playing as a soloist and in various groups in the Milwaukee area for many years. Scott Emmons, a multi-instrumentalist, is dean of the UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts. He performs in a classical guitar quartet, plays mando-cello in the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra, and is the director of the New Horizons Band in Waukesha. Ruth and Sandy have been making music together since they first met some thirty years ago. They have played with Scott informally in various musical gatherings in the Milwaukee area, and have enjoyed collaborating with Scott seriously for the past five years. The process of combining three individuals’ musical tastes into an ensemble repertoire yields the serious fun that is Eccentric Acoustic.
Opener Craig Bruesewitz is a long-time singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonicat who has joined many Coffee House veterans on our stage, and has led his own bands on stages throughout southeast Wisconsin. Did we mention high-energy? Craig’s music runs the gamut of genres from blues, rock, country, and his own inspired and inspiring tunes. You’ll be dancing for your health with recovery guaranteed!
Folks would walk under the old Coffee House sign to enter a welcoming world of music and poet friends to talk about peace and justice, reminisce, and share their stories and songs. Tonight we invite everyone to join in on an old Coffee House tradition. Bring an instrument, a song or your own book of poems. You can come just to listen or join in yourself. - The Coffee House Friends Gathering and Open Jam is a time to gather together listen, appreciate everybody's contribution, and have fun singing -- that's what it's all about. In a jam session or song circle just try to be observant and feel your way gently. Each person who wants to can take a turn playing a song and they lead the group. The idea is that no one plays louder than the person leading the song. Depending on the size of the group you may be able to lead multiple songs when the circle comes around as each person takes a turn. We love if people just want to come to listen too. Wonderful time to visit with friends.
Forged in the depths of a cold Wisconsin winter of 2011, Pay The Devil brings together an eclectic mix of original compositions, bluegrass, folk, Irish traditional, Americana, and outlaw country.
The five-piece band features guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, and drums (plus spoons and other traditional percussive instruments). They play music with heart, energy, and just the right amount of edge!
Patty Stevenson and Craig Siemsen are known for their gorgeous harmonies, impeccable musicianship, playful stage humor, and jewel-like original songs. Patty says about performing, “I try for magic – nothing less! For the place that opens hearts and will move an audience to tears or smiles.” For many years, the couple maintained solo careers, even after they married. Eventually, with the prodding of wise friends, they agreed to perform one show as a duo. Today, they continue to create and record original songs as well as their own variations on timeless pieces that often span the ages of creativity in sound.
A co-owner of the popular folk venue Café Carpe in Fort Atkinson, Bill Camplin entertains with the clarity of his penetrating mind, guitar mastery, and quicksilver voice. Come see a long-time mainstay of Wisconsin folk music and supporter of The Coffee House!
A great evening combining home-made pie and readings from the works of three fine Wisconsin poets: Chris Straw, Bill Murtaugh, and Stephen Anderson.
Chris Straw is best known for her singing (the Moxy Chicks) and songs written from her time in the Portage Road Songwriters Guild). Tonight’s performance will showcase the poems that have been years in the works.
Bill Murtaugh is a local writer of poetry, prose, and plays. Bill has inhabited and read at many coffeehouses and poetry venues in our fair city, and has been a much loved reader at The Coffee House for decades. The poet Antler invites us to read Bill's Autumn Runs to Darkness and to "...discover secrets of survival and tenderness from one of Milwaukee's longtime lifelong poets."
Stephen Anderson is a Milwaukee poet and writer whose work has appeared in Southwest Review, Latin American Literature Today, Verser Wisconsin, Amsterdam Quarterly, Verse-Virtual, Blue Heron Review and numerous other print and online journals. Many of his poems have been featured on the Milwaukee NPR affiliate WUWM Lake Effect Program. Stephen is the author of two chapbooks and four full-length poetry collections: In the Garden of Angels and Demons, The Dream Angel Plays the Cello, High Wire and On the Third Planet from the Sun: New and Selected Poems (All four from Kelsay Books). In the summer of 2013, six of his poems formed the text for a chamber music song cycle entitled The Privileged Secrets of the Arch performed by musicians from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and an opera singer. Stephen’s work is being archived in the Stephen Anderson Collection in the Special Collections section of Raynor Libraries at Marquette University.
Our first fall benefit for Nourish MKE will be centered on the theme of hope. Come join us for an evening of hope-filled music. Performers this evening will be Clover Wonder (Steve Vogt and JoAnne Friedman), Wattle & Daub (Tim and Susan Mocarski), and Barb and Tom Webber.
Steve Vogt grew up in Milwaukee. He has graced the Coffee House stage as a member of the String Along band, in which he plays harmonica, guitar, ukulele, bass, banjo, and Native American flute. JoAnne Friedman plays guitar, Uke, native American flute and RAVAST steel drums and writes original music.
Wattle & Daub’s authentic acoustic voice is rooted in their passion for the power of the folk music tradition. From the heart of the midwest, in northern Illinois, husband and wife singer-songwriters, Tim and Susan Mocarski are dedicated to keeping folk culture alive and kicking through participation, social commentary, and entertainment.
Barb Webber is a natural storyteller, a talent honed by years of listening. She writes a Capella, letting the words choose their own notes, without constraints. Tom Webber began jamming in grade school and hasn’t stopped. Tom is persistent in finding arrangements that give voice to the personality of each song, and he views the world with an artistic eye of optimism.
Lil Rev is a storyteller, poet, author, folklorist and joke-lorist; a performer on multiple instruments at festivals, camps, and clubs; a teacher and instructional book writer; a composer of original music and a torch bearer for old tunes. And he has delighted audiences at The Coffee House for decades!
