Caravan Gypsy Swing will be playing four 15 minute sets within the 2 hour window: 12:00-12:15, 12:30-12:45, 1:00-1:15, 1:30-1:45

Rain Location: Touchdown Tavern, 125 E. Main St., Reedsburg

Caravan Gypsy Swing Ensemble is an instrumental acoustic jazz group based in Madison, Wisconsin. They are primarily influenced by the legendary Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. The ensemble also pulls influences from jazz, swing, European folk, traditional Latin, Parisian waltz, and other vintage-jazz sources. Expect a range of tunes from the “Hot Swing” repertoire, originals and standards done in uniquely arranged styles.

The idea for Caravan started in early 2002 when Chris Ruppenthal, the group’s leader and an aspiring jazz guitarist, first heard recordings of Dutch Gypsy jazz guitarist Jimmy Rosenberg who played in the Reinhardt style. Chris soon turned away from the American Bebop style of jazz guitar to follow in the long shadow of Django and was inspired to seek out fellow Gypsy Jazz enthusiasts. Caravan sprang out of that inspiration as a trio of two guitars, and violin. The trio played a barrage of open mikes and busked at local farmers markets to get their repertoire together. After adding a bassist and clarinetist they began playing coffee houses, clubs, and parties. Soon they were recording, and performing consistently throughout the Midwest.

The group released its first official full length CD “Caravan Gypsy Swing Ensemble” on Hot String Swing Records in 2007. The recording features an expanded band lineup and includes original music, arrangements of Django Reinhardt classics, jazz standards, and Latin tunes. In 2010 the ensemble released their “Live at The Brink Lounge” CD, an inspired concert performance featuring their regular touring lineup. Caravan’s recordings have been prominently featured as a bed soundtrack on ABC 27′s “Cooking the Casbah” and on Something Special from Wisconsin’s local food YouTube shorts. Their music has also been used in advertisements for RP Pasta and for chocolatier Gail Ambrosius.

Caravan has had substantial experience with live performance throughout the Midwest. They have performed in a broad range of settings including concert halls, festivals, nightclubs, and corporate events. They have had a wide variety of live radio experience including numerous appearances on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Higher Ground with Jonathan Overby.” Highlights of Caravan’s festival and concert experience include performances at Madison WI’s Overture Hall, The Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival, The Isthmus Jazz Festival, The River Front Jazz Fest, and the Summer Sizzle Jazz Festival. Caravan Gypsy Swing Ensemble has become an experienced, seasoned group with a diverse repertoire, and a unique voice in the Gypsy Jazz genre. They now perform in lineups that range from a two-guitar duo to a six-piece ensemble including clarinet, violin, and drums. Although the music of Django Reinhardt is still at the core of the band they have learned to take Gypsy Jazz music in a broad range of directions.

Jess and Jess will be doing four short performances during the two-hour window: 11-11:15, 11:30-11:45, 12-12:15, 12:30-12:45.

Rain Date: Oct. 21 11am – 1pm

Jess and Jess can be found along the Farm/Art DTour dangling in a majestic old oak tree, dancing and twirling from the tree’s outreaching limbs. The pair have been aerial dancing together for about a year and a half and enjoy sharing their passion for dance and the natural world by performing throughout southern Wisconsin and inspiring others to realize their own dreams and reaching new heights everyday.

Rain Location: Same

Trace Johnson is an emerging young cellist who brings a fresh understanding and flavor to the classical and contemporary music scene via his deep appreciation of a wide range of musical genres. Mr. Johnson grew up in Madison,Wisconsin and recently received his Bachelor of Cello Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Mr. Johnson began playing cello at age six and received his earliest training with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra and Midwest Young Artists. In 2005, Trace toured Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic with WYSO. Mr. Johnson was acting principal of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra while performing Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” on the critically acclaimed radio program, “From The Top,” in the fall of 2005. Trace has performed several solo recitals in Madison, Wisconsin, and Cleveland, Ohio, at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Trace’s principal teachers have been Melissa Kraut and Tanya Carey; he has also studied with Eleanor Schoenfeld, Mark Kosower, Tony  Ross, David Russell, Joseph Johnson, Alicia Weilerstein, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Eugene Friesen, Mark Summer, and Parry Karp.

Mr. Johnson is an avid contemporary music enthusiast. In 2010, Trace attended the Icicle Creek Music Festival in Washington where he premiered Austin Schlicting’s Piano Trio, “The Alchemy of Happiness”. In the summer of 2012, Mr. Johnson attended the Fresh Inc. Festival in Wisconsin where he premiered Haley Shaw’s Speakpiece,, a trio for cello, alto flute, and bass clarinet,, and Eugene Astapov’s The Sound to an Empty Manuscript, for string and woodwind dectet. In the spring of 2012, Mr. Johnson had the privilege to work closely with American composer Steven Stucky and performed his solo cello work, Dialoghi, at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a member of the New Music Ensemble.

Inspired by his father, legendary jazz bassist, Marc Johnson, Trace has been involved with alternative string playing and improvisation from an early age. In addition to cello, Mr. Johnson also sings and plays guitar, bass, banjo, and mandolin. Trace has performed with several bands, including the El Super Music Collective, in Cleveland, and Xellarhatch, in Madison.

Step right up to Fortune Fortitude, a traveling interactive art installation.  Spin the wheel of fortune and compete against the strong man in a physical challenge to win original art!  Everyone is a winner, every time with your five dollar contribution.  Come participate in this spectacle Saturday Oct. 20 11am-5pm at the Touchdown Tavern during their Hops and Curds event.  Support local artists and have some fun in the process!

Richard Saxton and Kirsten Stoltz represent the M12 Collective, a group of artists and creative professionals based in Denver and Byers, Colorado.  M12 creates visual art projects and cultural opportunities for diverse and often ignored rural populations both in the American High Plains region and Internationally. The group’s projects are designed and built to integrate art, architecture and social engagement, and expand the reach and reputation of art made in rural communities. The collective is actively working to build a national sustainable model for how innovative cultural activities can bring long-lasting rewards to post-agricultural areas, and help to counter the deterioration of rural communities in the United States and beyond. The M12 Collective has been invited to participate in many national and international exhibitions and programs that investigate contemporary art practices in rural communities such as: The 13^th International Venice Architecture Biennale (2012); Spaced: Art Out of Place, Australian Biennial (2010); The Biennial of the Americas (2010); New Fields, a program of Littoral Arts Trust in the United Kingdom; The Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles; The Land Heritage Institute in Texas; and The Binaural Nodar program in Portugal.

Their installation for the Farm/Art DTour, “Prairie Module #3″ will be lead by David Wyrick, an active member of M12 for the past 8 years.

More about Richard Saxton and Kirsten Stoltz  

In 2002, M12’s Founder and Creative Director, Richard Saxton began working under the moniker municipalWORKSHOP (mW), which was an itinerant creative laboratory dedicated to the creation of contemporary public art projects in small communities around the US. Saxton developed M12 from its outrider mW, and incorporated the group as a 501c3 non-profit organization in 2007. Saxton is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado in Boulder and has developed the M12 partnership with CU in recent years, starting the Art and Rural Environments Field School, which aids M12’s programmatic mission in rural eastern Colorado. Over the last fifteen years Kirsten Stoltz, M12’s Programming Director, has focused primarily on interdisciplinary arts programming. Previously, Stoltz worked as Curator for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and Director and Curator of the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Saxton’s family homesteaded in Western Nebraska and Stoltz’ in Eastern Colorado (the home sites are roughly 4 hours from each other and both lie within minutes of the 102^nd meridian west). Saxton and Stoltz both hold a deep appreciation for the Plains region in the US, and both draw inspiration from the landscape and communities of this part of the world. Working through M12, they understand that the preservation of rural communities and reconstituting urban/rural realities is crucial to life in the 21^st century.

Yid Vicious will be playing four short sets during the two-hour window: 1:00-1:15, 1:30-1:45, 2:00-2:15, 2:30-2:45

Rain Location: Branding Iron Roadhouse,  132 S Main Street,  Lime Ridge

Yid Vicious has been engaging and delighting audiences throughout the Midwest since 1995. The group has released four CDs and has received numerous Madison Area Music Awards for its unique blend of traditional and contemporary klezmer. In 2009, Yid Vicious became the first performing arts ensemble in Wisconsin to receive a USArtists International grant, to perform at Argentina’s KlezFiesta, an international klezmer festival spanning three cities and including bands from ten countries. In 2006, Yid Vicious toured Chiba Prefecture, Japan as part of the Wisconsin-Chiba Sister State Goodwill Delegation.

Yid Vicious is committed to keeping traditional klezmer music and dance alive, and collaborates frequently with internationally renowned klezmer dance instructor Steve Weintraub. The group has participated in the New York-based “KlezKamp: The Yiddish Folk Arts Program”, and was a featured performer at the “KlezKamp Roadshow” directed by Yiddish scholar Henry Sapoznik at the University of Wisconsin in April 2009.

Yid Vicious has presented concerts, workshops, and clinics at performing arts centers, cultural festivals, universities, and K-12 schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan, and has performed to statewide audiences on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.

Croaker will be playing four short sets during the two-hour window: 2:00-2:15, 2:30-2:45, 3:00-3:15, 3:30-3:45

Croaker is a sentient collection of strings, keys, drums, limbs, words, hearts, livers, and cantankery. It began its assemblage in September of 2010, when the spontaneous guitar noodlings of Ellie Erickson, Carson Maule, and Betsy Arant were joined by Jay Vollberg on keys. The band eventually recruited Sara Wexler’s percussive talents and, after a string of one-night stands, found true love with bassist Julie Kiland. Stephanie Birr joined the crew in spring of 2012 after her camera broke and she was forced to sing instead. Their music ranges from circus-noir improv jams to moody swamp ballads to lilting retro-folk, with nods to Tom Waits, William Elliot Whitmore, and Neil Young. In their spare time, they like to eat burritos and fight crime.

Tim Southwick Johnson is an accomplished performer on acoustic guitar, mandolin, tenor guitar, ukulele and harmonica. His original songs run the gamut from fun story songs to romping fingerstyle instrumentals. Tim even brings the songwriting process to the stage composing “on the fly”.  Tim’s latest CD Sand County Songs is based on the Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac.  Leopold’s biographer Curt Meine said of the album, “Sand County Songs is wonderful.Tim Johnson has combined creative musicianship with a keen appreciation of Aldo Leopold’s writing and experience.”

Tim has also provided music for video and film including the Governor of Wisconsin’s Fire Prevention video and the independent film Wisconsin Barns / A Touchstone of the Past, which has aired on PBS nationwide. Tim has performed at colleges and universities, clubs and festivals in 30 states. He is a former member of Mercury/Columbia recording artists Heartsfield and was a founding member of the band Famous Vacationers.

Rain Location: Branding Iron Roadhouse, 132 South Main St., Lime Ridge

A theatrical feast for the eyes and ears, pearlesque is comprised of two spirited musicians: Julia McConahay and Shawndell Marks. They have recently come together, using their songwriting experience, classical training, and pop sensibilities to form an uncharted debut performance at this year’s Fermentation Fest. The rustic setting of the festival provides the perfect juxtaposition to the combination of esoteric violin, electronic piano, and deep-rooted vocals. They will be performing original compositions in nature with the help of vintage props.

Shawndell Marks

Shawndell Marks is a local singer/songwriter/pianist with big hair and little feet. She has been playing with a band since the age of 15 and once sang backup every night for a whole summer for an Elvis impersonator. He sweated. A lot. She then went on to study music at the University of Wisconsin. Her favorite band is Supertramp and favorite food is peanut butter. Her favorite thing ever is the grand piano in her living room – a gift from her father the year he died. She has released two original albums, Remnants of Crazy and Little Things. The second album does not refer to her feet, but rather sweet, simple concepts using her voice, a piano, and various sounds from a keyboard. She currently resides in rural Reedsburg, Wisconsin with her husband and two children where she teaches piano.

Julia McConahay

Julia McConahay is a seasoned performer having participated in multiple orchestral and vocal ensembles since age 6. These experiences in high-caliber group settings paved a fascinating road towards becoming a primarily improvisational contemporary fiddle player and songwriter. She has released two original albums, Strings Change and Look Up!, contributes her talent to several regional musical acts, and serves as guitar instructor and band coach for Madison’s Girls Rock Camp. She loves coffee, sushi and talking rapidly. She currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin when she’s not on the road with her groups The Compass Rose and Whiskey Doll.