WORT Ignites the Summer Festival Season!
WORT 89.9 FM Community Radio is holding our annual outdoor music event, WORTstock, in Warner Park on Sunday, May 21st from 11am to 7pm. WORT has a 47-year history of broadcasting, and our outdoor music festival has entertained audiences for more than 25 years with diverse lineups of local and regional musicians in a wide variety of genres. Last year’s event was hugely successful, and we are honored to bring a great mix of local music to Madison’s north side once again. Check out this lineup!
12:00 BlueStem Jazz presents Tomato Box
1:20 The Whiskey Farm (Americana)
2:40 DaneArts presents La Combi (Cumbia and Salsa)
(due to a family emergency, Rebulú Group cannot attend)
4:00 Birddog Blues Band
5:30 Ugochi & African Soul Ensemble with special guest Charmanik (Afro Soul, Cuban hiphop)
This festival is a celebration of the wide variety of diverse programming WORT offers listeners every day, and the hundreds of volunteers who come together to make it all happen. We partner with local food and craft vendors as well as with Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild, who provide a cornucopia of beverages in rotating selections throughout the day. We are excited to return to gorgeous Warner Park to host the first outdoor music festival of the season. We are also thrilled to have a larger space near the lagoon south of the shelter!
Food and Craft Vendors
Nonprofit Information Tables
19th Annual No Crap On Tap craft beer garden courtesy of Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild
Art Activity Area for All Ages courtesy of 608 Arts
Prize Raffle
WORT Boutique
Can’t Get Enough? Join the After-Party at Bierock, 2911 N. Sherman Ave.
WORTstock is made possible with help from our sponsors:
More about the bands:
UGOCHi is the african buttafly
Ugochi Nwaogwugwu is a multidisciplinary creative. She weaves in and out of the roles of professional poet, singer, songwriter, composer, internationally renowned musician, poetry instructor, teaching artist and founder of Spirit Speaks, Inc, seamlessly. Ugochi has executive produced, written and co-arranged three album projects; African Buttafly, A.S.E. and Love Shot. Her poems have been published in “Storm Between Two Fingers” & “Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different,” both international anthologies released in the UK. Her poems are also featured in “Golden Shovel Anthology,” and “Wherever I’m At,” released nationally in the United States of America.
Ugochi has created an original pan African poetry form called “Ike” paying homage to her Igbo culture of Nigeria, West Africa. She has also written newsworthy blogs and essays including, “Not My President,” published by Third World Press. Ugochi has shared the stage with several established artists such as Common, Eric Benet, John Legend, Femi Kuti, Edwin McCain, Seun Kuti, Maxi Priest, Umphrey’s McGee, Richie Stephens, Blitz the Ambassador, Yellowman, J. Ivy, Queen Ifrika, Luciano, Wayna, Femi Kuti, Shaggy, Richie Stephens, Queen Ifrika, Vieux Farka Toure, Tony Allen, Bushman, Fatoumata Diawara, Capleton, Baby Cham, Wayne Wonder and Stephen Marley, King Sunny Ade, Lizz Wright, Me’Schell Ndegeocello and more.
Ugochi’s music, rich with poetic harmonies and uplifting ideas, have taken her to many countries around the world, including Paris, Amsterdam, London, Leeds, Italy as well as Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, France, Jamaica and Cuba. Ugochi and her band, African Soul Ensemble (A.S.E.), were named “Best African Entertainer 2022,” by the Chicago Music Awards. Ugochi is also a playwright, activist, racial healing practitioner, AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) executive member and a Governor of the Recording Academy/Grammys Chicago Chapter.
Check out these Video Links:
Don’t Mind Them
https://youtu.be/aXztT1CWWbY
Taboo
https://youtu.be/XwI7fV-iew4
Love Shot
https://youtu.be/G6sMKG23V_E
Birddog Blues Band
Mel Ford, guitar/ vocals
Tom McCarty, bass/ vocals
Ken Olufs, harmonica/ vocals
Joel Brantmeier, drums
Birddog Blues Band is a group of Award-Winning musicians from some of Wisconsin and the Midwest’s best musical combos. They play an eclectic mix of ‘dance-inspiring’ Blues, Rock, R&B and Soul.
Check them out on Facebook here: Birddog Blues Band
La Combi
Due to a family emergency, Rebulu is not able to play. But patrons of Robinia Courtyard know La Combi very well. Rebulu and La Combi share many of the same members, and we are grateful La Combia could step in and keep everyone dancing. They are ready to get you moving to everything from classic salsa, perico ripiao and psychedelic cumbia!
Check out a performance video here: https://www.facebook.com/100083202038972/videos/2483047418528732
The Whiskey Farm
Jason Horowitz – guitars, harmonica, mandolin, vocals
Brett Wilfrid – acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, banjo, vocals
Matt Cooper – Borkenhagen – pedal steel, guitar
Chantelle Thomas – vocals
Mike Steen – bass
Chad Bartell – drums, vocals
The Whiskey Farm is an Americana and folk rock band from Madison, Wisconsin. Formed in 2010, the band released their first record, Middle of America, in 2011 and in 2012 won the Madison Area Music Award (MAMA) for Best Americana/Folk song for the lead track, “If I Were You.” The Onion A.V. Club described The Whiskey Farm as “straddling the line between bluegrass and folk, blending technical wows with accessible songwriting for very pop-minded Americana.” The Americana Gazette wrote that they have “great tunes, killer hooks, and fantastic harmonies,” and The Isthmus called them “a big boost for the little music scene thriving here in the middle of America.” The band features multi-instrumentalists and layered harmonies in lyric-driven songs. In 2013, The Whiskey Farm released their second full-length album, From the Still, and won the MAMA for Best Ensemble Vocals. They have shared the stage with Americana favorites such as Phox, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Pert Near Sandstone, and Shooter Jennings. Their third record, Book of Matches (2015) was described by Local Sounds as “another fine recording that exemplifies the Midwestern ethos.” After that, The Whiskey Farm turned to social activism with their protest record, Songs of Resistance (2017). Since that time, they have partnered with a number of organizations to create unique songs, videos, and events in support of prosocial causes. Their work has benefited the ACLU, Refugees International, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the MCW Cancer Center. The Music for Good series is ongoing. When COVID hit, the band returned to the studio once more and produced Over These Green Hills, their fifth studio release. This record, and the shows that followed the return of live music, earned them the MAMA for Best Folk Performer and Best Folk/Americana Song.
Check out their website here: The Whiskey Farm
Tomato Box
Todd Munnik ~ Alto Saxophone & Clarinet
Geoff Brady ~ Marimba, Theremin, Electric Glockenspiel, Percussion
Nate Bakkum ~ Bass
Michael Brenneis ~ Drums, Percussion, Sampler
The experimental jazz quartet Tomato Box is led by founder/drummer Michael Brenneis, who formed the group in 1999. A native of Boston, Brenneis learned his instrument from renowned jazz drummer Alan Dawson and subsequently worked in the studio with such artists as Benny Weinbeck, Teodross Avery, Doug Little of the Motion Poets, Kelly DeHaven, Hanah Jon Taylor, the Moon Gypsies, the Ed Anders Quartet, and the Erica Mather Trio. Joining Brenneis in Tomato Box is Anders Svanoe (clarinet, alto, bari), Geoff Brady (marimba, percussion), and Henry Boehm (bass). The group issued its debut album, Let’s Hear It, in 2001 (on Rattle Tick Buzz Records).
Check out their music here: Tomato Box
More Posts for Show: Panafrica