Chicken Wire Empire Ready to Move Mountains in 2019

photo by Hope Piper, MKE Rocks

What Moves Mountains, the sophomore LP by Milwaukee’s Chicken Wire Empire, is a stellar release that positions the quintet as a premier contemporary bluegrass outfit, on-par with many of the genre's best national acts.  Driven by exquisitely precise picking, steady bass grooves, beautiful vocal harmonies and, most of all, a true sense of joy, What Moves Mountains is a record that transports the listener into the epic bluegrass tales provided in the songs.

Like many modern bluegrass bands, Chicken Wire Empire honor the history of its predecessors and push forward by combining originally composed tracks alongside a thoughtful array of reimagined covers on the record. Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers,” Bill Monroe’s “Old Dangerfield,” Bad Livers’ “Lumpy Beanpole and Dirt,” and Woody Guthrie's “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad” (which was popularized by the Grateful Dead) are all given clever and honest reworkings by the group.  Original numbers like “Summer and Me,” “Still In Love With You,” and “Reckless,” are foot-tapping, booty-shaking, and head-bobbing treats. The group shows its dexterity with placing those tracks alongside more narrative storytelling tunes like “Maker,” “Rope,” and “Shotguns and Doublewides,”

Chicken Wire Empire is a balanced musical machine with each of the members being given room to groove, sing, and showcase their passion for their craft across the record’s eleven tracks.  The group which consists of Jordan Krueger (bass), Ryan Ogburn (mandolin), Jon Peik (banjo), Ernest Brusubardis IV (fiddle), and Greg Brundage (guitar) has never been tighter and much of the magic of their live sound is masterfully captured on this release.

The quintet recently played a headlining gig at the Cooperage which sold out well in advance.  The evening featured two sets of Chicken Wire Empire where the band showcased their well-timed musical chemistry for a truly joyful and uplifting performance.  First set highlights included a lengthy jammed-out rendition of “Maker” which featured some incredible interplay between Piek and Brusabardis, trading off licks on the banjo and fiddle respectively.  Brundage took on lead vocal duties for the group on a beautiful cover of “Peggy O,” originally performed by the Grateful Dead. For the second set, Ogburn took the helm with an epically jam-filled rendition of “Shotguns Suite.”

Recently we had a chance to catch up with Ryan Ogburn and Jordan Krueger:

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

MKE Rocks: What was it like to make It Moves Mountains?

Ryan Ogburn: It was probably one of the smoothest processes we’ve ever gone through as a group to record an album.  There was a lot of preparation and songwriting sessions and different arrangments and a lot of trial and error that we explored before we even got into the studio.

Jordan Krueger:  I’m really really happy and proud of that album.  The whole process of recording that album was extremely positive, especially compared to recording our first album.  The first day we did a four-hour rehearsal session while our sound engineer was setting tones while we rehearsed. The studio can be a little terrifying, as every subtlely is permanent.  It is very difficult to record an album when you’re known as a live band, but I think we did a really good job and folks are digging it.

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

MKE Rocks: As a band that prides itself on improvisation and live performance, how were you able to harness that energy and create that feel on the record? In particular, Shotguns and Doublewides is a jam vehicle live and can go in so many directions… what was it like to record that one?

Ryan Ogburn: Shotguns and Doublewides is actually a very old song that I recorded a long time ago that has gone through a number of arrangements and incarnations.  I tried recording it again on the first Chicken Wire Empire album and it just wasn’t right. It took a while to get it out live, and it has continued to evolve since the record.  We tried to keep it more a little more contained on the record but were able to capture its groove well. It certainly is a fun one to play live.

Jordan Krueger: We recorded most of the album live, so when you’re hearing the record and you think, gosh, this sounds like Chicken Wire, it’s because it was recorded straight in the studio.  A lot of solo sections were done live. On “Old Dangerfield,” that spacey part was all done live. We wanted to make a studio record but really wanted to make sure that the sessions were live so that we could recreate that feel as much as possible. For some of the longer tunes, we cut out some of the parts, so that fans could experience the longer jams live, and also have the experience of having the studio stuff too.  

MKE Rocks: 2018 was a great year for you all, capped off with a show opening for Horseshoes and Handgrenades at the Pabst.  What was that experience like?

Ryan Ogburn: That show was really kind of a celebration of a lot of what we had accomplished throughout 2018.  It was so beautiful how it all came together. We have been wanting to play with Horseshoes and Handgrenades for a long time and have been on similar paths.  Adam, from Horseshoes and Handgrenades, really helped us out with encompassing the folk music revival across the country and in the upper midwest.

Jordan Krueger: Horseshoes and Handgrenades are old friends, so we’ve known them for a while.  Playing the Pabst felt like a whole new level for us. We were pretty in awe when we were introduced at the Pabst, while we were standing on stage and our emcee rattled off a list of legendary names who played the Pabst.  It made us feel pretty good thinking about all of the names before us and then standing on stage feeling like, "Man, I’m so glad to be here." That same night was the official release of What Moves Mountains so it was a really great night and kick off to the new year.  That whole shebang was prettty awesome.

MKE Rocks: As a musician familiar with the Milwaukee scene for some time now, you’ve had a chance to play in many bands and watch bands break past the shores of Lake Michigan and beyond.  Can you comment please about your thoughts about the Milwaukee Americana scene with acts like Chicken Wire Empire, Dead Horses (which you play with), Buffalo Gospel (who (Ryan) used to play with), Joseph Huber, Nickel and Rose, the list of awesome talent goes on and on!

Ryan Ogburn: I feel like we are really blessed to be existing and thriving during this time. There is so much talent circulating around this immediate area.  I feel like Milwaukee has really grown in that, and potentially rivals other big music cities with its vibrant scene.

Jordan Krueger: We just played the Wisconsin Bluegrass Festival in Madison.  We made round two, which shows that the scene is really thriving.  The bluegrass scene is amazing because everyone interacts and works together.  The scene is amazingly collaborative, friendly, and supportive. We all love each other and the scene is really great here.  It is so positive and so unique for a music scene to be like that.

MKE Rocks (to Ryan Ogburn): Is it hard for you as a musician to balance time between acts (such as playing with Chicken Wire Empire and Dead Horses)?

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Ryan Ogburn: I feel like we all are very connected as a community with multiple members that intermingle.  Buffalo Gospel is a supergroup with all amazingly individually talented musicians. Same with Dead Horses… Dan and Sarah as a duo just crush it and then they choose from an array of Midwestern musicians and beyond.  I really see this as another notch to the thriving midwest music scene. They (Dead Horses) could pick up players from Nashville, Los Angeles or Seattle and do just fine, but the talent from the northern midwest is just so great.  It goes back to Trampled by Turtles and that whole group and there is really a rich music scene that reaches beyond to groups like Field Report and even Justin Vernon. It is really coming to the surface for me as a musician seeing what talent we have here in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the rest of the northern midwest.  We truly have so many amazing and wonderful musicians.

MKE Rocks: What does 2019 hold in store for CWE?  The sold-out Cooperage show was clearly a highlight.  Any big plans for you and the band?

Ryan Ogburn: We have a lot of big plans.  Getting ideas together for the next album is a the forefront of what we’re doing these days.  We have been invited to be part of several festivals including Blue Ox, Moon Dance, and we’re headlining Larry Fest and having a bunch of really great regional festivals that we have been working towards for many years and with all that momentum, we are really excited to write and arrange a lot of new music to get into the studio as soon as possible.  We have great gigs coming up all over the midwest, and we’re also super pumped to play the Rock the Green Earth Day event with Lex Allen this year on April 27th.

Cold rain and snow can't stop great music from being made... check out Chicken Wire Empire and Lex Allen at Rock the Green's Earth Day Celebration Saturday, April 27th from 12-2 at Estabrook Park, Picnic Area #8.

Steve Gunn- 4/18/19, Cactus Club

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Masterfully blurring together aspects of country, folk, blues, jazz, and psychedelic rock, Steve Gunn’s guitar work has earned him the reputation of being one of the best performers in the business today. However, Gunn’s songwriting and lyrics, especially on his latest release The Unseen In Between, which dropped this January, have helped establish him as an amazing singer-songwriter act who has the power to transport his listeners on a journey that defies both time and space.  Gunn is touring in support of The Unseen In Between, a nine song record that showcases his finest songwriting to date-- taking listeners on a cross-country trip punctuated by Gunn’s keen observations of the characters and experiences he’s encountered along the way.  There is something universally relatable and simultaneously transcendental about Gunn’s music. His lyrics often leave lots of room for interpretation, allowing listeners to insert themselves into Gunn’s tales. This is seen particularly on the track, “New Moon,” which leads off The Unseen In Between with the lines, “I see a glimmer, across the wall, through the mirror, out past the streets, beyond the weather, to that place no one seems to know.”  There is a masterful intracity between Gunn’s lyrics and singing and the guitar work that creates a rich fabric of timbres. Gunn’s music, songwriting and expression cannot be confined to any one style or genre, and through his songcraft and performance, Gunn has become a “can’t miss” live performer.  

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Recently Steve Gunn packed the storied Cactus Club in Bay View, Wisconsin with droves of fans clamoring to hear Gunn’s songs and guitar stylings lined-up at the doors of the jam-packed venue.  Gunn is an unassuming presence live who lets the strength of his music do the talking. Donning a denim jacket, bright red Chuck Taylor’s and low-key grin, Gunn performed a masterful set to kick off the US leg of his tour in support of The Unseen In Between. Joined on stage with a killer backing band that included Paul Sukeena on guitar, TJ Maiani on drums, and Liam Cunningham on both upright and electric bass, Gunn entranced the audience from the first notes of “Wildwood,” a track off his 2014 Way Out Weather LP.  From there he launched full-throttle into The Unseen In Between with the stand-out “Vagabond.”  Other choice cuts from Gunn’s most recent LP like “Chance,” and “New Moon,” were on-point live.  The set highlight, however, was a spellbinding rendition of “Lightning Field,” dedicated to everyone who showed up to the show.  The jam in the middle of the track and guitar solo hold up as some of Gunn’s most nuanced and catchiest work to date. After a rich seventy-five minutes of music, Gunn closed his show with a beautiful encore of “Morning is Mended,” which featured Steve solo on stage with just his acoustic guitar and mad-scientist board of effects pedals.  The band then came back to join him for a vintage jam on “Way Out Weather,” also from the 2014 Way Out Weather record.  Steve Gunn is an amazing performer that you need to experience live.

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Mdou Moctar- The Cooperage; Warm-Up Party for Psych Fest VII 4/5/19

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Some call him the Jimi Hendrix of the Sahara.  Others compare him to Prince (after all, he did star in a Tuareg remake of “Purple Rain,” titled, “Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red in It” ), but after seeing Mdou Moctar live, he is an artist like none other; a unique entity with a style, stage presence, and sound all of his own. Mdou Moctar and his band, consisting of Ahmoudou Madassane on rhythm guitar, Soulemane Ibrahim on drums, and Mikey Coltun on bass delivered a wall of psychedelic guitar-focused music to a packed house at The Cooperage for the preview party for Milwaukee’s Psych Fest VII.  The band has been touring almost non-stop these days, bringing the psychedelic sounds of the Sahara all across the United States and beyond. Amidst all of Mdou’s guitar prowess, it was the pure joy that emanated from his music that made him an incredibly engaging performer and one who is primed to soar in today's music scene.

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Currently hailing from the Saharan city of Agadez, Niger, the epicenter of the increasingly popular Tuareg guitar sound, Mdou Moctar’s back-story story is an uplifting and gripping one.  As a young person living in the village of Tchintabaraden and then in the uranium mining town Arlit, playing music was not widely accepted in the culture. Mdou taught himself how to play a homemade guitar created from a piece of wood strung with bicycle brake wires.  Despite this, Mdou’s songs, which are steeped in honor, respect, and tradition gained favor amongst the local village and religious leaders. Mdou gained recognition for playing weddings in his home village and began to develop a strong following.  With the help of the digital age and artists trading music in the Sahara region via Bluetooth technology and memory cards on cell phones, Mdou’s music reached the ears of Christopher Kirkley, who, with his label, “Sahel Sounds,” helped introduce Mdou Moctar to audiences around the world, exposing the Tuareg artist to a plethora of new fans.

Mdou Moctar’s latest record, 2019’s Ilana (The Creator), is a guitar lover’s dream, and a record that is poised to make many "end-of-the-year, 'best of' lists."  The nine-song record transports listeners on a jam-infused journey to the desert region of northern Niger, the land of Mdou’s Tuareg people. Recorded live, the album has a groove-driven vibe and original face-melting guitar sound that hooks the listener upon the first spin and makes them want to come back repeatedly for more, finding a new takeaway each time.

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Live, Mdou’s jams often take on a palpable, hypnotic sense of surrealism.  A perfect artist to headline the warm-up party for Milwaukee’s Psych VII, Mdou’s songs took on a life of their own, showcasing his incredible range as a guitar virtuoso and vocalist.  His backing band provided a deep groove to support the layers of guitar solos and jams that Mdou delivered. The set drew heavily from Ilana (The Creator) with a fair amount of improvisation and deep jams that made the songs smoothly flow into one another.  With big smiles and a warm demeanor, Mdou and his band left the fans at the Cooperage mesmerized. Mdou Moctar is clearly an artist on the rise and we can’t wait to see him again next time he comes through Milwaukee.