A big get: Austin-based duo Brennen Leigh and Noel McCay kick off Threshold’s folk series.
For the past several years, singer-songwriter Josh Harty has helped run the Wisconsin Room at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, bringing a group of Wisconsin artists to the event to showcase their talent and help them connect with people in the music industry.
Supported by the Madison Arts Commission, the Wisconsin Room has become known as a place to see great musicians (while enjoying Wisconsin beer and cheese). Alumni include local standouts like Anna Vogelzang (who has since moved to Los Angeles), Corey Mathew Hart, Brett Newski and the members of Harmonious Wail. “I saw it as an opportunity to network and get social with other artists and different people in the business, as well as get more people from town involved,” Harty says.
This month, Harty and his partner, Jess Parvin, will launch a new project that’s essentially the inverse of the Wisconsin Room. They’re bringing musicians from all over the country to Madison and pairing them with local acts for a new concert series aimed at fostering connections and building up the local music community.
“We want to introduce artists to the Madison scene and hopefully get them on Madison’s radar so they can come through more often,” Harty says. A touring musician himself, Harty knows how important it is for artists to have a support network when they visit different cities — an audience, a couch to crash on, a local band to share a bill. “We want to kind of cross-pollinate and give local people the chance to meet with people from out of town.”
The first event in the series is May 5 at Threshold, the community and event space at 2717 Atwood Ave. Headlining is the Austin, Texas-based Americana duo Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay. Harty and Cedric Baetche of Mal-O-Dua will open, debuting their new acoustic blues collaboration.
Leigh has visited the Wisconsin Room — which she describes as “the coolest room” at the Folk Alliance conference — but she first met Harty playing music together when they were teenagers in the Fargo area of North Dakota. She later moved to Texas to continue her music career, playing bluegrass and Americana as a solo artist and teaming up with McKay in 2008. The duo has been touring consistently ever since, finding particular success in Europe. Both singers and guitarists, Leigh and McKay specialize in folk-influenced country with precise harmonies.
Leigh says her creative work stems from the intersection of music and poetry. “From a young age I gravitated toward [poetry], and at a certain point I realized it was the same as country music and bluegrass music,” she says.
More concerts will be announced soon; Harty expects Threshold to host shows on a quarterly basis. He’s also working on booking shows at another venue to be announced and plans to host intimate house shows at his home on Jenifer Street. Those interested in attending the house shows can get in touch via the Wisconsin Room website or Facebook page for information about dates and location.
It takes considerable planning to book a series like this, but Leigh has no doubt it will happen: “If anyone can do it, Josh can. He has a genuine love of music, genuine interest in other people’s music — and everyone likes him.”
