Swarme of Beese

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Will Branch

The three members of the band Swarme of Beese in a stairwell.

Swarme of Beese (from left): Stephen Canner, Stefan Keydel, Lynne Adele.

This one is waaaay out there, but worth the drive for multiple reasons: the beautiful Driftless scenery, the quirky folk art shrine that is The Painted Forest, and the free concert from the band Swarme of Beese, visiting from Austin, Texas. The band — Lynne Adele and Stephen Canner (vocals and guitar) and Stefan Keydel (violin) — plays soulful Americana originals. Their visit to the Painted Forest isn’t a fluke. Adele is also an expert in folk art created for American Fraternal societies. This site features frankly apocalyptic murals painted by itinerant German immigrant artist Ernest Hüpeden for the fraternal order Modern Woodmen of America; it’s included in Adele's 2015 book As Above, So Below: Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930. If that’s not enough, Canner used to live in Madison, where he was a member of the band The Nazarenes in the early 1990s. What else do you need to know? That Edgewood College owns and oversees the care of the site, which is open weekends only 11 a.m.-4 p.m. June 1 to Oct. 13, and is sponsoring this concert. Directions — plug “Valton, Wisconsin” into your maps program; it’s southeast of Hillsboro, if that helps.

media release: Austin, Texas, based acoustic Americana trio Swarme of Beese will play a free afternoon concert of original music at Ernest Hüpeden's Painted Forest in rural Valton on Sunday, June 8 from 1-3.  The group recently released their third studio album in a style they describe as "mutant folk." The concert is sponsored by Edgewood College and kicks off their summer concert series.