Whitney Mann, Lost Lakes, Hayward Williams, Paul Otteson, Simon Balto, Listening Party, Seasaw

press release: The Janesville Performing Arts Center (JPAC) is proud to showcase Wisconsin’s singer/songwriter community of musicians at the second annual “Folk at 408” event on Saturday, January 28^th at 7pm. JPAC is proud to welcome Whitney Mann, Lost Lakes, Hayward Williams, Paul Otteson, Simon Balto, Listening Party and Seasaw to the Janesville Performing Arts Center stage. Money raised from this event will give community members in the area who are financially less fortunate a chance to experience all that the arts has to offer through the “Arts for Everyone” scholarship program.

Tickets are $15 for Adults and $10 for Students and can be purchased by calling the JPAC Box Office at 608-758-0297, in person at 408 South Main Street, or online at JanesvillePAC.org.

Whitney Mann is an old soul with a child's glow. Her story is only beginning. It's the story of a poetic farm girl from Michigan who grew up to open for Loretta Lynn. It's the story of a young woman whose voice will break your heart but whose songs will bring you back for more. Her new package of country ballads and barn tales is called The Western Sky. "Whitney Mann is the best kept secret in Wisconsin," says Willie Nelson Production Manager John T. Selman, who watched 26-year-old Mann open for Nelson. 

Simon Balto is a writer of folk and alt-country songs from southern Wisconsin. His music draws from a range of influences, both musical and not. More than anything, the style and storytelling are especially informed by the hills of southwestern Wisconsin that were his early home, and by the people he’s met there and in travels around the country. An avid writer and reader, Balto's songs focus on narration: workers and lovers, mothers and sons, the dying and mourning, the prideful and the abused. He has been featured on Big Top Chautauqua's Tent Show Radio, Daytrotter, and has supported and shared stages with a wide range of regionally and nationally acclaimed artists in recent years, from Jason Isbell to Johnnyswim, Field Report to Anderson East, Peter Mulvey to Communist Daughter, Count This Penny to Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. 

Paul Otteson is a proud Wisconsinite Singer-Songwriter. Down to his bones, Paul is a songwriter in the fullest sense of the word. His words blend together the hopes and dreams of spring; with the knowledge of a crushing, endless winter. There is a truth in this Midwestern style, understood only by those who have braved the bitter cold and enjoyed the beauty in its stillness. His voice, at once a fragile falsetto, then an earnest baritone has been known to make men cry and women demur in envy. To know his music is to know the path of a man who has endured many failures; and has found comfort everlasting within them.  

Hayward Williams is an American singer-songwriter from Milwaukee, WI. In 2001 Williams quit school to join the award-winning Milwaukee based band “Exit”, named Wisconsin Band of the Year in 2004, by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry. In 2002 Williams independently released Manoverboard, a solo project recorded under a pseudonym, which allowed him the opportunity to play solo engagements throughout the region, which served as the foundation for Uphill /Downhill, Hayward Williams's 2005 debut.  Haymaker (2012) is the result of a Kickstarter project, which was successfully completed in May 2012.  During recent European tours, Williams often plays bass guitar in Jeffrey Foucault’s band, after he himself has opened the show with a solo performance.  His most recent album, THE REEF (2014) blends a Van Morrison-esque R&B with the loose energy and charm of The Faces, all underlined by rock-solid grooves. 

Lost Lakes is a collaboration between Corey Mathew Hart and Paul Mitch. The two met during a songwriting competition held by a local radio station. It wasn't until they returned for a duets portion of the follow year's competition that Corey saw Paul play bass and singing harmonies. The first time Corey and Paul played together, they clicked musically and personally. The collaboration has grown over the years, developing into a strong songwriting and production team with a focus on well-crafted tunes and tight vocal harmonies. Lost Lakes' self-titled debut record bears witness to their talents and the fact the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

Seasaw is Eve Wilczewski and Meg Golz, who are the sea and saw respectively. Fate and a small-town restaurant in Freeport, IL brought them together for the first time in 2010. Seasaw collaborated through four years of long-distance until the summer of 2015, when Eve joined Meg in their current residence of Madison, WI. Seasaw has since grown their powerful and charismatic sound in a way that can only be accomplished when best friends are living and creating within blocks of each other. Keeping their folk roots in the back of their mind, the eleven songs on Seasaw's newest album 'Too Much of a Good Thing' (out July 22, 2016) venture head-first into the pop and indie-rock realm. The duo has transformed into a combination of commanding instrumentation, intricate harmonies, and refreshing wit that is uniquely Seasaw.

Listening Party is a bearded Americana/Folk trio out of Milwaukee, WI. The group combines storytelling, soulful vocals and foot stomping rhythms into tasty homegrown acoustic music. "Every note and expression is full of feeling." - Piet Levy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel