On a Thursday night at North Street Cabaret, Raine Stern and her band roll through a set of original funky blues rock songs, filled with her jaw-dropping solos and versatile vocals. Her short, curly blonde hair hangs in front of her round wire-rim glasses, her mannerisms calling to mind one of her influences, Prince. Midway through the set, her band exits the stage and she performs a few solo tunes.
Stern, who is just 21, has a magnetic stage presence, and she knows how to use it. She notes the sparse audience of about 20 and pops out an upbeat, one-phrase ditty, “It’s the 100th anniversary of the NFL!” (The Packers-Bears game is playing in practically every other bar in the city.) With the band back in place, Stern tags the guitarist for a solo duel. After the show, she hugs the doorman, who had just bought and put on one of her band T-shirts.
Stern, who moved to Madison from New Glarus when she was 18, has already played with Madison’s veteran musicians. She added rhythm guitar to the Clyde Stubblefield All-Stars, and is part of Madtown Get Down, a local superband cover group. She formed her own band in 2018, and was recently a finalist in the Overture Center’s Rising Stars talent search. Her effortless shredding and mature songwriting have created plenty of buzz, earning her accolades as a blues-rock prodigy. It’s because she honed her skills at blues jams, she says, and in Madison, “there aren’t ’80s synth-pop jams.”
After her parents gave her a toy guitar in middle school, Stern learned a few chords and wrote a song about not wanting to do her chores. “When I think back about it, I just want to pinch my cheeks,” she says. Then she got a real guitar and took lessons for about a month. “It was YouTube from then on,” says Stern. She played at public blues jams throughout high school, writing her own songs in secret.
When she moved to Madison, Stern began playing open mics and quit Madison College after one semester to play music full time. Since then, she’s written and released a handful of solo and collaborative singles, trying her hand at mixing and mastering in the process. Over the summer, she performed an average of four times a week at bars in the region and at events like Summerfest and Orton Park Festival. She’s working on some tunes with Madison-based hip-hop artist Landon DeVon. She’s scheduled to play next on Nov. 11 at the Winnebago and is releasing an EP on Dec. 10 at the High Noon Saloon, which will eventually lead to a full-length album.
Tentatively titled Into the Light, it will be filled with approachable, activist-focused earworms aimed at healing the people in a discontented age. “My goal is to discuss things through my music and write music that’s vulnerable and raw and feels genuinely more transparent,” Stern says. “That’s my destiny and duty. I don’t just want to be out here for myself.”
By Stern’s standards, a well-written anthem must be accessible to both pop listeners and classically trained musicians. “I want to infiltrate pop music in a way that is actually successful,” says Stern, pointing to the 2012 Macklemore and Ryan Lewis hit, “Same Love.” One of Stern’s singles, “Revere Me, I Am Your Queer Queen,” is an anthem for women and LGBTQ+ people. The vibrant funk pop song features sexy lyrics, her signature shredding, layered bass lines and a rap break.
With confidence to burn, Stern waves her hands excitedly while talking about music and politics, filling in the gaps in the conversation with one-line melodies and impromptu beatboxing.
“She very much knows what she wants to do,” says Stern’s guitarist Mitchell Dalzin. “She’s always coming up with a new idea. It’s very exciting hanging out with her.”
Stern’s forthcoming 13-track record has collaborations with drummer Brett Walter (Raine Stern Band, Lords of the Trident and Madtown Get Down) and bassist Josh Cohen (Bad Philosopher).
After releasing the album, Stern plans to create music videos, apply to play at festivals and submit music to record labels.
And the artist has an additional goal: “When people think about me, I want them to think, ‘Raine Stern, what a genuinely polite, responsible and talented activist who does their work with music.’”
[Editor's note: We made several changes to this story. The previous headline was based on “Revere Me, I Am Your Queer Queen,”a song that had not been released to the public. The song will not appear on Stern's album; it is a single. The songs she is recording with Landon DeVon are not on her forthcoming album. And in a story update: Stern had to withdraw from Overture's Rising Stars competition due to a scheduling conflict.]
