The Wisconsin cold is no joke. On Saturday, Jan. 24, the only remedy I could consider involved proper old-time music, played fast with a reckless grin. And to ensure the best odds that I eventually break free from the physical and emotional freeze, I tabbed my unstoppable partner to accompany me at The Cooperage for the fifth annual Bluegrass Winter Heater, a January soul-warming lineup of local traditional and progressive bluegrass music organized by Milwaukee-based band The MilBillies. We encountered Midwestern harmony, kindness and music that elicits involuntary toe-tapping, and head-bobbing among Milwaukeeans looking to escape the cold and, ultimately, reality. Something about bluegrass music just pulls the corners of one’s mouth gradually skyward.
We were graced with a fantastic foursome of country, country rock and bluegrass giddy-up, all Wisconsin musicians making noise to distract from the deep freeze. Unfortunately, a scheduling snafu led us to missing the delightfully harmonious sounds of lead-off band Valley Fox. I wrote previously about their humor, harmony and tightly constructed songs that bring a smile to your face and a stomp to your boot, so be sure to catch them live ASAP (and double-check time for doors and show start time). Valley Fox was followed by Derek Pritzl & The Gamble, Art Stevenson & High Water, and The MilBillies hitting cleanup.
Architects, interior designers, renovators and landscapers: Submit your best work for consideration!
Derek Pritzl & The Gamble
I previously caught Derek Pritzl at the Cactus Club, where he performed solo on acoustic guitar, playing spare, soulful Americana with country twinge. This time, Pritzl was backed by a whole band, a whole damn town if you will, grooving Waylon Jennings-style as an aroma of a decidedly different color of grass fills the Bluegrass Winter Heater dance floor. Pritzl’s voice sounds like if Brian Johnson went country and if Jim James replaced his Morning Jacket with a coat of many colors. The band was cooking. Drum and bass stoked the dance-ready revelers for a few gnarly romps through the Wisconsin woods of Pritzl’s mind. The songs gave way to his set-closing cover of John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness,” which challenged the crowd to outrun that very sound on this frozen evening.
Art Stevenson & High Water
Oh my goodness: If ever a band were prepared to help us outrun a sad and lonely January, it is Art Stevenson & High Water. Decked out in matching vests, bolo ties and sincerity, the group wasted no time launching into a cover of “Big River,” and though Johnny Cash’s clouds covered up our “clear blue sky,” High Water taught us how effortlessly one smiles with proper pickin’. Custer, Wisconsin’s Dale Reichert played both banjo and his mustache, each with equal panache and precision. Can a mustache make a banjo sound better? I believe so.
Bruce King manned the mandolin while his son, Bruce Royal King, brought the upright bass to life. Glued together by guitarist, singer and harmonicist Art Stevenson, the band ripped joyously through sad songs about trains that had the crowd feeling southbound with hope. “Cotton-Eyed Joe” and “Orange Blossom Special” amp the crowd ever higher. Bruce King’s mandolin fluttering like a stowaway butterfly and despite the crossing just outside The Cooperage, we were closer to the train tracks right here inside. After an especially energetic bass solo from Bruce Royal King, I couldn’t help but think: If this music isn’t bringing us back to something we’ve been, then I don’t know what we’ve been. This is music so square it’s become a diamond, and it’s shaking the coal dust from our stiff winter muscles. As they jumped into an encore, Bruce King suggested what I’d started to briefly consider: “Bluegrass music might just save the world … think about it.”
The MilBillies
“It’s time for some hot, dirty bluegrass,” announced The MilBillies bandleader, fiddler and brand-new father Joe Wais. The crowd wildly approved as the band blistered into a familiar line of questioning for taverngoers and shitkickers across Wisconsin: “Are you drunk, are you stoned, are you afraid to die alone?” From the looks on the faces of folks mingling nearby, I’d say the answer was yes, yes and no. The band huddled together between songs like a more successful Packers, emerging with tunes both original and locally flavored. The wood floors creaked with some communal combination of intoxication, both natural and chemical, whilst the band whirred into “Cool Wisconsin Rain,” highlighted by bluegrass poetry: “Rain falls like bibles, and lightning blaze like rifles … let it wash away your pain like the cool Wisconsin rain.”
I haven’t been to many bluegrass concerts, but whatever The MilBillies were doing brought out the circle dances, the high-knee dancers and the slow drunk make-out swayers all at once. Pat Zimmer, announced as the “pride of Whitefish Bay,” brought the bass that anchored The MilBillies’ country cacophony, while the aptly rustically named Eben Flood flooded the crowd with good old guitar. Dan Shaw’s banjo propelled the action, Matt Brey’s mandolin manic with cheer as Wais dedicated a song to a “High Class Low Life.” (Wait, have we met?)
The MilBillies huddled once again for an extended jam with vibes of “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds by way of Shuggie Otis, which succeeded in getting the crowd moving every which way. When the band launched into “Lake Drive” from their Milwaukee-centric 2020 self-titled album, the crowd reacted as if receiving an old friend. The song promises a home, nothing fancy, just something they can call their own. The salt-of-the-earth stuff is real, and as Wais adapts to his newfound fatherhood, giving us a song is a worthy gift indeed. Sometimes a song is all we need.
Interview With Joe Wais of The MilBillies
Wais and The MilBillies organize the Bluegrass Winter Heater each year, and he was “thrilled” to be part of such an esteemed, talented, Wisconsin-only lineup.
Growing up, what music inspired you?
My mom played a huge influence. She was always playing old country, from George Jones to the folk realm – almost always banjo, mandolin or fiddle. I grew up listening to the rawer country music like Townes Van Zandt. She sang to me with all the Ry Cooter stuff. I went through a punk phase. I came up as a classically and jazz trained pianist and trombonist. I got to college and started music school on those instruments. My grandpa played the fiddle. He died and left me all of his violins. I started free fiddle lessons in college because I was in music school. I moved to Wyoming and played a bunch of folk and bluegrass music there. Moved back to the Midwest and started going to bluegrass jams at The Gig in Riverwest, joined The MilBillies and sort of didn’t look back.
How have The MilBillies evolved over the years?
I was the last one to join. It was started by Matt and Pat. They met in a recreational softball league. They started playing around in bars. We became a five-piece in 2018 after I joined. We hit Milwaukee and the surrounding area pretty hard in 2019, playing every bar that would let us in. We came out of the pandemic pretty strong and started to etch our way into the festival scene. We’re definitely just five good buddies that like to hang out, which is the best thing you can possibly be. For us it’s just having fun and being in the car together, laughing, talking about history, movies and music and just bullshitting with each other until the point that we’re just on our assess laughing. I think that shows through with the way that we are on stage and the music we play.
What’s inspiring the MillBillies now?
We all come from different backgrounds in music and life. I can’t stress enough the most important thing to us is getting in the room together, playing music and getting that energy going. This is how it’s supposed to be – it feels good. We love hanging out with each other. We’ll write songs individually. We’ll probably never write together because they’d just turn into pop-culture trivia sessions.
I see you recently released a Rolling Stones cover, “Live with Me.” It sounded great.
Thanks. We’d never recorded a cover before. We all love the album Let It Bleed. It’s another album my mom was playing when I was little. It’s just a rocking song, and we fancy ourselves a rock ’n’ roll band that plays bluegrass. We had a lot of fun with that. We tried to turn it into a little cacophony of bluegrass and the Rolling Stones.
You’ve done some Milwaukee-themed songs. Any more of those on the way?
That was a snapshot in time for us. I was pretty fresh to Milwaukee, experiencing it all for the first time. I think really we were just writing about what we were doing at the time. I think as life changes and the way we’ve morphed as a band, it all hinges on the personal changes we all go through. This next album, for me, is going to be a lot more retrospective, getting a little bit deeper while also maintaining that MilBillies vibe. A little bit more serious elements, but also staying with that fun, brash, in-your-face sound. It’s always going to be tongue in cheek for us. That’s the fine line that we’re trying to hit there.
Bluegrass, to me, just can’t hide its joy.
Not in its sound. But if you listen to lyrics in bluegrass, it’s like wow, that’s a very depressing song that sounded like the happiest song of all time.
And that’s an incredible trick to pull off. When do you anticipate new recordings will happen?
We’ll do multitracking down here in the basement. We’ll go into a bigger real studio for live takes. We all have day jobs, families and gigs we’re trying to balance. Getting a record made when all of that is going on is no small feat, for sure. But we’re focused on getting a new one done this year.
Is the band ready to show their flexibility for your new family member?
Oh yeah, for sure. Three of our guys already have kids. They know how it goes.
Anything else that people should know about The Milbillies?
Bluegrass is a live genre; it’s meant to be experienced live and in person. And that’s the kind of performance we try to give out. It’s always worth it to go see your local bluegrass band live because it’s a guaranteed good time.
Joe Wais – Fiddle
Matt Brey – Mandolin
Pat Zimmer – Bass
Eben Flood – Guitar
Dan Shaw – Banjo
