March 17, 2023

The very best of Wisconsin traditional bluegrass comes to Linneman’s Riverwest Inn in beautiful Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You won’t want to miss this spectacular, star-studded lineup right here in Brew City. From longtime legends to up-and-coming talent, this three band lineup featuring Sugar Bush, Art Stevenson & High Water, and The Mark Hembree Band is a perfect representation of the dynamic and thriving bluegrass community that is offered by the state of Wisconsin.

—Sugar Bush—

Featuring members of Chicken Wire Empire, The MilBillies, and beyond, SUGAR BUSH mishes and (definitely) mashes its way through its own synthesis of traditional and modern bluegrass. Formed out of picking circles in the dive bars of Milwaukee, Sugar Bush is truly a super band of Milwaukee’s finest bluegrass musicians.

—Art Stevenson & High Water—

Since 1993, Art Stevenson & High Water have been keeping traditional bluegrass alive in Wisconsin and surrounding states. They have released seven CD recordings of well-chosen songs and original compositions, all of which received praise from reviews in the media, and frequent airplay by radio music show hosts around the country. The band’s mission is to preserve the hard-driving traditional bluegrass sound while including material from other musical styles. In 2021 High Water emerged from the pandemic with a new mission, and for the first time since 2001, a new member!

Art Stevenson is THE living legend of the Wisconsin bluegrass community and has played a primary role in ushering in the ever growing and thriving bluegrass scene we all share in our region.

—The Mark Hembree Band—

It’s straight-ahead, traditional bluegrass: hot picking, solid rhythm, tight harmonies, good humor, and a wealth of great stories make for an enjoyable show anytime you see the Mark Hembree Band.

Mark Hembree started his music career in Wisconsin in the 1970s, and before long he was hosting a live radio show from the Glenmore Opera House near Green Bay. After a couple of years in Denver with the Monroe Doctrine, he returned to Wisconsin briefly before an audition at a local festival netted a job with Country Music Hall of Fame legend Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass Music. He became a Blue Grass Boy in 1979 and worked with Monroe for five years, then was one of the founding members of the Nashville Bluegrass Band. While in Nashville he recorded with several well-known artists, including the all-star band Dreadful Snakes (with Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Roland White, Blaine Sprouse, and Pat Enright) and Peter Rowan (on the Grammy-nominated album “New Moon Rising”). He returned to Wisconsin in 1989, played with local bluegrass groups the Rounders and Nob Hill Boys, and Western swing bands the Western Box Turtles (including Asleep at the Wheel steel guitarist Eddie Rivers) and his own group, the Best Westerns.

Mark Hembree also recently published his memoirs from his time touring with the Father of Bluegrass Music himself, Bill Monroe. Find his book “On the Bus with Bill Monroe” wherever you buy your books, and read more here:

A backstage audition led Mark Hembree into a five-year stint (1979–1984) as the bassist for Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. Hembree’s journey included playing at the White House and on the acclaimed album Master of Bluegrass. But it also put him on a collision course with the rigors of touring, the mysteries of Southern culture, and the complex personality of bandleader-legend Bill Monroe. Whether it’s figuring out the best time for breakfast (early) or for beating the boss at poker (never), Hembree gives readers an up-close look at the occasionally exalting, often unglamorous life of a touring musician in the sometimes baffling, always colorful company of a bluegrass icon.

The amusing story of a Yankee fish out of water, On the Bus with Bill Monroe mixes memoir with storytelling to recount the adventures of a Northerner learning new ways and the Old South.