BACKSTAGE PASS

On Friday, August 1, southern singer-songwriter Jason Isbell will bring his cutting-edge alt-folk to the stage of Door Community Auditorium (DCA). Isbell, who originally gained fame as a member of the alt-country band Drive-By Truckers, has met with enormous success as a solo artist, with his 2013 album Southeastern landing him on hundreds of top-ten lists across the country. The New York Times calls Isbell “one of America’s thoroughbred songwriters, with a knack for rueful melodies and the kind of grainy blue-collar detail that pins a song in your mind.”

Rolling Stone, NPR, and American Songwriter are just three of the many news outlets that named Jason Isbell’s record Southeastern as one of the best albums of 2013. The album delivers stark and poignant story songs against an alt-country and blues backdrop, weaving in powerful characters in a southern gothic vein. His fourth solo outing and his first since getting sober after a long and public struggle with alcoholism, Southeastern explores themes of struggle, loss, and redemption.

The record led Spin magazine to name Isbell as “one of the finest lyricists working today, excelling at wordplay in the purest sense of the term, finding the music in language, how it sounds and flows and fits within the surrounding sounds.” The Boston Globe says Isbell writes “lyrics that could break hearts.”

Alabama native Isbell embarked on a solo career after six years of playing with Drive-By Truckers, with whom Isbell gained a reputation as a skilled guitarist and incisive songwriter. After setting out on his own, Isbell first funneled his songwriting talents into Sirens of the Ditch, a bluesy, punk-influenced album infused with guitar tones and Southern swagger. Backed by a new band dubbed the 400 Unit, Isbell took his songs on the road and soon released two more solo albums. His latest album, Southeastern, marks the latest chapter in a career that is still very much on the rise.

Jason Isbell’s performance is sponsored by Main Street Market, Peninsula Pulse and Door Country FM 97.7.

Jason Isbell will perform at DCA at 8 p.m. on Friday, August 1. Tickets for the concert range from $22 to $38. Advance reservations are recommended and can be made through the DCA box office, located at 3926 Highway 42 in Fish Creek. The box office is open Monday-Friday, 12-5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person, on the phone at (920) 868-2728, or online at www.dcauditorium.org.

Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs will perform at Door Community Auditorium (DCA) on Saturday, July 26, presenting an evening of music that will range from red-hot country to noir rock to plaintive folk. Musical maverick Rodriguez uses her sultry contralto voice and fiery fiddle playing (along with Luke Jacobs’ remarkable guitar picking) to create music that is both alluring and defiant. Together, Rodriguez and Jacobs can’t be pinned down, shifting easily between a desert swing and an urban strut. The Boston Globe hails Rodriguez and Jacobs as “one of the most compelling new voices on the roots-rock scene.”

Texas native Carrie Rodriguez came to national attention a decade ago when she began performing with singer-songwriter Chip Taylor (Wild Thing, Angel of the Morning) and has since established an impressive roster of touring, recording, and co-writing affiliations, including Lucinda Williams, Rickie Lee Jones, John Prine, Mary Gauthier, Alejandro Escovedo, and guitarist Bill Frisell, among others. Rodriguez’ latest album, Give Me All You Got, establishes her musical identity more powerfully than ever before, featuring songs that she wrote, co-wrote, or handpicked from the repertoires of her longtime collaborators.

Luke Jacobs is a native Minnesotan whom The Guardian has called “an impressive exponent of acoustic, electric and lap steel guitar and harmonica.” Currently based in Austin, Texas, Jacobs adds sophistication and texture to Rodriguez’ distinctive style.

A Washington Post review of a recent Rodriguez-Jacobs performance raved, “Trained at such elite institutions as the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Berklee College of Music, Rodriguez, with her by turns fluttery and dissonant trills, is a formidable soloist, seemingly equally at ease with classical European melodies and rural American ones…. Jacobs, it should be noted, proved a compelling presence in his own right.”

Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs are sponsored by Wild Tomato.

Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs will perform at DCA at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 26. Tickets for the concert range from $18 to $25. Advance reservations are recommended and can be made through the DCA box office, located at 3926 Highway 42 in Fish Creek. The box office is open Monday-Friday, 12-5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person, on the phone at (920) 868-2728, or online at www.dcauditorium.org.

On Saturday, July 19, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will bring their modern, high-energy brand of big band swing to Door Community Auditorium (DCA). This nine-man ensemble has forged a one-of-a-kind musical fusion from jazz, swing, Dixieland, and big band music, building its own songbook of infectious original dance tunes. With appearances that range from the Swingers soundtrack to the Super Bowl, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has become an American fan favorite.

Since 1993, when they electrified the Los Angeles music scene with a now-legendary residency at the Brown Derby nightclub, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s irresistible performance style and aggressive musical innovation have distinguished them from the large pack of bands that launched the swing music revival of the 1990s. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls Big Bad Voodoo Daddy “house-rocking ambassadors of hip nostalgia.”

Although music by other composers has been featured on each of the band’s albums, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has always focused on original music, producing an impressively diverse repertoire of original hits. The band’s originals rocketed the group into its first phase of stardom when You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three (Tonight) and Go Daddy-O were featured in the 1996 landmark indie film Swingers.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was co-founded in California by lead singer Scotty Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren and has made a career of mixing classic American sounds with the energy and spirit of contemporary culture. The band, whose core lineup has remained constant since 1995, includes vocals, guitar, drums, double bass, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and piano.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has cultivated its career through relentless touring and a discography that includes the platinum-selling Americana Deluxe, as well as follow-ups This Beautiful Life, Save My Soul, and Everything You Want For Christmas. Their music has appeared in countless films in addition to Swingers and has been widely used for television broadcasts of sporting events, including NFL, NBA, MLB and PGA broadcasts.

The Big Bad Voodoo Daddy performance is sponsored by Alexander’s Restaurant, On Deck Clothing Company, Green Bay 7 Up, and the Cordon Family Foundation.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will perform at DCA at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 19. Tickets for the concert range from $22 to $44. Advance reservations are recommended and can be made through the DCA box office, located at 3926 Highway 42 in Fish Creek. The box office is open Monday-Friday, 12-5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person, on the phone at (920) 868-2728, or online at www.dcauditorium.org.

On Monday, July 14, The Oak Ridge Boys will bring their legendary brand of rollicking country-rock to Door Community Auditorium (DCA). The Oaks’ impossibly tight four-part harmonies have spawned dozens of country and pop hits, earned them Grammy, Dove, CMA, and ACM awards, and garnered a host of other industry and fan accolades. In their captivating live performances, The Oak Ridge Boys present catchy new material as well as drawing from their fifty-year repertoire of hand-clapping hits and charted singles, including Elvira, Dream On, Bobby Sue, Fancy Free, and American Made.

The Louisville Courier-Journal calls The Oak Ridge Boys “part of the fabric of Americana…a marvel: utterly relaxed, supremely confident, vocally superb, and so supremely energetic.”

It is the trademark high energy of their stage shows that has allowed The Oak Ridge Boys—Joe Bonsall, Duane Allen, Richard Sterban, and William Lee Golden—to maintain their successful career for more than half a century. The Oaks are famous for keeping their much-fabled live performances fresh, infusing them with new material in addition to megahits like Elvira.

“We’re not willing to rest on our laurels,” says William Lee Golden. “That gets boring. As a group, we do things constantly to challenge ourselves, to try to do something different or better than the last time we did it.” Indeed, Billboard calls The Oak Ridge Boys “as crisp and sharp as ever.”

The Oak Ridge Boys were founded as The Oak Ridge Quartet in Knoxville, Tennessee during World War II. They began making regular appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in 1945, launching a career that has remained diverse and vibrant ever since. They changed their name to The Oak Ridge Boys in the 1960s and have maintained the same four-man roster since 1973. This year, The Oaks celebrated a new milestone—41 million records sold—by signing a record deal with Los Angeles-based Cleopatra Records. They recently teamed with Cleopatra to release Boys Night Out, their first-ever live record of country hits.

The Oak Ridge Boys concert is underwritten by A Friend of the Auditorium and sponsored by Don and Carol Kress, Baylake Bank, and The Cordon Family Foundation.

The Oak Ridge Boys will perform at DCA at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 14. Tickets for the concert range from $48 to $75. Advance reservations are recommended and can be made through the DCA box office, located at 3926 Highway 42 in Fish Creek. The box office is open Monday-Friday, 12-5 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person, on the phone at (920) 868-2728, or online at www.dcauditorium.org.