Katie Powderly
Soggy Prairie
Doors 7:00PM / Show 8:00PM
$12 ADV / $15 DOS
This is a seated show.
Katie Powderly is a former Madison bluegrass bass player-turned-traveling-songwriter who recently returned to the Midwest from her home in Appalachia to play at AtwoodFest and Sugar Maple Music Fest. She and her bluegrass-leaning local band from Sugar Maple (Starr Moss, Shauncey Ali and David Havas) will return to Madison for one final performance before Katie heads south again for the winter. They'll be performing her original songs from her upcoming release, "Live by the Song, Die by the Song."
Voted "Best Country and Bluegrass Performer" in Madison by the Madison Area Music Awards, Katie has performed live on PBS & NPR stations, and has toured from New York to Colorado, Texas to Tennessee. She has shared bills with Tony Rice, Del McCoury Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Steel Wheels, The Black Lillies, Lake Street Dive, Langhorne Slim, The David Mayfield Parade, and many others.
According to Local Sounds Magazine in Madison, WI, “Katie Powderly released one of the best albums [of the year], but Local Sounds’ Rick Tvedt has also hailed it as one of the best recordings to ever come out of the Madison area.”
The album they’re referring to is Katie’s debut LP, Slips of the Tongue (Red-Winged Blackbird Records), which features a hell of a lineup of supporting musicians, including Josh Oliver (Watchhouse/Mandolin Orange), Bryn Davies (Tony Rice, Guy Clark, Jack White), Tom Pryor (The Black Lillies), and Jill Andrews (the everybodyfields), and was recorded at Butch Vig's famed Smart Studios in Madison, WI, with significant help from Scott Minor (Sparklehorse.)
Katie now resides in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Maryland after a years-long sojourn across the country.
When she's not performing with her electrified Americana band, The Unconditional Lovers, whose first album will be out in 2024, you can find her playing her songs as a solo artist. Her double EP of Appalachian ballads entitled Live by the Song, Die by the Song will be pressed to both CD and vinyl on 12.31.23 on Red-Winged Blackbird Records, with the first single, “My Mourning Dove” out on all streaming platforms July 26, 2023.
Soggy Prairie has the five-piece instrumentation of a traditional bluegrass band, but don’t call them traditional. With a mix of bluegrass standards, modern takes on country and Americana, and original music, Soggy Prairie puts on a show that demonstrates the versatility and broad appeal of string music.
Formed in 2002 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the band has developed a confident, high-energy sound and an enthusiastic following. Starting out as high schoolers too young to go to bluegrass jams in bars, they came up with their own interpretations of bluegrass classics. Since then, they’ve become a mainstay of the southern Wisconsin bluegrass scene, playing close to a hundred shows per year at festivals, concerts, fairs and bars.
Originally known as the Soggy Prairie Boys, the band dropped the “boys” from its name with the addition of women on fiddle and banjo in today’s lineup. Kodey Feiner (lead vocals, guitar) commands the stage with a powerful tenor and wry banter. Jim Kvalheim (mandolin, backing vocals) is an animated picker who may or may not have a giant beard at any given time. The Bass Player (bass, backing vocals) provides driving bass and infectious energy. Erin “the Conductor” Barnard (fiddle, vocals) is distinguished as the only member of the band with classical music training, educating other members about advanced concepts like “notes” and “being in tune.” Newest member Emily Jones (banjo) plays Scruggs-style banjo and has heard all your jokes. They’re still bringing the noise, only now with fewer boys.