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A FREE In-Store Concert by Old-Time Country Quartet THE WILDERS
"If this were old Salem, they'd be burned at the stake. They play like they're possessed."
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
05:30 pm
Location: Elderly Instruments
in-store performance
(free)
"The Wilders, a string band from Kansas City, Missouri, were deliciously fun. Standing in a half circle, they pumped up and down like Pentecostal pistons in a frenzied musical engine while picking and singing jaw-dropping versions of 'Settin' the Woods on Fire,' 'Ida Red,' and 'Sleepy-Eyed John'. An audience member aptly summed it up: 'If this were old Salem,' he said, 'they'd be burned at the stake. They play like they're possessed'." - Marty Rosen, Louisville Courier-Journal, 2002, covering IBMA's FanFest.
In a later review of another one of The Wilders' highly-charged old-time/bluegrass/country performances, reporter Rosen described The Wilders similarly: "...four frenzied, quirky and string-breaking musicians bouncing up and down with the kind of lunatic frenzy you might expect at an old-fashioned tent revival." - Marty Rosen, cover story in the Louisville Eccentric Observer, 2003
The Wilders' itinerary reads like an old-time/bluegrass band's dream. In 2004 The Wilders played both The Kennedy Center and Michigan's own Wheatland Festival. This year they played Wilkesboro, North Carolina's famed Merlefest; Nightgrass at the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon at Telluride, Colorado--as well as the long-standing Telluride Festival itself; Utah's Farm Folk Fest; the Jackson Hole (Wyoming) Hootenanny; the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana; the Last Chance Bluegrass Festival in Helena; Chicago's Folk and Roots Festival; Branson; Middlebury, Vermont's famed Festival on the Green (with King Wilkie); Michigan's Hiawatha Festival; Maine's Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival; Kansas' Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield; IBMA FanFest in Nashville; the Riverhawk Festival in Dade City.... and, oh yes, Elderly! (This list includes fewer than half their festival appearances.)
Presenting themselves as purveyors of "Tunes from the Golden Age--Old Time Country, Fiddle Tunes, Honky-tonk--and All-American Music," the Wilders have acquired a national reputation with their high-energy stringband music. Together Ike Sheldon on guitar and lead vocals, Betse {pronounced 'Betsy') Ellis on fiddle, tenor guitar and vocals, Phil Wade on banjo, Dobro, mandolin and vocals, and Nate Gawron on upright bass and vocals keep things hopping with the likes of "Lonesome Old River Blues," "Sandy Boys," "Jenny on the Railroad," "Great Speckled Bird" and "Hallelujah I'm Ready."
"...an ensemble that was singing about God, death and constant sorrow long before the Coen Brothers told George Clooney to dab on the pomade....spiritual, whimsical, unbridled and relevant..." - Timothy Finn, The Kansas City Star, 2002
"The Wilders serve up musical excellence.... A show promoter's dream, a guaranteed crowd pleaser.... High-energy Americana, a difficult act to follow!" - D. A. Callaway, Silver Dollar City, 2002
"With burning fiddle tunes such as 'Rabbit up a Gum Stump' and 'Give the Fiddler a Dram,' old Hank Williams numbers... and somber, soul-rattling hymns, The Wilders bring a former era back to life." - Mike Warren, Kansas City Pitch, 2002
"They were received with wild enthusiasm for their lively performances and complete mastery of their style.... What about that fiddlin' Betse Ellis??" - Walnut Valley Occasional, 2001
Please join us for this free and lively show.
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