Every Wednesday from May 29th through Labor Day weekend, 5pm-7pm, you can listen to some free music behind Willy East. Bring a chair or just stop by for a tune or three! We’ll be adding more artists, so please check back. We may cancel a session without advance notice due to inclement weather, poor air quality, or other reasons.
May 27th: David Sewell
This week we have David Sewell: Madison’s legendary country troubadour is at it again. Authentic country to kick off the new season of The Willy East Rain Garden Sessions.
June 3rd: Delvis
Delvis picked up the guitar at age 45. Wanting to learn to play he played the same tune continually but didn’t drive Lynn (Mrs. Delvis) crazy. After his first time in front of an audience he was hooked and got the Delvis moniker. Delvis continues to play Hank, Johnny, Tom Waits and a bunch of old country and old pop tunes. Having fun is the best. Come out and we’ll have a good time!
June 10th: Amanda Jane Hoffman
Amanda Jane Hoffman is a millennial crooner, a folky theatrical diva, a guitar-slinging pop balladeer, and a queer lefty Jew. She sings her heart out in Madison’s darkened bars and sunlit meadows. Her head-turning vocals and artfully arranged covers – of hits and hidden gems – span decades and genres. Vibe out with her sassy and sensitive exuberance, and dare to sing along.
June 17th: Page Kleber
Paige Kleber is a young singer-songwriter whose original songs reflect pop and country influence and talent beyond her years. Paige first got a taste for what’s possible with a song idea and a guitar through her experience with Girls Rock Camp, Madison. Her first EP of original songs (Blinded) released in 2024 at age 11. She has since been named the youngest ever to win Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Rising Star and Madison Area Music Association (MAMA) Best New Artist Awards. Her newest single release (Give Up and Cry) was named Finalist for the International Songwriting Competition, with song proceeds benefiting mental health organizations NAMI and The Trevor Project. For more information, visit www.PaigeKleber.com.
June 24th: Boo Mullarky
Boo Mullarky plays the kind of music that sounds like it’s been lived in. Old-time rural blues, Cajun rhythms, and finger-picked ragtime roll out of an acoustic guitar, while a suitcase drum and washboard thump beneath his feet like a second heartbeat. A true one-man band, Boo builds his songs the hard way—wood, wire, and rhythm, all moving at once. The sound is raw and hypnotic, part front-porch confession, part juke-joint stomp. You don’t just hear it—you feel it in the floor. This is roots music with dirt under its nails. No tricks. No polish. Just songs that breathe, grind, and swing, made for rooms that like their music honest and alive.
July 1st: TBA
July 8th: TBA
July 15th: Jeff Burkhart
This week we have Jeff Burkhart. He is a songwriter and performer who has been featured on PBS Wisconsin, and has performed at the Waterfront Festival, High Noon Saloon, Willy Street Fair, The Bur Oak, Harmony Bar, and many other venues.
Growing up in small town Indiana, he cut class to find adventures on the backroads, bounced around in North Carolina for a couple of years, then landed in Madison WI, where he found many great musical collaborators in various bands playing locally and regionally at coffeeshops, barrooms, taverns and outdoor festivals.
The Dirty Shirts’ album Two-Dollar Turpentine is a Madison honky-tonk classic of his original songs and was selected as one of the best albums of the year by Isthmus in 2010.
His latest album, Just a Kid was entirely self-recorded in a beautifully open old warehouse on the near eastside of Madison and was released in April of 2022.
July 22nd: TBA
July 29th: TBA
August 5th: TBA
August 12th: TBA
August 19th: TBA
August 26th: TBA
