Another Semester in the Books at UW-Madison

Phew! We made it to the end of the semester! 250ish UW-Madison undergrads have officially been edumacated on ways and meanings of musics around the world. I've been excited and really encouraged by so many of the incredible final projects (a two-hour audio production about Elvis impersonators in the Upper Midwest, anyone?!?) and we've got just one final exam left to see how much of the course sunk in.

My many thanks to Dr. Nadia Chana and the Mead Witter School of Music for letting me takeover and redesign this course, to Mills Music Library for letting me take on the additional course load, and to our wonderful graduate TAs who have been grading machines and leading engaging discussion sections all semester!

I also want to send an extra special thanks to all of our wonderful guest speakers this semester: My master's thesis advisor and legendary ethnomusicologist/archivist/musician (and UW alum!!) Dr. Portia Maultsby; hip-hop scholar, folklorist, baseball card collector, and all-around great human being, Dr. Langston Collin Wilkins (I'm so glad we both ended up at UW!); primary source for all things music and space-related, one of higher ed's finest comedians, and a mighty fine chef, too, Dr. Gabrielle Cornish (I'm excited for your WPR music interview to air this Sunday!); as well as my library friends and colleagues, UW's Distinguished Oral Historian, Troy Reeves, and Mills Music Library's Public Services Librarian, Tom Caw. I so appreciate all that y'all do and all that y'all brought to our class--thank you, Thank you, Thank You!

I owe a final thanks to my wife Rachel for sneaking into our last class and snapping this photo of me in course recap mode!

This was my first semester teaching a 200+ student lecture course and as a result, I declined requests from more than two dozen audit hopefuls. I just wanted to see how it would go first. But... if you were one of those denied, I have some good news. I'll be teaching the exact same course again this spring and this time around I will be accepting auditors. Come one, come all to the party that is Intro to World Music--just so long as we have enough seats!

A Hairy Country Music Spectacular on Back to the Country 12/11 9am-noon (cst)

Howdy Friends, I'll be hosting Back to the Country on WORT FM tomorrow morning from 9-12 (cst) and the theme this week is Hairy Country Music. I've picked out about 100 of my favorite classic country songs about barbershops, blondes, brunettes, redheads, curly heads, bald heads, ducktails, flattops, and assorted haircuts and with any luck, I'll get to share about half of them on the show. I hope you can tune in tomorrow (12/11) via 89.9FM in southern Wisconsin, streaming via wortfm.org or the WORT app!

Photo by Zach Zaricor minutes after he cut my hair at Blue Chip Barber Club.

Goldie Sherwood and son Mark to Guest on Back to the Country Tomorrow Morning 11/13

Howdy Friends, tomorrow I'll be back on WORT hosting Back to the Country and this time around I'll have some exciting guests joining me. Namely, Goldie Sherwood and her son Mark!

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Goldie's husband Dick Sherwood hosted a Madison-based variety show on WISC-TV called The Dick Sherwood Show which was broadcast throughout Wisconsin. Goldie was the resident bass player, sometimes guitarist, and featured vocalist as the show featured a rotating cast of "Country, Western, Oldtime, and Modern Music!"

Lots of stars appeared on the show including Bobby G Rice and his sister Lorraine, Cuca recording artists Greg Swenson, Sharon Arnold and Jimmy Carson, and even Starday star Cowboy Copas! Dick and Goldie were also the first to hire Bruce Bollerud before he left to start up the Goose Island Ramblers.

In addition to stories and personal memories of the show (Mark was even on the show when he was just an embryo!) and tracks from their Cuca LP featuring the entire Dick Sherwood Show cast, Goldie has also shared with me a treasure trove of more than 100 live recordings from the show that have never been released! I can't wait to share them with you as I visit Goldie and Mark tomorrow morning from 9am-noon (cst) on 89.9FM in southern Wisconsin or streaming via wortfm.org!

Also, many thanks to Charlie Chaz Lemm for posting these cool Goldie Sherwood pics just a few days ago in anticipation of this very show!

Our Starday Spectacular at the Stoughton Opera House (10/10) is Also Streaming!

Howdy Friends, It has come to my attention that our great big Starday Records Tribute show next Thursday at the Stoughton Opera House will also be available for streaming. So instead of just pestering all my local Wisconsin friends to come out next week, I will now be pestering ALL my friends! :) You, yes YOU, can be a part of the magic!

I'm beyond excited about this show. The Stardazers and I, along with special guests Art Stevenson and Eddie Rivers (of Asleep at the Wheel fame), have been working overtime to prepare our new Starday extravaganza for this Thursday (10/10) at 7:30cst at my very favorite venue in the country. We've got 20+ brand new songs in the bag, lots of stories and never-before-seen photos, and if all goes well there may even be a recording project to come from this show. If you can't make it to Stoughton, I still highly recommend tuning in to the live stream. To stream the show, just click on the tickets link and look the streaming option. Tickets are $20 and streaming links are just $10. I can't tell you how much I would love to have you there with us, in person or virtually!

http://stoughtonoperahouse.showare.com/NateGibson_25

Back to the Country Goes Back to School 9/11/24 WORT 89.9FM

Howdy Friends, tomorrow morning I'll be hosting Back to the Country on WORT FM 89.9FM from 9am-noon. It's our fall pledge and the theme is a Back to School country music salute to NCAA Athletics.

Back in 1981, Bobby Harden of the Harden Trio fame, went to the Starday Sound Studios in Nashville, TN and recorded more than 40 school-specific albums for All-Pro Records. Longtime Starday engineer Tommy Hill produced the records and NAPA Auto Parts stores handled the regional distribution. Each album included songs about the school’s winning sports programs, their specific coaches, division rivals, upcoming football schedules, and usually a song about the cheerleaders, too. As you might guess, they recycled a whole bunch of the backing tracks with slightly altered lyrics, many of which I find hilarious!

I’ve got close to a dozen of these, including odes to my alma mater Indiana University and my current employer UW-Madison, and tomorrow morning, as I attempt to raise money for WORT’s fall pledge drive, I’ll play for you some of my favorites! Streaming via wortfm.org

New Semester at UW-Madison and Mead Witter School of Music

I'm both super excited and a little bit terrified, but a new semester at UW-Madison begins today and in a few minutes I'll be teaching Intro to Music Cultures of the World.

Back in grad school I took a course from Dr. Mellonee Burnim (UW alum) called Systems of Meaning, which was basically training for how to teach Intro to Ethnomusicology. I wasn't sure if I'd ever have that opportunity, but here we are roughly a decade later and I'm super grateful to have this opportunity.

Many thanks to Dr. Burnim for all the prep, to Dr. Nadia Chana for recommending I take over her class, to the Mead Witter School of Music for letting me design my own course, to the UW-Madison Libraries for letting me take on the overload, to my three fantastic TAs who will be doing all the grading, to all the amazing guest speakers who have committed to join us, and to the nearly 300 students who are already enrolled. AV passcode, check. Mic check. Let's go!

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers at the High Noon Saloon Patio 8/30/24 5:30-7:30

It's the last week of summer before classes start up again at UW-Madison, and what a week it's been! Dear friends Bill C. Malone and Bobbie Malone have been visiting from TX to celebrate Bill's 90th birthday (and host Bill's Back to the Country radio program in person at WORT FM) and I've also been exploring the bike trails of Madison with my brother who is visiting from NE. It's been awesome!  

We're going to have one last big wingding before everybody returns home and we hope you can join us: This Friday (8/30) at the High Noon Saloon Patio, Nate Gibson & the Stardazers will play from 5:30-7:30pm (patio opens at 4:30pm). I also have Bill's word that he and Bobbie could be convinced to sing at least(!) one tune for us. It's a free show. It's a fun show. It's a Happy Hour show. It's an outdoors show. It's a hope-to-see-you-there show!

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers Tonight, Rain or Shine!

Howdy Friends, Just a reminder that Nate Gibson & the Stardazers will be playing the Memorial Union tonight, from 7-10pm. Should the rain persist through the evening, we will move the show from the outdoor Terrace Stage inside to der Rathskeller, but that official call won't be made until 4pm. Hope to see you there either way!

Event details: https://www.facebook.com/events/814286857521810?ref=newsfeed

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers at The Terrace at Memorial Union This Thursday 8/15 7-10pm

Welp, the 2024 Summer Olympics are officially over and with them, likely, are Nate Gibson and the Stardazers string of features in the heavily aired Travel Wisconsin commercials. The ad has about 1/2 million views on YouTube and seemingly that many on TV during the Olympics alone! It's been a good run!

Wish you were in the commercial with us? You may still have a chance! Nate Gibson and the Stardazers will be back at the Terrace at Memorial Union--the very sight where this commercial footage was filmed--playing a free show from 7-10pm this Thursday evening (8/15/24). Come dance, eat, and watch the setting sun with us and who knows, Travel Wisconsin just might show up and film a whole new commercial for next summer!

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers to play Stoughton Opera House on October 10, 2024 7:30-10pm

Huge News Alert: Nate Gibson & the Stardazers will be performing at the Stoughton Opera House on Oct. 10. 7:30-10pm. I'm over the moon thrilled (and scared) by this development and I sincerely hope every single person I've ever met comes out!

A few things you should know:
- Marty Stuart has said the Stoughton Opera House is his favorite music venue in the entire country and I'd have to agree with him. It's an absolutely stunning room and it sounds amazing!

- True, we've opened the lounge for some of our favorite SOH shows in the last 18 months (Marty Stuart, JD McPherson, Asleep at the Wheel, Hot Club of Cowtown, Brennen Leigh, and we've played their Catfish River Music Festival twice), but this is the first time we've been offered our own night on the main stage!

- We're taking advantage of this opportunity to create an all-new show--brand new songs and stories--to tell the history of Starday Records. It'll be a multimedia experience called "Y'all Come: Starday Records in Story and Song." I'm currently writing the show, selecting and arranging new tunes, and it's coming along great!!

- While Nate Gibson & the Stardazers (Andrew Harrison, "Spider" Mike Hobson, and Eric Salisbury) have been doing great as a 4-piece, we've decided to bring in some super special guests to help us with this one. Joining us will be steel guitar wizard Eddie Rivers (from Asleep at the Wheel, Best Westerns) and bluegrass legend Art Stevenson (Art Stevenson and High Water)!

- As these opportunities don't come along every day, we'll also be recording (video and audio) this one, so please come and make some noise for us and be part of our recording!

- Tickets for the entire Stoughton Opera House season go on sale this Monday (August 5th) to SOH members (you can become a member today, for early ticket options), and then on August 19th to the general public. We were a late add to the schedule, so our show doesn't appear on their promotional materials, but hopefully people will still see our show and buy tickets. I'm super concerned about this... as it's a 450 seat theater and could feel mighty lonely if nobody comes.

- Nate Gibson and the Stardazers have some fun and free shows coming up in the Madison area before this (Aug 15th at the UW Memorial Union Terrace and Friday Aug 30 at the High Noon Saloon patio), but this show will be completely different and, did I mention amazing? Reserve Thursday, October 10th now!

https://www.stoughtonoperahouse.com/events/2024/10/10/nate-gibson-amp-the-stardazers-yall-come-starday-records-in-story-and-song 

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers to Rock AtwoodFest Sunday 7/28 4:30-5:30

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers are super excited to be rockin' AtwoodFest this Sunday 7/28. If you're in the Madison area, come on down for tons of great live bands, delicious food vendors, and Madison's oldest record store (among other neighborhood highlights)! We'll be livin' it up on the Sugar Maple Stage (next to Monty's Blue Plate Diner) from 4:30-5:30pm on Sunday afternoon.

https://www.facebook.com/events/507406574946809

Remembering Al Hawkes & Event Records w/ the Maine Historical Society (7/16/24)

Tomorrow evening (7/16) at 7pm EST (that's 6pm CST) I'll be giving a virtual talk about my friend Al Hawkes and his amazing Event Records label for the Maine Historical Society. I'm super excited and honored by the invitation, as this event ties into their current Music In Maine exhibit (on display through Dec. 2024), and I'll get to share a lot of never-before-seen or -heard Event tidbits.

I feel like I could ramble endlessly about Al and Event Records, but I'm going to do my best to condense the talk to under an hour (including Q&A) and--I think Al would appreciate this part--I'll be telling the story through the records.

The Zoom event is FREE, but it does require registration via this link if you'd like to participate. If you love country music, bluegrass, rockabilly, western swing, doo-wop, Al Hawkes, and/or Maine (and who doesn't?!?), I think it'd be an hour of your time well spent! https://www.mainehistory.org/events/remembering-al-hawkes/

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers Belleville Music in the Park Gig Is Now In the Library (7/2/24)

Howdy Friends. For anyone planning to come out and see Nate Gibson & the Stardazers tonight (7/2/24) in the charming town of Belleville, WI, we have GOOD NEWS! Our Music in the Park series concert has been moved INSIDE into the Belleville Public Library (due to rain). Apparently the library has a very nice community room and I'm guessing a lot of great books, too! Our pal Early Endres will be running sound and we'll be making some noise in the library from 6:30-8:00pm tonight! No shushing!

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The St. Louis Blues on Back to the Country, WORT 89.9 FM 6/12/24

Hi There Friends, I'll be hosting Back to the Country tomorrow morning on WORT FM and the theme of the show will be St. Louis Blues. I seriously considered naming the show St. Louis Steamers, because I think the name of their soccer team is funny, but for now I'm sticking w/ St. Louis Blues.

I'm sure a lot of folks know that Chuck Berry, Ferlin Husky, the Dillards, John Hartford, Deke Dickerson, and Wilco are all from St. Louis. It's also where the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame is located. And maybe you knew that three of the most famous murder ballads (Frankie and Johnny, Duncan and Brady, and Stagger Lee) were inspired by events within a few blocks of each other in St. Louis. But did you also know that I was born there?

As I was pawing through records recently, I noticed that I had a lot Starday customs from the St. Louis area and several 45 and 78 gems on STL labels like K-Ark, Norman, Bobbin, Rebel Ace, Boot Heel, Mid-Land, Marlo, Town & Country, and more. And so, I've gathered a handful of my favorite records and tomorrow's show will be a tribute to my ol' hometown and the Gateway to the West. Tune in from 9am-noon (CST) via 89.9 FM or streaming at wortfm.org!

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers w/ Jenny Don't and the Spurs 6/3/24 High Noon Saloon, Madison, WI

Howdy Friends, For those who couldn't tune in to today's Back to the Country show, I've got some exciting news to share: Nate Gibson & the Stardazers will be opening for cowpunk phenoms Jenny Don't and the Spurs this Monday night (6/3) at the High Noon Saloon. The gig is part of Live Nation's "On the Road Again" program so, truly, "Thank you, Willie Nelson!"

As it's our first time playing the High Noon Saloon indoor stage and we'd love to be invited back sometime, we'd love to see any and all of our friends out there with us. Doors are at 6:30, Stardazers are on at 7:30, and we promise it'll be a fun (and early) weeknight of rockin' country music. And FYI, tickets are cheaper in advance than they are at the door!

https://high-noon.com/event/jenny-dont-the-spurs/

701 E WASHINGTON AVE

MADISON, WI 53703

Hiked Up Hemlines and Hopped Up Country on WORT 89.9 FM 5/29/24

Howdy Friends! It's a bit last minute, but I wanted to let y'all know that I'll be hosting Back to the Country tomorrow morning on WORT FM from 9am-noon EST and presenting my show on Hiked Up Hemlines and Hopped Up Country. Over the years there have been hundreds of great country music records concerned with rising (and lowering) hemlines, be they long dresses, short shorts, mini skirts, hot pants, or bikinis, and tomorrow I'll play for you my favorite 50 or so.

Stay tuned for the whole show and you just might hear an interview with my mom about her 4-H purple ribbon-winning mini dress and her clash with the fashion police! Heard throughout Southern Wisconsin on 89.9FM or streaming via wortfm.org.

ARSC 2024 Re-Cap and Thanks

I just got home from another great Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference and I highly recommend this gathering to all of my music-loving friends. If you've never been, it's an annual summit of recorded sound collectors, institutional archivists, and audio preservation engineers and it's a musical geek-out fest in the very best way.

On Friday I gave a presentation about the Cuca Records collection at Mills Music Library and as it turned out, I wasn't the only one at ARSC who talked about Cuca (shout out to the Baylor University's Black Gospel Archive). I also thoroughly enjoyed the presentations from Justice Brokenrope on Wathéča Records, Seth Winner's Playback of 1930s non-commerical private recordings, the Möllendorff Cylinders chronicles, Ted Olson's Steve Young retrospective, and the always enlightening and entertaining copyright panel, to name just a few.

It was great fun spending a night out on the town with my pal Deke Dickerson which culminated in hanging out with Dave Hartman and Southern Culture on the Skids before their show and Deke joining them on stage for a tune. Loved having lunch and talking baseball and vintage music with Gail and Cary Ginnell and Mark Cantor (amazing video presentation, btw Mark) on Friday. And I had the most wonderful evening on the lake Saturday evening playing Finnish old-time tunes (and even some rockabilly) with my dear friends Ralph and Jaana Tuttila and their group Lauluaika. Thank you again for the invitation and amazing party! On the way home I even got to do some record digging with my Uncle Mark up in Balsam Lake and meet his precious pup, Precious.

Overall, it was a really great conference. I got to check out some amazing '40s and '50s clothes at The Cat and the Cobra with fellow fashionable archivist Chris Walker. And of course I checked out a few my favorite Minneapolis record shops: Vintage Music Company, Hymie's Records, and Cheapo Records. I got to catch up with many friends doing some really amazing audio preservation projects: Lance and April Ledbetter of Dust-to-Digital, Steve Ramm, Filip Šír, Meagan Hennessey and Richard Martin at Archeophone Records, Michael Biel, Martin Fisher, Jay Bruder, and many, many more. Y'all are inspiring! And I owe a huge thanks to my buddy Patrick Feaster for sharing a room with me, chairing the ARSC program committee, and making such a fun conference possible. Hope to see you all again next year!

Recent appearance on Oliver and Jeb's You Seem Exceptional Podcast

Earlier this semester I gave a lecture about yodeling for Lowell Brower's Folklore 100 course and a short while later, one of his students emailed me and asked if I'd be a guest on his radio show. Oliver said that he enjoyed the lecture and that he and his radio co-host Jeb would like a private yodeling lesson.

Turns out, Oliver Gerharz and Jeb Blossom host a podcast on WSUM where they interview UW faculty and staff, community members, and local politicians, ask them about their life's journeys and what led them to UW, and then end each episode by saying, "We know we've said this a lot before, but you really do seem exceptional." It's a super sweet tagline and a really interesting podcast.

In case anyone wants to hear my story, how I learned to play music, why I studied folklore and ethnomusicology, what brought me to UW-Madison, and why yodeling is important to me, you can check it out here: https://youseemexceptional.transistor.fm/episodes/learning-to-yodel-with-nate-gibson I'd also highly recommend their other podcast episodes, as they really are exceptional.

Baseball Special on WORT 5/8/24

The Milwaukee Brewers are in first place (what a game last night!), the Madison Mallards start up  again this month, and baseball season is officially in full swing. 

A surprising number of professional baseball players sang and played country music (Dizzy Dean, Johnny Bench, Barry Zito, Charley Pride, to name a few), a TON of professional country musicians played competitive baseball (including Bill Monroe, Stringbean, Roy Acuff, Rudy "Tutti" Grayzell, Judy Lee, Roy Acuff, Conway Twitty, Jim Reeves, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Garth Brooks), and an even more surprising number of my favorite country songs are about the game of baseball. I've dug up my favorite 100 examples (with a particular nod to my former hometown teams of the Brewers, Boston Red Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals) and I'll get to play roughly half of them for you. 

Tune in to Back to the Country this morning to hear The Baseball Special. Show starts at 9am (cst) on WORT 89.9 and streaming via wortfm.org. And as an added bonus, if you listen to the whole show you just might hear my hours-old tribute song to my favorite baseball player, Andy Van Slyke!

Nate Gibson & the Stardazers w/ Marty Stuart & his Fabulous Superlatives 4/20/24 @Stoughton Opera House

I'm very excited to share that the trio version of Nate Gibson & the Stardazers will be warming up the Stoughton Opera House crowds tomorrow for my very favorite band, Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives! Tickets to both shows have been long SOLD OUT, but if you're one of the lucky ones who already purchased tickets, be sure to come out early!

Marty and the band have a new Record Store Day LP coming out tomorrow morning with Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds (it's a live recording from the 50th Anniversary Sweethearts of the Rodeo tour), so as soon as you get out of the Record Store Day lines, you'll want to head to Stoughton. For those with tickets to the first show, the Stardazers will get started at 1:30, and for those attending the evening show, we'll go live at 5:55.

It's sure to be an enjoyable afternoon and evening with a Country Music Hall of Fame legend and the tightest band in show business. R-a-w-k!

101 Hodag Jokes is now available online from The Hodag Store!

Do you love cryptids? Do you love jokes? If so, perhaps you would love some jokes about cryptids! 101, to be specific. And did I mention limericks? And cute hodag illustrations? A thorough description of hodags and a 10-page bibliography of hodag references?! We've got you covered!

Marcus Cederström, Anna Rue, Fred Chao, and I (Nate Gibson) have a new jokebook out, 101 Hodag Jokes, and it is now available for sale online from The Hodag Store in Rhinelander, WI.

https://www.thehodagstore.com/product/101-hodag-jokes/715?cs=true&cst=custom

And if you are in the Rosendale NY area, please visit our friends at Postmark Books, as they also have a handful of books available!