Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Monday, December 9th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here, welcoming in the studio, Art Stevenson right now.
We're here to talk about the very, very bluegrass Christmas with Becky in the 48's coming
to the Pitsville School Auditorium on the 15th.
We're going to give you the more details on that in a moment, but right away, Art,
want to thank you for being here.
Howdy, thanks, James.
Appreciate you being here.
And I want the audience to note that I was willing to do this interview even with somebody
with a much better radio voice than me.
Oh, I think that's pretty noble.
It's not joking.
Thank you.
That's very flattering.
You are the pro here.
I think that goes both ways, sir, but I do appreciate you being here.
And I do want to talk about Becky in the 48's.
I did my homework about these guys a great band, a lot of good sound with them, but before
we get into that, I wanted to talk about why it's so important for us to be promoting
the Pitsville Schools and why it's important, you know, really in a roundabout way.
Why it's so important to support our local schools?
Well, the Pitsville Area Foundation for the Arts has been promoting concerts for over
20 years now.
And I got called in a couple of years ago after the passing of Bob Wolff, who was a leading
citizen in Pitsville and a teacher and administrator in the school district.
They're a very important man in the community.
And he ran the shows very, very well for 20 years and then passed away, unfortunately,
a few years ago.
And so I'm on my, this is my second season as, I guess, the program director for the
concert series.
And we're trying to bring some unique music and unique acts into Pitsville and expose
the community to those, those musics.
It's a great opportunity, certainly to support our school system and help them, you know,
raise some funds for those, raise some awareness for that.
And we, we love to highlight those things here at WFHR.
It's a big thing of what we believe in and supporting our local school systems and supporting
local, really.
That's great.
One other unique thing about this that I think too is, is for these kids, the families of
the Pitsville area, to see an act like this, to get an act like this that doesn't come to
town every day.
Oh, no.
We had a bluegrass Christmas last year and it went over very, very well.
And you know, we have a 400 seat auditorium.
We'd love to fill it to the breaking point.
We're returning people away.
We've never done that yet, but we'd love to.
We had a great turnout for the bluegrass Christmas last year.
And so we booked Becky and the high 48's this year.
And they, both of them have separate acts.
Becky plays country music and is based in Rochester, Minnesota.
And she's been at it for years and years.
She just raised a family and the kids are pretty much out of the house and so she's coming
back out of, you know, the regional, she wants to kind of expand her, her sphere of influence
with her music.
She's doing some wonderful stuff.
Meanwhile, the high 48's have been an act for 20 years based in the Twin Cities.
They're good friends of mine.
I've known them for many years and worked with them before and they're wonderful musicians.
And so they've put together this show with Becky Schlegel doing Christmas music.
I think this is their second season doing that.
So we're very excited about bringing them to Pitzville on Sunday.
I want to thank you as well because while I had heard of these acts before, I hadn't
really gotten to do a deep dive on listening to them before.
Becky's voice is so unique.
It's got a wonderful voice and I don't, I hope she would take this as a compliment.
A perfect Christmas voice.
Just a perfect voice for Christmas songs.
I agree.
Do you, are you an Alison Kraus fan?
Yes.
A gigantic Alison Kraus fan.
Yes.
Do you think she sounds just a little bit like Alison Kraus?
Thank you.
I was going to bring it up off there.
Yes, 100%.
And I say that with all love and respect too because both singers, very, very unique in
their own way, just happened to sound a little alike, which is really perfect again for
this type of music that they're doing.
The 48's are a complete band too.
You talk about no weak links, like a really strong band.
Oh, that's a five piece bluegrass band with all the parts working together, the rhythmic
drive and the soloists and the wonderful harmonies that they sing.
Their fiddler, Eric Christopher, is probably the best at his style of longbow bluegrass
fiddling in the Twin Cities area and he's worked with touring artists like James King
on Rounder Records and others and he's just a wonderful fella to work with and we're
going to be very excited to see what he brings to the show.
I am a sucker for a fiddle.
I really, really am.
And so much of that is, so much of the music of bluegrass really pulls me in.
And I'm not alone.
This area supports bluegrass so much.
We've seen that with bluegrass at the lake and some other events.
We're noting it, of course, on our sister station 1055 where we're looking to play more
bluegrass music.
Great.
It's something that this area supports really well.
And then you bring in a combo like this where these two acts are coming together.
They're doing that because I love of playing together well as well, I love of this style
of music.
What can we tell people that this show, give them a preview if you will, of what this
show will be like?
Well, they will bring their own music that they typically play year round in their shows
and combine that with holiday favorites and they'll sing together.
Becky will be featured as a solo as well and it's going to be unique and I've never seen
their Christmas show.
I have not seen it yet, but I've been on the show with Becky Schlegel in a number of
times and likewise the high 48's and I just can't wait to see them together at this show.
To tell you the truth, I booked them for a bluegrass festival last summer and I had no
idea what they were going to do together and it was just wonderful.
And I'd worked with the high 48's before a couple of different times and they're always
spectacular.
They always bring it and when Becky came up with them, I could see the meld going on, you
know, the two artists moving together and connecting and she brought the high 48's in
and they brought her in and it was just a wonderful show at everybody.
Everybody had the same comments after the show that I've had here, I think.
Just from what I could hear and see, the chemistry is so evident.
It actually took me a minute to realize they didn't play together for years and years
and years.
They seem like they have a chemistry that they've really worked at.
Oh, I'm trying to encourage that too.
Every chance I get and they do, they have a chemistry.
I can see the high 48's music going toward Becky Schlegel and I can see how she is going
toward them and so they're coming together as an act and it's just going to be wonderful
in Pitsville.
When we talk about this with our friends at Sabre de Arts all the time too of what the
importance of bringing these acts, bringing the art to these areas and when we were kids
you didn't get as much of this maybe in some rural areas.
I come from Chicago originally but spent my good half of my life up here in middle Wisconsin
and to see where we have gone in recent years we're bringing so many of these big names,
these awesome acts to town.
It's great for our communities and it's great for our economy.
I think the most of us are adults and understand how important these things are to our economy
bringing these in.
But just as important as that to me is important to supporting the arts in this state.
I mentioned this whenever I have an opportunity art and if you don't mind I will mention one
more time that Wisconsin finished last in funding the arts in the union, in the whole union.
And I bring this up because I know how proud Wisconsinites are of being from Wisconsin.
I want to encourage Wisconsinites to add and put into the arts and change that for
next year.
I want a difference in that and these are the kind of events of how we change that.
These are the kind of events of how we encourage more creatives to be about.
When I think of adults enjoying this concert that's great, that's awesome.
I want more and more of that.
But I can't help but focus on the kids and the kids getting to see somebody like Becky,
getting to see some act like the 48's that they may not get to see in person otherwise.
The impact that can have on those young minds.
The idea of seeing something like that and who knows what that inspires.
Well this is a great show and we love the holiday shows.
I love those kind of extra layers to events like this that can have those extra meanings
to it.
And there's those sponges of brains that those kids have.
They're going to be soaking this in.
And who knows how impacted they'll be from this concert too.
That's right.
Bluegrass is the music of the people.
It's really a type of folk music.
I think Pete Seeger used to call it folk music in overdrive because that's what it was.
I couldn't remember the quote.
Yes.
Yeah, that's great quote.
So it's the music of the people and roots music is actually going strongly here, very strong
here in Central Wisconsin with groups such as Dig Deep and Horses and Handgun Aids working
out of Steven's point and touring the country.
And so there's a strong foundation for it here.
And we just hope that we have a good following come into the Pitzville show this Sunday for
Becky Schlegel and the high 48's.
And you mentioned the kind of songs they're going to be doing.
You mentioned that they're going to be doing some originals that will be doing some classics
as well.
They will they'll do some classic bluegrass and maybe some country music to Becky's.
Becky's has a huge repertoire of country songs too.
She's been doing it all her life.
She used to play in her mother's band in South Dakota and she's been on RFDTV various
times on television and this and that.
But yeah, I believe they'll they'll combine a few Christmas songs, which we all want
to hear in with the traditional bluegrass and some of the old time country that they're
very comfortable with doing.
As a side note, I got to get Becky.
I got to get the 48's on our shows.
I got to talk to them.
I just doing the deep dive that I did such interesting people, all every single one of
them very unique and interesting.
And when it comes to that unique or interesting part, you know, so many classic Christmas songs
we've heard for so many years and we know so well and we love hearing them in a different
style, hearing them in a different way and a different delivery is always fun this time
of year.
That's right.
I love hearing blue, blue Chris or blue Christmas done as a bluegrass song or jingle
bells played on the banjo.
Many of those songs are easily transferable over to three or four chord bluegrass or country.
Yeah.
They do it all the time.
I was listening to it on the way over on WRI.
Isn't it interesting how easily they they transition, you know, from one to the next
and you're such, it's such a great note.
I am a little bit newer to country music.
I've been listening to folk my whole life, but a lot of traditional country I had not
grown up with and I DJ over at 105 and I've been playing more of the Christmas country
stuff and it's just so unique to me how easy that transition is for that.
Now, it makes sense that bluegrass would transition into this style of music very well.
It does.
It does and I think it's going to be a wonderful show and I can't wait to see what they
actually bring to it.
They have not told me what they're going to be singing, what they did tell me.
Becky said, would you like me to bring Santa Claus to the show for the kids?
And I said, I think we'd all like to see Santa Claus young and old, wouldn't we?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
That's a get.
We have a little bit of a tough time getting him on midday.
He's a tough, he's a tough guest to get, but shout out to Becky and the team for being
able to bring him in.
That's fantastic.
That's what we hope.
That'll be a draw.
Here's hope.
Here's hope.
Well, let's go ahead and get into some of the details of the event for everybody art.
And again, we're speaking with Art Stevenson, who is here to promote a very, a very, very
merry bluegrass Christmas with Becky in the 48th.
This show is coming up on Sunday, December 15th, from three to five over the Pitzfield
school auditorium.
It's going to be a fun show we encourage everybody to attend.
And as far as tickets, how much are these going to cost to everybody?
They're $20 at the door for adults, seniors will pay 15 and students get in for $3.
Excellent.
Wonderful price at this time of year for something, this wonderful, this big of an event.
And you can know too that every penny, the pennies of that and the money of that is going
to be helping out the Pitzfield school.
So that's always a wonderful thing to be able to know.
You're going to have a good feeling while also enjoying a good show.
That's right.
It's a community association, the Pitzville area foundation for the arts is a community-based
association.
It's made to benefit the community and bring the arts and very good music to the
area.
And we get plenty of support.
We of course want more ticket sales, but the community has been very generous in supporting
through donations, the foundation, to help pay for these shows.
That's so good to hear.
And certainly important to keep in mind, and I know that the audience understands this,
but I always like to hammer this home as much as I can.
The way our other areas are due, the Pitzville or other surrounding areas, that leads into
how we do here and wherever you're listening.
We're all connected and the rising tide raises all boats.
It's the definition of this area really, especially when it comes to areas like Pitzville that
we don't get a chance to talk about or talk too nearly enough.
I'd love to be able to have more and more on with the Pitzville and some of our surrounding
areas.
This is a really nice opportunity, not only talk about this event, but just talking
about Pitzville, talking about the schools and shouting them out and reminding everybody
of how they can join us on the air with events like this and everything.
That's right.
We all are connected and the better it is over here, the better it is over there.
It really is a fun event too, and something else to keep in mind, wherever you're listening
to us, not far from you, not far at all to go, to be able to take in a show like this
and know that you don't have to leave two hours early, or like it's a Milwaukee or Madison
event or anything, nothing against those events, but as many of us have taken in those events
over the years, you know how you got to plan that out.
This, it's right near you.
It's not that far wherever you're listening to us, right?
It's 20 miles.
I drive it every day when I come in to visit folks in Wisconsin Rapids from Babcock, which
is where I live, but that's just down the road from Pitzville.
I know some, I have friends in Wisconsin Rapids that actually don't know that Pitzville is
part of Wood County, and it is, yes, of course it is, and they're not alone.
I'm sure there is others out there that are in that's part of why I want to bring this
up and hammer this home so much, is because we cover Wood County here, and we want to have
more of that on, but also remind everybody how we support each other, and how if you're
supporting Pitzville, you're supporting Rapids, you're supporting Pitzville, you're supporting
Nukusa, we are all connected, so our economy is all of this, a rising tide raises all boats.
That's right, and it's up to us, it's up to us to do the job, to go out and support
the organizations and the events that we believe in.
Is there anything else that you want to make sure we touched on with this event before
we wrap up?
Well, we're going to have the show in a wonderful auditorium that seats 400, we hope to fill
it up, and people say, well, the music makes me feel so good.
Do you have any dancing spaces?
And we've seen people dance in the aisles, we've seen them dance down front if they feel
like it, and so yeah, that's what we hope.
So dancing is encouraged to kick up the heels.
Excellent.
This is not footloose, this is not the town of footloose.
That's a great note, that's a great note.
And it only speaks also to how great the music is in the energy, the vibe of this.
This time of year, especially looking for those good energy, they are going to bring it,
they are going to have it.
You mentioned the auditorium, one encouraged people to get those tickets right away, are
these open seating or is this kind of a set seating?
It's general seating, general seating.
I can't think of the word general, sorry.
Yeah, and we have plenty of space for wheelchairs, I get questions about wheelchairs, is there
wheelchairs access?
Yes, there is, into the building, and into the auditorium, and there's extra space
down front for folks that are in wheelchairs, if they'd like to sit close.
And I want to encourage people too, that if you'd like to get a preview of this, maybe
learn a little bit about the artist beforehand, the 48's, the high48's.com, you can check
out their work right there, encourage you to do that, Becky's got an amazing website
as well, encourage you to check those out.
If you just throw them into your search engine, right away you will be able to see their
names pop up, and take a listen to some of their music, and some of the things that you're
going to be hearing coming up.
Again, the show is this Sunday, December 15th, three to five at the Pitzville School Auditorium.
As far as getting tickets are, how can they do that?
Well in Pitzville, there are tickets available at the Wisconsin Farm Business and Ortoner
Accounting, downtown Pitzville, and of course we have an event bright website that you
can sit at home, or on your phone or to your tickets, and you can get them at the door
as well.
And again, if you're having trouble finding these, it's always a bit of a mix of giving
websites and that over the airwaves, but again, I've tested this out, so if you type it
in your search bar, you'll be able to find it pretty quick, typing in like Pitzville
School Auditorium, or Becky in the 48th, very Merry Bluegrass Christmas, any of the above
and it'll pop right up for you, it's the first or second thing on most of these.
And while all of that is amazing as well, we encourage you to get your tickets for this,
and make sure to make plans to attend this event.
It's going to be a fun one, going to be a really good time, and a great way to support
local, will also enjoy yourself.
Again, the very Merry Bluegrass Christmas with Becky in the 48th, coming up Sunday, December
15th, three to five at the Pitzville School Auditorium.
Just as we're wrapping up one last question for you, Art, do you guys need volunteers, anything
like that for this event?
Oh, yes.
Volunteers would be welcome.
We're always looking for a little extra help out there at the Pitzville Auditorium.
If people would like to volunteer or they'd like to find out more, should they just reach
out to you?
They could reach out to me.
I'm on social media and I'm also at highwatermusic.com.
Excellent.
So, highwatermusic.com or just type into your search bar, Art Stevenson, you should be
able to find him on most social media outlets.
Art Stevenson Bluegrass.
Excellent.
Again, thank you so much for the time today.
Really fun talking with you, getting to know you a little bit, and a lot of fun talking
about Becky in the 48th here.
That's been great.
Thank you, James.
Appreciate being here on the radio with you.
Again, be sure to make plans for a very Merry Bluegrass Christmas with Becky in the 48th,
come into town this Sunday, December 15th, 3-5 at the Pitzville School Auditorium, get
your tickets for that, and we'll meet you there, everybody.
And be sticking around all week long for more Midday magazine, previewing the rest of
the week ahead.
On Tuesday, we'll have Hardly Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, Lacey Ailing, and with us in
part one, and Reality Radio with David Farmboro in part two.
On Wednesday, we'll catch up with the gang from family natural foods.
Steven and Katrina Hinter will be with us, along with our friends from the Wood County
Health Department.
On Thursday, we will hang out with Chad from Wood County Parks and Forestry Department,
and in part two, Janelle Weir is our great friend, and I'll get her name right by that.
And then we wrap up the week on Friday with our friends at the Visit Wisconsin Rapids
Bureau.
Plenty more coming up throughout the week right here from four to five on Midday magazine,
at WFHR, locally grown radio.
