Visit Rapids – Friends of Rapids Music Fest Returns! – September ‘25

Hello world. Welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report. Probably brought to you by

Croc Conceptic for the September 12th, 2025. Have your host James here and we're

joined right now thanks to our friends at the Visit Wisconsin Rapids area

Bureau. Say a shout out to Meredith and the gang over there. They're giving us

an opportunity to talk to our friends of Rapids music. We're talking F-R-M and

we're talking F-R-M music festival coming up and I have with me Suzanne

aren't to talk about this. Suzanne thanks a lot for being here. Hi thank you. It's

nice to be here. And art Stevenson with us. Art it is always good to see and

hear you sir. Good to see you James this morning. Appreciate the time from you

guys and I do want to you know it's very important to us here at WFHR

Journalistic Integrity. It's very important in this day and age. I will be

honest with everybody that I have no journalistic integrity with this

subject and these people I love F-R-M. I love everything that's done with it. I've

been humbled and fortunate enough to MC a couple of F-R-M's and we as the

station have had on the musicians that we're gonna talk about in that a lot

over the years. We make no bones about it. We support the arts around here. We

love the arts and so yeah we're just gonna have some fun talking F-R-M and can

I just say real quickly before we get going here and I give you guys the

actual chance to talk. That I'm just excited that we're talking about this. That

it's back. That's a win right there. It's such a great victory for our community

for our artistic community to be able to have this. Let alone all the other

things that didn't come along with F-R-M. Sure is. I want to talk right there and

start there if you don't mind with what F-R-M is. What is Friends of Rapids

Music? If we have somebody that's just hearing this and they haven't heard of F-R-M

before, why is this such an important nonprofit in our community? Yes,

thanks. Friends of Rapids Music was created by Connie Tompsky-Favel back in 2016.

The whole idea was to have a place where musicians and music venues could get

together and post their events for free on Facebook. So Connie started the

Facebook group and initially thought it was just going to be her and her husband

who joined the group and surprisingly we've got over 5,000 members now. So it

is just a great place to find out what's going on in our community and our

surrounding area. With that beginning of that, like a lot of these things and a

lot of the nonprofits we've talked to over the years on this show, it starts

there in the community and the people in the industry kind of build it into more

and making it something else. You mentioned the rise of the followers on there

and stuff. I'm one of them and I know I remember seeing those numbers jump and

be like, oh, that's pretty cool. But art something that you mentioned kind of in

our pre-game a little bit that's such an important part of this too in the

scholarships that are available with this that are raised through FRM and

that. Well, how long have we been doing that, Suzanne? I think it's a wonderful

program. The scholarship program. We've been funding it for years but this will

actually be the first year that we will be awarding the scholarship. What kind of

categories does FRM have for scholarships? So the scholarship program is for any

high school senior who is going on to higher education in any music discipline.

So, and we're including the Catholic School and all the public schools in our

surrounding area. When we talk arts in particular, it's always important. When

we're talking them, Wisconsin, it takes on an added meaning. I bring this up

until it changes. Last year Wisconsin finished dead last in the union and

funding the arts. These programs are a matter. They are important and whether

we're talking FRM or local high schools, you know, plays or music events or

anything we cannot encourage the community enough to support these, be a part

of them. Arts are an integral part of the world and we just have such a great

body of them in here in Wisconsin that we want to really support. That's a

fine. I'm kidding, that's a fine. But we appreciate so many of the people that

come to these things and support FRM over the years and are really a big part

of this because FRM is here because of the community. It's also because of the

music community we have in this area, too, in the support that FRM is able to

show them. Yes, and I'd like to also add that the scholarship program was mainly

funded by a music lover named Kevin Roberts. He was originally from Port Edwards

and as an adult, he moved away and became a music promoter in the Madison

area. And when he ended up moving back to this area, he joined FRM and became

one of the board members and he is the main source of the funding not only for

the scholarship program, but he's also the main donor for the festivals. Really

appreciate that. Looking for it a little bit later, we'll talk some more about

donors and get to some of those. But thank you for that Suzanne. I appreciate it.

I have to stop real quick and pull an audible here because I forgot how darn good

arts voice is in the fact that I got to do this interview with that vote that

ain't fair. That's not fair, man. Art, it is good to see you and appreciate

your hair. I want to get into the event itself and talk about this wonderful

event. Before I do real quick, we don't have to go too far down the rabbit hole

with this one, but the putting this together. How long has this been coming?

That this has been being put together this one because we were without the

fest for a couple of years there. Well, I indicated that last year about this

time, I indicated that I wouldn't be able to help and and volunteer to help

organize it. And I went to a board meeting and they voted me and as a member of

the board. And so I have been helping with the board's assistance to to pick

the bands that that we're featuring this year and and do some of the other

organizing, you know, trying to get a sound system and trying to get this and

get that to make the show run. It really shows how much hard has gone into

this and how much hard work has gone into this. I appreciate that art. Thank

you and I appreciate the work as well because man is it show. I saw this line up.

I don't remember exactly when I posted, but I saw it right away and I did a

double take on it. I'm like, man, that is a that there is no weak links in this

lineup. You've got a heck of a day people playing for people and whole families

with this free, wonderful event coming up. Let's get into it. Let's talk about

the details of F. R. M. Fest. This is the eighth annual. That's got to feel

good too to be able to do it. Sure does. Sure does. Again, having an event

back is great. It's wonderful to have the eighth annual, but the event you guys put

together. This is all going to take place at my one of my favorite spots in the

world, Robinson Park. I have a lot again, no journalistic integrity. Love

Robinson Park. I got a billion memories over there. When it comes to this event,

the bands that are going to be played in the order they're going to go in.

Let's go through that, you guys. Well, we've got we've got a polka band

starting out at noon that that is the beer and pretzel's polka band, which is

the Angle Barrett family and their close friends. And they do they do polka

music and sometimes some country music too, which is which is always very

interesting. You know your audience are starting the starting everything

on with the polka band. That's the way to do it. I think a hundred people will

come just to see maybe 200 just to see the polka band. Let's see. We're going to

find out. That's the crack of noon. Yeah. Yeah. Great way. Good

point. So and then then we're representing jazz to we're trying to make it a

variety show. And so the joyful little band is coming in. And they are a

traditional jazz band from Portage County that has recently emerged as a

force in this music. I that's my wheelhouse. I love jazz. And I had not heard of

them before. So I went on a little digging on and everything. They're good.

That's a good band right there. It's it's a very interesting band. And and

J. R. Omanick is an old friend of mine. He also plays bluegrass, which is

of course in my wheelhouse, but but he plays a heck of a jazz trombone. I mean

it's beautiful tone and he can really get around in the instrument. And his wife

Beth will play various instruments and sing. And his his boys will play will play

drums and occasionally piano. And and then they've got other they've got a

clarinet player that comes in regularly too. It's but it's traditional New Orleans

jazz. Yeah. Which is so rare. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they hear a play you know

not only hear a play, but here it's played so well. It's so refreshing. So nice.

Yeah. To keep that tight style of music relevant and and around is cool.

Yeah. I appreciate you mentioning the family there too. There's something

about that when you get to see a family band. Certainly something that hits

the heart and it's kind of cool. But I to get I don't want to get lost in the

shuffle either the chemistry that they're able to have as a band to harmony

all this stuff that is so almost organic with a with a family band. That's part of

what makes it. And then you throw that into jazz. Such a good fit. It's cool.

It's a great family. The harmonics have been involved with community theater

out in in Roshult where they live too. And and in Steven's point. And so they

they've got lots of angles covered in the in the entertainment field.

Absolutely. The theater and cover their basses. Yeah. Yeah. Now all of these

bands not only are incredibly talented but have amazing names and I love

it when that happens. But one of my favorites is coming up here. Monday

night takeout. That's a great name. It's great name for them. Yeah. The takeout.

And and they are one of the one of the bands that alternate on Mondays at

Holly rocks and they've been doing it for several years now. And it's it's a

great group. It's a rock and roll group. And and they're very versatile. They can

they can back up people that come in and sit in with them at the Monday night

Monday night shows every week. And just a powerhouse Alex

Kunnell on drums and Benchitek on guitar are the two the two guys that I know

very well in the band and most versatile musicians. Absolutely. We're

extremely fortunate to be very familiar with those guys too and bring them

on the air with us many many times. I don't know if there's a musician that's

been on with us more than Ben. In fact, if Ben didn't have 1500 bands he was

in. He'd be here being our house band. Like I've joked with him for years

about that. I tease him and stuff. And there's a reason why he's in all those

bands. One is just an incredible ear for this

music than what he does and whatever the genre is. He also has some of the smartest

fingers I've seen. But he's just so darn talented. It's so good at what he does. I

can hardly believe it when I'm watching that man. What music comes out of that

guitar of his and saying and just a wonderful musician. Speaking of Ben I believe

he shows up in double duo right after that. He does. He does. He's going to play in

double duo. And that's that's an interesting group too. It's Wayne

Jaworsky, Pam Ross and then Ben and Katie Chatech. And it's so it's kind of a

double double duo. It's very cool. That's what they call themselves the double duo.

They play they play as duos and sometimes on their own as solos. And I just can't

wait to hear what they bring. Oh, he's a quartet. Yeah. You put that many

those many talented musicians together. You know you're going to like it. You

know it's going to sound good. It's just what they do and what songs they're

going to do. I'm very curious about. One good set they could probably play for

and just totally amaze everybody. Yeah. Yeah. That's that I think we're going to be talking

about them here and there a bit more. That's going to be a lot of fun.

Folk and Blues Brothers. Another great name. Oh those guys. I've known Jeff Sacks for years.

So he and Darren Walker met at a a farmer's market and just kind of shook hands and then

ended up double booked at the same venue. And so here they had driven into this venue out of town

and both of them showed up. And the owner said, Oh, I'm sorry boys. I double booked you who

wants to give up the night and and they talked him into hiring them both. And they never played

together. And so they've been playing together since that was years ago. And they've been playing

together ever since. And now they have this band called the Folk and Blues group. And Folk and

let's see. I've got to check my notes here. Art and Blues Brothers. Yes, for Blues Brothers. I love

the play on that. That's certainly a big Blues Brothers guy. So just any play on that is always

good to me. And as a side note, Art, thank you for that story. I could listen to you all day,

man. Oh, I've got another story too. Darren Walker. Have you ever heard of the rhythm and blues

guitarist T-bone Walker for Texas? Oh, yeah. Okay. So that is Darren Walker's great uncle. Wow.

And you know T-bone back in the 40s and 50s was a tremendous showman on the electric guitar.

And he could play it behind his head. And he could play it with his tongue and between his legs.

And Darren does that too. So I'm kind of hoping he puts on those those. Yeah. Yeah.

I hope he does it at the front of rapper's music fest. I really want to see that. That's going to be

fun. That's going to be a good one. I got a great couple of ex to follow that too.

Right. Oh, my goodness. Howard Lutke. He's really the only out of towner that's coming to the

the FRM Fest. He's from Chippewa Falls. And he's been active in the blues and R&B scene in Wisconsin

as a ripping guitar player, especially on slide guitar since the 1970s. And he's had his band

Blue Max together since 1982, which includes his his wife, Deb. And she's wonderful. And she's been

in the band since I think 1987 and they've been married about that long too. Cool. And so I've

been a fan of that group, the Blue Max group for a long, long time, Bill Weiss, the drummer,

longtime drummer. And I believe that Howard requested to book Pete Shank, our our local

keyboard player. Cool. That's a good part of Blue Max for the FRM Fest. And they're actually doing

a two hour spot. So we'll get a big dose of blues and R&B from Howard and his group there.

And how cool of them to do that to give that extended set later on everything. That's really

cool. That's going to be great. And everything wraps up with an amazing band too. The night wraps

with this. I have a good amount of experience with Adam Grohl and his space burritos. He's

a musical icon in Central Wisconsin and started the successful group, The Horses and Handgranates,

which has gone to national prominence. They're a top act in string band music and jam grass.

And he also plays with the Rucksack Revolution, The High Hawks. That's another kind of an all-star group.

And then he formed a country rock band, the space burritos. Great name.

It's a great name. Do you remember the flying burrito brother?

Yes, yeah. I think it was just a little bit of a play on this. He wanted his own version of

the burritos. And so he's got it. And it's just a wonderful group with a front line of electric

fiddle, typically electric guitar, and saxophone, and sometimes harmonica. And guess who the harmonica

player is? Me. No, that's so cool. Oh, I was waiting for that. Okay. That's so good to hear.

And Adam, he puts in his original material, which is getting better and better. He's writing

some wonderful songs. And so those emerge in the space burritos shows before he records them.

All of a sudden, here's this new Adam gruel song. It's just wonderful. And the band is talented.

The band just picks up that stuff and runs with it. And it's a great jam grass, a jam rock band,

jam country rock. It kind of defies description, really, because they'll play just about anything.

They'll play bluegrass too. And they kind of make when they are doing this, making it their own,

making it their own style. Whatever their style is, whatever label you want to give, they're kind of

doing that with it. Very much so. A lot of fun. I appreciate what you mentioned about Adam,

and then completely agree with you about his impact, what he is this area to the state really

and everything. I also will remind you, you are that as well, sir. And appreciate you. And

appreciate that you're going to be a part of this and everything and all the work you've put into

this and stuff. Well, thank you, James. I guess it just goes to show if you stay involved in one

thing long enough and you do well at it, you're bound to get some recognition. So I'm grateful for

all of that. And I'm still going to continue to participate and do it as long as I can.

It's my long con and radio is if I stay in it long enough, you know, eventually,

not bad. You're so right. Again, a reminder that not only with all of this music going on and

all of this great vibes and energy that is going to be happening at Robinson Park and this being

a free event once again, remind everybody. There's also going to be some adult beverages down there.

And there's always a kid zone. There's an area for this because we want the whole family to come

down, want kids to be able to be involved. And you know, reminding everybody as well, when you

bring the family, you bring the kids, they're going to go there. They're going to have some fun.

There's a lot of different things with the kid zone that are going to be going on. We'll touch

on in just a second. But they're also seeing their guardians, their parents, their older brothers

and sisters, whoever might be taking them there, putting into their community, taking time out of

their day, time out of their Saturday, come on down and joy some music, support the arts.

That has an impact on kids. My mom did that to me when I was like six, seven years old with a

little dive bar in Chicago that we went down to go see BB King. You know, just happened to go see

this guy down there and everything. You wonder why I love jazz or blues or stuff so much. It's

all heard. It's all that and heard taking the time to do that. The exposure. Man, just the way that

it can impact a kid and their brains are being such sponges. They're not just seeing the art,

hearing this great music, being out and maybe seeing some friends of theirs from school or

something. They're seeing adults putting their time out of their day into the arts. That goes a lot

further than we can really put in the words when it comes to this stuff. There's also going to be a

lot of cool stuff for them. I don't want to escape past that. There's a lot of fun. I did see a

bounce house. I will always see a bounce house if it's involved in these events. Those are great.

Yes. The kid's zone is super popular and we're really excited that we can bring that back to

the community as well. We have a wonderful group of volunteers who love to be with kids and

is just they're just going to make the day great for everybody. The activities will include some

games and crafts. We'll have a percussion instrument station. They'll be face painting, balloon

animals and of course the bounce house slide and a variety of snacks and treats. This year we'll

also have a local caricature artist and a henna tattoo artist. Oh cool. Yeah. And like we've been

talking about one of the themes it feels like a lot about this is there is literally something

for everybody whether we're talking musically in your music taste or they're the family coming

down and what kids like. There's something a little bit for everyone with this. There's no reason

not to come on down whether it is for part of your day or just spend all day down their

Robinson Park for this event. We can't do this though without great donors and great people

that are helping out make this happen. If you don't mind taking a moment kind of touch on some

of these donors and these great individuals that have been a part of this event. Oh yes. So

we have we have a ton of donors. We just had a wonderful connection with the community and

support from the community. So whiskey, rapids, saloon and riders, roadhouse, R&R, patio bar. So we

we got some great support from the venues and aspirus, members advantage, encourage,

aren't cranberry company and hotel mead just to name a few. There's there's we got just such a great

response from from the businesses as well as just local individuals who sent us checks and

really want to see this festival continue and be successful. Richard's liquor has helped us out

and the crowbar, rural mutual and the Kevin Roberts Memorial Fund which we had discussed a little bit

before that's certainly honoring his life and legacy and his love of music and community will

definitely be shining that day of the festival as well as a local musician that we all know and

love Jeff Goss. And so we're just excited to to share all of that with our community and

excited that everything is going to be free because of all these wonderful donors.

You threw a curveball at me there a little bit. I'm supposed to do that to you. Jeff, one of my

favorite people, just period. Jeff for a very long time and I appreciate your mentioning him too

as part of this because I know how much he cared about this event. He cared about this community

and certainly cared about music. Man, if you're around Jeff for five seconds you're going to hear

some about music. You're going to talk about music. That's a great wonder mention and all these

sponsors, all these businesses, all these people coming together, showing more and more how

hopefully in a reminder to you all how much we appreciate the work and everything that you're

putting into this. You guys, all the individuals of FRM, all these musicians coming to town or

some of them coming to town to do this to perform for our community. It's greatly appreciated,

as much as I appreciate you putting up with my silly questions and all of that. We know that people

like to be involved as well if we're looking for volunteers or anything like that that people could

be involved. Should we send it to the Facebook page? Is that the best way for them to contact you?

Sure, they can go to the Facebook page and make a comment. They could email us at

Friends of Rapids Music at gmail.com. We're also having a meeting September 17th at Robinson Park

at 6.30. If anybody wants to volunteer, come and meet us there and we'll put you to work.

Right up, right up. I certainly want you to check out the Facebook page, subscribe to that

like it and make sure to share it on your post, on your post it on your page. You can just

never know who might see it otherwise. Really, really cannot thank you both enough for the time

and the conversation today. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for bringing us in. Again, Friends of

Rapids Music Fest, the eighth annual happening Saturday, September 20th, 12 to 9, over a beautiful

Robinson Park at 1150, 17th Street South, North, 17th St. Strauth North, right here in Wisconsin

Rapids. We appreciate you all listening to another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.