The Great and Tragic History of Rock Music in Wisconsin

Above all, even more than photography, my true passion is rock music.  I was raised on it.  I could name all 5 members of Fleetwood Mac and all 4 members of Led Zeppelin at age 10.  And the roots of rock music run deep in Wisconsin. 

The inventor of the electric guitar, Les Paul, was born in my hometown of Waukesha, and Prairie Home Cemetery has a wonderful grave marker for the innovator.  But that's not all that Wisconsin has added to the history of rock music.  Some of it is fantastic and some of it is truly tragic.

There are many bands that were founded in Wisconsin, including The Violent Femmes, The BoDeans (from Waukesha), Garbage (from Madison), Citizen King, and Bon Iver as well as Justin Vernon (from Eau Claire).  One of the most famous albums of the 90's was partly recorded in Madison, at Smart Records: Nirvana's Nevermind.  That's because the band's producer, Butch Vig, was born and lived in Madison.  A few years ago, the Wisconsin Historical Museum had an exhibition on Smart studio which featured a poster from that recording.

A documentary on Smart Studios was recently released, produced by Vig entitled "The Smart Studio Story" and features music by, not only Garbage and Nirvana, but Smashing Pumpkins, Death Cab For Cutie, and Killdozer.  The film has been showing around Wisconsin since April and will show at the Mile of Music Festival in Appleton in August.

But, along with the successes, Wisconsin has seen many rock n' roll losses.  In 1967, Otis Redding died in a plane crash in Madison's Lake Monona.  Monona Terrace has a plaque dedicated to the soul legend.

 

And, in August 1990, guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, along with many of Eric Clapton's band members, died in a helicopter crash after leaving the East Troy arena Alpine Valley due to excessive fog. I'll never forget where I was when I heard the news, on the way to summer marching band practice. On a lighter note, I had the great privilege to see Pearl Jam at the same venue in 2011 for their only U.S. concert to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

But prior to that tragic event and years afterward, Wisconsin has been home to the largest music festival in the world.  Milwaukee's Summerfest is 11 days of nothing but incredible music acts descending on our state, often before they become major stars.  And every year it gets better.  This year's performers include legends Willie Nelson, Billy Idol, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult, Sting & Peter Gabriel and Def Leppard as well as Fitz & The Trantrums, Ray Lamontagne, Barenaked Ladies, Elle King, Milky Chance and Luke Bryan.

The Marcus Amphitheatre is the main venue on the Summerfest grounds.  Recently, many stories have come out about Prince since his passing last week.  One of the nicest stories was when he played the Marcus Amphitheatre, and how he was so impressed with the venue, he made a public statement about it.  Thanks to his kind words, the Rolling Stones opened the festival last summer and Sir Paul McCartney will play there this year.

I know Wisconsin may not be as cool as California, New York or even Chicago, but I think the fact that we're smaller lends itself to a more close-knit music community.  Whether you're into rock, country, pop, folk or jazz, there is a festival for you, especially as we near the summer months.  For more Wisconsin music festivals, click here.


 

More Flower (and Garden) Photos from Madison

The few times I've gone out and taken photos in my area, they've mostly been flower photos since, in my state, our time with these beautiful botanicals, is short.  Last weekend, I visited Madison's Olbrich Botanical Garden before their flowers started to wilt and had a great time.  The Garden is so vast and so full with different types of flowers, fountains and statues, that it's a great (and peaceful) way to spend the day.  I was thrilled to practice my close-up photography in such various ways:

 

I also got some photos of the Garden's structures including an Asian hut shipped to Madison from Japan in 2001:

What they call the "Rose Tower":

One of their gorgeous fountains:

After I went through the gardens, I went into Olbrich's main building where they had a day lily exhibition.  I had no idea there were so many varieties:

I was even fortunate to capture one of the many butterflies that are now part of Olbrich's Observatory.

If you are ever in Madison, Wisconsin, the Olbrich Botanical Garden is a great way to spend part of the day and get away from the bustling city.  And it's FREE!

Musicality of the Wisconsin State Capitol

This past weekend, I spent it at my most favorite city in Wisconsin, Madison, its state capitol.  I love Madison primarily because it's a liberal city, and my hometown of Waukesha is,well, not.  I also love that it's smaller than Milwaukee and easier to navigate.  I would live there if there were jobs available, but considering there is an average of 350 jobs per week in the Milwaukee-area and 1/3 of that amount in Madison, I think I'll take my chances here.  Madison does have the largest Farmer's Market in the state, which surrounds the state capitol building, and I made sure to get there early to get a parking spot.  I did not expect that there would also be a bike race that morning, and parking was harder to find than a normal Saturday.  In fact, there were more parking spaces available in Monona Terrace, where I parked, when I left at noon than when I arrived at 9:00 a.m.

But, I did have a fantastic time in the city I love.  I bought some homemade tortillas at the Farmer's Market, which I used to make quesadillas, and saw a fantastic photography exhibit at the Madison Art Museum.  The exhibit focused on portraiture, street photography, rural photography, the human body, and photos taken "On The Road" all after 1950.

While I was at the Farmer's Market, I took some more unique photos of the Capitol building.

This one is my favorite, since I like taking photos of reflections in other buildings:

I make it a point not to get political on this blog, but for the last few weeks, our Governor has been arresting ordinary tax-paying citizens for singing protest songs inside the State Capitol building.  In fact, anyone who stops and listens to these "Solidarity Singers", are arrested as well.  The singing is in protest of Walker taking away unions' collective bargaining rights and the fact that our state has been last in job creation in the country for the last 2 years.  However, around the Capitol, musicians have been celebrating their right to assemble, and there are a myriad of performers from folk singers:

To cover artists (these guys covered the Beatles "Back in the U.S.S.R."):

To a bagpipe player:

To a violinist:

I try to get out to Madison a few times a year, but this year seemed to go by so fast that I finally had time to go this weekend.  I hope to make it back there around Christmas-time since I've never seen their seasonal decorations.  I also spent time at their Olbrich Botanical Garden on Sunday, taking photos of flowers.  I hope to post those photos sometime this week.

Rock n' Roll Memorabilia in Madison

As I mentioned in Sunday's Post The Many Moods of Madison, WI, I went to my state's capitol on Saturday for a very specific reason.  That was to visit an exhibit at the Wisconsin Historical Museum called "Smart Sounds, Alt Music, Mad Scenes" and it was all about the alternative rock scene that Madison played host to in the 80's and 90's.  For those of you who don't know, I am a rock music fan, collector and (sometimes) scholar, so I had to see this exhibit before it closed on September 15.

The main focus of this exhibit was Smart Studios which opened in 1983.  The studio was started by producers Butch Vig and Steve Marker, who would eventually form the 90's alternative rock band Garbage.  Many popular alternative bands recorded parts of their albums at Smart Studios including Smashing Pumpkins, Soul Asylum, Everclear and, of course, Garbage themselves.

 

But the most famous album to have been partially recorded at Smart Studios was Nirvana's Nevermind.  In fact, Smart Studios collaborated with Seattle's Sub Pop records for another of their local bands, Tad.

 



 

The exhibit displayed a lot of the covers of the albums recorded there until it closed for good in 2010.  The exhibit also featured replicas of one of the mixing rooms as well as one of their recording rooms, shown below.

 



The other part of the exhibit spoke of Madison's alternative/punk club scene.  There were three major clubs that played a role in bringing this new, harder yet stripped down music to the capitol city: Club de Wash, O'Cayz Corral, and Merlyn's, where U2 famously played in 1981.  The photo below is a replica of Merlyn's front door. 

Of course there was a lot of memorabilia from this era - T-shirts, calendars of events, photos, and promotional posters.

There was one other piece of music memorabilia that I wanted to see while I was in Madison, and it was one of the reasons why started my day at Monona Terrace.  This is where a memorial plaque sits for Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash on Lake Monona in 1967.  I especially like the last line that reads "Otis Redding stands with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke in the first rank of American rhythm and blues singers."  My personal favorite song of his is "Try A Little Tenderness."

Unfortunately, like I mentioned above, this exhibit at the Wisconsin Historical Musuem ended on September 15.  But I'm always on the lookout for places that honor the history of rock n' roll music.  I have also been to Cleveland to visit the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame and Memphis.  Are there any places you like to visit in your home state that are dedicated to your favorite music?  Please feel free to give me suggestions in the comments section.

This is also my "R" post for Alphabe-Thursday.  To see more "R" posts, click here.

The Many Moods of Madison, WI

Everyone has a getaway place, where they can go to recharge or relax and feel more at home.  I have three such places: Brady Street and Bay View in Milwaukee, and Madison, WI.  Since I hadn't yet visited Madison this summer, I decided to drive 60 miles west to our state's capitol to visit some old favorites and get to know someplace new. 

If you have never visited Madison, there are many ways to fill your day here, especially on a summer weekend.  I started my day early, leaving home at 7:00 so I could get a good parking space downtown.  On the way on Interstate 94, I had a very interesting experience.  I was driving along and saw a hot air balloon in the sky over Ixonia, about 30 minutes from home.  I thought this would be a great photo opportunity, so I pulled off the highway to a Mobil station I saw from the interstate.  Below, you can see the balloon.  There was still fog in the air so that's why it looks like it could use more contrast.

If the hot air balloon wasn't interesting enough, I went back to my car and saw a peacock just walking around the parking lot like it was the owner's pet (the horse, however, was fake):

It must have escaped from the "zoo", also on the property:

After that strange detour, I was back on the interstate to my destination.  I parked and started my visit at Monona Terrace, a convention center located on Lake Monona and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  I went there specifically to see the rooftop garden:

And to get some shots of the lake itself:

While I was there, I spoke to a nice gentleman who said they were setting up for two weddings that day on the rooftop.  I don't blame any bride and groom for wanting to take advantage of such an amazing view.



From there, I wandered down King Drive to the Farmers Market.  The Madison Farmers Market is, I believe, the largest in the state, and has vendors of all sorts with stands located around the capital building.  A lot of the vendors had a mixture of food and flowers:

While some just had flowers:

and since it's almost fall, there were a lot of gourds and pumpkins to see, both small:

And normal size:

One of the reasons I wanted to get back to Madison was to visit the Veterans Museum.  The last time I visited, the Civil War exhibit was under construction.  Right now, they have a special exhibit showing Wisconsin's involvement, including many dioramas:

And art from that time period:

The museum's main gallery features many fascinating dioramas spanning from the Mexican-American War (notice the messenger is riding a Harley Davidson):

World Wars I & II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War.  I thought the Vietnam diorama was the best one:

From there, I crossed the street back to the capitol building, since I hadn't taken any photos in the building for a few years.  The architecture is beautiful, with each branch of state government having it's own wing.  If you look closely at the entry to the Supreme Court, you can see our state mascot, the badger.  A badger sits at the entrance of each wing.

On the 2nd level, they have a replica of the Liberty Bell, made in France:

I also participated in 3 of my Madison traditions.  I did a little people-watching on State Street, visited the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and went over to East Town Mall to shop at Gordmans. 

There was a specific reason I chose yesterday to visit Madison, and I'll post about that on Thursday for Alphabe-Thursday.  But here is a sneak preview:

For more information on Madison, Wisconsin, click here.