“Joel Mabus is one of contemporary folk music’s most eclectic performers. A skilled guitar, fiddle, banjo, and mandolin player and melodic songwriter, Mabus has played everything from traditional folk tunes to bluegrass, blues, and original songs.” Craig Harris at AllMusic.com

Where is he from? He was born and raised in a working-class family in a modest Southern Illinois town, about 105 miles southeast of Mark Twain, 190 miles northwest of Bill Monroe, 110 miles southwest of Burl Ives and just over the river and up the hill from Scott Joplin. When Joel’s parents came of age in the 1930’s, they took their old-time farm-grown music on the road with other family members as “hillbilly” entertainers, barnstorming the Midwest in medicine shows, small-town radio programs as well as their long-standing job performing road shows for the WLS Barn Dance.

This pedigree was not lost on Joel as a child in the 1960’s. The family mandolin was his first calling, quickly adding banjo, guitar and fiddle. In the midst of Beatle-mania, Joel was drawn to the tunes of Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs.

Joel made his first record for a small Michigan label in 1977 with mandolin legend Frank Wakefield guesting. Three years later he signed with Flying Fish Records for a two-record deal. In 1986 he was one of the first indie folksingers to start his own label (Fossil Records), even before the advent of the home studio and compact disc, which makes the practice so common today.

Mabus has toured widely and makes his living at music, though he is flying under the radar of American pop culture. Whether you label him folk, Americana , or a singer-songwriter, Mabus remains a one-off, walking that lonesome valley, making and marking his way as a working artist outside the confines of the usual music business.

Mustard’s Retreat will open the show.

Mustard’s Retreat has always sung the songs they enjoyed and cared about, regardless of the trends of the music industry and pop culture. They are committed to simply being themselves, not chasing fame or brass rings, while delighting in and connecting with their audiences as if they were family. The honesty of what they present onstage and the extensive body of outstanding original songs and recordings all contribute to a fiercely loyal audience that continues to grow. “Music to cure what ails you” was how one reviewer in the 1970s described them, and that is as true now as it was then.

They’ve traveled more than a million miles and performed more than 6,000 shows, from pig roasts and pool parties to Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Barns at Wolftrap and the Kennedy’s Center’s Millennium Stage.

Their performances are always joyful and uplifting, as well as intelligent, thought provoking and insightful. They’ve recently begun referring to their career and touring as “Defiantly Hopeful.” In part due to their long career, but more as a statement about what the music has meant to them. “Folk music is, at its heart, defiantly hopeful!” Tamulevich says. “We came of age in the 60s, at the confluence of Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan and the singer/songwriter revolution. We care much more about what we do and stand for and finding that common ground with our audiences, than fame or money: this is our community of choice, and we consider ourselves so fortunate to be here.”