Tickets: $18 adults/$16 student/senior "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.

Ask Your Folks is a wonderful Chicago-based trio comprised of vocals, guitar, fiddle, and string bass. Owen Burton, Libby Weitnauer, and Eli Broxham, began playing together during their freshman year at the DePaul University School of Music. Though classically trained individually, collectively they are rooted in American styles like old-time, folk, and bluegrass. Ask Your Folks strives to create an eclectic sound with thoughtfulness at the core of its compositions and musicality at the heart of its performances.

Tickets: $18 adults/$16 student/senior Beth Wood is a modern-day troubadour and believer in the power of song. Her exceptional musicianship, crafty songwriting, and commanding stage presence have been winning over American audiences for eighteen years. Beth's music is soulful, organic, intelligent, barefoot, high-energy communication of joy. Picture a home-body with an ever-present wanderlust, creative free-spirit with enough discipline to rework her dream year after year, calloused little hands and a big pile of curly hair and you've got Beth Wood.

Darn you, Johnsmith! I'm driving on a gorgeous day, and put your new CD in to listen. "Family Artifacts," reduced me to tears and made me pull off the road. As you have done in the past, you have written another song that brings to the surface so many emotions. And you do it again and again throughout "The Longing Road". If it is even possible, you do it more powerfully than ever before. Your gift of writing deceptively simple songs that spring from a deep place in the soul is a rare one. And with the likes of Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott and Tom Prasada-Rao, the musical settings are exquisite. - Bob McWilliams, KPR Radio.