King Wilkie October 3, 2009

King Wilkie will be opened for by the M Shanghai String Band, an eleven piece band whose eccentric musical sound might be described as "traditional inspired old-time hoedown jam type alternative folk and punk bluegrass with a jazzy undertone."

First founded as a furiously hard-driving bluegrass band in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2003, King Wilkie was hailed by bluegrass purists as the music’s great young hope. They riveted festival audiences across the country and picked up the International Bluegrass Music Association’s coveted Emerging Artist of the Year award in 2004, the year they released their national debut album Broke. As Broke reached number one on the bluegrass charts, King Wilkie put in appearances at the Grand Ole Opry and at all of the major North American folk and bluegrass festivals. They opened for the likes of Ralph Stanley and Jerry Lee Lewis, served as Peter Rowan’s backing band, and toured with David Bromberg and Tony Rice. But just as the group’s band members have fluctuated significantly over the years, so, too, has their collective sound; while King Wilkie’s early sound was commonly filed under bluegrass, they have increasingly developed a more eclectic acoustic style, drawing from other influences, such as Folk and Americana Music. King Wilkie has emerged, simply put, as “a band who has made a career of defying expectations and continually reinventing itself.”

Official Website: http://www.wamcarts.org/artsched.html