3rd Annual Lonely Hearts HonkyTonk

Fri 02/14/25
5:00PM
All Ages
music
PWYC (a fundraiser for Milwaukee Freedom Fund)

RSVP for the Event

Event

Beta Feature: Screenshot Flyers

1:1 Square 9:16 Portrait
Sad country songs with Kati Katchever, J.R. Wesley, The Krause Family Trio, Ellie Jackson, The Spine Stealers, and Maximiano
DJ Mike Mildew spinning vinyl in the bar
Pay-what-you-can at the door
A portion of proceeds to benefit the Milwaukee Freedom Fund
The Milwaukee Freedom Fund is part of a movement to end pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration. We pay bail for people primarily in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We support people who are most impacted by structural violence. Paying bail for folks that can not afford to, restores the presumption of innocence, reunites families, and challenges a system that criminalizes race and poverty. We pay bail as a direct action toward bail abolition. Through community political education, releasing people from pre-trial detention and supporting abolition and protester efforts, Milwaukee Freedom Fund builds on a legacy of Black liberation and fights for a humane and just future.

Show Lineup

Ellie Jackson

(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Indie Rock

With the support of a rotating cast of bandmates, Ellie Jackson delivers determined vulnerability and emotional exploration through guitars, stories, amplification and a careful balance of harmony and dissonance. Ellie blurs the lines between poetry, literature, activism, music, comedy, conversation, and hopes you leave braver than you arrived. 

Maximiano

(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Alternative, Americana, Folk

Maximiano’s music is rarely about just one emotion, moment, or person. Their debut album, “The Real Truth,” instead explores the way that experience flows through periods of growth and change. The songs shimmer, echo, and glide through tales of memory and identity that Piet Levy of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called “one of the most piercing and emotionally resonant collections of songs from a Milwaukee artist of the year… a towering achievement.”

The album, which Maximiano wrote, produced, arranged, recorded, and mixed, is adorned with a variety of sounds; piano, pedal steel, flute, clarinet, and more elevate the indie-folk core. With an all-star band of Milwaukee musicians (including members of Field Report, PHOX, Old Pup, and Ellie Jackson), the vulnerable americana-folk songs swell to cathartic, indie-rock peaks. Riding the waves of this folkestra, Maximiano sings tenderly but urgently about taking chances, missed opportunities, and reevaluating memories. The result is a flowing, expressive sound that, according to Erin Wolf, music director at 88.9 Radio Milwaukee, “captures the beauty that often comes from the newfound wisdom accrued in your stumbling, youngest years.”

“The Real Truth” is a lush, courageous, and ambitious first record from an artist poised to take up the lineage of earnest, folk-influenced singer-songwriters. Though their music will appeal to fans of Adrianne Lenker, Songs:Ohia, Sufjan Stevens, and Elliott Smith, the real truth is that there is no one quite like Maximiano.

Donate Direct to Artist

J.R. Wesley

(Milwaukee, WI)
Genre: Folk, Indie

The Spine Stealers

(Madison, WI)
Genre: Americana, Folk

The Spine Stealers are a two-gal duo making “spooky folk” influenced by the north-wood Wisconsin pines, 24/7 truck stop diners, heartbreak and dark lakes. Kate and Emma started learning guitar together around bonfires in their shared hometown during the height of the pandemic, soon writing songs inspired by lonesome winters, the heartaches of nostalgia and broken ideas of love. The duo started frequenting open mics in July of 2022, which led them to a whirlwind first year as performers. It began with opening for Dead Horses at Madison’s Majestic Theater for Folk Fest 2023, then winning the 2023 Blue Ox Music Festival Virtual Band Competition, and releasing their first ever EP, “River Teeth Tapes” in July, 2023. 2024 brought the release of several singles, a feature in DAYBREAK magazine, and most proudly, the recording of their debut album “If the Sky Falls, Beyond the Sidewalks”, released in October, 2024. The duo is making a name in the Midwestern folk scene, and anxiously await the introduction of their sound to new corners of the country during upcoming tours.