Joel Mabus | Woodstock Wednesdays | Premieres December 2, 7pm/CST

Joel Mabus is kicking off this month as Woodstock Wednesdays celebrates the holidays!

Woodstock Folk Festival is excited to bring high quality music and spoken word to our community and to enjoy and support these artists who have worked with us over the years, including Joel Mabus. You can show your support and appreciation by visiting http://www.joelmabus.com/. Once there look for the virtual tip vessel. You can also purchase his CDs including Christmas CDs, and a CD titled Different Hymnals.

The video premieres HERE at 7pm/CST, Wednesday, December 2.

It will remain in our Gallery after the show if you would like to see it again or share it with others. You can enjoy watching our past performers’ shows by clicking on our Video Gallery.

Featured Performer: Joel Mabus

Joel Mabus may be called a singer-songwriter, but he doesn’t sound like one.  He’s the son of a 1930s old time fiddle champ and a banjo-pickin’ farm girl.  His performing career began in college during the Vietnam era, where he studied anthropology and literature by day and played coffeehouses by night.

You can go to Joel’s YouTube channel and be thoroughly entertained by his relevant, poignant and humorous songs.

One critic writes, “Joel Mabus knows his way around the English language and American culture just as well as he knows his way around a fretboard.” 

Nationally known radio host, Rich Warren (Midnight Special, WFMT) named Different Hymnals as one of his favorite CDs of 2017. He wrote:  “Mabus selects a different framework and motif for each album he records. His knowledge of music runs exceptionally broad and deep. Different Hymnals covers shades of faith from near agnostic to devout. The album is highly spiritual, but not particularly religious. Although it includes a few Christian hymns, it is not a Christian album. The spiritual songs suit nearly any faith. He includes originals, rewrites of traditional hymns and even a lengthy Child ballad imbued with spiritual/moral overtones. An outstanding guitarist, Mabus also mixes instrumentals with songs. Mabus connects all of these fourteen songs with the message that shared faith of whatever religion can bring us closer together and that peace is the ultimate goal.”

“Joel is one of those quintessentially Midwestern American artists. He has a style we will always associate with Will Rogers or Mark Twain, and a great sense of humour which compliments, rather than contradicts, some very serious material. He has perfected the art of being entertaining without pandering, he teaches without lecturing, and does it all with great style.” ~ VANCOUVER FOLK FESTIVAL

Born in 1953 in the southern Illinois town of Belleville, Joel has recorded 27 solo albums of original and traditional music since his recording career started in 1978.  Joel’s latest CD is 2019s Time & Truth, a return to songwriting both topical and timeless. Among his awards: inducted into the Detroit Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2000, the inaugural Lantern Bearer Award presented by Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FAI) in 2006.  

A one-off in the folk world, Mabus defies any easy pigeon-hole.  His palette ranges from mountain banjo to jazz guitar — from sensitive introspection to wicked satire.  He’s both picker and poet, and from coast to coast over the past 40 years this Midwesterner has brought audiences to their feet, wanting more.

JOEL’S BOOK The only bound book of his, to date:  Parlor Guitar, was published by Hal Leonard — a world wide publishing firm — in 2006. This book has detailed note-for-note transcriptions (music & tab) of ten songs from the Parlor Guitar CD.  The book also has a CD included of those 10 cuts from the original album.

Enjoy Joel’s show!

Views expressed by performers and others who appear at Woodstock Folk Festival events or on the website are solely the views of these individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Festival or its Board members.