Monthly Archives: April 2026

Welcome to the genre-defying world of Joe Marcinek, where boundaries dissolve and spontaneity reigns. Joe Marcinek is a guitarist, composer & bandleader who creates an experience not just a show, every time he steps on stage. Based around the concept that anything can happen at any time, the Joe Marcinek Band (JMB) features an ever-rotating lineup of legendary musicians from across the musical spectrum. Every performance is a one-time-only collaboration, making each night a unique event that fans will never experience the same way twice. Joe’s journey began on October 1, 2000, when he bought his first guitar from childhood friend Jeff Cunningham. That moment sparked a fire. 2 years later, attending the inaugural Bonnaroo Festival in 2002, Joe witnessed a musical ethos that would define his career: impromptu collaborations, genre-bending energy, and the thrill of the unknown. Since then, Joe has carved out a space entirely his own, fusing elements of Chicago blues, New Orleans funk, jazz fusion, & psychedelic rock. Over the years he has had the rare honor of collaborating with some of music’s most revered figures. He performed a dozen shows with Bernie Worrell (Parliament Funkadelic), who also recorded on Joe’s album Slink. The track “Bernie,” dedicated to Worrell, was the final recording of Bernie’s storied career before his passing. Joe has been collaborating with Melvin Seals (Jerry Garcia Band) & George Porter Jr. (The Meters) since 2017, and both appear on his acclaimed album Dead Funk Summit, featuring all original compositions. Another unforgettable highlight includes working and recording with the late, great Shaun Martin, whom Joe considers one of his all-time favorite musical partners. In 2023, Joe played a landmark show at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City with an all-star lineup including Dennis Chambers, Jesús Molina, Howard Levy, Jason Hann, Ola Timothy, & Reilly Comisar. That performance will be released as Joe’s first official live album, set to drop April 17 2026. Joe tours nationally year-round, from New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between, bringing his singular approach to stages across the country. Each night is a new story, written in real time by some of the best players in the world.

As always, it is great to catch up with what Joe is up to. I am so excited that he has finally gotten a live recording out there to the world as this is the way JMB works all its maGic. We dive ear first into the new Joe Marcinek Band Live in New York City record including how it all came together, how he was able to line up these amazing artists and how the sound finds them once they lights go up. Joe is also going to be doing some things with family to the proGram, Mike Dillon at Jazzfest, right around the same time he does he yearly Dead Funk Summitt. We talk about how he and Mike have recently gotten to work together and how it led to this invite. We also find out that Joe will be heading back to Madison in the Summer for a little PHISH afterparty situation and no talk of ours goes by without remembering how we first me on the bridge of Mr. Bernie Worrell.

Larry Keel is an award-winning innovative flatpicking guitarist & singer/songwriter hailing from Appalachia and currently residing in historic Lexington, VA. Raised in a musical family steeped in the mountain culture of the region, Larry began from an early age to forge a distinctive sound, taking bluegrass & classic country music and infusing those styles with a rock edge and elements of improvisational jazz. With the acoustic guitar he has brought the flatpicking form to its highest level of sophistication and sonic power with his muscular yet refined style of playing. As a songwriter with a catalog of nearly 100 original compositions, Keel integrates raw honesty and charming grit to create music filled with reality, imagination, imagery & vibe. He has appeared on over 20 albums, 12 of which he produced, and has written songs that have been recorded and performed by distinguished artists including Grammy-award winners Del McCoury and The Infamous Stringdusters. He has performed at iconic venues including Tokyo Disney, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall NYC, Red Rocks Amphitheater, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, LOCKN, High Sierra Music, Bonnaroo, Del Fest, Hulaween, and countless more. He has inspired and merged creative forces with some of the greatest artists in modern roots music such as Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass, Keller Williams & Sam Bush, to name a few. Larry Keel is revered by critics at Relix, JamBase, Bluegrass Today, No Depression, AXS, & Rolling Stone, who dub him “one of the finest flatpickers around” and describe his unparalleled live performance “taking songs up a notch with psychedelic hillbilly shredding.” While C-ville Weekly claims, “Keel is doing for bluegrass what Hendrix did for rock, what Miles did for jazz- exploring the unchartered possibilities, defying the limitations of a deeply established musical form.” The energetic & interstellar project, “Electric Larry Land” presents Keel’s simultaneously gritty and suave original music applied to an electric format, creating what he calls a “sonic groove-and-vibe machine”. With this unit, Keel gives rein to his innate drive to expand his songs and playing style with this high-powered, highly creative and highly accomplished 4-piece band comprised of electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass and drums. It’s dynamic Acoustic Rock at its finest.

I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Mr. Larry Keel ahead of the April 16 event at the Stoughton Opera House. Larry and I spend some time going over just who is in this new project and what the sound and style will be like in a live setting. Each member of this group (now minus the mighty Jenny Keel), seems to fit riGht on in to what he hears and envisions to make this music come alive. Speaking of the music, there is new music coming out with this group so we talk about how it is getting released and how listeners will get to spend time with this new music as well as new tunes he is writing alongside friends of this proGram, Del McCoury and Sam Bush. We chat about recent Keller & The Keel shows and shows of the future for them as the album Grass celebrates its 20th ear with a tour. You can easily tell just why I dig on the person that Larry is almost as much as the artist he is as we get our hands dirty talking about the upcoming garden [plans and what’s already getting started in the greenhouse. Great people = great art.