Drew Jostad (Sound) with Jim Abraham, Vi Wickam , Brent Hawley and Malini Bartels (Host)

The Vi Wickam Trio is Vi on Fiddle and Vocals, Brent Hawley on Guitar and Mandolin and Jim Abraham on Electric Bass.

Vi  writes,  “Music is in my blood. Every note I play is nourishment.

I came from a musical family; some of my ancestors even have a claim to fame. My Great Grandpa Joseph Wickam was a professional violinist, published composer and teacher. He used popular music of the day to keep the kids interested and inspired. My Great X 3 Uncle George R. Poulton wrote the music to Aura Lea. It’s the melody of Elvis’s Love Me Tender and of Army Blue, still sung at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

I’ve been performing and writing music since before I could read. I began studying composition and arranging in Junior High. Along with my brothers and my dad, The Wickam Family Band even performed regularly on Blinky’s Fun Club, a nationally syndicated TV program shown in 23 states.

My fiddle playing can be heard on a half dozen CD recordings, including two of my own. I’ve played with many different bands throughout the United States, and even briefly in England. I’ve won the Colorado State Championship twice, and been a finalist four times at the Grand Masters’ Fiddler Championship. I’ve also directed the Indiana State Fiddle Contest for the past three years.

My musical tastes span bluegrass to classical to jazz, rock and old-time fiddle. I play guitar, mandolin, bass, and viola, but my main instrument is the fiddle. Regardless of the style of music I am playing, or the instrument, the music is in me, and I am thoroughly in the music.”

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The Deadly Gentlemen at KRFC | Photo by Cindy Schneider

The Deadly Gentlemen started out a few years ago as an experimental spoken word bluegrass band, but changed the game plan this time around. Now they mostly play epic folk and grasscore. They have a brand new, unreleased CD called Carry Me To Home. There are five band members: Greg Liszt, banjo and vocals; Stash Wyslouch, guitar and vocals; Mike Barnett, fiddle and vocals; Dominick Leslie, mandolin and vocals; and Sam Grisman, double bass and vocals. Instead of having a lead singer, they use a nonstop orchestration of somewhat unconventional vocals, with everybody in the band doing everything they can. Expect a lot of three-part harmony singing, group shouting, really dense rhymes and an almost rap-like phrasing.

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