Chicken Wire Empire featuring Chris Castino (of The Big Wu)

Set 1 – Chicken Wire Empire
Set 2 – Chris Castino with Chicken Wire Empire

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Although Jordan Kroeger (bass) and Ryan Ogburn (mandolin) began their musical relationship in the Wisconsin jamband scene, Chicken Wire Empire began as a 4 piece traditional bluegrass band in Milwaukee, WI. The band honed its traditional sound, encapsulating it in 2014 with their debut album Chicken Wire Empire. With half of the group rooted in bluegrass, and the other half steeped in jamband music, a change occurred when CWE performed an Old & In The Way tribute show. With the addition of Jon Peik (banjo), Ernest Brusubardis IV (fiddle), and Greg Brundage (guitar), a new sound was found in Milwaukee, and Chicken Wire Empire joined the roster of high energy jamgrass.

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Chris Castino – For the last 20+ years Chris has written songs for his band The Big Wu. He successfully written material that is condusive to loud guitars, blues hollerin’, and dancing. The current version of the Big Wu is suited for tunes that are equal parts Meters and Floyd, which is an exciting mix for a songwriter like chris. But his latest songs are folk songs, in nature. This is his authentic self; drednaughts, fiddles, three part harmonies. It’s built on the timeless joys and lamentations of our precarious worlds.
He is currently touring with Chicken Wire Empire THIS Winter of 2022 with a stop at The Hook and Ladder Theater on Friday, January 28!

“The new Chicken Wire Empire record is a technically proficient, well-crafted mixture of modern original songwriting and time earned classics. They seem to have taken on some wonderfully exciting elements of modern progressive bluegrass while also retaining their original character, born of their greater Milwaukee town roots.”

-Adam Greuel of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades