Wyatt Thomson possesses a voice that echos the soundscapes of the dance halls, supper clubs, and road houses that still litter the landscape of his home in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin.

​Citing Tom Waits as his biggest influence, it’s safe to say that Thomson (Like Waits) seems to have skipped right over decades of music that might have otherwise changed his sound for the worst.

One of Thomson’s biggest appeals is that he sounds like an artist transported from the 1950’s honky tonks of the Midwest, and dropped off into the second decade of the 21st century unscathed by the worst aspects of pop country, pop music, and an industry forever changed by technology.

Not unlike a character from a Roger Miller song, Thomson has the bona fides of working pawn shops, odd jobs, and scraping by in the rust belt landscape of NW Wisconsin. As a result, he’s gained the street wise and cynical wisdom that is earned young from such a life.

The world may press onward with its insane pace, but Thomson ambles along with a casual confidence and story telling tales that feel like they’re ripped from old paperbacks in a truck stop, or found in some lost postwar beatnik manuscript.

D. Janakey’s folk songs ride the edge between autobiographical and transcendental story telling. Drawing comparisons to Prine & Paul Simon, these are songs that ring with life. They breath and sway, and then float away. Throughout his nine years of playing live music, Janakey has shared the stage with Dave Simmonette of Trampled by Turtles, Mason Jennings, Ezra Bell, Haley Bonar, Boris Mccutchen, and Them Coulee Boys.

Eau Claire local Tyler Lustek and Twin Cities guitar legend Dean Granros will take the Lakely stage stage to bring an avant-garde treatment to a suite of jazz standards.

Tyler Lustek is a pianist, composer, arranger and educator from Eau Claire, WI. Tyler is involved with a variety of musical projects around the Chippewa Valley including his own quintet the Tyler Lustek Confluence, avant-garde jazz duet Lustek / Granros, piano/cello duet Duo Vivace, and the Chippewa Valley Jazz Orchestra. Tyler is also co-director of the jazz combo program at UW-Eau Claire.