The Driftless Revelers formed in the second spring of the first global pandemic of the 21st century, with one ear turned toward the shellac platters and Victrola virtuosos of the early to mid 20th century, and the other ear glued to the soundscapes of the 1960’s & 1970’s American freak-folk scene.

Since their debut tour in 2021, the band has billed with Grammy winning bluegrass legends like Tim O’Brien, toured extensively throughout the Upper Midwest, and had breakout performances at several festivals and events (Mile of Music in Appleton, WI. featured in Rolling Stone Magazine).

 These Eau Claire, Wisconsin based weirdos have earned a cult following of devoted fans from Minnesota to Michigan who appreciate their irreverent, highly original, and sometimes slightly psychedelic interpretation of American roots music with a Midwest twist. Their live show banter and thoroughly entertaining sets have earned them comparisons to Ween,  Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, Tenacious D, and the Holy Modal Rounders. Their debut record, American Fork Standards (2022), was well received by their family members, and a few other people who said nice things about it. 

Featuring the original songwriting of Ben Nelson, Matthew R. Sayles, and Jerod Kaszynski, the Driftless Revelers will pleasure a crowd with plectral wah pedal banjo tones, the mournful wailing of resophonic steel guitars, and the up-right bass bellows of an era that can’t quite be defined, but revels in the timeless ephemera of weird old-time American music.

With influences as varied and eccentric as a proper musty smelling thrift store record collection, the band grooves merrily through early roots blues and jazz music, to hillbilly and string band howlers, all the way into the not-quite folk but not-quite psychedelic realms of their own creation.

A Driftless Revelers show will lure you in with their joy–keep you dancing with their search for the cosmic groove in the confines of stringed instruments–and will send you on your way with flashbacks of the Driftless Revelry found only in the essence of the intangible reaches of notes once played– that then fall silent.