Willi Carlisle with Reid Parsons @ Greenwood Garden

Part of SPACE’s collaborative series with the Peak Island Lions Club and Arts at Greenwood Garden. Mainland residents can take the 5:35pm ferry from Casco Bay Lines. See cascobaylines.com/schedules for the full schedule. 

Willi Carlisle is a poet and a folk singer for the people, but his extraordinary gift for turning a phrase isn’t about high falutin’ pontificatin’; it’s about looking out for one another and connecting through our shared human condition. Born and raised on the Midwestern plains, Carlisle is a product of the punk to folk music pipeline that’s long fueled frustrated young men looking to resist. After falling for the rich ballads and tunes of the Ozarks, where he now lives, he began examining the full spectrum of American musical history. This insatiable stylistic diversity is obvious in his wildly raucous live performances, where songs range from sardonic trucker-ballads like “Vanlife” to the heartbreaking queer waltz “Life on the Fence,” to an existential talkin’ blues about a panic attack in Walmart’s aisle five. With guitar, fiddle, button-box, banjo, harmonicas, rhythm-bones, and Willi’s booming baritone, this is bonafide populist folk music in the tradition of cowboys, frontier fiddlers, and tall-tale tellers. Carlisle recognizes that the only thing holding us back from greatness is each other. With a quick wit and big sing-alongs, these folksongs bring us a step closer to breaking down our divides.

“Willi Carlisle is an absolute force of nature. From the moment he walks on stage you can’t take your eyes off of him and the minute he opens his mouth you can’t help but hang on every word. Even if the songs weren’t there, the showmanship alone would be worth the price of admission, but the scary part is the songs are just as good as the stories.” – BJ Barham

“Willi Carlisle speaks his truth”
-NPR Music

“Peculiar indeed, but ultimately a riveting album in a genre of its own.”
-Glide Magazine

“Willi Carlisle is just the kind of artist that Americana music needs”
-Paste Magazine

“A cowboy for this generation”
-SiriusXM The Village

Vermonter Reid Parsons is an open book on stage, words stripped to the heartwood. Parsons’s lyrics are honest and simple, placed with intention in a true craftsman style. Not one to beat around the bush, Parsons has a knack of distilling the hurts and hopes of life into compact tunes that live in the liminal spaces between genres. “Parsons has a warm spirit. Even though her tunes touch on hardships and dark times, they impart a sense of hope that’s lately in short supply” (Jordan Adams, Seven Days).

Parsons was raised in the woods with early influences of folk, blues, and jazz. Her deft songwriting landed her the top spot at the 2017 Advance Music Singer/Songwriter competition, providing the opportunity to record a 5-song EP, released in 2018. Parsons subsequently recorded a live EP in 2021, and her debut album is scheduled for independent release in late 2023.