Chicago's Tangleweed Parlays Online Break Into Big Gig

The Chicago-based musical group Tangleweed has been invited to perform at a major musical festival after a festival organizer discovered the group online.

(PRWEB) May 25, 2007 -- Chicago indie string band Tangleweed will be a featured performer at the 2007 Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kansas. Wakarusa annually attracts 15,000 fans for four days of music and camping, featuring diverse entertainment on multiple outdoor stages. Tangleweed will perform on Wakarusa's Homegrown and Prairie stages on Sunday, June 10.

For a group who has played only a handful of shows outside of their hometown, Wakarusa represents a watershed moment in the internet-savvy string band's three-year career. The band owes their break to an online music site.

Tangleweed was discovered by the Wakarusa bookers via the music website Pandora.com. Pandora users enter the names of their favorite performers to create a custom online radio station with music by other similar groups. A festival organizer entered the name of his favorite band, Kansas' Split Lip Rayfield, and heard a Tangleweed track. He liked it so much that he tracked the group down via their website and extended an offer for them to perform at the festival.

Tangleweed initially hesitated to accept, as they were already booked at a bluegrass festival in Green Bay that same weekend. But trepidation quickly turned to excitement as the band worked out the logistics to travel 650 miles overnight from Green Bay to Lawrence.

The chance to play Wakarusa with big-name acts like Widespread Panic, Little Feat, Ben Harper, Medeski, Martin and Wood and Sam Bush was simply too good an offer for Tangleweed to pass up. The deal was sealed when Wakarusa agreed to give Tangleweed the Sunday afternoon slots they needed in order to preserve their Heritage Farms Festival appearances in Green Bay on Friday and Saturday nights.

This opportunity comes on the heels of Tangleweed's recent foray to Hawaii. After being hired to play a wedding in Waikiki, bassist Paul Wargaski quickly used the web to arrange a successful mini-tour. The band ended up on stage in Honolulu for 12 of their first 48 hours on the ground, playing two well-received club shows, a beachside wedding party and a midnight set on Hawaiian Public Radio. This venture fed the band's desire to find audiences beyond their native Chicago, and Wakarusa represents their next big step forward.

With no formal promotion beyond the band's own personal efforts and the quality of their music, Tangleweed has enjoyed positive reviews and frequent radio play in over 20 countries with their two CDs, Just a Spoonful (and Other Folksongs of Rural Cook County) and Where You Been So Long?, both of which were released on the band's own Squatney Records label. This summer will establish Tangleweed as a band-to-watch as they perform for larger and more diverse audiences across the Midwest and beyond.

For more information on Tangleweed, Wakarusa and Pandora.com visit:

http://tangleweed.org
http://wakarusa.com
http://www.pandora.com

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