Passport
200 artists. 30+ venues. Four days. Endless stories and memories. One mile in the heart of Appleton.
Mile of Music
June 16, 2025 | Rating: TV-14 | Length: 00:56:48
Live performances and artist interviews provide a front row seat to Mile of Music – Appleton, Wisconsin's community music festival showcasing more than 200 emerging artists. Hear musicians from all over the world performing in a wide array of genres during the 2024 festival, a four-day celebration of original music and singer-songwriters.
[guitar strumming]
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat guitar music]
[indistinct conversations]
Abby Posner: This festival is so special.
Adrian Enscoe: And the energy of everybody is so, like, off the charts.
Lucy Clabby: Everybody makes us feel like rock stars when we’re here.
Christopher Gold: It really does something to the atmosphere around town.
Cassie Boettcher: A weekend of all original music with artists from around the world coming to Appleton, Wisconsin!
Nathan Graham: It’s the best place for musicians and people who love music to be at.
Singer: Are you ready for some more music?
[cheers and applause]
Narrator: Funding for Mile of Music is provided in part by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Elizabeth Olson in memory of Modesta Olson, the Community Vision Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau, TDS Telecom, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin. Lodging, catering, and production spaces for Mile of Music is provided in part by Hilton Appleton Paper Valley, Appleton Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, Telmark Sales Solutions, Inc., Heirloom Kitchen, and by…
[“Hold On” by Leon Timbo and the Family Band]
[upbeat folksy guitar and bass music]
🎵 Yeah 🎵
🎵 Huh 🎵
🎵 Yeah 🎵
🎵 Hey 🎵
Let’s go into the fire and give it to ’em right here.
🎵 Where my people 🎵
🎵 The ones who know who I really am 🎵
🎵 The dreamers and lovers 🎵
🎵 If you need a prayer, they can send a prayer 🎵
🎵 Yeah, my father in heaven 🎵
🎵 Can we have some drinks down here🎵 🎵
🎵 You’re not alone 🎵
🎵 Come here and take my hand 🎵
🎵 Take my hand 🎵
🎵 You got to hold on 🎵
🎵 Life is better when you get your friends together 🎵
🎵 You got to hold on yeah 🎵
🎵 Let the love fill the room 🎵
🎵 Hey, you got to hold on 🎵
🎵 Life is better when you get your friends together 🎵
🎵 You got to hold on hey 🎵
🎵 Let the love fill the room 🎵
Go and talk to ’em, Sinclair.
[groovy bass solo]
Come on!
Listen here, that’s my brother.
🎵 Dream a little dream a little 🎵
Don’t stop dreaming.
🎵 Dream a little dream a little 🎵
That’s why I make music, I’m a dreamer.
Yeah!
🎵 Dream a little dream a little 🎵
🎵 Dream a, oh ohh yeah 🎵
Get your friends together!
🎵 You got to hold on 🎵
🎵 Life is better when you get your friends together 🎵
🎵 You got to hold on 🎵
🎵 Let the love fill the room 🎵
🎵 Well you got to hold on 🎵
🎵 Life is better when you get your friends together 🎵
🎵 You got to hold on 🎵
🎵 Let the love, let the love fill the room 🎵
🎵 Fill the room 🎵
🎵 Yeah yeah yeah 🎵
[ending drumroll]
[cheers and applause]
We just made it here. I’m crazy about Appleton.
[rapid drumstick tapping]
Kim Mauthe: Mile of Music is a all-original music festival here in Appleton, Wisconsin. It’s a free festival for attendees, and it’s just a wonderful weekend of summer fun and original music.
Ian Thomson: It literally is a mile long of music, and it’s all very walkable. We produce over 200 artists, playing over 650-plus sets of music in 35 venues over the course of the four days.
Dave Willems: It’s really a celebration of original music. Multiple bands, singer-songwriters, duos, trios from around the country, as well as our Wisconsin singer-songwriters.
Ian: What makes it different than other festivals in the country? One, again, the sense of discovery. It is a developing artists’ music festival.
Melissa Freeman: Musicians that you don’t know, but you should.
Ben Mulwana: People from all over the state, people from all over the country come to Appleton.
Jeff Gorman: Everywhere you turn, there’s music. Every street corner, every bar, in hotel rooms.
Andrew Pierson: You can bounce around, choose which venue you wanna go to, choose which artists you wanna see. You make your own plan, make your own route throughout Appleton.
Dave: It’s an opportunity for us to show off what this community has, what this one-mile stretch of our downtown has. Hence the name Mile of Music.
This is where you can find your new favorite band.
[“Love in the Underground” by Bandits on the Run]
🎵 I 🎵
🎵 I’m dragging my heavy heart 🎵
🎵 Onto the platform and there you are 🎵
🎵 With a beat-up old guitar and a song about to start 🎵
🎵 Hold my heart, oh hold my heart 🎵
🎵 Oh let my weight hang in your hands 🎵
🎵 There’s something bright inside your eyes 🎵
🎵 I just might understand 🎵
🎵 I don’t know how 🎵
🎵 What a strange and sudden sound 🎵
🎵 We’re not strangers now 🎵
🎵 Finally found love in the underground 🎵
🎵 In the city of a million doors 🎵
🎵 Open one, there’s a million more 🎵
🎵 So what is it that you’re waiting for 🎵
🎵 Waiting for 🎵
🎵 I don’t know how 🎵
🎵 What a strange and sudden sound 🎵
🎵 But we’re not strangers now 🎵
🎵 Finally found love in the underground 🎵
[melodica solo]
[bright folk music]
🎵 What a strange and sudden sound 🎵
🎵 But we’re not strangers now 🎵
🎵 Finally found 🎵
🎵 Love in the underground 🎵
[cheers and applause]
[“New Orleans” by Abby Posner]
[upbeat acoustic guitar music]
At Mile of Music, we have a few listening rooms that we really pride ourselves on, and that’s really geared towards the singer-songwriter, acoustic or solo, duo, trio artists, anything without a drum kit.
Kim: The musicians get to be really present and so does the audience, and they kind of feed off of each other in that way.
🎵 Well, pit on my shoulder 🎵
🎵 Pit in my mind 🎵
🎵 Drink down that loneliness and leave you behind 🎵
🎵 I’m goin’ down to New Orleans 🎵
🎵 Where my soul belongs 🎵
🎵 Well, I’m gonna sing to the devil 🎵
🎵 Oh with the barrel of my gun 🎵
🎵 Well, poison in my water 🎵
🎵 Poison in my head 🎵
🎵 Poison drippin’ slowly 🎵
🎵 To your side of the bed 🎵
🎵 I’m goin’ down to the Bayou 🎵
🎵 Lay my soul to rest 🎵
🎵 Well, I’m gonna find me that someone 🎵
🎵 I ain’t gonna settle for less 🎵
Hey!
[bluesy acoustic guitar music]
🎵 Yeah 🎵
Ian: Focus is on the artist.
Thank you, guys.
Ian: Your attention span is directly at that stage. They’re just being paid attention to in the way that they should be.
Appreciate ya.
It’s really created a more intimate experience.
[“Tell it to the Wind” by Joy Clark]
Joy Clark: I love that the focus is on paying attention to the words and just being respectful to the environment and knowing how to read the room.
🎵 When I was just a little girl 🎵
🎵 I’d go outside 🎵
🎵 And listen to the wind 🎵
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
🎵 I thought it held all my secrets within 🎵
🎵 I’d see the clouds roll by 🎵
🎵 And the leaves blow down my street 🎵
🎵 I wondered if it’d take my dreams and set them free 🎵
🎵 And I tell it to the wind 🎵
🎵 Ooh I ooh I 🎵
[guitar strumming]
[cheers and applause]
I want to bring my heart. I want people to sing with me. And I want to, I want people to be free to clap and to dance and to snap as well. It doesn’t always have to be, you know, you can hear a pin drop.
[“Shine” by Joy Clark]
Second verse.
[bluesy electric guitar music]
🎵 Glow like a star 🎵
🎵 Shooting fire and grit 🎵
🎵 And don’t leave any part of you behind 🎵
🎵 Arms open wide 🎵
🎵 I wanna see you lit 🎵
🎵 So get up get up get up get up 🎵
🎵 And take this ride 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause you can’t keep from shinin’ anymore 🎵
🎵 And I see your light creepin’ through that door 🎵
🎵 And won’t you come out and play with me 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause I’m gonna need everything that you can bring 🎵
🎵 Shine your light 🎵
🎵 Radiate the great that makes you you 🎵
🎵 Shine your light 🎵
🎵 Illuminate your truth in everything you do 🎵
🎵 Come on shine your light 🎵
🎵 And radiate, radiate yeah 🎵
🎵 Illuminate your true in everything you do 🎵
🎵 Hey 🎵
[bluesy electric guitar music]
[cheers and applause]
Melissa: If you are a singer-songwriter presenting something thoughtful and you have that, everybody’s with you, everybody’s listening, is a very powerful experience that can’t be taken for granted because it does not always happen.
[“Feathers” by Valley Fox]
[gentle bluegrass music]
🎵 Well, the leaves on the trees 🎵
🎵 In the summertime breeze 🎵
🎵 All on the ground come fall 🎵
🎵 A bird in spring doesn’t wait to sing 🎵
🎵 She don’t want me at all 🎵
🎵 No she don’t want me at all 🎵
🎵 Throw the feather out the window 🎵
🎵 Doesn’t mean it’s gonna end though 🎵
🎵 Dead bird’s got a friend 🎵
🎵 So she ain’t gonna sing anymore 🎵
🎵 Put a lock on the front door 🎵
🎵 What’s a bird gonna hunt for 🎵
🎵 Flatland boys are done for 🎵
🎵 She ain’t comin’ back anymore 🎵
🎵 No, she ain’t comin’ back anymore 🎵
🎵 Well, the leaves on the trees in the summertime breeze 🎵
🎵 All on the ground come fall 🎵
🎵 A bird in spring doesn’t wait to sing 🎵
🎵 She don’t want me at all 🎵
🎵 No, she don’t want me at all 🎵
Joe Wais: The listening room venue for us is perfect. We’re a mellow, like, folk band and with some intricate harmonies, so having a listening room with a really attentive audience is really cool for us.
Laura Bomber: You don’t get a stage like that, that often.
🎵 Did a bird ever really sing 🎵
🎵 Or tell me I clipped a wing 🎵
🎵 Plucked feathers on a heart string 🎵
🎵 She ain’t flyin’ here no more 🎵
🎵 No she ain’t comin’ back anymore 🎵
🎵 Well, the leaves on the trees in the summertime breeze 🎵
🎵 All on the ground come fall 🎵
🎵 A bird in spring doesn’t wait to sing 🎵
🎵 She don’t want me at all 🎵
🎵 No she don’t want me at all 🎵
[cheers and applause]
Joe: Thank you.
For the people to be silent in a room and listen to, like, every word you’re saying is amazing. It’s like every songwriter’s dream. And it’s just an honor to have people listen to what I’m saying. It’s amazing.
[“New York Minute” by Cassie Boettcher]
🎵 I always knew you loved out East 🎵
🎵 Much more than you’d ever love me 🎵
🎵 So I’m glad we never tried 🎵
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
🎵 Different coasts in opposite directions 🎵
🎵 Not like I fantasized 🎵
🎵 So go 🎵
🎵 Go 🎵
🎵 Through this open door 🎵
🎵 You dream of leavin’ 🎵
🎵 For the lights of New York 🎵
🎵 Meet a pretty girl 🎵
🎵 Fall in love 🎵
🎵 Give her everything I know she’ll be enough 🎵
🎵 But if you ever get sick of the coffee runs 🎵
🎵 And the accents 🎵
🎵 And the arrogant suits 🎵
🎵 I’d find you 🎵
🎵 In a New York minute 🎵
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
[cheers and applause]
[Cassie laughing]
[“Just the Same” by Barnaby Bright]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
🎵 And I’m the kind of girl 🎵
🎵 Your parents warned you of 🎵
🎵 I wish I could hold a steady job like I could love 🎵
🎵 And I swear sometimes I feel like I could drown 🎵
🎵 At the thought of settlin’ down 🎵
🎵 Like every other good girl does 🎵
🎵 But you still love me when push comes to shove 🎵
🎵 And I pinch myself every day 🎵
🎵 Still can’t believe when I hear 🎵
🎵 Hear you say 🎵
🎵 Oh thank God you were born this way 🎵
🎵 I like you just how you came 🎵
🎵 Oh thank God you were born this way 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause you and I 🎵
🎵 We’re just the same 🎵
🎵 When somebody knows you 🎵
🎵 When somebody needs you 🎵
🎵 When somebody loves you 🎵
🎵 In spite of you 🎵
🎵 Oh thank God you were born this way 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause you and I 🎵
🎵 We’re just the same 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause you and I 🎵
🎵 We’re just 🎵
🎵 The same 🎵
[ending guitar note]
[cheers and applause]
[buckets drumming]
[applause]
[bright ukelele music]
Leila Ramagopal Pertl: Participants that come and want to watch one of the artists at the Mile also have a chance to come and get involved in 40 to 50 hands-on events that Mile of Music does every year for the education portion. Creating their own pieces of music, which allow them to discover their own birthright of music making.
Teacher:🎵 And the woodchuck laughed 🎵
🎵 And the woodchuck chucked 🎵
🎵 If a woodchuck could chuck wood 🎵
The music education team has been amazing. You need to have young musicians and inspire creatives, young and old.
An education in music means really just a community coming together around joy. Whether you can just hit a drum one time, that you’ve been a part of how the soundscape of the Mile of Music has played out for that year. And that kind of gives people who attend the Mile a little bit of a chance to understand, like, why music-making might be important to the artists. It’s ’cause they felt what it was like to make music and make music in community.
Teacher: Okay, nice job. Give yourself a huge round of applause on that. Your first song.
[“Levitate” Ben Mulwana and the Village]
[bluesy electric guitar music]
🎵 I built the room I’m standin’ in 🎵
🎵 Stole my soul like an invalid 🎵
🎵 I can’t seem to figure out how to live in it 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause even the ceiling is closer than I remember now 🎵
🎵 But the brewer is stronger than the brew 🎵
🎵 That means that I am taller than the roof, babe 🎵
🎵 Maybe I just shook something loose 🎵
🎵 But take a look at this floor 🎵
🎵 And I’ve been makin’ it levitate 🎵
🎵 Levitate with my mind 🎵
🎵 And ooh I’ve been makin’ it levitate 🎵
🎵 With my mind 🎵
🎵 Whoa, yeah 🎵
[bluesy electric guitar music]
🎵 I heard some voices in my mind 🎵
🎵 Long enough to keep my brain on me 🎵
🎵 But they’re refusin’ since I didn’t stay 🎵
🎵 I should be free 🎵
🎵 Yeah 🎵
🎵 With my mind 🎵
🎵 And ooh I’ve been making it levitate 🎵
🎵 Levitate with my mind 🎵
[rapid guitar strumming]
Thank you very much.
[cheers and applause]
[“Unwavering” by Rainbow Girls]
[gentle electric guitar music]
Erin Chapin: Right here🎵
🎵 I made my bed 🎵
🎵 Now it’s time to say goodnight 🎵
🎵 But he called me 🎵
🎵 I made my bed 🎵
🎵 Now it’s time to say goodbye 🎵
🎵 But he called me baby 🎵
[gentle electric guitar music]
🎵 I sold my seeds 🎵
🎵 Now I’m reapin’ the grief 🎵
🎵 But I’m lonely 🎵
🎵 As your garden grows 🎵
🎵 I pretend not to notice 🎵
🎵 My faith recedin’ back 🎵
🎵 Back 🎵
🎵 And you said 🎵
🎵 Eventually love ruins everything 🎵
🎵 I just wish 🎵
🎵 My attitude was unwaverin’ 🎵
🎵 Waverin’ 🎵
🎵 Unwaverin’ 🎵
🎵 Unwaverin’ 🎵
🎵 Unwaverin’ 🎵
🎵 I made my bed 🎵
🎵 Now it’s time to say goodnight 🎵
🎵 But he called me 🎵
🎵 I made my bed 🎵
🎵 Now it’s time to say goodbye 🎵
🎵 But he called me 🎵
🎵 Baby 🎵
[cheers and applause]
There’s so many different ways to experience Mile of Music that you can make the experience your own.
[groovy rock music]
There’s so many different options of what you can do, which I think is part of the beauty of it.
[“Forever” by The Tunes]
🎵 I started to think 🎵
🎵 This was forever 🎵
🎵 Love just you and I 🎵
🎵 We’d be together 🎵
One of the great strengths of downtown Appleton is its walkability and the feeling of being able to move from a shop to a restaurant to a bar to an outside space.
Anything is a venue. Anything and everywhere is a venue.
The Tunes:🎵 I 🎵
Just, like, go downtown at, like, 10:00 A.M. and start walking around.
Asher Putnam: Maybe it’s not, like, the spot usually you would go to. Like, we’re here behind, like, a bar and just hanging out, and they let it go. Like, people from all walks of life. Doesn’t matter where you’re from, like, just let it go, head bang a bit, bounce a bit, have a good time.
[“Aching Bones” by Bella’s Bartok]
[energetic rock music]
🎵 Don’t be afraid to ask for more 🎵
🎵 He’s not around here like before 🎵
🎵 Pushin’ or pull if it feels right 🎵
🎵 I’m not gunning for this fight 🎵
🎵 If you were walkin’ in my shoes 🎵
🎵 Just be prepared I sometimes lose 🎵
🎵 As you follow in my steps 🎵
🎵 Keep in mind these words I said 🎵
🎵 One for the road 🎵
🎵 Sleep when we’re dead 🎵
🎵 Never alone 🎵
🎵 When lost with your friends 🎵
🎵 Lyin’ beside you 🎵
🎵 Sleepless in bed 🎵
🎵 How will you know 🎵
🎵 If I leave it unsaid 🎵
🎵 Ooh 🎵
🎵 It’s just how it goes 🎵
🎵 Ooh 🎵
🎵 This life that we chose 🎵
🎵 Oh 🎵
🎵 So on with the show 🎵
[gentle keyboard music]
[cheers and applause]
I think the variety of venues is, it’s one of the things that makes the festival unique, but I think it’s also one of the things that helps create the atmosphere of, like, discovery, because you might be seeing someone you’ve never heard before in a place that’s never even hosted a show before, with people who’ve also never heard this band or this artist.
[“The Riverbed” by Christopher Gold]
🎵 Longer blinks but I’m still not sleepin’ 🎵
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
🎵 I found a lotta holes but I dug no graves 🎵
🎵 It rusts in the water where it rests so sweetly 🎵
🎵 Laid down in the sand of the riverbed 🎵
🎵 I made a run with just a dollar to my name 🎵
🎵 Hopin’ someday I could turn it into 10 🎵
🎵 I found each place that I came across was just the same 🎵
🎵 Familiar faces chased me 🎵
🎵 They just had different names 🎵
🎵 And fear became 🎵
🎵 The name I gave my faith 🎵
🎵 And that faith gave me away 🎵
🎵 Their fear became 🎵
🎵 The name I gave my faith 🎵
🎵 And that faith gave me away 🎵
🎵 I made a run 🎵
🎵 With just a dollar to my name 🎵
🎵 Hopin’ someday I could turn it into 10 🎵
🎵 I found each place that I came across 🎵
🎵 Was just the same 🎵
🎵 Familiar faces chased me 🎵
🎵 They just had different names 🎵
Ian: So from a fan’s perspective, it’s just really the ability to come to our downtown and then just go into venues. And if you don’t like something, you can go right next door. But there’s definitely gonna be something you’re going to like. I think we guarantee it. This festival generates music that is for everyone, for all members of the community as well.
Christopher: Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
[“Swade and Antoine Intro” by Twan Mack]
[upbeat hip-hop music]
🎵 Listen it’s a-a simple snare 🎵
🎵 A simple kick a simple hat 🎵
🎵 I’m singing foreign, I’m never born, I really rap 🎵
🎵 Controller boy take your queen 🎵
🎵 It’s chess and never checkers 🎵
🎵 You twist inherently wrong, I call you Chubby Checker 🎵
🎵 The novelist who wrote “Marvelous” he is not returned 🎵
🎵 I turn your [record scratch] into ashes 🎵
🎵 Leave you in the urn 🎵
🎵 They put me in your division so now we’re dominating 🎵
🎵 I’m known as one of the best, though I’m not nominated 🎵
We just kind of walk from Jones Park to Houdini Plaza and down to Lawrence, just kind of hit that loop. If we don’t like the band, then we move on. If we like ’em, we stay.
🎵 She like to hear the wind blow 🎵
🎵 Uh huh uh huh 🎵
🎵 So she rolls on down the window 🎵
🎵 Uh huh uh huh 🎵
🎵 Can’t remember how to let it go 🎵
🎵 Uh huh uh huh 🎵
🎵 But I’m ready ready set to know 🎵
[hard rock music]
I think a fairly accurate description would be a musical walk in the park. You know, everyone just kind of congregates and just casually goes from place to place. Check out a band for 20 minutes and then 30 minutes, walk to the next one.
It’s so fun to try to figure out how to cram as much music as you can into four days, and then realize that your schedule is gonna fall apart somewhere, and it’s gonna lead you into, or the festival will lead you into something absolutely amazing. It happens every year.
[“When You Get Home, Please Write Me a Few of Your Lines” by Scott H. Biram]
[bluesy electric guitar music]
🎵 Baby when you get home 🎵
🎵 Unh 🎵
🎵 Hey won’t you sit down and write me a few of your lines 🎵
🎵 Baby when you get home 🎵
🎵 Mm hmm hmm mm mm 🎵
🎵 Whoo hoo 🎵
🎵 Won’t you sit down and write me a few of your lines 🎵
🎵 That’ll be a consolation 🎵
🎵 Yeah 🎵
🎵 Mama for my worried mind 🎵
🎵 Whoa 🎵
🎵 Baby 🎵
🎵 Unh 🎵
[bluesy electric guitar music]
[cheers and applause]
I had to pull that one out, man.
[guitar strumming]
Thank you.
There are people who have very specific, favorite ways that they like to enjoy music. And there are people who, like myself, who like a lot of variety. And I love a great listening room. And I also love a packed, crowded, hot club with a loud band.
[“Pack It Up” by Diet Lite]
[upbeat hard rock music]
🎵 Turn me over when I’m done 🎵
🎵 I’ll be here anyhow 🎵
🎵 I’m your roaster coaster down payment 🎵
🎵 A real kick in the mouth 🎵
[upbeat hard rock music]
🎵 Pack it up 🎵
🎵 Pack it up 🎵
🎵 Pack it up, pack it up, pack it up 🎵
[upbeat hard rock music]
[cheers and applause]
Max Niemann: It’s been high octane, high energy, heartwarming.
Evan Marsalli: Great mashed potatoes.
We’re so happy to be here.
Kelson Kuzdas: Very welcoming.
Great mashed potatoes, great prime rib.
[groovy music]
Mile of Music is very artist focused and community forward. We pride ourselves on taking care of the artists 100% from the time we initially make contact with them all the way through ’til when they leave.
Jake Cochran: From the moment we booked it to getting on site, we feel really taken care of. The logistics are super smooth and easy. There’s a sign-up sheet for a free massage. There’s amazing food ready for us anytime we want it. It’s a pretty prime place to be.
Mac Inglis: There’s an artist care program here that includes things ranging from dental care to chiropractic care to massages to tons of free food.
Getting some hearing tests, even being able to get your hair cut, those are things that you just never really have access to at a lot of festivals.
Regina Strayhorn: We enthusiastically signed up for a dental appointment.
Sydney Shepherd: Yeah, we’re all going to the dentist tomorrow.
And massage therapy.
Vanessa Wilbourn: I had my ears tested today. She is not going deaf, grateful for that.
I went to the chiropractor earlier on the company dime. We’re playing with house money tonight, baby.
Mike Savino: I’d say we feel very appreciated here.
Josiah Wolf: That’s what I had heard about the festival before. That’s all I heard about it was free health care. My friend who was here, he’s like, “Oh, man, you could get a massage and your eyes checked and your ears, get custom earplugs.” I’m like, “Oh, that sounds nice.”
Tracy McNeil: We got our hearing checked today, and we got, like, free molded ear plugs that are gonna be shipped out to us. It’s really cool, it’s really cool. And they really look after you. It’s such a great vibe.
[“Way with Words” by Minor Gold]
[gentle acoustic guitar music]
🎵 You can wake me from a bad dream 🎵
🎵 Tied to tracks on the silver screen 🎵
🎵 But I ain’t livin’ in a movie 🎵
🎵 You help me to believe 🎵
🎵 When my world’s goin’ under 🎵
🎵 You pull me into your thunder 🎵
🎵 With sands shiftin’ from below me 🎵
🎵 You help me to believe 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause you 🎵
🎵 Got a way with words 🎵
🎵 When the night is never endin’ 🎵
🎵 You can make it like a slow dance 🎵
🎵 Got me livin’ in the moment 🎵
🎵 You helped me to believe 🎵
🎵 When I’m tired of bein’ down and wanna give up 🎵
🎵 Everybody’s sayin’ what I got ain’t enough 🎵
🎵 Tired of this game and no way to win 🎵
🎵 You helped me to believe when I’m fallin’ again 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause you 🎵
🎵 Got a way with words 🎵
Dan Parsons: Being on the road for a long time, like, you have, like, you have good nights and bad nights. It’s like, you know, 50/50. But, like, coming to a festival like this, like, every night seems to kind of be like, just like a treasure.
Tracy: It’s great. People are, like, up for it. And they just give you that energy back. Whatever you put out, they give right back.
Yeah.
And it just keeps the fire going. It’s, yeah, we’ve been so, so lucky.
🎵 Everywhere I turn I feel your eyes on me 🎵
🎵 But I can never reach ya 🎵
[bright acoustic guitar music]
🎵 And I’m not sure what I’ll find 🎵
🎵 If I dare to cross that line 🎵
🎵 Ahh 🎵
🎵 You 🎵
🎵 Shine like gold when you’ve won 🎵
🎵 You found your place in the sun 🎵
🎵 And ain’t it good for everyone 🎵
🎵 You 🎵
🎵 You break the ice beneath my feet 🎵
🎵 When you’re on a losing streak 🎵
🎵 You know you’ve just been beat 🎵
🎵 You can’t turn the other cheek 🎵
🎵 Lookin’ at the stars I saw a face 🎵
🎵 I thought it was the Mona Lisa 🎵
🎵 Looking at the stars I saw a face 🎵
🎵 I thought it was the Mona Lisa 🎵
[cheers and applause]
Dan: Thanks, y’all.
[reverberating electronic sound]
Jake: It’s like every audience, there’s gonna be a couple people who know us. But a lot of it is new people. A lot of it are people who have just heard that we’re a cool band to see, or a friend said, “Go check these guys out,” or whatever. And we definitely come from a perspective of we want to win every audience over. Every show really, really matters to us. And to, like, watch the faces of people who are seeing us for the first time kind of light up throughout the show is really a special thing.
[“Blood Lines” by Illiterate Light]
[hard rock music]
🎵 Brother holding brother 🎵
🎵 As our tears fall from the open sky 🎵
🎵 Give me one good reason why one man lives and one man dies 🎵
🎵 Carrying his body, broken cold like it was that night 🎵
🎵 Brother holding brother and I’ll never turn my back 🎵
🎵 Hard times 🎵
🎵 Will never break 🎵
🎵 These blood lines 🎵
🎵 No 🎵
🎵 Okay 🎵
We have a very unique performance style. I’m playing a synthesizer with my feet, and then I’m playing guitar and singing and really jumping around stage as much as I can. And then, of course, Jake is standing up while he’s playing drums, and he’s at the front of the stage with me. We’re fully right on top of the audience.
🎵 Stay strong 🎵
🎵 I’m comin’ for ya 🎵
🎵 Runnin’ through the night 🎵
🎵 Hang on 🎵
🎵 I’m runnin’ for ya 🎵
🎵 Runnin’ through the night 🎵
🎵 And I said, hard times 🎵
🎵 They’ll never break 🎵
🎵 These blood lines 🎵
🎵 These blood lines 🎵
🎵 These blood lines 🎵
[cheers and applause]
How we feeling🎵
[cheers and applause]
All right🎵
[bright mandolin music]
Melissa: Musicians are our voice, our communication, our presentation to the world. And so I think musicians and art in general, all creatives help those of us who need a little bit more help in our expression feel connected.
[groovy saxophone music]
I think what we do well here at Mile of Music is we do allow that fan engagement. It’s all part of our identity. And again, these artists, as developing artists, emerging artists, they wanna have access to the fans, to greet the fans at the merch table.
Fan: You guys are awesome.
Ian: Fans love the idea of being able to walk down the street and see the artists walking by them, and strike up a conversation with them.
Is this your first time in Wisconsin🎵
Yeah🎵
Abby: Meeting all these fans and being able to connect after the show, and they care and they show up even if they don’t know who you are, so everyone has honestly just shown up with nothing but kindness and compassion and genuine curiosity and care for music.
You guys just absolutely–you’re my happy place.
Oh, thank you so much.
Bryce Rabideau: People are extremely friendly and supportive, and considering this is entirely original music all week, and the fact that people are just here to listen to what we do and make is amazing.
Ben: Everybody treated us with such a level of respect. They have such a different way, appreciation for music, I think, which you don’t necessarily get everywhere that you play.
Appleton, what’s up🎵 Kind of get a vibe of the town, and, you know, all the people, and people are recognizing us all over the place, which is kind of fun, and…
It’s a different– Audiences are more engaged than some festivals. They really wanna listen to the music. They’re there to party, also, but the ratio of party to listen to music is a little, a little higher on the music side than some festivals.
🎵 I wish that I could make it 🎵
🎵 Stop 🎵
[“How Did It Get Dark So Fast🎵” by Tall Tall Trees]
[high-energy alternative rock music]
🎵 I was afraid that I let you down 🎵
🎵 Changing my story and losing my sound 🎵
🎵 Oh, it seems so simple when you’re around 🎵
🎵 A year within the day 🎵
🎵 If you want me to stay then I will stay 🎵
🎵 I’ll stay 🎵
[high-energy alternative rock music]
I mean, I feel like anywhere we go, we always kind of get to surprise people with what we’re doing, since we’re kind of, like, have a very unique sound. And, you know, not a lot of people play banjo in the way that I do. And Josiah, you know, and his drums and modular synthesizer setup. You know, we have, we make a lot of noise for two people and try and keep it fun. And, you know, we can bring some joy to some folks out there, and just have a good time.
[“Say Something Real” by Tall Tall Trees]
[cheers and applause]
[bright banjo and percussion music]
🎵 I was in the front seat you were in the back 🎵
🎵 She was in the middle oh sitting on your lap 🎵
🎵 West of California staring down the sun 🎵
🎵 The sky it was a prism and heaven came undone 🎵
🎵 It feels like the end and we’ve only begun 🎵
Clap your hands!
🎵 You’re comin’ and goin’ and walkin’ and talkin’ 🎵
🎵 And playin’ a foolish game 🎵
🎵 I was lookin’ at her lookin’ at you lookin’ at me 🎵
🎵 We could be another couple in love 🎵
🎵 And then wonderin’ what’s your name 🎵
🎵 I want you to go, want you to stay 🎵
🎵 Want you to say something real yeah 🎵
🎵 Say something real yeah 🎵
[high-energy banjo and percussion music]
[cheers and applause]
[“Born Again” by Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons]
[upbeat rock music]
🎵 I’ve been livin’ in a motel of sin 🎵
🎵 Well, I wouldn’t trade my life for the one you were livin’ 🎵
🎵 I’ve been walkin’ that long mile again 🎵
🎵 ‘Cause I’d never fit the shoes like the ones you were given 🎵
🎵 Yes we all lose ourselves in the end 🎵
🎵 We all just wanna get high, won’t you help me friend 🎵
🎵 And did you ever see that sun come shinin’ in 🎵
🎵 Well, then get born again 🎵
Corey Chisel: I think that artists like playing Mile of Music because you’re gonna see people in the audiences that you are dumbfounded are enjoying the music the way and to the level that they are enjoying it. It’s not like a little bit of enjoying. It’s a lot of bit of enjoying.
[upbeat rock music]
🎵 I’ve been feelin’ like my old self again 🎵
🎵 Because mama didn’t raise me to be no victim 🎵
[cheers and applause]
Let’s go.
[“Runaway” by Buffalo Rose]
🎵 Oh no no no 🎵
[upbeat folk music]
🎵 I don’t wanna run away 🎵
🎵 Mm mm 🎵
🎵 You got your questions you don’t like my answers 🎵
🎵 I talk in circles ’cause I can’t get straight 🎵
🎵 I do resemble what I can’t remember 🎵
🎵 I do remember ’cause it just can’t wait 🎵
🎵 You know they say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it 🎵
🎵 I know you think it’s just a cool cliché 🎵
🎵 I know you always think you know what I’m always thinkin’ 🎵
🎵 I think you’re always wrong but honey that’s okay 🎵
🎵 No 🎵
🎵 No no no 🎵
🎵 Mm 🎵
🎵 Mmm 🎵
🎵 I don’t wanna run away 🎵
🎵 Forever’s just a long long way to go 🎵
🎵 Oh oh ohh 🎵
🎵 I’m sick of plannin’ everything 🎵
🎵 Reality is just a daydream 🎵
🎵 A daydream 🎵
🎵 Don’t let go 🎵
🎵 Oh oh ohh 🎵
Give it a break, come on!
🎵 I don’t wanna run away 🎵
[cheers and applause]
[bright acoustic music]
The way that the community has bought into this festival is what makes us what we are. And I think there’s that sense of pride and ownership in developing Mile of Music into what it has become.
[cheers and applause]
We have about 650 volunteers each year. We also have community sponsors to help keep it a free festival. And I think that’s a really big, important reflection of Appleton.
Dave: For artists to come here, to want to make their way here, we have to be that beacon. We have to be that oasis where they say, “Oh, we have to stop in Appleton on our tour,” or, “We have to get to Appleton for Mile of Music.”
Music is connection, and this is an experience that we have all, all of us, the entire community has curated to welcome creatives and music lovers.
That’s the power of live music. It brings us all together. It transcends us and genuinely makes us happier and better people.
[“Trouble” by Jeremie Albino]
[gritty blues rock music]
[bluesy harmonica music]
🎵 I’ve been drinkin’ 🎵
🎵 Sure do fight 🎵
🎵 I’ve been gamblin’ 🎵
🎵 All the night 🎵
🎵 Well 🎵
🎵 That trouble won’t leave me alone 🎵
🎵 Well, I’ll be leavin’ 🎵
🎵 Won’t see this face no more 🎵
🎵 All that honey 🎵
🎵 All that gin 🎵
🎵 All that money 🎵
🎵 All the sin 🎵
🎵 Well 🎵
🎵 That trouble won’t leave me alone 🎵
No!
[gritty blues rock music]
🎵 All that honey 🎵
🎵 All that gin 🎵
🎵 All that money 🎵
🎵 All the sin 🎵
🎵 I’ve been drinkin’ 🎵
🎵 Sure do fight 🎵
🎵 I’ve been gamblin’ 🎵
🎵 All the night 🎵
🎵 I’ve done wrong 🎵
🎵 I can’t right 🎵
🎵 I’ll be leavin’ 🎵
🎵 Here tonight yeah 🎵
[gritty blues rock music]
🎵 Well 🎵
🎵 Trouble will you leave me alone 🎵
[guitar ending note]
Thank you so much, everyone. Mile of Music, what a festival, eh?
[cheers and applause]
[“Rolling Down the 405” by Jeremie Albino]
[groovy blues rock music]
🎵 Said Jimmy left me high and dry 🎵
🎵 Haulin’ down the 405 🎵
🎵 Now there’s nothing left for me to say 🎵
🎵 Might get lucky and go fly away 🎵
🎵 Yeah I’ll be rollin’ 🎵
🎵 Rollin’ down the 405 🎵
🎵 Ah da da da 🎵
🎵 Come on girl 🎵
🎵 I am rolling 🎵
[groovy blues rock music]
Thank you!
[cheers and applause]
Narrator: Funding for Mile of Music is provided in part by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Elizabeth Olson in memory of Modesta Olson, the Community Vision Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau, TDS Telecom, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin. Lodging, catering, and production spaces for Mile of Music is provided in part by Hilton Appleton Paper Valley, Appleton Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, Telmark Sales Solutions, Inc., Heirloom Kitchen, and by…
Extras
‘Everywhere you turn, there’s music’
Wish you could have been there? Take a front row seat with these 32 performances recorded live at the 2024 festival, ranging from soulful Americana to folk rock to puppet-based heavy metal. Discover new artists to add to your playlist!
360° Video Experience
The Tunes
The Tunes bring a blend of soul, funk, groove and rock to the Fox River House during Mile of Music 2024. Recorded as an immersive 360° video, their performance showcases their song “New Situation.”
Funding
Funding for “Mile of Music” is provided in part by the Wooden Nickel Fund, Elizabeth Olson, in memory of Modesta Olson, the Community Vision Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, TDS Telecom, donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
Lodging, catering and production spaces for “Mile of Music” provided in part by Hilton Appleton Paper Valley, Appleton Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, Telmark Sales Solutions, Heirloom Kitchen, St. Joseph Parish and History Museum at the Castle.
Behind the Scenes
Live from Appleton
Follow the PBS Wisconsin crew as they capture the performances and vibe that make this Appleton festival unique.