Concert: Nate Gibson & The Stardazers
Y’all Come: Starday Records in Story and Song
Nate Gibson & The Stardazers, with special guests Art Stevenson & Eddie Rivers
Saturday, March 8, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue
Free and Open to the Public
Join UW–Madison archivist, ethnomusicologist, and folklorist Nate Gibson for a night of stories and songs from his 20+ years of research spotlighting the Starday Records label. Known best for releasing the earliest recordings by George Jones, Roger Miller, Link Wray, and Willie Nelson, Starday became country music’s largest independent record company in the 1950s and ‘60s. Gibson wrote the award-winning book The Starday Story (University Press of Mississippi), and his fieldwork continues to promote the label’s living artists and their significant country, honky-tonk, rockabilly, bluegrass, gospel, and old-time music contributions.
Alongside Gibson, the Stardazers (Andrew Harrison, “Spider” Mike Hobson, and Eric Salisbury) have been spreading the Starday gospel throughout the Upper Midwest and will be bringing their electrifying talents to the Hamel Music Center on Saturday, March 8. Joined by renowned special guests Eddie Rivers (Asleep at the Wheel, Best Westerns) and Art Stevenson (Art Stevenson & High Water), Gibson and company will present “Y’all Come: Starday Records in Story and Song,” a tribute to classic country music, the never-ending fieldwork process, and why this music matters (and to whom).
The western extravaganza, sponsored by UW–Madison Libraries, the Mead Witter School of Music, and the Folklore Program in German, Nordic, and Slavic+, kicks off at 7:30 pm and is free of charge to both campus and community members.
About the Artist:
“Nate Gibson is a man I admire and a rare bird, indeed. Nate is a singer, picker, explorer, preservationist, musical scholar, author and all around natural born cat. His mission during this chapter of his life is mining the legacy of the eternally hip Starday Records and its stars of the 1950s-1960s, re-energizing the brand and bringing the Starday story into the presence of a newly minted twenty-first-century audience.” – Marty Stuart, Country Music Hall of Famer
