White Oak Festival 2026
Lineup
HENHOUSE PROWLERS
With many of their wildest dreams strung across two decades as an outfit, the HENHOUSE PROWLERS‘ sight remains fixed on the future.
It’s been 20 years well spent. The kinship between Ben Wright (banjo, vocals), Chris Dollar (guitar, vocals), Jon Goldfine (bass, vocals), and Jake Howard (mandolin, vocals) is palpable, the four having traveled to places most touring musicians could never predict. Using these experiences as a foundation, there’s truly no limit to where this Chicago-based quartet will go – literally and figuratively.
Ever constant in the group’s enthralling performances is their ability to showcase their passion for both their craft and our shared humanity. Each member skilled in storytelling, compelling songwriting and intricate instrumentation, they fervently build on one another’s raw talent, always finding a way to deeply connect with their audiences. Their curiosity and innovation lands the Prowlers in a category difficult to define but explosively intriguing around every bend.
Jali Kunda
Jali Kunda is a dynamic ensemble led by brothers Mamadu and Abdu, dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich musical heritage of West Africa, Senegal. As a master drummer and griot storyteller, Mamadu brings the heartbeat of Africa to life through powerful rhythms and interactive performances. Abdu, a skilled kora player, weaves enchanting melodies that transport listeners to the heart of Senegal’s griot traditions.
Chris Walz
Nationally acclaimed bluegrass multi-instrumentalist Chris Walz combines a joy of performing with a reverence for America’s musical story. Chris perfected his Scruggs-style banjo playing and guitar flatpicking at a young age as he diligently studied all his musical heroes from Pete Seeger to Mississippi John Hurt to Woody Guthrie to Dave Van Ronk. Whether it is his lightning speed on the banjo’s fretboard, his hard hitting grooves on the guitar or his tender melodic touch on the mandolin, Chris delivers a fulfilling performance. To top it off, Chris is an extraordinary singer, using his rich voice to buoy up a traditional ballad, a unique original composition, or a rousing ‘tear down the house’ bluegrass medley. His many years touring with bluegrass, Grammy nominated Special Consensus, honed his group and solo prowess. A natural born storyteller, Chris has a masterful presence as he weaves his songs and remembrances, one to the next, into a night of music that is not easily forgotten. Chris is a gifted and much sought after teacher at the historic Old Town School of Folk Music and spreads his knowledge and love of music in each community he plays in with well-polished workshops. A rare combination of past and present, Chris is playing music for the future.
Jonas Friddle
Jonas Friddle is a singer, songwriter and Old-Time banjo player whose songs have received The John Lennon Songwriting Award, First Place in the Great American Song Contest and a nomination for Album of the Year in the Independent Music Awards. His tunes bear the marks of a musician who has done his time in pub sessions and square dance halls, and his writing is full of imagery, honesty and humor.
“[Friddle] deftly explores just about every nook and cranny of modern folk, from revivalist antique appropriation to protest songs to modern love songs...put Friddle in the conversation with established leaders like Josh Ritter, Joe Pug and Justin Townes Earle” - Independent Clauses
“Lyrical Miracles”
- New City Music
Wild Western Avenue
Wild Western Avenue is a Chicago-based outfit that unites classic country, traditional jazz, western swing, jug band, and folk music to create a genre self-described as “cowboy jazz.”
The five-piece formed over the course of a year after frontman Scott Cary moved to Chicago in 2023. Most members met at the Banjo After Dark old-time jam on the city’s north side.
Their influences include Leon Redbone, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Bob Wills, among other classic country greats. During one of their sets, you might hear a Hank Williams cover, a countrified jazz standard, or one of several original songs.
Though the group’s lineup is fluid, core members include Cary (lead vocalist), Kevin Doyle (bass), Chelsea Dvorchak (viola), Elliott Esparza (lead guitar), and Matt Uribe (violin). Following the February 2026 release of their debut EP, Animal Tracks, the group continues to play shows across the Midwest.
Adam Sperber
A fiddler and multi-instrumentalist from the Mid-Missouri riverlands, Adam draws on his classical roots to make as much genre-bending bluegrass noise as possible across the greater Chicago area. A devotee of Billy Strings, Nina Simone, Chris Thile, and the Bee Gees, Adam can currently be found in Lincoln Square teaching private lessons and playing with groups such as Grassfed Collective and the Greasy Skillet Jug Band. He has also been known to cook a solid stew.
Trevor McSpadden
Trevor McSpadden worked Central Texas dance halls before perfecting a sophisticated honky-tonk sound in the nightclubs of Chicago. Moving to San Diego in early 2014, Trevor quickly became a fixture on the California country circuit, fronting small combos of ace musicians up and down the coast. Now based out of Saint Paul, Minnesota, McSpadden plays alone and acoustic. He's unamplified and unencumbered; delicate, but not precious; rocking hard, while hardly rocking.
Mark Dvorak
When singer songwriter Mark Dvorak began his career in music he knew rightaway he’d be in it for the long haul. Thirty-five years later Mark is still writing,recording and on the road performing. “At this stage of the game,” said the singer from his home outside Chicago, Illinois, “I feel like I’m doing my best work.”
The Chicago Tribune called him “masterful,” and the Fox Valley Folk Festivaldescribes him as “a living archive of song and style.” In 2012 WFMT 98.7 fm Midnight Special host Rich Warren named him Chicago’s “official troubadour.” Mark has given concerts in almost all of the United States and has made visits to Finland, Canada and Ireland. To date he has released twenty albums of traditional, Americana and original song including 2020s acclaimed Let LoveGo On and 2024s Live & Alone. Dvorak has won awards for children’s music, journalism and was honored in 2013 with the FARM Lantern Bearer Award from Folk Alliance International. In 2008 he received the Woodstock Folk Festival Lifetime Achievement Award.
Buds and Shoots
Look out, here comes BUDS & SHOOTS. You’ll get walloped by their joyful straight-from-the-heart sound, their soaring interpretations of old-time string band tunes tinged with Vaudevillian novelty, flanked by snappy honky tonk hits, sweet originals, and four part powerhouse vocals.
BUDS & SHOOTS have appeared mainstage at Chicago's Square Roots Fest, Roscoe Fest, Skokie's Back Lot Bash, Wisconsin's White Oak Folk Fest, at Evanston SPACE, Old Town School of Folk Music, and at multiple events, fashion shows and dances throughout the Midwest.
BUDS & SHOOTS are: Barb Silverman “Folk Festival in a Box” on solid rhythm guitar, washboard, bones and feet; Fred Campeau's on-fire fiddle and beyond-sweet dobro; “Folk and Country Buddha" Steve Rosen’s ever-driving banjo; Mary Tabatowski’s precise impeccable mandolin; Ross Plunkett’s daredevil earth-rumbling trumpet; Aaron Smith’s smooth plucked and bowed bass. Collectively these partners have performed on national radio, festival and club stages across the country and as far as Europe and Australia.