The Spring Green venue looks to get out of its comfort zone with a show on August 31.

It might seem sometimes like Wisconsin winters will never end, but fear not! In a surefire sign of approaching summer, the Shitty Barn’s new season schedule has dropped.

Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. To some it’s a mystery, to others it’s their favorite weird place to see live music. 

When the Mekons teamed up with Freakwater, of course they called themselves the Freakons. As they’ve joked, the other option was Meekwater, a far less formidable-sounding portmanteau.

Spring Green venue the Shitty Barn, which has become a live-music staple for Madisonians in the summer and fall, rolled out its 2017 schedule on Friday night.

Where do you go to fall in love with your new favorite band? The Midwest is a good start. Cozy lounges, barnyard stages and more curate a diverse music scene sure to please any fan. Take a tour of our favorite venues.

Buffalo Gospel sounds a lot like their name; their soulful country western has the twang of rural Montana with the soul of a church choir.

Spring Green’s Shitty Barn is poised to become the shit again.

The Spring Green venue's season begins May 4 with Sonny Night And The Lakers.

At the end of the 2015 season, Shitty Barn co-founder Chris Staples announced that he was stepping away from day to day management of the Barn. Spring Green-ers Mike Lashua, Allen DeSchepper and Jason Frazier were among the small group of Barn friends that volunteered to continue the work that Staples started “quite by accident” back in 2010.  Lashua, DeSchepper and Frazier split up booking duties between them for the 25-gig season. Lashua is also a veteran Barn sound man. Frazier will be tending to the Barn’s facility and maintenance needs. And DeSchepper will be responsible for filling Staples’s shoes in the “hospitality” department, which he defines as “keeping the bands and the people happy.”    

On a July night that verged on an overcast fall evening, the Spring Green venue’s second Mystery Barn Session hosted the Dayton-founded, Austin-based, garage bluesquartet that’s no stranger to Madison

Rolling from Madison to Spring Green’s Shitty Barn is a pleasure indeed, casting off the summer construction and surrounding traffic of Wisconsin’s capitol into the territory of Taliesin and the American Players Theater. 

Check out this nice article about our venue in the Isthums.

Many good friends of the Barn are also friends and gainful employees of our great big neighbor Lands' End.  Recently, we had the great good fortune of being featured on the Lands' End blog.  There are some great photos!  Take a peek!

Emily Eggleston showed up at the Shitty Barn Party in 2012 with a video camera and a plan.  The culmination of her effort features an academic legitimization of our Shitty name!  BONUS!

Hillary Sprecher, semi-local, self-styled music wonk paints a heart-felt picture of the Barn Sessions.

Photography + Video: Christopher Paul Stelling & Pioneer at Sh*tty Barn Sessions (Spring Green, WI)

Margaret Stutt gives the Shitty Barn a big hug in her 2011 Favorite Things blog post.