Dragon Wagon

Dragon Wagon Rolls Back Home after a Summer on the Road

In a time when rock n’ roll is on life-support and pop music still dominates the radio, it seems that roots and bluegrass music has had new life breathed into it in recent years. And thanks to the popularity of summer festivals like Electric Forest, The Michigan Roots Jamboree and Hoxeyville, Michigan has established itself at the forefront of this revival.

One of the most creative acts to ride this wave of popularity is Ann Arbor’s own Dragon Wagon, who describe their sound as “Bluegrass folk rock with a shot of Irish whiskey.” Putting on one of the most infectious and dance-friendly shows around, Dragon Wagon spent this summer touring across the Midwest—including numerous regular gigs in their hometown of Ann Arbor—and ending their 3,500 mile journey at Electric Forest in Rothbury, Mich.

“It was more incredible than you could ever imagine,” reflects fiddle player/vocalist Diana Ladio. “Just the thrill and buzz of getting to play with some of the bands and people we’ve been idolizing for a long time was such a great experience.”

Signing on with the Ann Arbor-based label, Oddfellow Music, Dragon Wagon has released a self-titled LP and a live album recorded at The Ark. But there is plenty more on the horizon. “We’re a live band,” says guitarist/vocalist Don Schneider, “Even when we go into the studio, we cut everything live.”

This live sound is evident in their latest single, “County Line,” available for download at Oddfellowmusic.com. “Our goal over the next year is to get at least one new song out every month for people to download. We plan to release four EP’s and then, at the end of that period, put together a compilation album as sort of a greatest hits LP.”

The current lineup of Dragon Wagon has been together for over a year now. Starting with Don Schneider and Troy Stanley Radikin (mandolin/voc), the band has grown to include Diana Ladio (fiddle/voc), Rich Delcamp (banjo/voc), Dan Hildebrandt (bass), and Fitz McGirr (percussion).

“We pretty much came together through friends and being involved in the local music scene,” says Schneider. “Fritz and Dan both knew each other from U of M music school, and, from there, it all just kind of happened.”

Occasionally covering tunes from folk/bluegrass legends like Norman Blake, Buck Owens and The Grateful Dead, the band pulls influences from a variety of places. “We all listen to different kinds of music,” says Schneider, “and we look for ways to incorporate it into what we do as a band.” When asked what was playing in their cars on the way to their show later that night at Circus, it was obvious that they are devout followers of the local music scene, each mentioning bands along the lines of Black Jake and the Carnies, The Ragbirds and The Macpods. That is, with one exception. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a radio or anything in my car at this point,” laments Radikin, laughing. “But maybe I’ll be able to get one after a few more shows.”

When asked about the seemingly rejuvenated folk/bluegrass scene in Michigan, the band says that they are seeing it all over the country. “Nationally, you’ve got bluegrass bands that are really coming out and doing well like The Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons,” says Schneider. “And I think it goes beyond just music,” suggests Ladio. “I think a lot of the popularity of it in this area has to do with the whole localism and organic movement, and I think acoustic music kind of goes hand-in-hand with that. People are anxious just to take it back to the roots.”

Including regular gigs at The Ark, the band was particularly excited about two upcoming shows when I spoke with them—the annual Earth Tones benefit for the League of Conservation Voters on September 22at The Ark, and an October 15 show with the Kalamazoo-based band, Funktion, at Gracies in Ann Arbor. You can also catch upcoming shows on October 6 at Wolverine Brewing Company and on November 2 during Bluegrass Night at Circus in downtown Ann Arbor.

To download Dragon Wagon’s albums, including their latest single, “County Line,” visit OddFellowMusic.com and DragonWagonBand.com.

Click here to view an exclusive live video of the band performing “County Line.”




- Ispy

Next up after the Carnies was a band that I’ve become very familiar with recently called Dragon Wagon. (@dragonwagonband) Don, the frontman for Dragon Wagon does a great job of putting on this festival every year, so they really have a lot of great things going on aside from their amazing music. They are quickly becoming one the must see musical acts coming out of this area, performing at festivals and concerts all over the country and gaining new starry-eyed fans everywhere they go. They are such a great example of the level of talent we have all come to expect from this region, and I expect they will go very far.

- Detroit Underground

Ann Arbor’s own Dragon Wagon continues the recent Michigan trend of young artists playing the traditional folk music of a bygone generation. But the six-piece breaks away from the rest of the pack with its update on Americana and Celtic music. The banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and upright bass rock heavy, while the harmonies soar with an immediacy that is best experienced live at a local watering hole. The band has released a self-titled six-song EP and a live recording of a recent performance at The Ark. Those recordings consist mostly of traditional songs with an occasional original, further proving that it doesn’t matter when or where Dragon Wagon is from, but rather only that the audience members likes the band’s music loud and their whiskey glasses full. - A.V. Club Ann Arbor

Every summer there's one band that seems to appear everywhere around Washtenaw County, and if you wanted to track the youth zeitgeist you could start by making a list of them. Right now an old bluegrasser like me can take great pleasure in the crest of enthusiasm among young people for acoustic roots styles: for the first time since the early 1970s, you can go to a bar in Ann Arbor and hear and dance to acoustic music on a regular basis. The trend has found its local representative in the six-member band Dragon Wagon, which I've seen at Woodruff's with several dozen twenty-somethings bobbing happily in front of the stage, and in a more sedate show at the Ark that showcased the players' chops and tight ensemble work.

Dragon Wagon is everywhere at the moment. In August you can hear them at the Michigan Roots Jamboree (August 5), the weekly bluegrass night at the Circus (August 10)--where they've already appeared three times this summer--and the Wolverine State Brewing Company (August 11), as well as at several other Ypsilanti and outstate dates and an August 3 appearance to be announced. They recently returned from a tour that took them from the inaugural Electric Forest festival up north down to St. Louis, evidence that the local roots scene, mostly Ypsilanti-based, is gaining some national traction.

Dragon Wagon proclaims that they offer "Bluegrass Folk-Rock with a Shot of Irish Whiskey." Their instruments include banjo, mandolin, fiddle (from the ebullient Diana Ladio), guitar, bass, and drums--a clear sound, but rhythmic enough to dance to. The variety of styles referred to in the motto is accurate, and better still is the band's ability to read the audiences' moods: a crowd that's out for a rowdy time will get a stringband cover of a Hank Williams III song about a little bit of smoke and a whole lot of wine, but the band also plays some mellow originals just made for an outdoor show on a warm Michigan summer night.

At the core of the group's repertoire, though, are traditional pieces like "Shady Grove" and "Whiskey Before Breakfast" (which, it's true, could also fall into the rowdy category). Except for the drums, the performances of these tunes would have been recognizable to musicians of a hundred years ago. In the long run, it may be that music, along with other aspects of human productivity, will be made increasingly within grids of electricity and computing, but for now the substructure is holding, and the pleasures of wood and wire rule the summer - The Ann Arbor Observer, arborweb.com

KALAMAZOO — Michigan bluegrass and roots music has gained a reputation for being upbeat, loose and party-inducing.

When you venture out to see an acoustic band in Kalamazoo, you’re bound to have a good time, a guarantee Don Sicheneder will give you when you see Dragon Wagon.

...

If you have to call it anything, call it a party, because when Dragon Wagon rolls into town the band brings non-stop energy and excitement with it.
... - mlive.com