Joel Mabus at Two Way Street Coffee House

“Joel Mabus is one of contemporary folk music’s most eclectic performers. A skilled guitar, fiddle,banjo, and mandolin player and melodic songwriter, Mabus has played everything from traditional folk tunes to bluegrass, blues, and original songs.”

-Craig Harris, AllMusic.com

Joel Mabus comes from a family of musicians. Raised in southern Illinois, in the 1930s his parents took their farmgrown music on the road with other family members as “hillbilly” entertainers, performing for medicine shows and radio programs including road shows for the WLS Barn Dance, a Midwest institution.

This pedigree was not lost on Joel as a child in the 1960s. The family mandolin was his first calling, and he quickly added banjo, guitar and fiddle. Joel made his first record for a small Michigan label in 1977 with guest artist mandolin legend Frank Wakefield. Three years later, he signed with Flying Fish Records for a two-record deal. In 1986, he was one of the first Indie folksingers to start his own label (Fossil Records).

Whether you label him folk, Americana, or a singer-songwriter, Mabus remains a one-off, walking that lonesome valley, making and marking his way as a working artist outside the confines of the usual music business.