Jason Horowitz, a Milwaukee area native, is a singer/songwriter that has found himself back in Madison after spending some time in Massachusetts for college, as well as Nashville and St. Paul to pursue his musical interests.
Horowitz started writing songs and playing guitar at a YMCA summer camp program called Camp Minikani in Hubertus, which he attended throughout his childhood. His favorite memories were those of sitting around the campfire and singing songs while the counselors played guitar.
""Watching my counselors play guitar and sing songs, and they were my heroes, and I promised myself that if I ever got to be a counselor, that I would learn to play the guitar also,"" Horowitz said.
And when that day finally came, he kept true to his promise.
""The day I got my contract for my first year as a counselor, that was when I got my parents old, beat-up guitar out of the attic and started teaching myself to play,"" he said.
The Whiskey Farm's mandolinist, Brett Wilfrid, owns a small hobby farm that provides the band's primary rehearsal space and it's original name, the Farm.
Unfortunately, the band ran into copyright issues when they discovered that a British pop group from the early '90s had already called themselves The Farm.
""We didn't want to lose ‘The Farm,' so we had to decide what we really enjoyed about being out on the farm, and whiskey happens to be one thing we enjoy when we're on the farm,"" Horowitz said.
Thus, in order to avoid legal trouble, they became The Whiskey Farm.
Accompanying their unique name is a musical style that can only be classified as the broad genre of ""Americana.""
From their first album, Middle of America, there are songs from all over the musical spectrum. ""Glow,"" a slow, reflective, lyric-driven love song, differs greatly from ""Happy,"" an upbeat drinking song, which is distinct still from ""If I Were You,"" which is a more traditional bluegrass-style tune.
The fact that the band is not easily pigeonholed into a category is one of the things that Horowitz loves about The Whiskey Farm.
""The variety is what really makes playing with this band so much fun,"" he said. ""We all have different musical backgrounds, and so, I think different people's influence comes into play on different songs.""
""The last time we played, Brett [Wilfred] pulled out his electric guitar, which we hadn't really done stuff with, and we were messing around with some of the songs and putting a little bit of a harder edge on that,"" Horowitz said. ""He also plays the banjo, and Clark [Stacer] was talking about getting an upright bass, so we were talking about maybe going in that direction, too.""
The diverse set of musical styles represented by each of the players gives Horowitz many areas of songwriting to work with, and he said his writing style has adapted to meet the challenge.
""I have really changed the way I write since I've started playing with these guys,"" he said, ""and so now I can hear when I'm writing, things that people might do that I could never have done before when I was playing by myself.""
The Whiskey Farm's audience has also somewhat driven what Horowitz writes; he said he's made a personal deal with them to keep himself motivated to give the audience new material.
""We've always had a pledge with our audience that we would have one new song every time we played a show, and we've stuck to that for the last couple years,"" he said, ""and as long as we keep doing that, I'm sure we'll write new stuff in new directions over the next year.""
Horowitz has always felt a strong connection to the Madison area through his employment as well as his heritage, and feels very much at home here.
""I work in the UW Psychiatry department, and I really love the university and the community, and I would very much want to connect with students in the UW community.""
The Whiskey Farm will be celebrating the release of their debut album a the Frequency this Saturday night, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $5.
