Press Quotes:
“Gaines & Wagoner is professional, prompt, incredibly talented, and created such a great atmosphere and evening for our guests. They have clever setlists, a unique and exceptional stage presence and the performance was both lively and personal. Chris & Mary were a pleasure to work with, flexible and reasonable through the booking process. Simply put, simply wonderful, and I would highly recommend them!!”
—Trisha Lockman / Event Creator and Organizer, Lavender Hill Farm, Boyne City, MI
“Chris Wagoner and Mary Gaines are masters of their craft. . . For more than three decades, they’ve been the rug that holds the room together for an impressive canon of local, national and international artists…recording credits include everything from Madison’s own Harmonious Wail to singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer to Smashing Pumpkins’ 1991 genre-defining album Gish.”
-Kiel Majewski, The Isthmus
“Chris and Mary are the Swiss Army knives of string players!”
-Mark Williams, producer: Southern Culture on the Skids, Carrie Newcomer, Hootie and the Blowfish
“Multi-instrumentalist Chris Wagoner and his wife Mary Gaines are masters of string swing music…equal parts Hawaiian luau and Parisian wedding party. The love they bring to their music is as apparent as the precision with which they make it.”
-Andy Moore, producer of Wisconsin Public Television’s “30-Minute Music Hour”
”Acoustic jazz that swings hard…great singing, superb playing.”
-Pelican Cafe Music Review, San Francisco, CA
“The experience gained in the musical conversations over the many years since Chris and Mary met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows effortlessly on stage…it’s like watching an acrobat crossing a high wire, very entertaining…a must-see…”
-GBnightlife.com Music Review, Art Street Festival, Green Bay, WI
“A great duo out of Madison, WI…a nice variety of Americana, jazz, and sort of a down-home blues type sound…amazing duo. They were simply entertaining to watch and listen to.”
-Acadia Cafe, Mineeapolis, MN
“Great musicianship, vocals, originals, standards, tone colors…Chris’ approach to improv on the violin is very good and modern, not ‘cliche’.”
-“Rick Veras Presents” / The Heartland Cafe, Chicago IL
“Versatility and adaptability in a group of artists/entertainers are virtues enough to a university presenter, but add to those qualities virtuosity, intelligence, experience, and charisma, and top this mix off with sure-fire audience connectivity and downright like ability, and there you have it…These folks can play anything, it seems, and they move gracefully through idioms you’d never thought one band could cover in one circuit—and it doesn’t hurt that you’ve never met a nicer or more user-friendly group of folks to work with, either. But “after-show-glow” really tells it all; on our campus, as the last chords lingered, the mesmerized students moved, en masse, to the stage to mingle, adore, and bask in the magic [they] had created that night. We are converts/acolytes/fans here in Wausau, Wisconsin, and wherever you are, you should be too!”
-Jean Greenwood / Lecture and Fine Arts Coordinator
UW-Marathon County, Wausau, WI
Lecture & Fine Arts Concert Series
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Hi-Res Press Photos:
