Frank Martin Busch and the Names and Driveway Thriftdwellers take the MPOH stage on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 7:30 pm. Doors will open at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the show. Friends of the MPOH can purchase tickets starting Wednesday, November 8 at 8:00 am and the general public can purchase tickets starting Wednesday, November 22 at 8:00 am.

Frank Martin Busch grew up on a farm outside the rural community of Cuba City, Wisconsin. He is the youngest of seven children in a musical family. Frank started playing music in grade school, even playing a few shows with his father’s Big Band Orchestra on saxophone. It wasn’t until he left the small town for The University of Wisconsin and commandeered his college roommates Stratocaster, that he truly fell in love with music.

Frank taught himself to play, sing, and write songs, his journey has been slow, painful, and deliberate. Upon graduating he founded his first band The Mighty Short Bus, and is a founding member of Midwest troubadours WheelHouse. The two bands have released 8 records and played over 3,000 shows over the past 20 years.

This is Frank’s first foray as a true solo artist. He has brought back the Stratocaster and is living and dying by his ability to play it, He marries the storytelling of a country songwriter with the musicality of a bluesman and a sense of humor that rivals your grade school best friend’s dad.

The music is Americana, which is kinda like country music, but for grown-ups. His band, The Names, is comprised of Christian West on Bass/Vocals, Rin Q Ribble on that there fiddle/vocals, and Argentina’s favorite son Pablo Chuliver on drums.

Frank Martin Busch has won Isthmus Madison’s Fave Singer/Songwriter for 2018 and 2019 and is WMMM Project M Songwriter competition season 3 winner. His debut record Deep and Simple has been nominated for a Midwest CMO for Best Americana Record of 2023. He is the father of 3 and has a dog named Floyd.

From Milwaukee, Driveway Thriftdwellers is new country music created by a set of brothers in a five-piece band including killer pedal steel.

The Isthmus says, “Madison’s deep Americana well just gushed more oil. Cutover Country, the first album from Driveway Thriftdwellers, is Southern rock with Northern heart. The record could just as easily be called Flyover Country. But these songs are rooted in the dirt from four long seasons spent on county roads.

Jon Knudson, a Milwaukee-based songwriter who founded the band with his brother Ryan in 2012, writes tunes that are like letters home from a Midwestern boy turned loose to a shuffle beat of twangy guitars and pedal steel.

“Northern Accent” is the tale of a honky-tonk encounter in a California roadhouse. Sounds like Bakersfield when you listen to the music. Sounds like Sconnie love when boy meets girl at the bar and, lo and behold, she has a Northern accent. The Knudson brothers grew up in northern Wisconsin.”