In an unassuming brick building with a golden neon “OPEN” sign, The Bur Oak on Madison's East Side, hosted artists Bright Arcana, Will Orchard and Lost Lakes Saturday.
Inside, Edison lights crisscross the ceiling illuminating a chandelier made from polished trombones. The overhead bulbs dim to highlight a purple lit stage, as locals nursing old fashioneds shift their attention forward to the performers, who delivered music from the heart.
John Hardin, who performs folk music under the moniker Bright Arcana, opened the show accompanied by Hayward William and Paul Brandt. Loss and love characterize Bright Arcanas’ music, with Hardin’s humble demeanor connecting deeply with the audience as he tapped his rough-soled boot to keep time.
Bright Arcana is shaped by Hardin's connections to his past patients. He worked as a nurse in an intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing holding up iPads to help families connect with their loved ones in their last moments. Reflecting on this national loss of life, he spoke to the audience saying, “what can really be normal anymore.” Introducing his song, “I Wash The Bodies of Your Dead,” Hardin said, “the only songs I sing I sing for them.”
Hardin emphasized “shared experience” when making music.
“Goals can be tricky things when it comes to art,” Hardin told The Daily Cardinal. “My goal in general is to make something nice and put it out into our collective shared experience. What happens after that isn't really up to me.”
This shared experience comes with the willingness to be open about emotions, he said.
“We are each exposing ourselves in a vulnerable way, and that vulnerability binds us,” Hardin said.
Next, Nashville-based troubadour Will Orchard captured the audience's attention with crystal-clear ballads for his first show in Madison. With a heavy strum of his guitar, Orchard said he uses music to decipher feelings he otherwise couldn’t tackle, and he values the same vulnerability cited by Hardin when making his music.
“I’ve always been influenced by a need to express what’s going on in my head,” he told the Cardinal. “Music sometimes feels like the only option to do that. I’m not a person who is extremely open toward most people — I require a lot of trust, so songwriting is a method for expressing myself authentically regardless of my relationship to the listener.”
Orchard came of age on the East Coast, but touring has allowed him to develop a “truer version” of his work. He started out in music in the east bay of Rhode Island, but he honed his musical skill traveling across the United States and Europe.
“My music isn’t country, or even really Americana. It can be tricky to find the right audience when I’m straddling the folk/singer-songwriter tradition and more experimental/progressive genres, but touching both of those worlds has helped me to accept my music for what it is,” Orchard said.
Corey Mathew Hart concluded the show who is one-half of the collaboration Lost Lakes between Hart and musician Paul Mitch. The Madison natives met in a radio competition on 105.5 Triple M, building a collaboration that has led to the development of their shared strength.
“Much like other collaborations, songwriting with a duo or group can feel greater than the sum of the parts,” Hart and Mitch told the Cardinal, “Where one writer struggles, the other can offer suggestions or alternate ideas. The two eventually agree on how best to proceed and bolster the other strengths.”
In the cozy atmosphere of the Bur Oak, bonds between friends and family shine bright. Will Orchard’s father flew out to watch his son, he told the audience, gesturing to his father who held a hand up in pride.
John Hardin’s family sat front and center, the musician taking time to joke with his young son in between songs.
“It was special for me,” Hardin said. “My kids don’t really see me in that way, or know me as the guy who did this for a living for 15 years before they were born. There was a different kind of nervousness I’d never felt before. I’m glad we got to have that experience together in such an intimate setting.”
