CHICKEN WIRE EMPIRE Verry Garcia

CHICKEN WIRE EMPIRE

Chicken Wire Empire is a Wisconsin-based bluegrass band known for their dynamic musicality, thorough arrangements, and true-to-life songwriting. The band emerged in 2016 with their debut self-titled album and have since released a prolific catalogue of studio projects and live performances. Their sixth and latest album, Growing Pains, released June 1st 2025, is a veritable culmination of the band’s growth through the past decade. 

VERRY GARCIA

Verry Garcia is Chicken Wire Empire’s tribute to the songs of Jerry Garcia, played the way the Milwaukee bluegrass band hears them: on strings, with room to stretch.

In March 2023, the band released the Verry Garcia EP. Its version of “Friend of the Devil” starts from Grisman’s descending mandolin line on the 1970 original and folds in a full pass of the fiddle tune “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” pulling a Garcia classic back toward the traditional music he loved.

Onstage, Verry Garcia moves from stripped-down string band arrangements to the psychedelic end of Garcia’s catalog. Chicken Wire Empire has shared stages with Old & In The Way’s Peter Rowan, and these shows are built for Garcia fans and bluegrass fans in the same room.