The Bur Oak

✨Just Announced ✨ ILUKA music is coming to the Bur Oak on August 29!

Doors 7PM /Show 8PM
$15ADV / $18DOS
🎟 tickets at theburoakmadison.com - On sale Friday, June 26!

ILUKA is an Australian-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter whose career has taken off over the last year with a string of viral songs that have quickly landed her a cult following. Defined by a raspy vocal and a cowgirl twang, with the addition of her signature style, she is shaking up all the right elements of a uniquely crafted artistic cocktail. Raised on a farm in the Blue Mountains of Australia, ILUKA learned the craft of song and soul from her father, a skilled luthier. His handmade guitars were more than instruments—they were the foundation of her sonic journey. From the start, ILUKA has been driven by a singular vision to create music that is brave. Her songs are both vulnerable in their storytelling and memorable in their protest. Themes of resistance, strength, and solidarity pulse through her work, inspired by the fearless influence of artists like Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks. ILUKA doesn’t just make music—she creates anthems for those who dare to speak their truth and stand their ground. With features in Rolling Stone, FLAUNT Magazine, and NME, ILUKA’s impact is just beginning, but if she has anything to say about it, she’ll be a force that’s here to stay. Her latest album, “the wild, the innocent & the raging” released in November 2025. ILUKA just completed the first leg of “The Wings Tour” where she headlined across major cities in the US and Australia.

📣Hey Madison! Check out our upcoming shows!

🎟 tickets at theburoakmadison.com

✨Just Announced✨Seasaw, Julia Minkin, and Jane Hobson are coming to the Bur Oak on November 6!

Doors 7PM / Show 8PM
$15
🎟️ tickets at theburoakmadison.com

Seasaw, a duo based in Madison, WI, is Meg Golz (drums, synth, vocals) and Eve Wilczewski (guitar, vocals). Seasaw's music is the product of two best friends continually exploring all of the ways they can construct a singular, sarcastic indie rock sound.

The band is currently releasing their first new songs since their 2023 album, Projecting.

They have performed alongside Chvrches, Thao, Shakey Graves, NNAMDÏ, Overcoats, Horsegirl, Lucius, Nada Surf, and many others

Best known for co-writing viral hit songs with French electropop sensation Kid Francescoli, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Julia Minkin steps into her own with her debut album Not Ready, co-created and produced with her husband Andrew Sudhibhasilp. Blending warm, folk-tinged vocals with dance-floor energy and introspection, Minkin “finds her own creative voice, shimmering, rhythmic, and heartfelt—both bold and refreshingly sincere” (Thoughts Words Actions).

✨Just Announced✨Heather Maloney is coming to the Bur Oak on February 3!

Doors 7PM / Show 8PM
Seated show
$20adv $25DOS
🎟 tickets at theburoakmadison.com

With over 1,000 international shows and 8 studio albums under her belt, she is now on the brink of releasing her 9th and most personal record to date, “Exploding Star” (out Jan 2025), after which she’ll embark on an international release tour throughout the US and Europe.

On Heather’s 2019 album, Soil In The Sky, her “ability to channel emotion is radical” (PopMatters) and the tracks are stacked with special guests who help her deliver an immense range of sound and sentiment in 12 songs; there’s a duet with Dawes front-man Taylor Goldsmith and vocal harmonies by Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price. The all-star band includes drummer Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes), and multiple members of the Amos Lee band. The Bluegrass Situation called her 2015 release, Making Me Break (produced by Band of Horses’ Bill Reynolds) “an intoxicating blend that captures the sonic texture of indie rock, the humanity of folk and the spirituality of a Rumi poem.” In 2014 she released “Woodstock”, her collaborative effort with Boston quartet Darlingside, which drew praise from the New York Times and Graham Nash.

Heather’s songs have played on NPR stations across the country and her live appearances have aired on syndicated programming like eTown and AudioTree. Her song “Nightstand Drawer” was featured in the season finale of the CBS TV series "Elementary", and her songs have also been streamed hundreds of thousands of times on editorial Spotify playlists & Starbucks’ in-store nationwide playlists.
As well as a songwriter and performer, Heather is an illustrator and linocut artist who carves and prints visual representations of her songs on a variety of mediums.
Heather has toured throughout the US & Canada as a headliner and also in support of acts including Anais Mitchell, Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Gary Clark Jr., Rodrigo y Gabriela, Colin Hay (Men at Work), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Dar Williams and many more.

✨Just Announced ✨ It's Britney Brunch Drag Brunch on August 16 at The Bur Oak!

Doors 12PM / Show 1PM
Seated Show
$12
21+
🎟 tickets at theburoakmadison.com

It's Britney, Brunch! 💖🎤

Grab your friends, throw on your favorite Britney-inspired look, and join us at The Bur Oak for a drag brunch celebrating the Princess of Pop and my birthday month! 🎂✨

Hosted by Wisconsin's own Britney superfan, Bianca Lynn Breeze, this unforgettable afternoon will feature all your favorite Britney hits, dazzling performances, and a cast of incredible entertainers including Leona Black, Wynter Da Bratt Sodi, Britney Starr, and Brandonna Dupri Lareese.

Whether you've been singing along since ...Baby One More Time or you're still blasting Toxic on repeat, this is the brunch for you. Expect high energy, iconic looks, and plenty of Britney nostalgia!

📅 August 16
📍 The Bur Oak – Madison, WI
🚪 Doors: 12 PM | 🎭 Show: 1 PM
🎟️ $12 Tickets
🍔 Food truck & beverages available for purchase

Come celebrate Britney, drag, and another trip around the sun with me. It's gonna be stronger than yesterday! 💋✨🎂🎶

✨Just Announced✨Joey Harkum is coming to the Bur Oak on September 17!

Doors 7PM / Show 8PM
$18adv $23DOS
🎟tickets at theburoakmadison.com

For his entire life Joey Harkum has been strumming a guitar and after a decade of touring as the lead singer and songwriter of Baltimore-based band Pasadena, he released his debut solo album, Love and Labor, to critical acclaim in 2016. Along with a relentless touring schedule Joey has most recently been working on his 5th studio album ‘One Foot In The Grave' which released on August 22nd 2025. The album will see a cross country tour to support the release from fall into winter.

Known for his deep and poignant lyrics telling stories of joy, love, loss and sadness, Joey brings the human experience to life through his relentless tour schedule that culminated in the release of Live at Buffalo Iron Works in 2018. 2020 brought new challenges but Joey responded with writing and recording new music and released his album Storyboard in March of 2021. Immediately following the release of Storyboard, he started work on his follow up album Salt and Tar which was released in spring 2022 and followed by his 4th studio album The Art Of Revenge which was released March 1st 2024.

Catch him on tour now or online at joeyharkummusic.com.

✨Just Announced✨Silverada with Rambler Kane are coming to the Bur Oak on September 6!

Doors 7PM Show 8PM
$25
🎟 tickets at theburoakmadison.com
On sale Friday, June 19th @ 11:00am CST

Mike Harmeier was still in his early 20s when he formed Mike and the Moonpies, now Silverada. From the start, they were the definition of a workingman’s country band, cutting their teeth with five-hour sets on Austin’s dancehall circuit before spreading their music to the rest of America. By the early 2020s, they’d become global ambassadors of homegrown Texas music, flying their flag everywhere from Abbey Road Studios (where they recorded 2019’s Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold with help from the London Symphony Orchestra) to the Grand Ole Opry.

Their music balances the strengths they’ve accumulated along the way - sharp, detailed songwriting that bounces between autobiographical sketches and character studies; gorgeous swells of pedal steel and piano that drift through the songs like weather; a rhythm section capable of country shuffles, hard-charging rock & roll tempos, and everything in between -with a willingness to break old rules and open new doors.

There’s a smart sense of history here - a celebration not only of where the band is headed, where they’ve been too. Even so, Silverada doesn’t spend much time looking in the rearview mirror. Instead, it keeps its gaze focused on the road ahead. This is a snapshot of a band in motion, chasing down the next horizon, writing the soundtrack to some new discovery. It’s the sound of alchemy, of some new metal being forged. And like silver itself, Silverada shines brightly.

The first thing you hear when you listen to Rambler Kane is his heart. Pairing a relentless fingerpicking style with a powerful voice, the singer-songwriter from Jacksonville, FL is equal parts classic throwback and modern troubadour, drawing inspiration from some of the art form's trailblazers: Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, and John Prine.

Kane's music is distinctly Americana, combining elements of the country, folk, and blues that have influenced him the most. As Jacksonville Music Experience put it, "Kane has already displayed a penchant for penning the kind of smart country tunes that are capable of touching on a range of human emotion in simple-yet-profound ways."

After first hearing Townes Van Zandt's "Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas," Kane started dreaming of becoming a traveling troubadour. A few short years later and it's a dream that cannot be denied. His first full-length album, "Live at Blue Jay Listening Room" was recorded with a sold-out audience. He has opened for the likes of Trampled by Turtles, American Aquarium's BJ Barham, Leon Majcen, and Clayton Nile Young. His song "Here I Am" was featured by Western AF.

Songs off his latest EP Sirens and Flames landed on Spotify editorial playlists, including Indigo, The Pulse of Americana, Emerging Americana, and Cosmic Country.

✨Just Announced✨Delicate Steve is coming to the Bur Oak on October 27!

Doors 7PM / Show 8PM
Seated Show
$20adv $25DOS
🎟 tickets at theburoakmadison.com - On sale Friday, June 19th

Take a visit to Luke’s Garage, Delicate Steve’s latest album, and you’ll discover a place where sparks of creativity fly in all directions, where melodies splatter the walls like brightly hued paint, where no idea is too simple, too ingenuous, too full of childlike wonder. The L.A.-via-Jersey guitarist born Steve Marion, whose credits include session work for Amen Dunes, Paul Simon, and Deradoorian, had no grand plan for making it: he would simply book some time at a friend’s studio, hunker down, and play. He’s always allowed intuition to guide him, composing his jubilantly tuneful instrumentals as he records them, but this time, he felt freer than ever to “keep the seams showing, and don’t polish everything, and keep it raw, and alive, and electric-feeling,” he says. He chose the title, Luke’s Garage, as a tribute to his pal and sometime collaborator Luke Temple, but also for the anything-goes adolescent innocence it conjured: the feeling of heading over to a buddy’s house, turning up the amps, and creating your own world.

In the world of Luke’s Garage, a passage of music that feels like a sketch in progress might open into a hook so finely wrought, so obviously right, that you have a hard time believing you haven’t heard it before. The two passages may in fact be one and the same. There are songs that feel destined to soundtrack memories of windows-down road trips, and those more suited to moments of hushed intimacy. A shadowy synth-pop excursion (“Light of the World”) veers into a candlelit soul ballad (“Shall Be Free”); a chugging garage-rocker (the title track, naturally) sets up an unexpected detour into slinky disco (“There Goes My Baby”). Delicate Steve’s unmistakable sensibility, his tone airy yet tactile, his lines full of poignant bends and whimsical asides, is a benevolent guide through the ever-shifting landscape, keeping a steady hand on the wheel no matter the surroundings. He has little interest in showing off, focusing instead on clarity, simplicity, and directness—more like an openhearted pop songwriter than a look-what-I-can-do shredder.

Marion played every instrument on Luke’s Garage himself—guitars, drums, keys, bass—which heightens its homespun charm. The album’s sense of music as a colorful playground for exploration may remind you of Paul McCartney’s early solo work, made at a time when he was shrugging off the weight of expectation and digging into his own idiosyncrasy, tinkering alone until he found a sound that made him feel and trusting it would do the same for others. As with the McCartney, this record’s air of easy spontaneity belies serious craftsmanship and care: the exuberantly arcing melody of “We’ll Be Friends” and the quietly hopeful one of “Die With It” didn’t just come out of thin air, no matter how natural or even preordained they may seem. To hear Marion tell it, the audible joy in his music isn’t some affect he’s choosing to put on, but an honest expression of his own delight and relief when he finally finds the right note, the right rhythm. The prevailing mood of Luke’s Garage is one of discovery, because you’re hearing Marion discover the music himself.

Another important reference point is Donuts, the classic swan song by the late Detroit hip-hop legend J Dilla, one of Marion’s favorite albums. That may be a surprising inspiration for an instrumental guitar record, but it makes sense as soon as you hear Luke’s Garage, the way it feels both offhanded and profound, its deep beauty inextricable from its casual presentation. Marion’s love for Dilla is also evident in the way he treats each track as a little universe with its own parameters, its own language and laws of physics. And in the way he flicks through them as if he’s auditioning a bin full of records for a last-minute DJ set, giving each one whatever space it needs to develop and lingering for not a second longer than that. This collage-like presentation of Luke’s Garage keeps Delicate Steve’s guitar-centric instrumentals firmly situated in the present, in subtle conversation with sample-based and electronic music even though Marion composed it entirely on live instruments. In a sense, Luke’s Garage is not “guitar music” at all, but a fizzy, brightly colored pop record that just happens to feature the guitar as its lead voice.

Luke’s Garage may seem at first like a low-key collection, and in some ways it is. Don’t let that fool you into thinking it isn’t deep. Music gets asked to be a lot of things these days: a cure for what ails you, or for society itself. Luke’s Garage is neither of those things, nor does it attempt to be. It offers a simple but powerful proposition instead: in its very looseness, its embrace of happenstance, its irrepressible groove, and its joyful refusal to be anything other than itself, it’ll leave you feeling just a little freer than you did before you pressed play. That’s more than enough.