ARMCHAIR BOOGIE

bluegrass · jam band · newgrass

Armchair Boogie is a progressive bluegrass and jamgrass band based in Madison, Wisconsin. The group started in 2015 on a front porch in Stevens Point, where its founders met at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and relocated to Madison in 2018. Augie Dougherty plays banjo and Ben Majeska plays acoustic and electric guitar, both of them singing, with Eli Frieders on electric bass and Denzel Connor on drums. That rhythm section is what separates the band from a conventional string band, pulling the material toward funk and country and earning it the label funkgrass. Armchair Boogie self-released a self-titled debut in 2018, followed by the crowdfunded What Does Time Care? in 2019, The Western EP, and a fourth studio record, Hard Times & Deadlines, in March 2024. Majeska and Dougherty wrote much of that album during the early part of the pandemic, and its songs deal with heartbreak and the uncertainties of their late twenties. Two concert recordings, Live at Pine Creek Lodge and Live from Stoughton, WI, followed in 2024 and 2025. The band tours nationally and has appeared at Blue Ox, Northwest String Summit, Grey Fox, the Earl Scruggs Music Festival and Bourbon & Beyond, and has shared bills with The Infamous Stringdusters and The Dead South. Its sets pair originals and chosen covers with vocal harmony and extended improvisation, and it works clubs such as Nectar Lounge in Seattle as well as the festival circuit.

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Upcoming shows in Washington

Where they play in Washington

Shared bills in Washington

Upcoming shows in Oregon

Where they play in Oregon