The Columbia County Sheiks

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, May 4, 2007

The Columbia County Sheiks are John Fabke (guitar, banjo, mandolin) and Brian O' Donnell (fiddle, guitar).Their repertoire draws on the blues-based string band music from the 1920s and ‘30s that was recorded by artists such as the Mississippi Sheiks, Doc Roberts, Jim and Andrew Baxter, Peg Leg Howell, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, Memphis Jug Band, Burnett & Rutherford and others. This unique and entertaining music covers a wide variety of styles from blues to rags to pop music and bluesy, fiddle-driven country breakdowns.The Columbia County Sheiks feature the traditional fiddle playing of Madison, Wisconsin based Brian O'Donnell. Brian can also be heard playing cajun music with the Cajun Strangers and bluegrass with the Lonesome Rogues.