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PIKE CREEK plays the best in traditional, original and modern bluegrass music. The WAMI Award winning band features intricate instrumentals, tight vocal harmonies, and arrangements in overdrive. From the WI State Fair to Racine's Harborfest to Door County to numerous WI bluegrass festivals, Pike Creek has performed throughout Wisconsin for over 27 years. The band appears regularly at  Morton's in Cedarburg. Enjoy the mix of traditional, newgrass and original bluegrass music!


Band Members:   Mark Vitkus -  Scott DeKok - Jim Price - Chad Witty - Emily Sommer
Jim, Chad and Emily have become active members of Pike Creek. We appreciate their musicianship and ability to add a new dimension to the mix. Thanks Mates!
 
Mark Vitkus Mandolin, Guitar

Music has always been an important part of my life. I started out banging on a drum, then picked up the guitar and actually owned a Sears Silvertone electric with tube amp that I wish I still had.  My nephew's blew it up. (But had fun doing so)  After moving to Milw. in the 70's it became apparent that acoustic music was the direction I was heading.  For my birthday one year my friends chipped in and bought me a mandolin.  Dutch picked up the banjo and Mike (Whitedog) Funk wailed on the harp. With Mike Brey on guitar Pike Creek was born. This music being so universal has allowed the group to evolve into a great mix of players and through the years made us stretch our abilities to keep it fresh. Thanks to all of the past members that made Pike Creek fun and effortless.

 
 Scott DeKok Bass
 

 

I’ve been playing/singing music around town for a while now, both as a member of Pike Creek and as an itinerant choir director, tenor soloist/choir member. I’ve enjoyed singing with Bach Chamber Choir, the Milwaukee Mastersingers and the Milwaukee Choral Artists, but I have to say the most fun I’ve ever had performing is with Pike Creek  -maybe it has something to do with “some of that Pike Creek Bluegrass Band Tradition” (synchronized drinking with the band). Playing with musicians like Mark, JP, Chad and Emily is really a privilege. To paraphrase an old Virginia Slims advertising jingle, “we’ve come a long way from playing in the duckpin bowling alley”. Many thanks to my mentors, Will Schmid and Sharon Hansen, and the scores of bluegrass musicians with whom I’ve had the pleasure of playing - “Uncle” Mike Brey, Jim “the Amish Assassin” Waller, Jerry “Junior” Loughney, Mike “WhiteDog” Fonk, Susan and John Nicholson, Colin O’Brien, Danny Nimphius, and the late Jon Stoll, to name just a few.

 

 
Jim Price Mandolin, Guitar

 
A Milwaukee native, JP has developed enough instrument chops to become one of the area's most truncated sidemen.  Frequently called on by groups missing a "chopstick" JP perilously supplies mandolin, guitar, bass and vocals to the amazement of all and the bemusement of many.  
From the very beginning he would attempt the instrument no one else in the group enjoyed – and still does.  As a fan once described the experience, "You ain't heard nothing!"  And that, my friend, is the definitive!  
After years and years on the road, extirpating relationships, the likes of Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Buddy Griffin, Jessie McReynolds, John Parrot, Sam Bush, Vassar Clemmens, Ben Schubert, Bob Shane, Katie Lauer, John Hartford and yes, even the great Jethro Burns – JP has confronted them all – briefly – but that's sufficient for the man who covets his privacy to the exclusion of frequent appearances.

 
Jim Price –  When the going became troubled, he turned pro. 
If you hear him only once, that would be enough.

 
Emily Sommer Fiddle

 

Emily first stumbled into music at age 9 (and no one is saying how
many years ago that was!).  She started playing violin and learning
the Sukuki method, until she hit high school and the stunning lack of
violists and her terror of the high squeaky notes caused her switch
over to the viola world.  She played classical viola through high
school and at UW-Madison in symphonies and smaller ensembles.  After
college she played briefly with the Civic Orchestra in Minneapolis
until moving back to the Milwaukee area.  She first dabbled in
bluegrass after visiting the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Festival with a
fiddler friend.  Attracted by that loosey-goosey bluegrass vibe, she
has played in several local bands and currently fiddles with the
Hawthorne Hills Band as well as Pike Creek.  She feels SO lucky to
play with the talented musicians and great guys of PC.
 

 
 Chad Witty Banjo
 

 
 

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