Holy Rocka Rollaz Playing at the Central Wisconsin State Fair Christmas Show

Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 -- 4:01 PM

Make sure to attend the Central Wisconsin State Fair Christmas Show on November 29th beginning at 5pm in the Junior Fair Building at the fairgrounds.

The entertainment for that evening will be the Holy Rocka Rollaz and I had the opportunity to speak with band member Mark and he discussed the band and that upcoming show in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Mark here!

Once again, the Holy Rock Rollaz will be playing in the Junior Fair Building as a part of the Central Wisconsin State Fair Christmas Show on Saturday, November 29th beginning at 5pm. You can learn more about the show here: https://www.centralwisconsinstatefair.com/p/getconnected/cwsf-christmas-show or hear our interview with Dale Christiansen about the show here: https://cwbradio.com/news/?id=50369

(AI assisted transcription by Otter.ai)

Mark: "The Holy Rocka Rollaz for 15 years has been a band. Now, I'll be honest, it started as a midlife crisis for me. I was 46 and I've been in bands my whole life, but took a break to raise two daughters, and then they got to the age where they were very portable and liked going to car shows."

"So, we just started playing car shows with an open guitar case and had a blast. And then the next, you know, a year later, we headlined the Back to the 50's Car Show in St Paul and there's been no looking back. We ended up with a couple of people who could book us."

"Jill Berg Entertainment has been wonderful and, they're the ones who got us the show coming up on November, and we've been coast to coast, doing theater shows and playing state fairs, county fairs, private events, city events."

"And that's pretty much it, our whole goal. When we started it, I was getting frustrated because there were there were no bands I could go see that played Buddy Holly, like Buddy Holly played him, you know, everybody would modernize it. I said, 'Let's just strip it down. Let's play it note for note, but most importantly, capture the spirit of early American rock and roll.'"

Riley: "Have you always gravitated towards that high energy 50's and 60's rock?"

Mark: "Rockabilly was the big calling. I'd been in bands previously, garage bands, kind of pop punk bands, and then just the pull of Rockabilly. You know,when I first saw the Stray Cats, I'm like, That's it. That's what I want to do, right?"

Riley: "Can you talk about that show coming up on the 29th? The Christmas show?"

Mark: "Sure, sure, we were hired because they wanted Rockabilly Christmas, which we will be doing. But at the same time, in addition to songs like Run, Run Rudolph, Rock Around the Christmas Tree, Jingle Bell Rock, we will be also interspersing it with, with the big hits from the 50's."

"There will be Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Patsy Klein, Everly Brothers. And we've learned, we've been doing our Christmas show for 11 years, and we've learned it's really fun to mix the two up, because, believe it or not, after a while you do hours straight at Christmas music, they all start sounding the same, right?"

Riley: "Have you always had a passion for music?"

Mark: "Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember that my earliest memories were with a toy guitar when I was three and then I started taking lessons in grade school and then I was, I was in bands by eighth grade. First song I ever learned was Taking Care of Business."

Riley: "Anything else you'd like to add?"

Mark: "Yeah, I'd like for people to know we feel so fortunate to be able to do what we're doing. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun building this and just seeing the smiles when we send out rock and roll, especially when it's infused with holiday spirit, it's just a joyous time people have fun. And then that excites us and then you get this big circle of fun going on and we plan on bringing it."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.