One evening in 1989 Mark Stoffel and Wil Maring received a call at their Carbondale, Ill., home that the Port Cape music club on the Mississippi’s west bank needed a bluegrass band to play regularly. Shady Mix was born, featuring Mark on mandolin and fiddle, Wil lead vocal and guitar and Kelley Sims on lead guitar and vocal. Wil got her brother, Geoff, to play bass for the band, and her sister Mila also has sung harmony vocals with them.

In 1992 Shady Mix toured Europe, and then Wil and Mark relocated to his native Germany the next year. The band regrouped with musicians in Munich but kept its acoustic sound and played successfully in Europe’s bluegrass, country and folk scene. Using the stylistic elements of bluegrass music, the band includes cowboy songs, country standards, and older American folk music. In addition, Shady Mixers contribute original songs for a third of their repertoire.

In September 2001 the German version of Shady Mix gave its last concert at Munich's Rattlesnake Saloon. Wil and Mark have since moved back to southern Illinois, and the "old" Shady Mix has been revived.