The Ark

Tartan Terrors
2023-11-03 20:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Tartan Terrors are not a band but, in the words of the organizers, “North America’s premiere Celtic event, featuring the best in music, comedy and dance.” Amazed by the blistering chops of a two-time world champion bagpiper, the driving tones of drums from around the world, and a guitar played unlike any you’ve ever heard, standing-room-only audiences come to understand why Dig This magazine declares Tartan Terrors “one act to keep an eye on!” Combine all the music with championship-caliber Highland Dancers and internationally recognized comedic performers, and this Celtic group goes beyond the ordinary. Members of Tartan Terrors have performed on four different continents; in some of the most prestigious festivals, Highland Games, and theaters in North America, for a U.S. president and Britain’s Queen, and on Good Morning America. Experience the phenomenon of Tartan Terrors and see why Celtic Beat hails them as “the heirs apparent to the mayhem”!

The Ark's Open Stage
2023-11-01 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Whether you’re looking for your big break, want to perfect your live performance skills, or just want to perform live for the sheer fun of it, Open Stage nights offer supportive audiences and a terrific space. Twelve performers have eight minutes (or two songs) each to do their thing. Sign-up: doors open at 7:30 p.m. At 7:45 we randomly select the names for the first half, and at 8:30 we draw names for the second half. If your name isn’t chosen, bring your raffle ticket with you to the next Open Stage (often the first and third Wednesdays of the month–check our calendar or website, theark.org), and you’ll double your chances.

Lonesome Ace Stringband
2023-10-30 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Masters of their trade, The Lonesome Ace Stringband bring grit, skill and abandon to Americana music, bridging old-time, bluegrass and folk traditions into a seamless hybrid of original material that is at once fresh and timeless.
Instrumentation alone sets this Toronto-based trio’s sound apart: consisting simply of fiddle (John Showman), clawhammer banjo (Chris Coole), and upright bass (Max Heineman). The spine-tingling harmonies and interchanging lead vocals only bring more magic to the equation. They’re releasing their fifth album, a feisty and mighty all-original collection (Try To Make It Fly Oct 2023) and touring it to Canada, the US and Europe.

Darlingside
2023-10-29 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Comprised of Don Mitchell, Auyon Mukharji, Harris Paseltiner and David Senft, four likeminded multi-instrumentalists who first met at Williams College in 2009, Darlingside’s career has been defined by the elegance of their compositions and the unity of their four voices. Their talent for harmony and melodic world-building is part of what garnered praise from outlets like NPR, Rolling Stone and The New Yorker, and what has created demand worldwide for their extraordinary live performances. Becoming beautifully unindividualized has, in other words, worked very well for Darlingside in the past. With a vigor and discipline more common to graduate-level writing workshops than to indie rock, Darlingside has, over the years, experimented with all manners of idiosyncratic methods for elevating and upholding a truly democratic process of songwriting—processes that include multiple rounds of group writing and recording exercises—all with the aim of escaping the trap that bands with multiple songwriters often fall into: ego-driven infighting and artistic incoherence.
It’s a rare thing and becoming rarer by the day: a group of musicians with that emulsifying magic to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. And to see Darlingside perform live is to confirm this special chemistry. With the release of Everything Is Alive (2023) the band will, for the first time, take to the road without Dave Senft. Instead of filling his spot directly, the band has wisely chosen to honor the special chemistry of the foursome by letting those arrangements live on the recordings without obligation to faithfully recreate them onstage. While Dave remains a contributing member of the band, on tour Darlingside will perform in a completely different configuration altogether—a configuration that will, at times, include the album’s drummer Ben Burns, singer Molly Parden, and others—proving again how the group can adroitly rearrange themselves for the breaking of a new and different day.

Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds
2023-10-28 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
​​Since 2005 when Erin Zindle first created The Ragbirds, the band has gathered and maintained a passionate, grassroots fan base by continually reinventing themselves with an ever-evolving sound, while remaining rooted in the high-energy, world-inspired folk-rock that they have become known for. With a change of cast in 2019, the band is shifting its weight and focusing more on the melodic components. The rhythms of their new sound leave room for the songs to breathe and for the vocals to take on the spotlight. Now equipped with four vocalists, the band is diving into the textures they can create with vocal harmonies and exploring the newly-created space with instrumental curiosity, adding more improvisational elements into the otherwise-tight arrangements. The sweet energetic charm of lead singer Erin Zindle demands attention. She is an enigma of ageless quality, agile and joyful, yet rooted in wisdom. In her daily life, Erin is devoted to the tedious work of songcraft, but in her performances, the songs flow from her effortlessly, as if she is channeling them, radiating as she sings the words she has polished to a fine shine. The pain in her songs highlights the wonder of the grace and freedom she embodies. Every live performance leaves the listener in a higher place than when it began. Touring for nearly 15 years from their home-base of Ann Arbor, Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds have developed a well-deserved reputation as one of the most dynamic, hard-working, high-spirited live bands in roots music.

California Guitar Trio
2023-10-27 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The universe of guitar knows no boundaries for The California Guitar Trio. Since 1991, the group has enthralled listeners with a singular sound that fearlessly crisscrosses genres. The trio’s questing spirit drives it to explore the intersections between rock, jazz, classical, and world music. It even throws in the occasional surf or spaghetti Western tune for good measure. 31 years and 2000+ gigs later, the CGT remains intensely committed to explore, evolve and communicate a wide-ranging musical worldview.
Comprised of Bert Lams, Tom Griesgraber and Paul Richards, the group has established a unique, personal connection with audiences. In addition to dazzling musicianship and interplay, The California Guitar Trio’s (CGT) shows are full of captivating stories and humor that enable concertgoers to feel like they’re part of the music, not just spectators. In fact, the group’s goal is to transcend their instruments, so people focus on the music first, and its considerable technical prowess a distant second.
CGT’s most recent studio release Elegy showcases its acoustic side, with beautiful lush originals and innovative cover arrangements of The Beatles, Radiohead and more. Other highlights include Masterworks, an album of classical works, with expansive takes on Bach, Beethoven, Arvo Pärt, and Schubert. Andromeda, which combines their many influences into a visionary album of original material; CG3+2, an exploration of kinetic rock territory in collaboration with bassist Tony Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto; and Echoes, which re-imagines timeless material by artists such as Mike Oldfield, Penguin Café Orchestra, Pink Floyd, and Queen.

The Wailin' Jennys
2023-10-26 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The Wailin’ Jennys are neither a reggae group nor an all-female Waylon Jennings tribute band. Three extraordinary voices with one singular vision: The Wailin’ Jennys continue to evolve into far more than the melodious sum of their individual talents years after blowing in on a fresh acoustic breeze from Canada’s midwestern heartland. Canadians Nicky Mehta, and Ruth Moody and New Yorker Heather Masse were all well-established talents individually, and their collaboration is an example of how exciting it can be when performers with distinct outlooks find ways of working together. Each member of the trio contributes distinctive original songs to the mix, which ranges from folk-rock to Celtic to traditional song. This trio has won fans for its incredible harmonies at venues ranging from “A Prairie Home Companion” (multiple times) to the small-town parks and festivals in Manitoba that gave them their start.
Blue LLama Jazz Club is proud to be the stage sponsor of The Wailin’ Jennys show at The Ark! Show your ticket at Blue LLama after the event on Friday (10/27) or Saturday (10/28) to get your first cocktail for just $2!

Charlie Cunningham
2023-10-25 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Charlie Cunningham has emerged as a truly under-the-radar success story. He has headlined London’s iconic Queen Elizabeth Hall and has become a regular fixture in Europe’s most prestigious concert halls. Splitting his time between piano and nylon string guitar, Charlie creates melancholic yet rhythmically driven songs. When these are expressed with his characteristic restraint, something timeless takes shape. Despite his dyslexia making it nearly impossible for him to read music, Charlie earned a music degree and by his mid-20s worked a variety of odd jobs and wrote songs in his free time. Eventually, he moved to Seville, immersed himself in flamenco music and focused intensely on his guitar playing. Planning to stay for three months, he stayed for three years. Once home, Charlie found work playing in bars across London and Oxford —eventually returning to songwriting. Charlie has subsequently released two albums and four eps which have garnered over half a billion streams. Charlie comes to Michigan with his his third album, “Frame.” A collection of lush, delicate pop songs brimming with references to art rock, golden era jazz, and neo-classical composition—all the while maintaining the pared-back and clear-eyed musicality for which he is so well recognized. Throughout the album, Charlie creates the fragility, power and tension found in timeless songwriting, reanimated through a modern lens.

Mr. Sun
2023-10-24 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
If you haven’t heard of the cheerfully named supergroup Mr. Sun, you’ve certainly heard its proponents, four of the finest musicians on the American Roots scene: Renowned fiddler Darol Anger, Professor Emeritus at Berklee College of Music, who has released dozens of influential solo albums over a 50-year career in addition to his work with David Grisman and Mike Marshall, and founded the Turtle Island Quartet, Psychograss, and Republic of Strings; Joe K. Walsh, mandolin virtuoso and vocalist who spent four years with the award-winning bluegrass act the Gibson Brothers before becoming a solo artist, songwriter, and Strings Department Professor at Berklee; all-around guitar genius Grant Gordy, a former member of David Grisman’s band and respected solo artist and educator; and the phenomenal Scots bassist Aidan O’Donnell, who has backed harpist Maeve Gilchrist and countless modern jazz heroes. Their appearances in the last few years at Wintergrass, Rockygrass, Grey Fox, Freshgrass, Redwing Roots, and at IBMA conventions have created a reverberant clang throughout the Acoustic Americana music world.
This program is made possible with support from the Ford Motor Company Fund. It is presented live, and also livestreamed on The Ark’s Facebook page.
This is a FREE show. Nonperishables accepted for Food Gatherers.

Adrian Legg
2023-10-23 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Voted Guitarist of the Decade by Guitarist magazine and Best Acoustic Fingerstylist four years in a row by readers of Guitar Player, Adrian Legg dazzles audiences with an unclassifiable mixture of country, jazz, folk, rock, and classical styles. For all his rapid-fire playing, though, Adrian never loses sight of melodies and their power to move us. Says Newsday: “Unlike Richard Thompson or Robert Fripp, in whose league he belongs, Legg seems never to have been seduced by rock. But unlike Leo Kottke or Ry Cooder, whom he also occasionally resembles, Adrian Legg is an adventurer, not an archivist.”
But there’s even more to Adrian Legg’s draw as an engaging, one-of-a-kind performer. Legg is more fully characterized as a “genuine entertainer who excels at not only painting pictures, if not frescoes, and telling stories with music— but also wittily regaling his audiences with tales from his life and travels and his cogent and often oblique yet thought-provoking observations on a spectrum of topics. It’s all part of his dedication to making his performances a full- blooded emotional experience.”
Loyal fans around the globe enthusiastically appreciate Legg’s witty, entertaining stories, often shared in between songs onstage and on his live albums. As noted by popular BBC radio personality Andy Kershaw, “Quite simply, there is no one else like him,” citing Legg’s “dazzling technique and equally large dollops of spirit, humor, passion, eclecticism and spontaneity.”

Hawktail + Väsen
2023-10-22 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Sweden’s Väsen-Duo, Mikael Marin and Olov Johansson, have, after almost 40 years of interaction and touring, refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are unique in their kind. With their playful and perfect interplay, they seem to defy the laws of physics in what appears to be a telepathic communication. The music is intense and full of humor. They create their very own musical language which in its appeal is as modern as it is ancient. With the foundation firmly rooted in the traditional music of Uppland, they have always looked curiously at new musical goals. Olov & Micke have played together since 1983 when they met at Oktoberstämman in Uppsala and discovered that they had a large common repertoire and a similar way of playing. They perform on a variety of stringed instruments, including kontrabasharpa, oktavharpa, three-rowed nyckelharpa, violoncello da spalla and a blue electric base-viola. Väsen comes to Michigan with a new album, “Melliken.”
Hawktail (formerly Haas Kowert Tice) brings together musicians you’ve heard in a dozen other places into an exciting new combination! Fiddler Brittany Haas was a member of Crooked Still and is a fixture on Chris Thile’s “Live from Here” radio shows. Bassist Paul Kowert is a longtime member of Punch Brothers and has also been active in classical music. Guitarist Jordan Tice grew up in bluegrass and has played with The Dave Rawlings Music Machine. And mandolinist Dominick Leslie has studied with Thile, Mike Marshall, and David Grisman, and has performed with Noam Pikelny & Friends and other bands. Put it together, and you have a band that can range across genres and recombine them with ease, imagination, and brilliant virtuosity. Hawktail comes to Michigan with a new release, “Place of Growth.”

Carbon Leaf
2023-10-21 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Blending rock, folk, Celtic, bluegrass and Americana traditions into a high-energy style the group calls ether-electrified porch music, this Virginia quintet’s poetic songs are brought to life with acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, fiddle, bass, drums, cello, banjo, penny whistle, pedal steel, accordion and rich vocal harmony. Carbon Leaf writes, records and produces its music independently from their studio in Richmond, VA, and has performed over 2,400 live shows across 17 albums in their long career. The group’s independent music and spirit continue to resonate with its fans.

Darrell Scott
2023-10-20 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
In the words of the Boston Globe, Darrell Scott “is to Nashville what Richard Thompson is to Britain and what Paul Brady is to Ireland.” Most artists fall toward one side or the other of the divide between great songwriting and instrumental virtuosity, but in the songs of Darrell Scott words, music, and instruments are inseparable. Darrell has written some of the sharpest country songs of the 21st century (like the Dixie Chicks’ “Long Time Gone”), and he can play just about anything with strings. Darrell’s song “Hank Williams’ Ghost” was named Song of the Year at the 2007 Americana Music Awards. Darrell has toured with Robert Plant and The Zac Brown Band, and, as a singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist he’s been an artist to whom many in Nashville turn for a shot of inspiration. His music features guitars (including lap and pedal steel), keyboards, electric and acoustic bass, harp, bouzouki, harmonium, mandolin, banjolin, cello, glockenspiel, drums, and various other percussion instruments. Darrell has two recent albums, “Darrell Scott Sings the Blues of Hank Williams” and “Jaroso.”

Lindsay Lou
2023-10-19 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
“I saw a literal manifestation of the sacred feminine, and had this profound sense that I was meant to embody it,” recalls singer-songwriter Lindsay Lou after journeying through a hallucinogenic ritual that would inform the way she processed waves of grief in the sea of change ahead of her. The loss of her grandmother, the end of her marriage, and the overwhelming turmoil of COVID lockdowns found the Nashville-based artist on a spiritual journey of self-knowledge and healing with this gift from the mystic swirl. On her brand-new album, “Queen of Time,” Lou explores that quest across ten tracks of tender, heartbreakingly beautiful music. Produced by Dave O’Donnell (James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Heart) ) and featuring a gamut of guests including GRAMMY-winners Billy Strings and Jerry Douglas, Queen of Time celebrates love and loss, and captures a new arc of haloed beauty.

Bill Edwards Album Release Concert
2023-10-18 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The constant for Ann Arbor-based Bill Edwards has always been songwriting. He won first prize in Billboard’s® national songwriting contest and his songs have been recorded by other singers and featured on TV and on the silver screen. He’s held staff-writer positions in Nashville and instructed others in the fine art of words and music. But you haven’t heard Bill’s songs until you’ve heard them presented in his own fine voice and with his expressive playing. Bill will be releasing his newest album, “So Far,” at this concert with a full band. This is his ninth full-length album. Opening the show will be metro Detroit singer / songwriter / producer Jeff Scott.

Lucinda Williams: Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets Tour
2023-10-17 19:30 - 23:00 | Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Lucinda Williams’ music has gotten her through her darkest days. It’s been that way since growing up amid family chaos in the Deep South, as she recounts in her candid new memoir, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I told You. Over the past two years, it’s been the force driving her recovery from a debilitating stroke she suffered on November 17, 2020, at age 67. Her masterful, multi-Grammy-winning songwriting has never deserted her. To wit, her stunning, sixteenth studio album, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart, brims over with some of the best work of her career. And though Williams can no longer play her beloved guitar – a constant companion since age 12 – her distinctive vocals sound better than ever.
“I’m singing my ass off,” she told Vanity Fair in February, following her first European tour since 2019. The love emanating from audiences and her musical family onstage and in the studio exemplify the healing power of music, says Williams. In 2020, she spent a week in intensive care, followed by a month in rehab before returning home. The blood clot on the right side of her brain impaired the left side of her body’s motor skills, forcing her to relearn some of the most basic of activities, like walking. In July 2021, she played her first gig, opening for Jason Isbell at Red Rocks. She began seated in a wheelchair, but soon she was upright. “Just the energy of the audiences being so welcoming and warm and the band playing so great and being so supportive gave me so much strength,” Williams relates. “I figured, ‘Hell, all I have to do is stand up there and sing. How hard can that be?”
Soon after touring with Isbell, she returned to the studio. “Writing had been part of my rehabilitation,” says Williams. “It didn’t occur to me to stop and not do anything.” During those long months working with physical therapists and regaining mobility and strength, Williams turned to notebooks of partial lyrics and jotted down some new ideas. She also began collaborating on songs with her husband, manager, and co-producer Tom Overby. The pair’s successful collaborations on several tracks from Williams’ critically acclaimed previous effort, Good Souls Better Angels (released in 2020 and nominated for two Grammy Awards) opened her up to cowriting – “it just expands things,” Williams says. But post-stroke, she had to revise her own songwriting process, since she could no longer
play guitar. “My process has always been to come up with some lyrics, then get the guitar and come up with a melody and some kind of structure,” Williams relates. “Once I get that, then I’d go back and edit the lyrics and add more. Pretty much like when you write and revise a story, except the guitar is added to it. It was very rare that I’d ever write all the lyrics completely without the guitar.”
As they worked on new songs, Williams and Overby enlisted New York singer-songwriter Jesse Malin, whose 2019 album, Sunset Kids, they co-produced. Williams’ longtime road manager, Travis Stephens, a veteran guitarist in several Nashville bands, also jumped in to help. “Like Jesse, Travis is a singer and a songwriter, so he threw his bit in and that led to the co-writing of some songs,” says Williams. “I was comfortable writing with them. Jesse knows me pretty well now, so he was able to anticipate certain things when we worked together – the same with Tom and Travis. I could contribute the melody and all.”
Recording sessions began in November 2021 and – as Williams’ strength increased, continued into 2022. She and Overby rejoined Ray Kennedy, coproducer and engineer of her landmark Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998), with whom she reunited to cut Good Souls Better Angels. In addition to Williams’ longtime touring guitarist Stuart Mathis, joining the mix were drummer Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), keyboardist Reese Wynans (the Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble vet who
appeared on Essence), bassist Steve Mackey (Dolly Parton), and pedal steel/guitarist Doug Pettibone, who played with Williams earlier in her career. “Since I couldn’t teach the band the songs on guitar, I would sing it to give an idea of the feel and the vibe,” says Williams. “We’d do it a few times until we got the right groove. It was really challenging because I wasn’t playing guitar. But sometimes when things are challenging like that, good stuff can come out of it.”
And it certainly did! The band rocks out on the album’s jubilant opening track “Let’s Get the Band Back Together,” which features a gang of background singers, including Margo Price and Buddy Miller. Inspired by “that need for community after all the isolation of the pandemic,” Williams offers, the song is “about getting old friends together again who’d drifted apart.” Price also joins her on the bluesy protest “This Is Not My Town.” The evocative “New York Comeback” also includes guest vocalists – Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. A Lucinda Williams fan, Springsteen joined her onstage in London a few years back, and he and Scialfa had wanted to contribute to a Williams album for some time. With Wynans on B3 and the Pettibone-Mathis guitar attack, the musical setting perfectly matches the theme of “Comeback,” as well as on the catchy story-song “Rock N’ Roll Heart,” to which Springsteen and Scialfa also contributed vocals. Says Williams, “Having Bruce and Patti on these songs feels really great. It’s just so cool!”
Another musical hero of Williams, the late Tom Petty is the subject of the elegiac “Stolen Moments.” Williams, who’d toured with Petty in 1999, played his last Hollywood Bowl shows before his sudden death in October 2017. “Tom was a down to earth, sweet, loving person, and I miss his music but I miss him more,” she relates. “I wrote this song after he passed away. I was just heartbroken, and I’m still reeling.”
Another fallen musician, Bob Stinson, founding lead guitarist of the Replacements, inspired “Hum’s Liquor.” “Tom came up with that,” says Williams, of her husband, a Minneapolis native who lived near the liquor store. Overby witnessed from his window Stinson’s daily morning visits, which eventually cut the former Replacement’s life short. “It haunted me,” Overby relates, “and when I read Bob Mehr’s biography of the band and learned about his childhood abuse, it explained a lot.” Tommy Stinson added vocals to the track, which “was really emotional,” says Williams. “We told him it’s a tribute to his brother,” Overby adds, and “Tommy loved the song.” (The album is dedicated to Bob Stinson, “a true rock n roll heart.”)
Williams’ own rock n roll life is reflected in several of the album’s most moving ballads. The bittersweet “Last Call for the Truth” finds her asking for “one more taste of my lost youth,” while on “Jukebox,” her corner-bar Wurlitzer with “Patsy Cline and Muddy Waters” offers solace when she’s “going crazy with the sound of my own voice.” Angel Olsen contributes backing vocals on the latter, and vocalist Siobhan Maher Kennedy appears on the former. The haunting “Where the Song Will Find Me” is beautifully orchestrated with layers of violin and cello, played and arranged by Lawrence Rothman. And the ode
to perseverance, “Never Gonna Fade Away,” is – like Williams’ live performances – further testimony to the redemptive power of music.
Through all the hardships Williams faced in 2020 – a destructive tornado damaging her new home in Nashville, being sidelined by the pandemic, and then the catastrophic stroke – her music kept her going and continues to bring her more laurels. The past year has seen Williams honored by BMI for her songwriting, her induction into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, and a Grammy Week tribute at the Troubadour, with her songs performed by a diversity of Americana artists. She duetted with Willie Nelson on Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever,” which won a Grammy in February for Best Country Performance. On her birthday in January she performed at a sold-out show in Belfast, Ireland. “I was so glad I was there when I turned 70,” she relates. “The audience sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ Travis brought a birthday cake out onstage, and we took it on the bus and all had a piece of cake. Afterwards, I was so inspired I started writing a song about Northern Ireland.”
As she promises on the powerful last track of Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart–one of the best albums of her career–Lucinda Williams is “never gonna fade away.”

Joni Mitchell 80th Birthday Celebration
2023-10-16 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
With Billy King, Emily Slomovits, San Slomovits, and Jen Sygit!
A quartet of mainstays of the Michigan music scene join together to perform Joni Mitchell songs in honor of her 80th birthday. Come sing along with your favorites and hear newly reimagined arrangements of familiar, iconic Joni songs, and less well-known gems from her nearly 60-year career. The songs of Joni Mitchell have been resounding for several generations now, and we’re bringing together a multi-generational group for a celebration that is not to be missed!

Trace Bundy
2023-10-15 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Internationally acclaimed guitar virtuoso Trace Bundy must be seen, not just heard. His music is poetry in motion, using harmonics, looping, multiple capos, and his unique banter and stage presence to deliver an unforgettable live concert experience. Listening to his intricate arrangements is one thing, but seeing the fan-dubbed “Acoustic Ninja” play live confounds even the most accomplished music lovers as to how one person can do all that with just two hands and ten fingers. Trace has played about 30 countries and counting—from high-tech performance halls in South Korea and Italy, to remote villages in Zimbabwe and Guatemala. In the hands of Trace Bundy, says Guitar Player, “the acoustic guitar is an imagination station, and there was no telling where he is going to take the audience at any given turn. Thrilling stuff.”

The Verve Pipe
2023-10-14 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The Verve Pipe has spent the better part of three decades in evolution, creating a sound that transcends genre and generation. It’s a sound rooted in pop hooks, alt-rock guitars, and the sharp songwriting of frontman Brian Vander Ark. A sound that’s taken the band from the golden days of late-’90s modern rock—when The Verve Pipe enjoyed multi-platinum success with hits like “Photograph” and the chart-topping “The Freshmen”—to the rule-breaking creativity of the 2010s and beyond, an era that’s found the band reinventing itself with each release. Throughout it all, The Verve Pipe has released critically-acclaimed music as both a major-label act and an independent band, maintaining a commitment to forward-thinking rock & roll with albums like 2021’s Threads.

Tommy Emmanuel
2023-10-13 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
“If you like guitar playing, it simply doesn’t get any better than Tommy.” – Jason Isbell
Tommy Emmanuel has achieved enough musical milestones to satisfy several lifetimes. Or at least they would if he was the kind of artist who was ever satisfied. At the age of six, he was touring regional Australia with his family band. By 30, he was a rock n’ roll lead guitarist burning up stadiums in Europe. At 44, he became one of five people ever named a Certified Guitar Player by his idol, music icon Chet Atkins. Today, he plays hundreds of sold-out shows every year from Nashville to Sydney to London. All the while, Tommy has hungered for what’s next. When you’re widely acknowledged as the international master of the solo acoustic guitar, what’s next is an album of collaborations with some of the finest singers, songwriters and, yes, guitarists alive today.
“For me, music has always been about collaboration–the push and pull you get from another human being’s energy,” explains Tommy. “Even when I play solo, it feels like I’m playing to the emotions I’m getting from the crowd. To feel the love or the joy or the hope coming through these other pickers and singers was electric–I played in ways I never would on my own.”
Accomplice One is a testament to Tommy’s musical diversity, the range of expression that stretches from authentic country-blues to face-melting rock shredding, by way of tender and devastating pure song playing. The songs are a mix of new takes on indelible classics and brand new originals from Tommy and his collaborators.
The artists who stepped forward to join Tommy in the studio are an impressive list of some of today’s most respected performers, from across the musical spectrum–a lineup including Jason Isbell, Mark Knopfler, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Amanda Shires, Ricky Skaggs, J.D. Simo, David Grisman, Bryan Sutton, Suzy Bogguss and many more.
This is an album for all types of Tommy Emmanuel fan–from longtime guitar aficionados who’ve followed his career for decades, to lovers of great songs and melodies who flock to Tommy’s shows for the emotional authenticity driving every performance.
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Isbell conjures up the sweaty atmosphere of his Muscle Shoals roots on opener “Deep River Blues,” a classic fingerpicked blues which has been a longtime staple of Tommy’s live shows. Country and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs lends his mandolin and unmistakable voice to “Song and Dance Man,” a chronicle of a life lived for the next show. Tommy’s subtlety and tastefulness blends with Amanda Shires’ gorgeous vocal and fiddle playing to transform Madonna’s “Borderline” and Rodney Crowell’s “Looking Forward to the Past” could’ve topped the country charts in another era, with Tommy’s propulsive rhythm supporting Crowell’s sly lyrics while his tasty lead playing weave in and out.
For those hankering for virtuosic hot picking, the rave-up “Wheelin’ and Dealin’” sees him trading licks with J.D. Simo and Charlie Cushman, while a jaw-dropping rendition of “Purple Haze” with Dobro master Jerry Douglas captures all the fire and energy of the Hendrix original as the two modern masters push each other to new heights with each raunchy slide and bend.
On “You Don’t Want to Get You One of Those,” a sly vocal and acoustic duet with Dire Straits’ legend Mark Knopfler, there was a third, invisible presence in the studio– the late Chet Atkins.
“Mark and I both learned so much from Chet–he was a hero and a mentor to each of us, and we’ve tried to bring his spirit forward into the future in our own playing,” says Tommy. “This song that Mark wrote captured Chet’s sense of humor so well and I had the time of my life in the studio with him conjuring the master as we laid it down.”
While this was the first time he and Knopfler had collaborated, the album also featured some of Tommy’s longtime fellow road warriors, who have covered the miles in buses and planes around the world on tour over many years. “Djangology” is a gypsy jazz treat cut live in Havana, Cuba with Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo and “Rachel’s Lullaby” reunites Tommy with Hawaiian ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro.
The song, written for Tommy’s youngest daughter, shows him continuing to find inspiration from an evergreen source–his love of his family. Since he and his brother Phil taught themselves to play as toddlers, the guitar has been Tommy’s real first language–and he’s more articulate on his signature Melbourne-made Maton acoustics than most people are with words.
His unerring sense of groove marked him as Australia’s youngest rhythm guitarist as The Emmanuel Quartet crisscrossed the country. By the time he made it to the big city in his late teens, Tommy was a rock star, slinging a Fender Telecaster alongside the biggest stars of the day. It was a good life, but deep down Tommy knew there was more to his musical destiny. A shy country kid with little confidence, it took an encouraging meeting turned jam session with his guitar hero Chet Atkins to build his self-belief.
By the late 80s he was ready to go it alone, to make instrumental guitar records made for an audience broader than just guitar fans–a move with zero precedence in Australian music. Despite the odds, Tommy released a string of hit albums, racking up awards wins and nominations, and becoming a huge celebrity in his home country, culminating in an incendiary performance with his brother Phil at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Influenced by the Merle Travis/Chet Atkins fingerstyle of guitar picking, Tommy developed a style of solo guitar playing that encompasses the range of a whole band– covering drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar and a vocal melody simultaneously. No loop pedals, no overdubs, just one man and ten fingers. While some artists take ten-piece bands on the road and still fill out the sound with backing tracks, Tommy builds a complete sonic world entirely on his own. For many players, the technical mastery of the technique would overwhelm the emotion of the music, but not for Tommy. His idols are not just the great players, but also the great pop songwriters and singers–Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, The Beatles and their ilk.
While thousands of fans have spent years trying to unpack and imitate Tommy’s technique, for him it’s just the delivery system. His approach is always song and emotion first, his music the embodiment of his soulful spirit, sense of hope and his love for entertaining. Which is not to say he dismisses the CGP, the Guitar Player awards, the Grammy nominations, the numerous magazine polls naming him the greatest acoustic guitarist alive. He’s grateful for it all, and the incredible journey that’s led him to the most invigorating period of his career–six decades into it. For Tommy though, the greatest reward is always the same–to make the next great record, and to see the beaming audience at the next great show. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be in show business. Now I just want to be in the happiness business–I make music, you get happy. That’s a good job.”
Tommy isn’t the kind of man who looks to nostalgia–it’s more that he treats his history in the same way he treats the history of music overall: There’s magic threaded in through all the eras that’s worth celebrating and revisiting. Now in his sixties –although on stage he can seem 25–life and music are about improvisation, variety and happiness.
“Making Accomplice One has been this great journey through so many of the worlds I’ve inhabited through the years,” concludes Tommy. “Playing with old friends, new friends, heroes, people I’ve been like an older brother to… and musically to jump around from bluegrass to jazz to blues to just pure songs, it’s like going to the world’s greatest buffet and picking out all my favorite meals. People try to categorize what I do, to put me in a genre or put a label on me. I always go back to that old Duke Ellington line, about there being two types of music, good and bad.” Well I try and play the good kind, and on this record I got to play it with the best people.”

OnSale: Fri, 3 Mar 2023 at 12:00PM EST

An Evening with Allison Russell
2023-10-13 18:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Allison Russell – poet, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, and co-founder of Our Native Daughters and Birds of Chicago – embarks upon her next chapter in The Returner, a body-shaking, mind-expanding, soulful expression of Black liberation, Black love, of Black self-respect. Written and co-produced by Allison along with dim star (her partner JT Nero and Drew Lindsay), The Returner was recorded over Solstice week in December 2022 at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, CA. It features Russell’s “Rainbow Coalition” band of all female musicians along with special guest appearances from the legendary Wendy & Lisa, Brandi Carlile, Brandy Clark, and Hozier.

Veterans For Peace Concert
2023-10-12 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
This annual concert benefits the Veterans for Peace Chapter 93 Peace Scholarship Fund. Proceeds will go to scholarships for college students enrolled in an accredited peace studies program and for programs to assist combat veterans suffering from serious trauma. Previous performers have included Chris Buhalis, Dave Keeney and Sophia Hanifi, Annie and Rod Capps, Dave Boutette and Kristi Lynn Davis, Dick Siegel, Judy Banker, Rochelle Clark, Laith Al-Saadi, Rollie Tussing, Michael Smith, Billy King, Jud Branam and Kevin Brown, and Shari Kane and Dave Steele. All artists will be performing peace-themed songs.

Shovels & Rope
2023-10-10 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Shovels & Rope is the Charleston, South Carolina–based duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. They perform as an energetic two-piece band, stirring up a righteous racket with two old guitars, a handful of harmonicas, the occasional keyboard, and a junkyard drum kit harvested from an actual garbage heap and adorned with tambourines, flowers and kitchen rags. But the songs are the deadliest arrows in this duo’s quiver. Since 2010, Shovels & Rope has been traveling the highways and back roads of North America, logging hundreds of shows and performing for crowds large and small. If you enjoy the tough new strain of Southern songwriting exemplified by Justin Townes Earle, Jason Isbell, the Felice Brothers, Hayes Carll, and Butch Walker, Shovels & Rope are not to be missed. The group’s latest album, “Manticore,” has a new sound born of pandemic-time studio experimentation.

Low Cut Connie
2023-10-09 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Based in Philadelphia, Low Cut Connie is a rock and roll band that also serves as the alter ego for the songwriting and the amazing stage presence of frontman Adam Weiner. LA Weekly has called Low Cut Connie’s live performances “unmatched in all of rock right now.” Among the band’s backers are Barack Obama, who put “Boozophilia” on his Spotify playlist, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen. Low Cut Connie’s recent dates include a performance at President Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Low Cut Connie comes to Michigan with a new release, “Are You Gonna Run?”
Opening the show will be Matthew Logan Vasquez, best-known as the co-founder and frontman for shape-shifting heartland indie rockers Delta Spirit, Matthew Logan Vasquez’s fiery delivery and thought-provoking lyrics draw from a huge and versatile well of influences, including Gram Parsons, Kurt Cobain, Neil Young, and Iggy Pop. As a solo artist, he juggles elements of indie rock, electronic pop, R&B, and soulful Americana, flirting with despondency, but ultimately succumbing to beatitude.

Trousdale
2023-10-08 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Trousdale is a powerful female band consisting of Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene and Lauren Jones. Their melodic and heartfelt harmonies are often compared to The Chicks and The Staves, but the girls draw inspiration from a wide array of music, including Crosby Stills and Nash, Kacey Musgraves and HAIM. Driven by their passion to empower young women, Trousdale is committed to making quality music that spreads a message of self-acceptance and love.
Trousdale has self-released two EPs and are in the process of releasing their debut album, collecting over 55M streams on Spotify in the last three years. Their catalog until now being entirely self-produced, this upcoming debut includes songs co-written with Jon Bellion, Madi Diaz, Jon Green and Natalie Hemby, and co-production by Jon Green, John Mark Nelson, and others.
San Diego–born songwriter Anna Vaus opens.

Claudia Schmidt // Rachael Davis
2023-10-07 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Michigan native Claudia Schmidt has covered a lot of musical ground, beginning with a stirring rendition of “Tammy” at age 4 around a neighborhood bonfire. Then came years of choirs, a guitar, a dulcimer, and some theater thrown into the pot. Over four decades of mostly original songs exploring folk, blues, and jazz idioms, she has created a repertory full of the stuff of life itself. A musician who has always hated categories, Claudia describes herself as a “creative noisemaker.” Her concerts are so unified and full of life that one critic has described a Claudia Schmidt concert as “a lot like falling in love. You never know what’s going to happen next, chances are it’s going to be wonderful, every moment is burned into your memory, and you know you’ll never be the same again.”
Claudia is joined on the bill by Michigan songwriter and frequent Steppin’ in It collaborator Rachael Davis, who was born in Lansing and grew up in Cadillac. What grabs you first about Rachael is the voice, with a bluesy richness that will make you pull off the road to listen. Add in some incisive songwriting, and you have a Michigan artist with a strong and growing following. Says songwriter Susan Werner: “We don’t have Eva Cassidy anymore, but we do have Rachael Davis.” For the first time at age 12, and continuing each year since, Rachael has brought the Wheatland Music Festival to its knees closing the Sunday morning gospel set with her stunning solo a capella version of “Amazing Grace.”

Ben Daniels Band
2023-10-06 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
While in Arizona studying audio engineering, Ben Daniels decided to be a musician. A natural poet, he soon became a young songwriter schooled on Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, J.J. Cale, and John Prine, among others.
Since 2006, Ben has written songs that speak directly to the things we all see, recognize, and think. Years later, his lyrics have the authenticity of an artist.
Together since 2008, the Ben Daniels Band cuts through with an Americana sound from the Michigan ground. From their opening song to the finale of their set, their musicianship, experience, and originality make no two shows alike. And with the bluegrass roots of Tommy Reifel (bass), Wesley Fritzemeier (drums/mandolin/fiddle), and George Merkel (guitar), Ben Daniels Band’s live show never fails to take over the venue.

John Raymond & S. Carey "Shadowlands"
2023-10-05 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
John Raymond and S. Carey have been playing music together for close to twenty years since their time studying music at the University of –Eau Claire. While they both received training in jazz and classical music, their careers would soon head in very different directions. S. Carey would become the right-hand man to Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver); collaborate as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer with the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Low, and Bruce Hornsby among others; and release four albums of his own to critical acclaim from Pitchfork, NPR, and more. John Raymond, on the other hand, would become a Grammy-nominated trumpeter and composer “steering jazz in the right direction” (Downbeat); release eight albums garnering praise from the New York Times, Stereogum, and others; and teach on faculty at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the world.
In 2019, the two reunited and began experimenting on what their artistic voices would sound like together. Raymond brought in a host of musical ideas, while Carey contributed lyrics and helped shape the ideas into songs. Producer Sun Chung (formerly with ECM Records) came on board shortly after, and together they enlisted a cast of A-list musicians to help flesh out the music including pianist Aaron Parks (Terri Lyne Carrington, Terence Blanchard), bassist Chris Morrissey (Norah Jones, Mark Guiliana), and guitarist Dave Devine (Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band).
The result is their new album, “Shadowlands” (out September 29), a stunning, genre-bending collection of songs that combines the warmth and beauty of Carey’s aesthetic with the improvisational, spontaneous nature of Raymond’s. The music ranges from intimate and meditative to soaring and anthemic, with electric moments of musical interplay throughout. It’s the kind of collaboration that feels as if it were years in the making.

Gina Chavez
2023-10-04 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
A multiethnic Latin pop songstress, Gina Chavez is a ten-time Austin Music Award winner. Her bilingual record “Up.Rooted” topped both the Amazon and Latin iTunes charts following a feature on NPR’s All Things Considered and has gained wide critical acclaim. Her Tiny Desk concert made NPR’s top 15 of 2015, and she recently made 12-country tour as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, Gina offers passionate bilingual songs that take audiences on a journey through the Americas, blending the sounds and rhythms of the region with tension and grace. Her Spanish-language anthem “Siete-D” (Grand Prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest) recounts her experience volunteering in a gang-dominated suburb of San Salvador, where she co-founded the Niñas Arriba College Fund for young Latinas. Her songs share her story of life in Texas as a married, queer Catholic Gina appeared at the 2022 Ann Arbor Folk Festival, and her latest, the all-Spanish album “La que manda,” earned a Latin Grammy nomination.

Dave & Kristi with their Showband
2023-10-03 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Dave Boutette’s Midwest is full of passion, humor, and a certain shaky grace. Influenced by songwriters from Chuck Berry to John Prine to Elvis Costello, he documents the travels and triumphs of life in the heartland. Dave grew up in Detroit’s shadow, and he peppers his performances with stories of his home and his life on the road. Kristi Lynn Davis logged in about 1,200 performances and 240,000 kicks as a Radio City Rockette. She also sailed the globe as a singer-dancer on cruise ships and worked in musical theater productions with showbiz icons Susan Anton, Buddy Ebsen, Maurice Hines, Jack Jones, Paige O’Hara, Juliet Prowse, Rip Taylor, and others. Kristi’s had so many adventures in show business, she had to write a book to keep them all straight. Her award-winning comic memoir is titled “Long Legs and Tall Tales.” Close, comforting, and warm, Kristi’s voice slips in right beside Dave’s, and her charming and confident stage presence, along with her quick wit, are adding a whole new appeal to Dave’s shows. Together they have performed at music festivals, listening rooms, and brewpubs from the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula all the way down to Oberlin, Ohio. Tonight marks their first show with a full band.
