The Ark

Darrell Scott
2021-11-09 20:00 (America/New_York) | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Please Note: Proof of Vaccination is required for admission. By purchasing a ticket you agree that you and your guests will comply with all laws, orders, ordinances, regulations and health and safety guidance adopted by the State of Michigan, the County of Washtenaw and The Ark, including any guidelines in place at the time of the show. Attendees who do not comply will be asked to leave. Policies will be updated as circumstances and requirements change in our community. Please review The Ark’s current COVID-related information before attending a show.
COVID-19 FAQ
Multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Darrell Scott mines and cultivates the everyday moment, taking the rote, menial, mundane, and allowing it to be surreal, ever poignant, and candidly honest, lilting, blooming, and resonating. The words he fosters allow us to make sense of the world, what is at stake here, and our place in it. And ultimately, Darrell knows the sole truth of life is that love is all that matters, that we don’t always get it right, but that’s the instinctive and requisite circuitous allure of things, why we forever chase it, and why it is held sacred.
Darrell Scott comes from a musical family with a father who had him smitten with guitars by the age of 4, alongside a brother who played Jerry Reed style as well. From there, things only ramped up with literature and poetry endeavors while a student at Tufts University, along with playing his way through life. This would never change.
After recently touring with Robert Plant and the Zac Brown Band (2 years with each), and producing albums for Malcolm Holcomb and Guy Clark and being named “songwriter of the year” for both ASCAP and NSAI, these days find him roaming his Tennessee wilderness acreage hiking along the small river, creating delicious meals with food raised on his property and playing music. He often leads songwriting workshops to help people tell their own truths with their stories, and is as busy as always writing, producing, performing, and just plain fully immersing himself in life.

The Lone Bellow
2021-11-08 20:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Please Note: Proof of Vaccination is required for admission. By purchasing a ticket you agree that you and your guests will comply with all laws, orders, ordinances, regulations and health and safety guidance adopted by the State of Michigan, the County of Washtenaw and The Ark, including any guidelines in place at the time of the show. Attendees who do not comply will be asked to leave. Policies will be updated as circumstances and requirements change in our community. Please review The Ark’s current COVID-related information before attending a show.
COVID-19 FAQ
“I want it to bring comfort,” The Lone Bellow guitarist Brian Elmquist says. “But it’s not all hard conversations. There’s a lot of light and some dancing that needs to happen.” Brian is reflecting on Half Moon Light, the band’s highly anticipated new album.
Half Moon Light is an artistic triumph worked toward for years, earned not by individual posturing, but by collective determination and natural growth. With earthy three-part harmonies and songwriting as provocative as it is honest, the trio made up of Brian, lead vocalist Zach Williams, and multi-instrumentalist Kanene Donehey Pipkin creates sparks that make a stranger’s life matter or bring our sense of childlike wonder roaring back. On Half Moon Light, The Lone Bellow mix light and dark to muster a complex ode to memory, a call for hope, and an exercise in empathy. Anchored in the acoustic storytelling that first so endeared the band to fans and critics, Half Moon Light also takes more chances, experimenting with textures and instrumental fillips to create a full-bodied music experience. The result is The Lone Bellow’s most sophisticated work to date.
“We try to invite as many people into the process to see what we can make together,” Brian says. “I like that spirit and that freedom. Then, the songs speak for themselves.”
That wholehearted embrace of collaboration defines Half Moon Light. The record marks a return to recording in New York with Aaron Dessner, whom the band counts as both a hero and a friend. “We already had a friendship with Aaron and a strong, shared understanding of our musical vision,” Zach says. “It’s really important to us to be a part of a community of musicians. We like that way of making something. Aaron showed us a new way of trusting. His idea of bringing in Josh Kaufman and J.T. Bates was such a beautiful gift. The meekness that these friends brought to the table was something that we will never forget. A sense of controlled fury. Lightning in a shoebox.”
“Aaron has a powerful quietness about him,” Kanene says. “A lot of people I meet in the music industry have lots of bravado, and it’s something I have trouble believing. Aaron doesn’t have that. He is a joy to work with. A true friend.”
For the first time, the band stayed where they recorded, sequestered from the world at Aaron’s studio in upstate New York. They fell asleep at night to the sound of coyotes howling and felt the freedom to fall into rabbit holes that would have otherwise been left unexplored. “We made this record in a place of joy with our friends. We were trying to do something bigger than ourselves,” says Brian. “I think we’ve been wanting to make this record for a while now. It just hasn’t come together as perfectly as it did this time.”
A lone piano launches into a hymn as the album’s intro track. The pianist is Zach’s grandmother, playing at the funeral of her husband of 64 years – Zach’s grandfather. The hymn returns as an interlude and outro, underscoring The Lone Bellow’s intention for 12 songs to be experienced together, as an album.
Wonder – feeling it, losing it, finding it again – underpins the entire record. Pulsing with the trio’s signature harmonies, the track “Wonder” is a loving call to reclaim the childlike awe and appreciation age takes away. Zach pulled from vivid childhood memories to craft the song, which transports listeners to moments of breathlessness experienced in the everyday: cheap coffee, backroad car rides, pine-tree views, and powerful songs.
Jubilant “I Can Feel You Dancing” rolls into a cathartic celebration. The song pays tribute to “lionhearted” free spirits with horns and soaring vocals. With a winking jungle beat, “Good Times” tells tales Zach has collected over the years. “Some stories were told on a boat I worked on in the Caribbean in the middle of the night. Some were in old Irish pubs in Manhattan. Some were in backyards down in my hometown. Some were in a hospital bed,” Zach says. “I wanted to shine light on the fact that there are still people living with beauty and reckless abandonment.” Delivered over intimate acoustic guitar and hushed backing instrumentation, “Enemies” is a self-contained call and response that reconnects life-defining moments with the frustrating or tenuous present that threatens to snuff out the magic.
Lead single “Count On Me” reminds us to lean on one another with soul-shouting intensity. Praise for deep friendships pops up again and again throughout the album: “Friends” celebrates the relationships forged after years together in the trenches – with a musical swagger that nods to David Byrne and Tom Petty.
Kanene takes the lead on tour-de-force “Just Enough to Get By.” Her inimitable voice – capable of grit and smoothness – pushes through line after line with steely purpose. The performance would saunter were it not for the rage bubbling underneath. Kanene wrote the song about her mother, who was raped at 19, then sent away to have the baby that resulted. When she returned home, she never spoke of what had happened until 40 years later, when Kanene’s half-sister – the baby – found them. “I’ve met my half-sister many times. She’s wonderful and lovely and an amazing story of something never being too broken to be fixed. But my mom had to work through the trauma,” Kanene says. “This song was me putting myself in my mom’s place, releasing a lot of complex emotions. Anger is definitely one of them. Hurt, frustration, sadness. We all have experiences that could be better if we could talk about them, but we keep them hidden.”
Album standout “Illegal Immigrant” also features Kanene’s vocals. Brian took the lead writing the song, which tells the true story of a mother and child separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. The chorus’s “I promised I’d find you, wherever you are, wherever you are / Here I am” is equal parts haunting, heartbreaking, and reassuring – and the unfiltered words actually spoken by the immigrant mother into a press conference microphone. Kanene sings with weighty restraint – like a parent burying their own terror so they can be their child’s rock. “I was trying to tell her story the best I could,” Brian says. “I wanted to keep myself as far out of the equation as I could and just try to connect – to help find some compassion.”
Brian also penned “Wash It Clean,” which both Zach and Kanene point to as a favorite. Lilting with guitar and harmonica, the song is a letter to Brian’s dad, who passed away suddenly last year. The two had a strained relationship, and Brian spent years trying to find some common ground. They did, and then two months later, his dad was gone. The band recorded the song on the one-year anniversary of Brian’s father’s death, without Brian even realizing it at the time. “I feel like that means he was here – or in me,” Brian says. “Working really hard to find understanding was probably one of the greatest gifts and lessons of my whole life.”
The stories behind the songs matter – but they aren’t what matters most. In the end, The Lone Bellow’s music needs no explanation. Just listening offers a salve and a shelter. “In my own perfect little world, I would be able to put the music out and not talk about it – just, Here. Bye. See you next time,” Zach says, then laughs softly. “I do hope someone will find this music in a peaceful moment, when they can turn it on and get lost in the story and the sound.”
–VIP TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT–
VIP details:
• Early entry for a premium concert view
• Invitation to ‘The Shindig’ which includes:
• Pre-show private acoustic performance and Q&A by The Lone Bellow
• One (1) exclusive Shindig Color Half Moon Light vinyl, signed by The Lone Bellow
• One (1) exclusive ’Shindig’ canvas tote bag
• One (1) limited edition ’Shindig’ enamel pin
• Crowd-free merchandise shopping

Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi
2021-11-08 20:00 | Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Please Note: Proof of Vaccination or a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours is required for admission at the Michigan Theater. Masks are required of all attendees. By purchasing a ticket you agree that you and your guests will comply with all laws, orders, ordinances, regulations and health and safety guidance adopted by the State of Michigan, the County of Washtenaw and The Ark, including any guidelines in place at the time of the show. Attendees who do not comply will be asked to leave.
COVID-19 FAQ
Rhiannon Giddens uses her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and she has been nominated for six additional Grammys for her work as a soloist and collaborator. She was most recently nominated for her collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other (2019).
Giddens’s latest album, They’re Calling Me Home, is a twelve-track album, recorded with Turrisi in Ireland during the recent lockdown; it speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical “call home” of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many during the COVID-19 crisis.

Brendan James
2021-11-07 19:30 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Please Note: Proof of Vaccination is required for admission. By purchasing a ticket you agree that you and your guests will comply with all laws, orders, ordinances, regulations and health and safety guidance adopted by the State of Michigan, the County of Washtenaw and The Ark, including any guidelines in place at the time of the show. Attendees who do not comply will be asked to leave. Policies will be updated as circumstances and requirements change in our community. Please review The Ark’s current COVID-related information before attending a show.
COVID-19 FAQ
The rising star continues to rise.
For those who have followed Brendan James from his 2008 major label debut to his current ranking among today’s top troubadours, the journey has been a pretty remarkable one.
Born in New Hampshire, schooled in Chapel Hill, signed by Capitol Records by the age of 25, and road-tested with a thousand shows to date, James has certainly lived the life of a troubadour. His songs have landed spots on over 15 major television shows and feature films and he’s achieved the #1 Singer Songwriter spot on iTunes, multiple times. He has formed relationships with music legends Carly Simon and Cat Stevens, enjoyed on-stage experiences with the likes of John Legend, John Mayer, and Paula Cole, and recently been asked to give a TedTalk on gun violence, love songs, and simpler societies.
Now, after two years of touring in support of his 2012 release, Simplify, James embarks on an altogether new sound. His new EP, The Howl, set for release in the summer of 2015, is bigger, badder, and dancier than anything he’s attempted to date. In his words, The Howl is “…a reflection of my years on the road, my dreams broken and reformed, and my growing addiction to the upbeat and the feel good.” He chose the name after reading a review of his last album, in which he was described as an artist holding back a howl. So howling he will do: bigger songs, bigger shows, and bigger goals.

The David Bromberg Quintet
2021-10-10 14:30 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Please Note: Proof of Vaccination is required for admission. By purchasing a ticket you agree that you and your guests will comply with all laws, orders, ordinances, regulations and health and safety guidance adopted by the State of Michigan, the County of Washtenaw and The Ark, including any guidelines in place at the time of the show. Attendees who do not comply will be asked to leave. Policies will be updated as circumstances and requirements change in our community. Please review The Ark’s current COVID-related information before attending a show.
A legend of the folk scene, David Bromberg got his start in the Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene in the mid-1960s. His extraordinary guitar picking and exceptional stylistic range developed over the next decade. David’s live shows, rarer since he took up violin-making full time, range from Texas swing to bluegrass, blues, classical music, and anything else that might cross his mind. In the words of the New York Times, he “has such control of his audience that he can, at one moment, hold it in his hand with a tender, touching yet funny anecdotal song, and then set it romping and stomping with a raucous bit of raunch. He is electrifying.” We might add that he picked up on the humor in country and classic blues as well as anyone else in the folk revival scene, making his shows a great deal of fun. David appears tonight with his quintet, with whom he recently recorded a new album, “Big Road.”

Just My Way: Intermediate Fingerstyle Guitar with Jorma Kaukonen
2021-01-06 19:00 | MI
Online

$100

Register Online

7:00 pm

12/1 – 10:00 am

7:00 pm

For this class description, we hear from Jorma himself:
This is one of my Level 3 (intermediate level) classes so that means if you are in this class, you can play fingerstyle guitar pretty well and your thumb is now well behaved and can keep a steady bass line. Timing of a song is everything so we will talk a lot about that and put it to work so it becomes part of what you think about when you start a song. We tend to speed up when we play. I don’t know why that is but I am just as guilty of that when I am on stage with one or more players. In this class I teach you how to keep time . I’ll use my songs as a backdrop but you can apply this to your own songs to be sure. I’ll cover basically every part of the song (my songs) in intermediate level fingerstyle language. Which basically means, I’ll help secure where you are in your playing and introduce you to the next level of playing. I’ll teach you how I arranged the songs and how to make them playable. The focus will be on bringing the pieces I choose to meet the groove, tone, texture and creativity of the song.
The workshop will be taught on the Zoom internet platform. Instructions for signing on will be sent to registrants in advance.

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Workshops and Seminars

Old Town School of Folk Music

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