Shows & Events

Open Mic

The Ark’s Open Stage

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 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. Performers have eight minutes (or two songs) each to do their thing. Doors open at 7:30, and names are drawn at 7:55 and 8:30. If your name isn't chosen, bring your raffle ticket with you next time, and you'll double your chances.

$3, Students and Ark Members free

Michael McDermott

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Michael McDermott’s brand of rock n’ roll brims with the kind of well-honed style and wisdom that can only come from a career on the road and a pedigree in the studio. Effortlessly blending natural folk sensibility, pop hooks, and honest rock, McDermott’s music is as much for the outcast as the congregation. It’s an exploration of the dark corners of life’s journey and it resonates middle class truths through the passionate filter of a kid that grew up on Chicago’s Irish South Side.

$20
Sold Out

Noah Reid

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Noah Reid has earned a permanent place in the music industry as a result of his powerful vocals and honest delivery. Evident on his debut album Songs from a Broken Chair (2016) and sophomore album Gemini (2020), which collectively have garnered nearly 145 million streams, two nominations at the 2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards in the ‘Songwriter of the Year’ and ‘New/Emerging Artist of the Year’ categories and landed Noah on four Billboard charts. Reid’s songwriting style is reminiscent of singer-songwriters of the seventies but with a contemporary twist, resulting in a signature polished, albeit slightly rusted over, tone.

$40, $50, $70
Ford Family Series

Justin Roberts & The Not Ready For Naptime Players

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Five-time GRAMMY Nominee Justin Roberts is one of the founders of the modern family music scene. His songs are the kind of get-stuck-in-your-head pop nuggets that draw comparisons to Elvis Costello, Fountains of Wayne, and Paul Simon rather than simple nursery rhymes, prompting USA Today to call him “hands-down the best songwriter in the genre.”

$20, $15 kids 12 and under
Special Event

Jesse Cook

Royal Oak Music Theatre 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, United States

For Jesse Cook, music has been a journey. Sonically and literally.

“Over the years, I’ve taken my music and tried to cross-pollinate it with music from different parts of the world,” explains the 50-year-old global-guitar virtuoso. “For the (2003) album Nomad, I went to Cairo and recorded with musicians there. On my (2009) record The Rumba Foundation, I went to Colombia, and worked with musicians from Cuba as well. On (1998’s) Vertigo, I went down to Lafayette, La., and recorded with Buckwheat Zydeco. For me, the question has always been: Where did you go? Where did you take your guitar?”

$29.50, $39.50, $49.50

The Wildwoods

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

In the heart of Lincoln, Nebraska, The Wildwoods, a folk/Americana trio led by Noah and Chloe Gose, alongside bassist Andrew Vaggalis, deliver a musical journey through the soul of American roots. With accolades ranging from international songwriting competitions to standing ovations at festivals like Summerfest and FreshGrass, their newest release, “Hideaway” is out January 17th.

$20
Low Ticket Alert

Paul Thorn

Opener: Jared Deck

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

When it comes to songwriting, less is more, and simplicity is strength. Just ask Paul Thorn, who’s spent three decades turning soulful grooves and small syllables into songs that pack a big wallop. Maybe he learned the power of minimalism from his years as a pro boxer; maybe it just comes naturally. But whether he’s targeting heads, hearts, hips or the occasional funny bone, he somehow manages to condense large nuggets of wisdom into tight little mantras, the kind embroiderers stitched onto pillows before internet memes existed.

$35

Richard Shindell

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Richard Shindell lives as both an immigrant and emigrant, crossing thresholds that inform his illumination of the human experience through narrative song. Shindell has inhabited a Zen Buddhist monastery and busked in the streets of Paris. Originally from New York, now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Shindell is a writer whose songs paint pictures, tell stories, juxtapose ideas and images, inhabit characters, vividly evoking entire worlds along the way and expanding our sense of just what it is a song may be.

$30
Open Mic

The Ark’s Open Stage

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 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. Performers have eight minutes (or two songs) each to do their thing. Doors open at 7:30, and names are drawn at 7:55 and 8:30. If your name isn't chosen, bring your raffle ticket with you next time, and you'll double your chances.

$3, Students and Ark Members free

Dave Bruzza (of Greensky Bluegrass)

Opener: Kellen Asebroek

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Dave Bruzza is a multi instrumentalist, songwriter,  and founding member of Greensky Bluegrass. For 20 years he has toured the country with GSBG and has performed solo as well as with side projects such as Airborn or Aquatic? and his own band Unsafe at any Speed. Dave grew up in Michigan and had an interest in music since he was young. Taking up the drums at a very young age he was dedicated to playing and exploring all the possibilities of music. He developed a taste for bluegrass in his teenage years and was given a guitar from a friend to learn how to play. Soon after Greensky was born and his career has been constant since then.

$25

The Arcadian Wild

Special Guest: River & Rail

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

The Arcadian Wild is a four-piece indie folk/pop group from Nashville, TN. Led by songwriters Isaac Horn and Lincoln Mick and Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild confidently inhabits and explores an intersection of genre, blending the traditional with the contemporary. Combining elements of progressive bluegrass, folk, and formal vocal music, The Arcadian Wild offer up songs of invitation; calls to come and see, to find refuge and rest, to journey and wonder, to laugh and cry, to share joy and community and sing along.

$25

Cousin Curtiss

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Cousin Curtiss brings to the stage a fiery dynamic rarely seen by a solo act and now partnered up with the equally enigmatic and soulfully driven electric guitar prowess of Harrison B, these two road warriors are on a mission to electrify audiences everywhere with their two-man full-band sound.

$20