Guster
2025-01-29 20:00 - 23:00 (America/Detroit) | The Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Michigan, 48201, United States
Not long before the making of their new album Ooh La La, Guster celebrated three decades together as a band—a journey that’s included landing a series of hits on the Billboard charts, working with luminaries like Steve Lillywhite and Richard Swift, launching their own music festival, and amassing an ardent fanbase partly on the strength of their relentless touring and deeply communal live show. But despite reaching a milestone few musical acts ever come close to attaining, Guster’s ninth studio LP reveals a band fully in touch with the voracious creative energy that first inspired their formation. A major leap forward for lead vocalist Ryan Miller, guitarist Adam Gardner, drummer Brian Rosenworcel, and multi-instrumentalist Luke Reynolds, Ooh La La ultimately matches that wide-eyed spirit with a newly heightened sense of confidence, conviction, and commitment to the raw sincerity that’s made them so beloved.

Matt Nathanson - King of (un)simple Tour
2025-03-05 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Over his almost 30 year career, Matt Nathanson has evolved into one of the most applauded songwriters and engaging performers on the music scene today. His sixth studio album, Some Mad Hope, yielded his breakthrough multi-platinum hit “Come on Get Higher.” He followed up with Modern Love, a critically acclaimed album (PopMatters called it “the closest a pop album comes to perfection this year”) that garnered Nathanson two RIAA Gold Certified singles, “Faster” & “Run (featuring Sugarland)”. His 2013 release, Last of The Great Pretenders, debuted at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 while hitting #1 on iTunes’ Alternative Albums chart. His most recent album, Sings His Sad Heart spawned the hit single “Used To Be” which was a chart climber – hitting top 20 at Adult Top 40. Throughout his career, Nathanson has been known to cover songs and artists that inspire him. His Def Leppard approved cover album of their iconic Pyromania called Pyromattia shot to #1 on iTunes Alternative chart and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott called the album “an amazing reinterpretation” with “heart & soul.” Last year he covered U2’s Achtung Baby as a tribute to his all time favorite album. His holiday LP Farewell December, includes “Blue Christmas” to “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” — as well as his somber take on Joni Mitchell’s “River.” Nathanson has performed on The Howard Stern Show, Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Dancing with the Stars, Rachael Ray, and The CMA Awards to name a few.

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
2025-03-25 20:00 - 23:00 | Masonic Jack White Theatre, 500 Temple Street, Detroit, MI, 48201, United States
This show will be an evening with, Herb Alpert and his brand new Tijuana Brass. Herb along with his 6 great musicians will be playing all of your favorite TJB hit songs just as you remember hearing them while growing up.
2025 will mark the 60th anniversary of the iconic album, “Whipped Cream & Other Delights”. Herb and the band will be performing many of those great songs in addition to many other hit songs that we all know; “The Lonely Bull”, “Spanish Flea”, “Taste of Honey”, “Mexican Shuffle”, “Tijuana Taxi”, “This Guy’s In Love With You”, “What Now My Love”, “Zorba the Greek”, “Ladyfingers”, “Rise” and many other delights.
The show runs 90 minutes and is informal as Herb loves to answer questions from the audience about his career, A&M Records and the many iconic artists like Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, The Carpenters and Burt Bacharach that he has worked with over the past 63 years. The show features a giant video screen that displays hundreds of classic photos, videos, art and various memorabilia from Herb’s music career. A really exciting show and truly a Once in a Lifetime Concert Event!

Explosions in the Sky
2025-04-02 19:30 - 23:00 | Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Explosions in the Sky are an iconic instrumental rock band from Texas that have become the gold standard for bold, emotional, cinematic music and are known for their incendiary live concerts. They’ve slowly grown from playing DIY spaces and opening for Fugazi to having headlined Radio City Music Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Greek Theatre, and the Sydney Opera House. Over 24 years of being a band (with the same four members the entire time), they’ve achieved remarkable commercial success from an especially non-commercial corner of the music world, selling more than 1.3 million copies over six studio albums, and scoring five major motion pictures in the process. They’ve become the sound of modern sports films, documentaries and television, due largely to their genre-defining Friday Night Lights score, and they’ve been asked to tour with artist fans as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, The Flaming Lips, and Death Cab for Cutie, while managing to not sound like any other popular artist.

Ani DiFranco
2025-04-12 20:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
These days, every artist’s album needs to have a story. The music can’t speak for itself.
But after 22 records, why can’t Ani DiFranco’s work speak for itself? Yes, her forthcoming album is shaped by stories — ones about reproductive freedom, the double-edged sword of the pandemic, identity and ever-evolving belief systems that have shaped each of its 11 songs. There are songs that were written in 2011 and in 2022; some for musicals, others for children’s books. The album isn’t linear, but it is inherently teeming with DiFranco’s spirit.
It was paramount to the folk-feminist hero that listeners not be saddled with preconceived notions while diving into her 23rd album Unprecedented Sh!t. “I believe there is a rhyme and a reason as to why these songs have come together in this way now and I want people to experience this album as a journey, a piece of art, without being influenced by a cacophony of surrounding narratives.”
While many of DiFranco’s albums were made more insularly, she’s opened herself up to collaboration in recent years. For 21 of DiFranco’s 22 albums, she opted to self-produce. With Unprecedented Sh!t, she wanted to try working with a producer and tapped BJ Burton, who produced one of her favorite albums, Bon Iver’s 22, A Million. With Burton’s help, largely from afar, they created soundscapes often using only DiFranco’s voice and guitar as the raw materials and manipulating them with effects and filters. “I really wanted to lean into the power of machines in a way that I never have before, so BJ and I communicating through many layers of them in order to collaborate, seemed apropos. This record was made almost entirely by me and BJ alone, bouncing things back and forth.”
The title Unprecedented Sh!t is not only representative of how much of a sonic departure the 11-track album is from Ani’s other work, but also a political and social commentary on the current state of the world. “We find ourselves in unprecedented times in many ways, faced with unprecedented challenges. So, our responses to them and our discourse around them, need to rise to that level.”
DiFranco has been known as a feminist icon and pioneer of DIY for nearly 35 years. Since founding her record label Righteous Babe Records in 1990, she has released 22 albums, traversing folk, punk, hip-hop, soul and electronic genres and addressing a range of autobiographical, political and social issues. While her first four albums Ani DiFranco (1990), Not So Soft (1991), and Imperfectly (1992), Puddle Dive (1993), harnessed a more raw sound, Out Of Range (1994), Not A Pretty Girl (1995) and Dilate (1996) were more rooted in DiFranco’s folk ethos. She released eight more albums over the next 10 years, earning a Grammy Award for her 2003 album Evolve and numerous nominations. Her most recent albums include 2008’s Red Letter Year and 2017’s Binary. Most recently, fans have been thrilled by 2021’s Revolutionary Love and the 25th Anniversary Edition reissues of both her iconic 1997 live album Living In Clip and 1998’s Little Plastic Castle, via Righteous Babe Records in 2023.
DiFranco is also a poet, author and Broadway performer. She released a collection of poems and paintings titled Verses in 2007. Her memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream was a New York Times Top 10 best seller in 2019, and her children’s books The Knowing and Show Up and Vote are out now. DiFranco also recently completed a 5-month run on Broadway as ‘Persephone’ in the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical, Hadestown.

OK Go
2025-04-26 20:00 - 23:00 | The Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Michigan, 48201, United States
With a career that includes award-winning videos, New York Times op-eds, collaborations with pioneering dance companies and tech giants, animators and Muppets, and an experiment that encoded their music on actual strands of DNA, OK Go continues to fearlessly dream and build new worlds in a time when creative boundaries have all but dissolved. The band has been recognized for their achievements with 21 Cannes Lions, 12 CLIOs, 3 VMAs, 2 Webbys, The Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, and a Grammy.

Jesse Cook
2025-05-03 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, 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?”
The short answer this time? Nowhere. And everywhere. After two decades of criss-crossing the world in restless pursuit of inspiration, innovation and collaboration, the Paris-born, Toronto-raised Cook changed course for his ninth studio albumOne World, out April, 28th, 2015 on eOne Music Canada. Instead of exotic locales, he stayed home in his studio. Instead of a foreign legion of performers, he relied on his own devices. And instead of exploring cul de sacs of music — flamenco, classical, rumba, world beat, pop, blues or jazz — he united them.
“On this record, it’s not really about going someplace,” he says of the album, whose cover depicts a vast, ancient tree. “The idea is that there really is just one world. If you pull your focus back far enough, you start to see all music as being branches of the same tree. They’re all connected to the same trunk from way back.
“For example, my strange way of playing guitar is a hybrid of styles. I was a classical guitarist as a kid, and I studied flamenco and then I studied jazz. So there are three musical and guitar traditions in my background. And one of the forms I use, rumba flamenco, is itself a hybrid created in the 1800s when sailors were coming back to Spain from Cuba, having heard these Cuban rhythms. And here I am, 150 years later, taking it and mixing it back with modern music and seeing where it takes me. Music is a constantly evolving thing.”
As is Cook’s creative approach. Despite its humble home-made origins, One World begins another chapter in the multi-tasking artist, composer and producer’s quest. His destination: The digital realm. To create the disc’s emotive melodies, fluid grooves and rich sonic tapestries, he incorporated technology more than ever before. Give credit to his precocious young assistant.
“I have two small children, and my son is forever trying to get on my computer. If I’m in my studio, he’ll come in and sit down and just start pushing buttons and making things happen in the recording program I use. At first I was terrified he would mess things up. But he actually got really good at poking around. I started going, ‘Wow, what’s that? What are you doing? Let me in there!’ I started writing tunes using weird loops and metallic and electronic sounds. And I found myself interested in taking what I do and putting it in a more modern context. I’ve leaned heavily on ancient instruments. But for this record, I put those instruments side by side with modern sounds — unabashedly so.”
What results is the most sonically diverse and distinctive disc in Cook’s vast and varied catalogue, which has earned 11 Juno nominations and one win for 2000’s Free Fall. On these 11 instrumentals, programmed beats and dusty electronic textures are interwoven with syncopated handclaps, deep dubby basslines and popping percussion. Sitars and violin share the space with synthesizers and sound effects. Notes and rhythms dance playfully back and forth between speakers. Naturally, Cook’s masterful guitar work commands centre stage with its elegant balance of subtlety, in-the-moment honesty and blazing technical prowess. But here, it also pivots between worlds — past and future, familiar and fresh, acoustic and electronic — redefined by technology like every element of modern life.
“We’re all involved with our computers in a big way, though we malign them,” laughs Cook. “People complain social media is ruining communication and that people just text instead of call. But love and romance and imagination and art also happen through computers. People fall in love online. People talk to loved ones on Skype. People write great love letters on the computer, create great works of art, great compositions. It has become this integral part of human expression and I wanted to give it a voice in what I was doing.”
And in doing so, the artist who hadn’t planned to travel for this album found himself in the most exotic locale imaginable.
“I wanted to make what I was doing feel like Constantinople, the ancient city that existed between the East and the West. It was the meeting point of all these great cultures — Africa, Europe, Asia, India. I want my music to be that place: The Constantinople of sound. A place where ancient sounds meet with modern ones and pass though that port.”
The journey continues.

Lucius
2025-05-11 20:00 - 23:00 | The Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Michigan, 48201, United States
Acclaimed indie band Lucius has been turning heads since the start thanks to their irrepressibly catchy songs, explosive harmonies, and bold aesthetic. Formed by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the Los Angeles group got rolling with their 2013 debut album Wildewoman — featuring long-standing hits like “Two of Us on the Run”. Rolling Stone hailed the record for “an updated ’60s girl-group sound at once fresh and thrilling”. Lucius shifted towards a folk rock sound with 2016’s Good Grief before taking a break from the studio to join Roger Waters on his Us + Them Tour in 2017-18. Lucius returned to the studio in 2022 with the dance-ready collection Second Nature, which features singles “Next to Normal”, one of NPR Music’s top songs of the year and “Dance Around It” the pulsing song with Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile. In addition to their own work, the GRAMMY-nominated Wolfe and Laessig are singers in demand: their voices have graced songs by a host of other artists, including Carlile, The War on Drugs, John Legend, Harry Styles, Jeff Tweedy and Ozzy Osbourne. Lucius releases their new self titled album on May 2.

There's a Place for You in the Circle: Joe Reilly and The Community Gardeners with the All Nations Dancers
2025-05-17 11:30 - 23:30 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
A free family concert by Joe Reilly and his band featuring Anishinaabe pow wow dancers from Mt. Pleasant. Joe is a local musician with Italian, Irish, and Native American (Cherokee and Choctaw) heritage who was raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan and has strong ties to Ann Arbor. This family-friendly event is great for elementary-school aged kids. The event is free and open to the public with a catered lunch provided beforehand. It is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged.
Doors and lunch at 11:30, the program beings at 12:30.
Pre-registration for this event is closed, but walk-ups are welcome after 12pm until we reach capacity.

Low Cut Connie
2025-05-18 20:00 - 23:00 | El Club, 4114 W Vernor Hwy, Detroit, MI, 48209, United States
“This record is all kink and no shame,” says Adam Weiner of ART DEALERS, the tough, sexy and tender new album coming from Low Cut Connie. “With Low Cut Connie, I try to create a safe space for you to just absolutely get your freak on.”
For years now, Low Cut Connie has built its grassroots coalition of oddballs, underdogs, and fun-loving weirdos with songs that celebrate life on the fringes of polite society. The band’s infamously wild, passionate live shows provide a total release – of stress, of inhibition, of shame – working up a primordial rock n roll sweat for fans to get blissfully soaked in. The new album, and its full-length companion film, sizzle with that same cathartic sweat, reminding us that it’s time to get dirty again, and to feel alive. ART DEALERS sits at the intersection of sleazy and soulful – a collection of risky, romantic, life-affirming anthems, all dedicated to you.

I'm With Her
2025-06-07 19:30 - 23:00 | Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
With the 2014 formation of I’m With Her, singer/songwriters Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins introduced an essential new force into the world of folk music: a close-knit alliance of highly esteemed musicians, each graced with a deep understanding of folk tradition and unbridled passion for expanding its possibilities. Since delivering their critically lauded debut See You Around and standalone singles like “Call My Name” (winner of the 2020 Grammy for Best American Roots Song), the trio have routinely taken time out from their individual careers to dream up songs together—eventually arriving at a new album exploring themes of ancestry, lineage, and the collective human experience. On their long-awaited sophomore LP Wild and Clear and Blue, I’m With Her now bring their luminous harmonies to a soul-searching body of work about reaching into the past, navigating a chaotic present, and bravely moving forward into the unknown.
In a departure from the stripped-back intimacy of See You Around—a 2018 release that turned up on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of the New York Times—Wild and Clear and Blue centers on a far more elaborate sound informed by the trio’s intensified sense of musical kinship. All multi-Grammy-winners with deep roots in the folk scene, Watkins, Jarosz, and O’Donovan first discovered their near-telepathic chemistry during an impromptu performance at the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival, then co-founded I’m With Her and began touring extensively and performing at acclaimed festivals across the globe.
Produced by Josh Kaufman—a member of Bonny Light Horseman and multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/arranger/producer who’s worked with Bob Weir and The National—Wild and Clear and Blue ultimately adds a bold new urgency to their delicate entangling of lived-in narrative, fable-like storytelling, and nuanced reflection on cycles of life.
I’m With Her has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting Conscious Alliance’s mission to end hunger nationwide and feed families in need. www.plus1.org

The Verve Pipe
2025-06-14 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
With a reputation for spectacular live performances, the genesis of multi-platinum artist The Verve Pipe can be traced back to the early 90s when the principal members of two rival Michigan bands joined forces. After releasing two independent albums, I’ve Suffered A Head Injury and Pop Smear, the group quickly garnered a regional following for its textured rock songs distinguished by innovative arrangements, soul-searching lyrics and layered vocals.
The success of both albums attracted the attention of RCA Records, which released their platinum major label debut Villains in 1996. The album featured the radio hit ‘Photograph’ and the #1 single ‘The Freshmen,’ one of the most successful multi-format tracks of 1997 and winner of an ASCAP Pop Award. Their follow-up release, the critically acclaimed self-titled LP The Verve Pipe, featured ‘Hero,’ a Top 15 hit at Modern Rock radio.
In 2001, RCA released Underneath, which produced the singles ‘Happiness Is’ and ‘Never Let You Down,’ one of the most played songs for Adult Top 40 and Modern A/C radio that year. The album also included ‘Colorful,’ the emotive ballad featured in the film and soundtrack Rock Star, starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston and also co-starring lead singer Brian Vander Ark in his first major film role.
In addition to their success on radio, TV and film, sold-out concert dates throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia, features in Spin and Rolling Stone and videos on MTV and VH1, the band have made numerous television appearances, including ‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno’ and ‘Late Night With David Letterman.’
After an eight year hiatus, The Verve Pipe were approached to submit an original song for a compilation album of children’s music. That session inspired A Family Album, their critically acclaimed introduction to the world of children’s music, as well as their follow up release, Are We There Yet? Both albums contain music intended for the entire family, with fun and inventive lyrics set to the memorable melodies the band is known for.
In 2014, The Verve Pipe released their first rock album in over 13 years with Overboard, a collection of ten new songs including ‘Crash Landing’, ‘Hit and Run,’ and the haunting title track ‘Overboard.’ This long incubating project brought a renewed energy and focus to this self-produced album that resulted in their most inspired writing and recording to date.
The Verve Pipe continue to tour, performing both rock and kids shows throughout the U.S., including special appearances at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits Festival, Hangout Music Festival, Summer Stage in Central Park, and many more

Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo'
2025-06-15 20:00 - 23:00 | Masonic Jack White Theatre, 500 Temple Street, Detroit, MI, 48201, United States
Blues legends Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have each expanded and extended American blues traditions into astonishing new territory. The musicians first teamed up on the Grammy-winning album TajMo (2017), and this year brings another collaborative album from the blues giants. Experience a historic night of music that merges the distinctive voices, guitar styles, and personalities of the two, taking you on a soulful journey through some of the world’s greatest musical styles.

Summer Sounds at The Ann Arbor Art Fair
2025-07-17 18:00 - 23:00 | The Stage on Main, 353 S. Main St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
We are excited to once again partner with the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair to bring live music each evening of the art fairs to the Stage on Main at the corner of Main and William in the Palio lot. Stop by and join one of our favorite street parties of the year!

DuPont Phillips
6pm
Southeast Michigan favorites Chris DuPont and Kylee Phillips met a decade ago at a Tree Town Sound radio appearance for Ann Arbor’s 107.1 and have been fans of each other’s writing ever since. In the summer of 2021, after countless path crossings, Chris and Kylee finally learned each other’s material and discovered an incredible vocal blend and stage synergy. They each released solo EPs in the fall of 2023 and their first duo EP – “Big Sky Sessions” – in April 2024.
Nathan Graham
7:30pm
Born and raised in Chicago, Nathan Graham meshes South Side Blues with Nashville Americana, beginning his career backing blues singers at famous haunts like Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines. He spent a decade as a guitar-for-hire before picking up a mic to tell his own stories on the stage.
Soulful and steady, Graham’s music offers a raw introspective of the human condition that’s both painful and comforting. His guitar conveys heartbreak, lyrics tell stories of regret, but his rich vocal delivery offers the remedy.
Having brought his songs on international tours with both major label and indie acts, Graham is challenging the notion of what it means to be a singer-songwriter. He’s driving inclusivity within the genre, and he hopes to evoke a sense of understanding in the process.
“I’m writing about universal experiences,” he says. “I’m writing music to connect my story to yours, show you all that we have in common, and maybe help both of us feel less alone.”

Summer Sounds at The Ann Arbor Art Fair
2025-07-18 18:00 - 23:00 | The Stage on Main, 353 S. Main St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
We are excited to once again partner with the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair to bring live music each evening of the art fairs to the Stage on Main at the corner of Main and William in the Palio lot. Stop by and join one of our favorite street parties of the year!
Rabbitology
6pm
Rabbitology is the project of Nat Timmerman—a world that was pulled from her odd-running mind. A little land of the harebrained and burrowing. Simply follow the three-legged rabbit prints until you’re knee deep in this world’s eclectic soundscapes, and here you will discover a collection of memoirs turned into fantastical sonic short stories. Stay as long as you like. Make this world your home too. It’s a little unusual in here, but that’s life!
Joe & The Ruckus
7:30pm
The Ruckus is a collective with the goal of recontextualizing classic funk and soul music within our 21st century world. They formed during the pandemic and emerged from lock-down as changed people in search of new live music experiences from those typically seen pre-pandemic. The Ruckus rose to and surpassed that expectation, providing electrifying live concerts with repertoire ranging from the father of funk, James Brown, to the king of soul, Stevie Wonder, and beyond into more modern artists and have now expanded from their hometown to NYC, Chicago and Detroit.

Summer Sounds at The Ann Arbor Art Fair
2025-07-19 18:00 - 23:00 | The Stage on Main, 353 S. Main St, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
We are excited to once again partner with the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair to bring live music each evening of the art fairs to the Stage on Main at the corner of Main and William in the Palio lot. Stop by and join one of our favorite street parties of the year!
6:00 Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective and BLUESHOUSE!
Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective is an open community of musicians playing at all levels and abilities. Ukes? Well, it’s more like 30 different instruments. Plasticity? Yes! The Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective believes that by sharing music and learning how to play a new instrument, you can: “Drop a brain bomb. Fire up the synapses. Rewire some neural pathways.” And BLUESHOUSE!, led by veteran English bluesman Mike Brooks, has enlivened countless stages and street parties around southeast Michigan over the last decade. Join us for a combination that will stretch your brain!
Mike Brooks, veteran blues guitar player/singer/songwriter from the UK has been playing guitar since the age of 10, and professionally since the age of 16. His musical career and accolades are many and varied, but include hitting the UK charts in 1979 (#28 on “the New Wave of British Heavy Metal” despite being a blues band), getting a cease and desist order from Walt Disney Corp for using a band name too close to that of a cartoon mouse, opening for bands such as the Yardbirds, the Animals, Wishbone Ash and Nine Below Zero, and playing in some of the most famous venues anywhere such as London’s Marquee, and, well, The Ark! In addition to leading BLUESHOUSE and fronting the Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective, he also works with Ann Arbor’s youth at the Neutral Zone, a continuation of a youth music project begun in the UK called Electric896, which taught disengaged youth how to rock the blues.

Lake Street Dive
2025-09-08 18:30 - 23:00 | Masonic Temple Theatre, 500 Temple St, Detroit, MI, 48201, United States
Lake Street Dive have pushed the possibilities of pop music as a unifying force, not only through their eclectic sound—a boldly original cross-pollination of soul, folk, jazz, classic pop, and more—the five-piece’s all-embracing ethos has also made them a beloved live band known for building a potent connection among every crowd. In the making of their new album Good Together, vocalist Rachael Price, bassist/background vocalist Bridget Kearney, drummer/background vocalist Mike Calabrese, keyboardist/vocalist Akie Bermiss, and guitarist/background vocalist James Cornelison reinforced the deep sense of purpose behind their output, often turning their attention to the many factors driving us apart today (e.g., unchecked technological growth, culturally imposed isolation, the cult of relentless self-optimization). Born from a mindset they refer to as “joyful rebellion,” Good Together arrives as a body of work both gloriously defiant and primed to inspire unbridled dancing and ecstatic singing-along.

Molly Tuttle
2025-09-11 19:30 - 23:00 | Masonic Jack White Theatre, 500 Temple Street, Detroit, MI, 48201, United States
On the heels of two Grammy-winning albums in succession, with her band Golden Highway—2022’s Crooked Tree and 2023’s City of Gold—plus a nomination for Best New Artist, Molly Tuttle returns with a solo album that’s her most dazzling to date: So Long Little Miss Sunshine.
Recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce (Orville Peck, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Eric Church, Cage the Elephant), the fifth full album from the California-born, Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and virtuoso guitarist features twelve new songs—eleven originals and one highly unexpected cover of Icona Pop and Charli xcx’s “I Love It.”
Tuttle’s career, which began at age fifteen, has charted a course between honoring bluegrass and stretching its boundaries. On this album—a hybrid of pop, country, rock, and flat-picking, plus one murder ballad—she goes to a whole new place. Her stunning guitar work is more up-front on this album than ever before. (One of the most decorated female guitarist alive, Tuttle was the first woman to win the prestigious International Bluegrass Music Award’s Guitar Player of the Year in 2017, at age twenty-four, and won again the following year, with nominations nearly every year since; she has also won Americana Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year award.)
This event takes place at the Masonic Jack White Theatre, formerly the Masonic Cathedral Theatre.

The Ark and Michigan Theater present “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
2025-10-05 13:30 - 23:00 | Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
In partnership with the Michigan Theater, The Ark is delighted to present a special screening of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The screening is part of The Ark’s year-long celebration of its 60th Anniversary as well as the 25th anniversary of the beloved film.

Tommy Emmanuel CGP - Living In The Light Tour
2025-10-19 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Hailed as “one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world” by NPR’s World Cafe, Tommy Emmanuel got his start at the age of six, when he first began touring his native Australia with his family’s band. As a teenager, he earned a reputation as a highly sought after sideman and session player, and by his early twenties, Emmanuel was playing on chart-topping hits and performing with acts like Air Supply and Men at Work. Inspired in part by his hero, Chet Atkins (who would later become a friend, mentor, and collaborator), Emmanuel stepped out on his own as a solo artist in 1979, releasing the first in a string of acclaimed instrumental albums that would make him an unlikely celebrity in his home country and beyond. In the decades that followed, he would go on to headline everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall; tour with luminaries like Eric Clapton and John Denver; win a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement; perform for a televised audience of more than two billion at the Sydney Olympics; and collaborate with a who’s who of fellow guitar greats, including Les Paul, Mark Knopfler, Joe Walsh, Richard Thompson, Jason Isbell, and Billy Strings.
Recorded in just four days, Emmanuel’s latest album, Living In The Light, stands as the most daring—and most rewarding—collection in the globetrotting fingerpicker’s remarkable catalog, fusing his pop, jazz, classical, and roots influences into a virtuosic masterwork as exhilarating as it is intimate.

Dan Tyminski Band: The Ark's 29th Fall Fundraiser
2025-10-26 18:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
UPDATE: THE SILENT AUCTION IS NOW OPEN! You do not have to attend the show to bid on our online auction.

Celebrating The Ark’s 60th Anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Throughout his 30+ year career, Dan Tyminski has left his mark in every corner of modern music. His voice famously accompanies George Clooney’s performance of the Stanley Brothers’ classic song, “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow,” in the film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and his vocal collaboration with Swedish DJ Avicii on the song “Hey Brother” was a global smash, having been streamed more than a billion times to date. His diverse solo projects and years of work with Alison Krauss and Union Station have yielded troves of award-winning music. In recent years, Tyminski’s live shows with the Dan Tyminski Band have become bluegrass fan favorites and are regularly on the must-see lists among music fans of any genre.

All-in ticket prices range from $60 to $500. Upper tiers of tickets ($500, $260, $160) include reserved seating, a pre-show conversation between Dan Tyminski and our emcee, WEMU’s Jeremy Baldwin, host of The Roots Music Project, as well as a dessert reception. All tickets include a tax-deductible contribution in support of The Ark.
6:00 p.m. | Doors for Platinum, Gold, and Silver ticket holders and dessert reception
6:30 p.m. | Q&A with Dan Tyminski and Jeremy Baldwin
7:15 p.m. | Doors for Bronze ticket holders
7:30 p.m. | Concert

Ticket prices:
Platinum $500 each ($493.50 + $6.50 fees, $448.50 is tax-deductible)
Gold $260 each ($253.50 + $6.50, $208.50 is tax-deductible)
Silver $160 each ($153.50 + $6.50 fees, $108.50 is tax-deductible)
Bronze $60 each ($53.50 + $6.50 fees, $28.50 is tax-deductible)

Nick Shoulders
2025-11-18 19:00 - 23:00 | El Club, 4114 W Vernor Hwy, Detroit, MI, 48209, United States
“All Bad,” the latest album from Nick Shoulders, ultimately encapsulates everything that makes Nick’s inimitable form of country music so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre. With a singing style inherited from his family’s vocal lineage, Nick’s songs achieve the rare feat of imparting difficult truths while inciting a certain joyful abandon, balancing a sound forged by years of hard travel with a heartfelt reverence for the origins of country music. In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Bad vocally objects to the reckless destruction of the natural landscape and development run rampant, while still offering plenty of joy and dance-ready rhythms. Spanning a variety of early country styles, the album’s infectious harmonies shine alongside everything from jangling cajun waltzes to surf-rock infused bluesy ballads–all tied together by a voice seemingly out of place in this century, yet ever ready to speak up about its problems.
Surrounded by a singing style passed down from a time before microphones, Nick’s childhood of bird call whistles and an over-exposure to southern gospel music eventually steered him toward an adolescence drumming for metal and punk bands, and subsequent years as an active illustrator and member of Arkansas’s heavy music scene. After numerous personal calamities and a growing obsession with the rural musical traditions of his lifelong home, Shoulders left the Ozarks and lived out of his van, singing on the street corners of the west while slowly being drawn to the vibrance of the New Orleans dance and busking world. After forming in early 2018, the ‘Okay Crawdad’ band flourished briefly in the wildly talented south Louisiana alt-country scene, culminating in the release of ‘Rather Low’ by the popular YouTube channel Western AF, catapulting Nick’s songs to a vastly wider audience right as Covid-19 and lockdowns ensued. Since then, a rapid ascension into the world of touring music has seen Nick playing alongside the likes of Sierra Ferrell and at major festivals such as Stagecoach. With the hard rhythms and heavenly melodies of their newest release, All Bad, the band manages to concoct a body of work that is at turns sublimely freewheeling and profoundly illuminating, yet primed to permanently warp the listener’s perspective to glorious effect.

José González
2025-11-20 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
José González is in a class by himself. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “someone whose subtle, carefully crafted music delivers rewards to listeners who know how to wait,” González’s stellar career can only be described as a dream. From selling out tours on virtually every continent to headlining prestigious festivals around the world to being asked to perform at 2020’s Nobel Prize Award Ceremony and seeing his recorded music exceed 1 billion streams, González is one of the most exciting and in-demand touring artists working today. Whether appearing alone with his guitar or with a 20-piece orchestra, or with his band The Brite Lites, or choosing between duo and trio formats, his performances are never merely shows – they are events. And González has every intention of continuing this tradition as he prepares his fully solo tour in support of the eagerly awaited release of his fourth studio album, LOCAL VALLEY.
The visionary singer-songwriter/guitarist’s long-awaited album, and first to contain songs in all of the languages he speaks (English, Spanish and Swedish), LOCAL VALLEY provides a welcome reminder of the Gothenburg, Sweden-based artist’s understated appeal and unabashed intimacy, a quality Billboard praised as “one of the most recognizable sounds in indie rock.” The album finds González once again armed with just a handful of nylon-stringed Spanish guitars, yet this time, technology did creep into the proceedings.
“I allowed myself to loop guitars as I aim to do live with pedals,” González says, “and in my head I was hearing how each track would fit with an orchestra (The String Theory) or my five-piece band (The Brite Lites), with whom I’ve been touring on and off the last decade.”
Four albums in, LOCAL VALLEY finds Jose González, in the words of his new song, “Visions,” still “imagining the worlds that could be/Shaping a mosaic of fates/For all sentient beings.” With LOCAL VALLEY, Jose González once again proves that music doesn’t need to be loud to be heard.

Portugal. The Man
2025-11-25 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Over the past decade, Portugal. The Man has established themselves as one of rock’s most prized possessions and a live phenomenon, with over 1,600 shows under their belts and a storied reputation as festival favorites.
Originally heralding from Alaska, the Portland-based band soared to new heights in 2017 with the release of their now RIAA certified-Platinum album, Woodstock. The album was marked by the astounding success of their infectious single, “Feel It Still,” which earned the group a plethora of new accolades – including a GRAMMY for “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance,” a 7x RIAA Platinum certification, a record setting 20-week residency at #1 on alternative radio, and an inescapable presence on the Top 40 airwaves.
Alongside the shine of their myriad of musical accomplishments lies the group’s long-standing passion for social justice. In fact, this is precisely the intersection in which Portugal. The Man thrives; throughout their career, the band has consistently exemplified how to deeply commit to both artistry and activism. This ultimately inspired them to officially launch PTM Foundation in 2020, focused on universal issues related to human rights, community health, and the environment, with an emphasis on causes directly impacting Indigenous Peoples, including Alaska Native Health (providing the highest quality of health services for Alaska Native people) and Seeding Sovereignty (radicalizing and disrupting colonized spaces through land, body, food sovereignty work and more).
Portugal. The Man have also partnered with an array of organizations such as National Coalition Against Censorship, The Skatepark Project (helping communities build public skate parks for youth in underserved communities), March for Our Lives (Gun Reform), Keep Oregon Well (Mental Health), and Protect Our Winters (Climate Change), to name just a few. In 2022, the band furthered their passion for activism when they launched PTM’s NIGHT OUT initiative – supporting disabled fans requiring ADA access.

Aimee Mann & Ted Leo Christmas Show feat. Paul F. Tompkins, Nellie McKay, & Josh Gondelman
2025-12-09 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Aimee Mann is one of the most distinguished singer-songwriters of her generation. Her successful solo career has spanned several decades with several Grammy nominations, two Grammy awards, and the release of nine critically acclaimed solo albums, including the profoundly popular soundtrack for the film Magnolia, which garnered an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for Best Song in 2000. Time magazine has said, “Mann has the same skill that great tunesmiths like McCartney and Neil Young have: the knack for writing simple, beautiful, instantly engaging songs, ” while NPR voted her one of the “TOP 10 Best Living Songwriters” along with Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. Her latest release is called “Mental Illness” which won her a Grammy for Best Folk Album.
Aimee Mann and Ted Leo began collaborating, under the inconspicuous band name the Both, in 2013. The pairing revealed two artists with more in common than one might suspect. Mann, a generational singer-songwriter, was, in her formative years, a punk, before coming up playing in the New Wave favorites ’Til Tuesday, and eventually turning to the wry ballads for which she is revered. Leo, a New Jersey-bred punk hero, is a biting lyricist attuned to the nuances of pop songcraft. Both are fiercely independent artists, free to follow their muses where they travel—even if that happens to be a holiday variety show that mixes jovial Christmas classics with piquant original songs. A seasonal tradition for Mann since 2006, the concert includes sketches and guests from both musical and comedic realms. – New Yorker Magazine
“Delightful…a Santa-stupefying balance of naughty and nice…with the giddy warmth of an eggnog buzz. Hangover included, of course.” – New York Times
“Genuine, irony-free good cheer had been spread, making Mann’s Christmas extravaganza one of the season’s best gifts.” – Boston Herald

Samantha Fish, Cedric Burnside, and Jon Spencer
2025-12-14 20:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
The 3rd Annual Shake ‘Em On Down Tour
Get ready for an unforgettable night of blues and rock ‘n’ roll featuring three great Grammy nominated bands that define the current day and future of blues rock.
Grammy-nominated artist Samantha Fish, known for her exceptional guitar skills and captivating vocals, has made a significant mark on the blues scene, earning critical acclaim and a dedicated fanbase & Jon Spencer whose boundary-pushing artistry has redefined rock and blues for decades. Rounding out the lineup is the legendary Grammy Award winning Cedric Burnside, the grandson of the legendary R.L. Burnside, whose deep-rooted Mississippi blues heritage shines through in his music, bringing authenticity and passion to the stage. Experience all these artist’s distinct styles in an evening where tradition and innovation merge seamlessly!
Mark your calendars and prepare for a night of riveting performances as the 3rd Annual Shake ’em on Down Tour arrives in town. Don’t miss this chance to witness three of the most dynamic and innovative artists in blues​ rock today! Get your tickets now for an evening that will resonate long after the final chord is struck.

An Intimate Evening with JJ Grey & Mofro
2026-02-10 20:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
From his early days playing cover music behind chicken wire at a west side Jacksonville juke joint while still working at a lumberyard, to playing sold-out shows at some of the largest venues and music festivals in the world, JJ Grey has always delivered his soul-honest truths. Since his first album, ‘Blackwater’, back in 2001, Grey has been releasing deeply moving, masterfully written, funkified rock and front porch Southern soul music.

Now, with ‘Olustee’ – his tenth album and first in eight years, and the first he has self-produced – Grey is back, singing his personal stories with universal themes of redemption, rebirth, hard luck, and inner peace. With his music, Grey also celebrates good times with friends, oftentimes mixing the carnal with the cerebral in the very same song. Fueled by his vividly detailed, timeless original songs spun from his life experiences, Grey’s gritty baritone drips with honest passion and testifies with a preacher’s foot-pounding fervor.
With ‘Olustee’, JJ Grey has once again pushed the boundaries of his own creative musical, lyrical and vocal talents, delivering an instant classic. Many of the songs are steeped in the mythical Southern stories of his ancestral Florida home and filled with people from JJ’s life. The songs are told through the eyes of a poet and sung with pure, unvarnished soul. Grey’s message is simple and strong – respect the natural world and always try to live in the moment. And never forget the importance of having a good time!

The Wood Brothers
2026-02-27 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Dubbed “masters of soulful folk” by Paste, The Wood Brothers formed after brothers Chris and Oliver Wood pursued separate musical careers for 15 years. Chris already had legions of devoted fans for his incomparable work as one-third of Medeski Martin & Wood, while Oliver’s band King Johnson built a loyal following in the South. With drummer Jano Rix added as a permanent third member, The Wood Brothers have evolved into one of roots music’s most revered acts, playing sold out shows across North America, garnering a Grammy Award nomination and releasing nine studio albums, including their new release, Puff of Smoke.

Joseph
2026-04-08 19:00 - 23:00 | El Club, 4114 W Vernor Hwy, Detroit, MI, 48209, United States
Made up of three sisters from Oregon, Joseph are renowened for their signature sibling harmonies and stripped-back performance style. While their sophomore album, I’m Alone, No You’re Not (2016), arrived in a breeze of swoony folk, pop rock-minded follow-up Good Luck, Kid (2019) saw Joseph turn the volume – and soul – up. Raising their profile on tour with James Bay, the group has since hosted a cosy NPR Tiny Desk concert and performed on Later… with Jools Holland.

James McMurtry Duo feat. BettySoo: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
2026-04-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Ypsilanti Freighthouse, 100 Market Pl, Ypsilanti, MI, 48198, United States
“One of America’s greatest living songwriters.” (Rolling Stone) Texas-based songwriter and guitarist James McMurtry is a supremely insightful and inventive storyteller whose fans include everyone from Stephen King to John Mellencamp. Funny and sad often in the same breath, McMurtry teases vivid worlds out of small details, crafting searingly honest lyrics set against a rock/Americana backdrop. His Ypsilanti Freighthouse debut draws from his 2025 album The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy. The story-songs on that album find inspiration in scraps from his family’s past: a rough pencil sketch by Ken Kesey that serves as the album cover; the hallucinations experienced by his father, the legendary writer Larry McMurtry; an old poem by a family friend. “A solid smorgasbord of aging, Americana, and arrested development.” (The Austin Chronicle)
Two performances, 7:00pm and 9:30pm
PRESENTING SPONSOR
Matt and Nicole Lester
