Shows & Events

Whitehorse

Opener: Edie Carey

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

Glam and sleaze, desert grit and subway rats, scumbags and fakers, hot messes and cold shoulders: welcome to the world of Whitehorse, a rock duo from Toronto. Whitehorse's brazen sonic breadth encompasses psychedelic surf, arid border rock, lo-fi ingenuity and icy 80s sparseness. Luke Doucet's Gretsch White Falcon and impeccable tone, combined with Melissa McClelland's blazing vocals and badass P-Bass playing, have made the duo's sound is unmistakably, inventively one of a kind. The duo's songwriting is distinguished by its cinematic fiction, full of flawed characters, foiled plans and anti-fairytales that transform real life into sleek, stylized collages of neo-noir drama and high-gloss. Whitehorse comes to Michigan with a new album, “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying.”

$20

Sumbuck

Special Guest: Parker Louis

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

Sumbuck; a slang found in the last pages of a good book, is the pen name of Taylor Meier. In this project he curates a wide sonic pallet, ever changing members and moods. All the songs are about love in one way or another, just woven differently.
Taylor Meier is the lead singer of the folk band Caamp, out of Upper Arlington, Ohio. Sumbuck is his side project outside of Caamp, featuring many of his friends and favorite artists, He says he brings “songs from the Midwest for lovers and lovers alike.” Caamp started out as a high school senior project and has been growing in unpredictable directions ever since.

$25

Sons of Town Hall

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

Welcome to the mythic world of Sons of Town Hall, the international, waterborne duo of George "Ulysses" Brown (UK) and Josiah "Chester" Jones (US). The pair transcends time and space, dressed in threadbare Victorian outfits, they meditate about the ocean, and sing songs that beg you to sing along. Their songs are masterful in their own right, poetic turns of phrases sung with voices so perfectly matched it is impossible to tell them apart, harmonies so sublime they will seem the work of witchcraft, and intricately finger-picked guitar parts worthy of Apollo himself. But it is the Sons of Town Hall's presentation that sets them apart from every other guitar-slinging songwriting team out there. The show is three-parts concert, one-part theater and unlike anything most have ever experienced. George and Josiah's between-song repartee is unique and absolutely hilarious, as they share their tales of traveling the world on the water and roaming the frontier looking for work. The affection they feel for each other is contagious, and audiences leave in love with both of them, with each other, and with life in general. You will laugh. You will cry. You will be transfixed and transformed, drunk on adventure and the tragic beauty of the human condition.

$20
Special Event

Bruce Cockburn

Special Guest: Dar Williams

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

One of Canada’s finest artists, Bruce Cockburn has enjoyed an illustrious career shaped by politics, spirituality, and musical diversity. His remarkable journey has seen him embrace folk, jazz, rock, and worldbeat styles while travelling to such far-flung places as Guatemala, Mali, Mozambique, and Nepal, and writing memorable songs about his ever-expanding world of wonders. “My job,” he explains, “is to try and trap the spirit of things in the scratches of pen on paper and the pulling of notes out of metal.”

$44.50, $64.50

The Ark’s Open Stage

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

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.

$3, $2 members, seniors, students

Peter Yarrow

Special Guest: Mustard's Retreat

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

Peter Yarrow co-wrote "Puff, the Magic Dragon," and by any measure he's one of America's most beloved folk singers. With Peter, Paul & Mary in the 1960s and beyond, he was part of a group that changed the world of music. He's been active in changing the wider world as well, and he has never slowed down since the birth of Peter, Paul & Mary during the Kennedy administration. In 1969 he was one of the organizers of the antiwar March on Washington. In support of the rights of Jews in the former Soviet Union he wrote the anthem "Don't Let the Light Go Out." In 2000 he founded Operation Respect, a set of school and camp curricula designed to promote a culture of tolerance and respect. Peter's recent appearances have emphasized music as a shared message and an antidote to mean-spiritedness and intolerance.

$30

Jason Eady

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

A near-lifelong songwriter who names Merle Haggard, Guy Clark, and Willie Nelson among his main inspirations, Jason Eady grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and got his start performing in local bars at age 14, showing his natural grasp of everything from soul and R&B to blues and country. His eighth full-length album, “To The Passage Of Time” first took shape in a frenetic burst of creativity back in the doldrums of quarantine. Over the course of a three-day period last August, the Fort Worth, Texas–based musician wrote more than half of the album, locking himself in his bedroom and emerging only when he felt completely burnt out. “I went in thinking I was going to write just one song—but then the songs kept coming, and I didn’t want to break the spell,” he recalls. “I’d go to sleep with the guitar by the bed, pick it back up when I woke up the next morning, and do it all again. I’d never really experienced anything like that before. ”With its nuanced exploration of aging and loss and the fragility of life, “To The Passage Of Time” arrives as the Mississippi-bred artist’s most lyrically complex and compelling work to date.

$20

King Margo

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

King Margo is Lucciana Costa and Rachel Coats, who grew up 40 minutes apart but didn't meet until many years later in the middle of a Kentucky field. Lucciana grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, discovering the slide guitar at 12 years old, which led to her playing in several local bands throughout her teens. Rachel, from Toledo, Ohio, also cut her teeth on the local gig scene with her musically inclined family. Both women spent their 20s building a steady rotation of live shows, studio work and a gun-for-hire reputation as multi-instrumentalists. Rachel was selected to join several international touring artists in the folk-pop realm on bass and vocals. Lucciana focused on songwriting and composition, spending half a decade in Los Angeles honing her craft and scoring films and commercials. Eventually Lucciana and Rachel found themselves in Nashville, both hired for the same touring band where they met for the first time. They connected instantly, both musically and personally, and the seeds for what would eventually become King Margo were planted. They are songs carefully crafted after a long year of hibernation and a new awareness of how lucky it is to be able to bring music to the world. Rob Reinhart of Acoustic Cafe praises King Margo for “great stories in beautifully crafted acoustic songs with the sweetest harmonies you’ll hear this year.” King Margo comes to Michigan with a new release, “Waters Rise,” that features intricately arranged soaring harmonies.

$20

Jolie Holland

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

We’ve had Jolie Holland back at The Ark with Samantha Parton and as a guest of The Portland Cello Project, but it’s been awhile since we’ve heard a full solo show from this unique songwriter. Over the span of her career, Jolie Holland has knotted together a century of American song—jazz, blues, soul, rock and roll—into some stew that is impossible to categorize with any conventional critical terminology. In Jolie Holland's music, the perceived space between ancient and modern seems to fade away. Her voice sounds like it came out of a dusty East Texas cotton field. But the lyrics of this singer-songwriter conjure characters and situations one might find in the surrealistic celluloid of Jim Jarmusch. It's no surprise that Tom Waits is Jolie Holland's biggest fan. Says Time Out London: " Jolie Holland sings spooky American fairy tales in a strange and beautiful way," and E! Online called her songwriting "a captivating, bohemian blend of Appalachian folk and ghostly parlor music." Jolie comes to Michigan with a new album, “Catalpa.”

$20
Special Event

A Night With Mama Sol

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

How Do Activism, Music, and Education Occupy the Same Space? This Juneteenth, you are invited to an evening of conversation, poetry, music, and visioning as we welcome hip-hop and spoken word artist, Mama Sol. Sol will be joined in conversation by Yodit Mesfin Johnson. She serves as President & CEO of Nonprofit Enterprise at Work (NEW). Be ready for an evening of interactive conversation with Mama Sol and Yodit, as well as live music and poetry.

FREE

Ryanhood

Opener: Jake Allen

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

Named Best Group/Duo at the International Acoustic Music Awards, acoustic-duo Ryanhood got their first break more than a decade ago as street-performers at Boston’s Quincy Market. They’ve since gone on to perform more than a thousand shows in 46 U.S. states over the past decade, and have shared stages with Jason Mraz, Matt Nathanson, Train, and many more. And, their star is still on the rise. Ryanhood was recently named the “Discovery of the Year” by John Platt at WFUV in New York City, and was a featured act at Australia’s National Folk Festival in 2018.

Their latest album, “Under the Leaves,” is driven by strong acoustic guitar performances and is at turns energetic, hopeful, and quietly moving—a musical invitation to breathe, and to soak in a river of melodies and harmonic hooks. Cameron Hood, the band’s primary lyricist, has waded into those musical rivers with dream-like verses about seeds and forests, breath and wind, and the cycles and seasons that frame our lives. The offer on “Under the Leaves” is to slow down and face the one thing we have the power to change—ourselves—as the duo sings on the album’s second track, “the only revolution is the one within.”

Ryan Green and Cameron Hood currently reside in their hometown of Tucson, Arizona, where they have won more than a dozen Tucson Music Awards including “Best Folk Band” and “Best Rock Band” (you can decide for yourself which is most accurate).

$20

Annie & Rod Capps Band Show

The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI

Long time fixtures of the Ann Arbor music scene, Annie & Rod Capps return to The Ark with their full band (and a few special guests TBA) featuring Jason Dennie on Mandolin and Harmony, Ozzie Andrews on Bass and Michael Shimmin on Drums. This show will be a celebration of their 9th studio recording due out later this summer as well as a birthday bash for Annie & Jason.
The Capps’ sound meets at the intersection of Americana & Folk citing rock, jazz and bluegrass influences. In collaboration with their excellent band, they continue to explore their love of blending diverse styles to create music that is fresh and unique all while sticking to their narrative “songs about broken things and poignant little ponderings delivered with a rootsy vibe, a touch of twang and soulful groove”.

$20