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.
Tonight a couple of great Michigan groups get together to benefit The Ark! The Brain Plasticity Ukulele Collective and BLUESHOUSE! bring us a fundraiser blues party with a difference! Can't make the in-person show? Watch the livestream on Facebook or YouTube. Livestream access is made possible with support from Ford Motor Company Fund.
Sold Out Celebrating their 40th Anniversary, 10,000 Maniacs has a lot in common with Jamestown, New York, the city that spawned them back in 1981. Both are honest and hardworking, a step outside the mainstream, and both possess a bit of magic. “It’s a city of blue-collar poetry,” says keyboardist Dennis Drew. “And that’s what we’re about, real-life stories. We’re a family, we do real work and we keep moving forward.”
Chatham Rabbits, named for a mill-sponsored stringband in Bynum, North Carolina, is the husband-and-wife team of Sarah Osborne McCombie and Austin McCombie. Chatham Rabbits exemplify North Carolina's tradition of producing artists who embrace the state's many cultural resources and diverse musical traditions.
Chastity Brown has been called a banjo-playing soul singer and "a rocking, rolling encyclopedia of roots music." She's been featured on CMT and NPR's "Favorite Sessions, and has been the subject of profiles in Paste and the Times of London, among others. Livestream access is made possible with support from Ford Motor Company Fund.
As the frontman of X from the 1980s to the present, John Doe inspired countless other musicians with a brand of punk rock that was open to influences from American roots genres. He’s never stopped making music that’s hard to classify by genre, and he’s done some amazing shows at The Ark in recent years.
Opener: Addison Agen
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MIA ten-time GRAMMY nominee and CMA Awards “Song of the Year” recipient, Clark is one of her generation’s most respected and celebrated songwriters and musicians. Her songs include Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow,” Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart,” The Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two” and Hailey Whitter’s “Ten Year Town.”
A diverse songwriter double bill
Some people are what we call, “old souls”. They have a touch of nostalgia or grace that runs deep. You can feel this phenomenon in the words and vocals of Dani Darling; a jazzy chanteuse from Ann Arbor with an experimental lo-fi sound that is intimate and poetic. Her influences are Billie Holiday, Old Hollywood movie scores, dreams, and the Universe – but this singer/songwriter’s goal isn’t to take you back in time; it’s to bring you into her whimsical world where time is like an old tune made new. Livestream access is made possible with support from Ford Motor Company Fund.
Opener: Hollier
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MIKing 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. Louisiana-born and Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Hollier opens the show.
40th Anniversary Celebration Can anyone who was listening to new music in the 1980s forget the songs of Michigan’s own Marshall Crenshaw? To New Wave pop they brought country and R&B elements, they brought romantic yearning, they brought the craft of a true songwriter.
Mountain Heart offers bluegrass and more. This band as been fearlessly revolutionizing the way acoustic music can be presented and played.