Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter and former frontman of The Ugly Americans and The Scabs, Bob Schneider is one of the most-celebrated musicians in the live music capital. Rhett Miller is perhaps best known as the frontman of the Dallas-based alt-country band the Old 97's, although he has also pursued a critically acclaimed solo career.
Sam Grisman is a bass player, music appreciator, and bandleader who grew up in Mill Valley, California in a home where some of the great acoustic music of our time was being recorded on a regular basis. His father, legendary mandolinist, composer, and producer, David Grisman, was constantly having friends come over to his home studio for recording sessions and rehearsals. These friends, such as Doc Watson, Jerry Garcia, John Hartford, Mike Seeger, and Tony Rice all left an impression on the younger Grisman and inspired him to pursue a life making music with his many talented friends.
Celebrating its 65th anniversary year, the world’s most influential name in comedy, The Second City, is thrilled to return to The Ark with The Best of The Second City!
Opener: Jeff Kazee
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United States“Welcome to Adam Ezra Group, who, along with nonprofit organization RallySound, host a free festival every summer that raised $151,000 for homeless veterans in 2024.” During the pandemic, Adam live-streamed for 500 nights in a row. The group co-produced an album with 163 fans, and Adam takes a month out of each year to visit the living rooms of his fans around the country.
Special Guest: Kyandé
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesAnn Arbor’s own Davis Caruso & Giancarlo Robert make up the writer / producer duo that is making .wavs in the industry by taking the road less traveled and building local buzz around a multifaceted web of creatives. Be sure to catch them performing their new soul record entitled “The Way Home” for the first time as a full band featuring local Singer/Songwriter Kyandé, Bass aficionado Andrés Soto & Detroit Artist/ Producer/ Drum wizard David Ward.”
Special Guest: Jackson and The Janks
El Club 4114 W Vernor Hwy, Detroit, MI, 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.
Shovels & Rope is the Charleston, South Carolina–based duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. They perform as an energetic two-piece band, stirring up a righteous racket with two old guitars, a handful of harmonicas, the occasional keyboard, and a junkyard drum kit harvested from an actual garbage heap and adorned with tambourines, flowers and kitchen rags. But the songs are the deadliest arrows in this duo’s quiver.
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.
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.
Special Guest: Justin Wells
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesFeaturing a blend of acoustic instruments, rural soundscapes, and wistful vocals, Great Lake Swimmers are a critically acclaimed indie-folk group led by Tony Dekker. Based in Southern Ontario, the group emerged in the early 2000s with a succession of heavily atmospheric albums recorded in old silos and rural country churches. The music developed in that pastoral warmth, performed and recorded in acoustically resonant and historical locales with a revolving cast of personnel.
Across his career, Brett Dennen has established himself as the kind of singer-songwriter who finds inspiration by digging into the nooks and crannies of the human condition—exploring pain, joy, sadness, and all points in between. If It Takes Forever (Mick Music), the California native’s eighth solo album and first full-length since 2021’s See the World, is no exception. The warm, immersive collection boasts deeply felt sentiments, underpinned by rich acoustic guitars and Dennen’s earnest vocals, in the vein of dusky Americana (“Golden State of Mind”), harmonica-driven blues (the Tom Petty-esque “Careful What You Wish For”), rootsy indie (“Don’t Go Talking”), and meditative folk-rock (highlight “Time To Wake Up”).
With a reputation for spectacular live performances, the multi-platinum alternative rock band The Verve Pipe are recognized worldwide for their radio hits Photograph, Hero, Happiness Is, Never Let You Down and the #1 smash single The Freshmen.