The Ark

Adeem The Artist
2025-04-26 20:00 - 23:00 (America/Detroit) | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Adeem Maria (they/them/theirs) is a seventh-generation Carolinian, a makeshift poet, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and blue-collar Artist. They began toiling at their instrument in 2002 when their family relocated to Syracuse, NY and used songwriting as a vehicle to process the ensuing culture shock, their faith, and later their journey through apostasy.
Blending a homegrown affection for Country Music with the emotional ballyhoo of alternative folk in the early aughts, they have created a unique brand of Americana that pays homage to John Prine and John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) in equal parts.
On Cast-Iron Pansexual, they received praise from Rolling Stone & American Songwriter for their work exploring identity across coalescing subcultures. Traveling to Carolina to get their Tarot read while straddling the duality of being a “blue collar boy” who is a “complicated dame,” Adeem excavates unwonted stories of the forgotten south.

Lady Blackbird
2025-04-27 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
In every Lady Blackbird song is the unmistakable sound of freedom. Harnessing a mighty voice that effortlessly embodies buffeting power, heartrending yearning and soft, whispered balladry, Lady Blackbird has imbued her compositions since 2021’s critically acclaimed debut Black Acid Soul with a journeying independence. Hers is an instantly-recognizable sound capable of evoking joy one moment and heartache the next, a musical embrace of genres as varied as jazz, classic soul, gospel, psychedelic rock and pop. It is the hallmark of a visionary voice, on an Album that has landed on several ‘2024 Best Albums of the Year’ charts. Yet, it is only now that she is embracing the full breadth of that musical freedom in her most personal and ambitious work to date: Slang Spirituals.
“This is my journey of becoming,” she explains. “It’s me rewriting the book to show the world who I truly am. From being labelled a sinner to finding my Acceptance.” Across 11 tracks Lady Blackbird puts her sweeping, cinematic vocal power to use on everything from the soulful orchestral fanfares of “Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)” to the finger-picking folk storytelling of “Man On A Boat”, euphoric gospel empowerment of “Like A Woman” and the seven-minute psychedelic soul instrumental of “When The Game Is Played On You.”

Harry Manx
2025-04-29 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Harry Manx has been dubbed an “essential link” between the music of East and West, creating musical short stories that wed the tradition of the Blues with the depth of classical Indian ragas. His unique sound is bewitching and deliciously addictive to listen to.
Born on the Isle of Man, Manx spent his childhood in Canada and left in his teens to live in Europe, Japan, India and Brazil. He honed his hypnotic live show on street corners, in cafes, bars and at festivals. But it was Indian music that captured his attention and in the mid 80s he began a five-year tutelage with Rajasthani Indian musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Grammy winner with Ry Cooder for A Meeting by the River). Receiving the gift of Bhatt’s custom-made, self-designed Mohan Veena (a 20-stringed sitar/guitar hybrid) was the catalyst for Harry to forge a new path with his now signature east-meets-west style of music.
Playing the Mohan Veena, lap steel, harmonica, stomp box, and banjo, Manx quickly envelops the audience into what has been dubbed “the Harry Zone” with his warm vocals and the hauntingly beautiful melodies of his original songs. It’s in the live setting, Manx says, that the bridge between “heavenly” India and “earthy” American blues is most effectively built. “Indian music moves inward,” he explains. “It’s traditionally used in religious ceremonies and meditation, because it puts you into this whole other place. But Western music has the ability to move out, into celebration and dance. So when we play the Indian stuff on stage, it has the tendency to draw people into something really deep; they’ll get kind of quiet and spacey. Then we’ll play some more Western music, and it grounds them once more, they sort of come out of the mood the Indian music had put them in and get into the performance. I love to see that working — that effect on the audience. My goal has always been to draw the audience as deep as possible into the music.”
Blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and some compelling grooves and you’ll get Manx’s unique “mysticssippi” flavour. It’s hard to resist, easy to digest and keeps audiences coming back for more.

The Ark's Open Stage
2025-04-30 20:00 - 23:00, 2025-05-06 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
Why play Open Stage at the Ark? Do it to be heard. Do it so you know you can. Do it to take your music to the masses. Tremendous local performers like Dick Siegel, Misty Lyn, and Matt Watroba spent time honing their craft on Open Stage audiences. Even nationally recognized talents like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gilda Radner, and David Alan Grier paid their dues here. If you’re not interested in getting on stage tonight, get your practice in at being a great audience member and observer of new music.

Michael McDermott
2025-05-01 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
If you are a fan of Springsteen, Van Morrison, John Steinbeck, and Patti Smith, McDermott’s inspirational rock is in your wheelhouse.

Noah Reid
2025-05-02 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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. Reid’s highly-anticipated, third record Adjustments was released on June 24, 2022.
As an actor, Reid is best known for playing ‘Patrick’ in the Emmy-winning comedy series Schitt’s Creek, for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award, along with the cast, for ‘Best Ensemble.’ He can currently be seen in Brian Watkins’ Amazon series Outer Range opposite Josh Brolin, Imogen Poots and Lewis Pullman and on Broadway as the lead of Tracy Letts’ Tony-nominated play The Minutes.

Justin Roberts & The Not Ready For Naptime Players
2025-05-03 11:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.”
Along with his band, The Not Ready for Naptime Players, Justin has traveled the globe, from Hong Kong to New York, and Miami to Seattle. His latest album, Space Cadet, is a return to his power pop all-ages sound. Heavily inspired by his life as a new dad, the feel-good album offers themes of inclusion and acceptance that wind through emotionally intelligent songs. Roberts creates a welcoming space for children to celebrate their uniqueness and dance it all out.
Justin’s 17th full-length album, Brain Freeze, is out this spring!
Presented with support from Ford Philanthropy

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.

The Wildwoods
2025-05-03 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.

Paul Thorn
2025-05-04 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
Thorn’s new album, Life is Just A Vapor, contains some beauties: “Life is a vapor, let’s live it while we can”; “tough times don’t last, but tough people do” (from “Tough Times Don’t Last”); “any mountain up ahead is just a hill” (from “Old Melodies”). They’re words of advice, comfort, support, encouragement, often meant to uplift, especially in times of struggle.
Tonight’s show is sponsored by Lume Cannabis.

Richard Shindell
2025-05-05 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
Meticulously recorded over three years in New York and Buenos Aires, his most recent release, Careless, offered an ambitious, luxurious, full-length statement. Shindell immersed himself in the studio, allowing the time and latitude to explore, experiment, take risks—to play—as each of these eleven songs was given form and substance. While his signature acoustic guitar style is used to good effect, Careless also found Shindell plugging in more. “The wider sonic and dynamic range of the electric has been a real inspiration. Rejuvenating.”
During the pandemic, Shindell stayed in Argentina, out on the wide open Pampa, reading, writing, taking walks, doing a little experimental recording, and tending the garden. He now returns to the road for a limited number of performances. Innovative, original and occasionally spiritual, Shindell’s songs weave tales that interchangeably champion the downtrodden, exalt the disaffected or wax empathetic to those lost to society’s fringes. From lighthearted ballads and adulterous love songs, to dirges and diatribes that skillfully skewer politics, prejudice, war and religion, to the comic point-of-view of a cow stuck in a barbed wire fence, he has a unique ability to morph into the soul of the many and varied personalities he casts as narrators in certain songs—veritable novellas framed in haunting acoustic melodies.

Dave Bruzza (of Greensky Bluegrass)
2025-05-07 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
He has contributed and performed on every release of Greensky Bluegrass. As well as every show and tour in the bands career. Dave helped found the psychedelic folk rock band Airborne or Aquatic? in the early 2000’s in Michigan with friends and peers Jake Robinson, Seth Bernard and Susan Fawcett and other artists from Earthwork Music. He has appeared on all their albums and has performed in most of the incarnations of the band through the years. He and friend Ian Gorman released a duo record “Harmony on the Fade” in 2012. This album was a great place for both musicians to demonstrate their multi instrumentalist talents and collaborate on a collection of original material.
Dave has also appeared as a guest on albums. Most recently on Seth Bernard’s “My Heart is My Home” on Earthwork Music.
In 2018 he formed Dave Bruzza Unsafe at any Speed for a short run of shows in the midwest. The response was so positive he has made this a regular project in Greensky’s downtime.
Dave will be joined on stage by Brennan Andes on bass and Mike Shimmin on drums.

The Arcadian Wild
2025-05-08 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
The band’s 2023 album Welcome marks the start of a captivating new chapter for the genre-bending trio, who returned to the studio with renewed purpose and insight after devoting the last few years to a series of critically acclaimed singles and EPs. Like much of the band’s catalog, the album blurs the lines between chamber folk and progressive bluegrass, drawing on everything from country and classical to pop and choral music with lush harmonies and dazzling fretwork, but this time around there’s a rawness to the writing, an embrace of candor and simplicity that cuts straight to the heart of things like never before. The result is perhaps the most arresting collection yet from a band known for its ability to stop listeners dead in their tracks, an exquisitely beautiful celebration of community, connection, and the power of belonging that feels tailor-made for these challenging times.

Cousin Curtiss
2025-05-09 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
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. Think, “blues at bluegrass speeds.” Imagine, “rock americana with a soulful drip.” Experience rapid fire acoustic guitar, incendiary harmonica, fiercely energized solos, all driven by a thunderous kick drum.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When The Rainbow Is Enuf
2025-05-10 13:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
Legacy of the Dove Foundation in partnership with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. presents a stage reading of Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem. Performed by Crystal Campbell, Diane Hutcherson, Linda Edwards-Brown, Miranda Carter, Tracey Massey, Brittney Williams, and Britney Winn.
Presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
Proceeds benefit the Margrette Ann Taylor Scholarship Fund.

Nefesh Mountain
2025-05-10 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
The New York based Progressive Americana group Nefesh Mountain Band has been hailed as one of the formative boundary-pushing ensembles in roots music. The band’s creators and dynamic husband and wife team of Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff have created a world and sound all their own; blurring the lines between Americana, Bluegrass, Folk, Jazz and Blues with a masterful hand as songwriters, instrumentalists and composers alike.
Their latest album, Beacons, emerged from a bold and wholehearted attempt to transform the world around them. Soon after wrapping up a whirlwind tour booked with the mission of spreading their newfound message of radical love, co-founders Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg immersed themselves in the feverish writing of songs that turned their frustrations and fears into irrepressible hope, all while reaching far beyond their bluegrass roots and forging a fiercely joyful sound unbound by genre convention. By the time they’d completed that process of musical alchemy, the New York-based husband-and-wife duo had profoundly refined the band’s vision and voice and arrived at the unfettered radiance of Beacons: an epic double album affirming Nefesh Mountain as a singular musical force—one whose deeply impassioned songwriting awakens us to new ways of navigating an endlessly troubled world.

Josh Radnor
2025-05-11 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
In early 2022, exiled from his Los Angeles home and reeling from an intense breakup, actor-writer-director-songwriter Josh Radnor sought refuge in close friends and good music. He drove to Nashville, Tennessee with his dog, Nelson, and roughly fifty original songs in tow. There Radnor found deep peace, immersing himself in what would eventually become his debut solo album, Eulogy: Volume I + II. The process of sifting through the emotional complexities of love, loss, death, identity, grief, and redemption grew into a powerful outlet for healing. It also resulted in twenty-three beautifully minimal, meditative, and stirring folk-Americana tracks—a double-album debut.
Songwriting is nothing new to Radnor, who began making music in 2013 with friend and celebrated Aussie artist, Ben Lee. The pair released two albums as Radnor & Lee—a self-titled debut in 2017, followed by sophomore album Golden State in 2020—and toured the U.S. together, playing small local venues as well as international gigs in Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. Bolstered by the crowd response to Radnor & Lee and enthusiastic support from musician friends, Radnor picked up a guitar along the way and began writing his own melodies and lyrics. Then, in 2021, he dropped his debut solo EP, titled One More Then I’ll Let You Go, via Flower Moon Records. The songs were produced by Ryan Dilmore and praised by American Songwriter for their sincerity, “clever craftsmanship” and “certain purity.” The EP also showcased Radnor’s emotionally-rich, unassuming vocal style and talent for nuanced reflections on life in the guise of relatable, human stories.

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.

Community High Jazz
2025-05-12 18:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ann Arbor’s Community High Jazz is one of the best programs of its kind anywhere. The Ark is proud to host this year’s students on stage for two shows: one at 6:00 and another at 8:00.
Tickets available at the door.

Girl Named Tom
2025-05-13 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
Three siblings unlock one harmony to unite the world as  Girl Named Tom. The trio—Bekah,  Joshua, and Caleb Liechty—notably made history as the only group to ever win NBC’s  The Voice.  Along the way, they’ve impressively generated over 25 million streams across chart-rattling covers such as  “River,” “The Chain,” and  “Dust in the Wind.”  The proud Midwesterners gained further traction with the independent release of Another World  EP. In 2022, they served up their debut holiday EP,  One More Christmas, which reached #1 on the iTunes Charts, and embarked on a massive arena tour supporting  Pentatonix  for  “A Christmas Spectacular.”
Since 2022 the group has been living life on the road performing over 200 shows to date. The sibling trio has captivated millions on television, appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, singing for the Indy500, and returning for a heart wrenching performance on The Voice Finale a year after their win. Their inimitable harmony will only continue to resound louder with their most recent release “Locked In Your Love”

Joan Shelley
2025-05-14 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
Joan Shelley is a songwriter and singer who draws inspiration from traditional and traditionally-minded performers from her native Kentucky, as well as those from Ireland, Scotland, and England, but she’s not a folksinger. Her disposition aligns more closely with that of, say, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton, or Tom T. Hall, who once explained—simply, succinctly, in a song—“I Witness Life.” Her latest release is the 5-song Mood Ring EP. It was praised by The New York Times, MOJO and Pitchfork.

For Pete's Sake - Pete Seeger Birthday Concert
2025-05-15 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
The annual Pete Seeger Birthday Concert returns to The Ark with an all-star celebration honoring the life and work of singer, songwriter, activist, and national conscience, Pete Seeger, who passed in 2014. The evening will be filled with storytelling and singalongs in the true uplifting Seeger audience participation tradition. The lineup will feature special guest Reggie Harris, renowned folk artist and educator, who performed in the 2014 tribute to Pete and Toshi Seeger at the Lincoln Center, along with a lineup of well-known Michigan artists including Annie & Rod Capps, Billy King, Dani Darling, Hoodang, Judy Banker, Kylee Phillips, Matt Watroba, Mustard’s Retreat, and San, Laz & Emily Slomovits.

Matt Andersen
2025-05-16 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
When Matt Andersen steps on stage, he brings a lifetime of music to every note he plays. His latest album, The Big Bottle of Joy, is all about hard-won celebration; a dozen songs infused with raw blues-rock, rollicking Americana, thoughtful folk, and ecstatic gospel. Andersen’s stage presence is informed by decades of cutting his teeth in dusty clubs, dim-lit bars, and grand theatres all over the world, delivering soulful performances that run the gamut from intimate to wall-shaking. In the studio, he’s always brought the same attention to detail and commitment to craft as he has to his live show, and the result – a multi-faceted and poignant body of work – has led him to amass over 31 million streams on Spotify and 30 million views on YouTube.
In addition to headlining major festivals, clubs and theatres throughout North America, Europe, and Australia, he has shared the stage and toured with Marcus King, Beth Hart, Marty Stuart, Greg Allman, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Randy Bachman, Serena Ryder, Tab Benoit, and more. Andersen nabbed the 2013 and 2016 European Blues Awards for Best Solo/Acoustic Act, was the first ever Canadian to take home top honours in the solo category at the 2010 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, won the CIMA Road Gold award in 2015, and has won multiple Maple Blues Awards. Matt Andersen & The Big Bottle of Joy was nominated for a Juno Award in 2024.

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.

Mary Fahl, former lead singer for October Project
2025-05-17 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
Mary Fahl is an expressive, emotional singer/songwriter who first achieved fame as lead singer and co-founder of the mid-1990s NYC-based chamber-pop group October Project, a band known for their lush harmonies, sweeping melodies and Fahl’s unique and powerful vocals. After two records on Epic, Fahl had more freedom to pursue her own muse, whether that meant writing and recording songs for movies (including the theme for the Civil War epic “Gods and Generals”), singing arias and medieval Spanish songs for Sony Classical, or releasing a unique album-length take on “Dark Side of the Moon”…
With an earthy, viscerally powerful contralto that bridges the generational gap between Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny and London Grammar’s Hannah Reid, Mary Fahl makes music that feels timeless, esoteric and ecumenical. Her elegant, cinematic songs have a hauntingly gothic romanticism that inspired renowned writer Anne Rice to portray Mary’s voice emanating from a dead woman’s room in her 2013 novel The Wolves of Midwinter.
Over the past few years, she’s been touring and recording on her own label, Rimar Records, and her recent releases have garnered awards including an Indie Acoustic Award for Best Live Album for “Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House” (filmed for PBS) and a 2020 Independent Music Award for her holiday album, “Winter Songs and Carols”. Her 2021 release “From the Dark Side of the Moon” won the Immersive Album Audio Listener’s Choice award and was named “Immersive Album of the Year” by Life in Surround. Now she returns with “Can’t Get It Out of My Head”. In an effort to find some light and comfort during these challenging times, singer/songwriter Fahl looks back to some of the essential music that has brought her sustenance and clarity by reinterpreting songs from her greatest inspirations: Pink Floyd, George Harrison, Moody Blues, ELO, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others. For Mary, this is a tribute to the music that defined her as an artist.

Jess Merritt
2025-05-18 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
Jess Merritt is an Ann Arbor-based singer and songwriter whose rich, soulful voice evokes a unique emotional resonance. From power ballads to velvet keys, soul and rock to blues and pop, listeners are headed into a memorable experience by this expansive and versatile local favorite. Finding inspiration in the natural world, she draws from deep roots to deliver in ways both captivating and raw – taking listeners with her on a journey of healing through feeling. Jess is celebrating the release of her new EP.

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.

The Jacob Jolliff Band
2025-05-19 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ticket prices on our website reflect all-in pricing for purchases made online or by phone. This means the price you see includes the ticket price plus MUTO’s ticket processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with no included fees in person at The Ark during box office hours.
Jacob Jolliff is one of the world’s premier contemporary mandolinists. In 2011, he graduated from Berklee College of Music, having studied there on a full scholarship. The following year, in 2012, he won the USA’s National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, KS. A fixture of the bluegrass scene, he has performed and collaborated with Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Michael Daves, Grant Gordy, Wes Corbett, and Alex Hargreaves, to name a few. Additionally, throughout his 20s, he toured as a member of the groups Joy Kills Sorrow and Yonder Mountain String Band. Currently, his focus is on his own ensemble, The Jacob Jolliff Band—one of the most cutting-edge progressive bluegrass groups on the scene today. They’ve released three albums, the most recent of which, “Instrumentals, Vol. 2: Mandolin Mysteries,” dropped in May 2024. The band plays a combination of complex original instrumental music and vocal repertoire that spans from trad bluegrass to unlikely pop covers. Improvisation and the ensemble interplay are at the forefront.

The Ark's Open Stage
2025-05-21 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, 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.
Why play Open Stage at the Ark? Do it to be heard. Do it so you know you can. Do it to take your music to the masses. If you’re not interested in getting on stage tonight, get your practice in at being a great audience member and observer of new music.
