The Ark

Nick Shoulders & The Okay Crawdad
2024-04-21 19:30 - 23:00 (America/Detroit) | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
This show has been rescheduled from an earlier date. Tickets purchased for the earlier date will be honored for this performance.
“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.
Released via Gar Hole Records (a label founded and co-owned by Shoulders), All Bad marks the first LP made with his longtime band, the Okay Crawdad, since 2019’s premier full-length Okay, Crawdad and their subsequent pandemic-imposed hiatus. After writing most of the album from the front seat of a tour van, the Fayetteville, AR-based musician and bandmates Grant D’Aubin (harmonies/bass), Cheech Moosekian (drums) and Jack Studer (lead guitar) recorded the album in a home studio on the banks of the Mississippi River with New Orleans collaborators Ross Farbe and Sam Doores.
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.
Maddy Kirgo of New Orleans opens.

David Wilcox
2024-04-23 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
David Wilcox is a penetrating storyteller. The revered folk musician has an effortless talent for spinning lyrics that quietly cut deep, and crafting melodies that seamlessly ride the plot twists and turns. Wilcox handily exemplifies the power of lyrical and musical catharsis
The Ohio native with the warm baritone found his artistic muse in North Carolina during the mid-1980s. In 1987 he released his debut album, “The Nightshift Watchman,” which led to winning the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in 1988.Thirty-plus years and twenty-plus albums later, Wilcox won top honors in the 23rd annual USA Songwriting Competition in 2018 for his effervescent “We Make the Way by Walking.” Wilcox has deservedly earned praise over the years in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone, to name a few. Today, Wilcox is still earning his admirers with storytelling that cuts deep into the soul and observes the human condition from both the nerve center and the outside looking in. That kind of storytelling is certain to become a good friend.
The Ark’s Artist Spotlight Series is made possible with support from the Ford Motor Company Fund. It is presented live, and also livestreamed on The Ark’s Facebook page.
Tonight’s show is FREE (nonperishables accepted for Food Gatherers).

The Moth GrandSLAM Championship
2024-04-24 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The ultimate storytelling competition, The Moth GrandSLAM invites winners from our open-mic StorySLAMs back to the stage for the Ann Arbor storytelling championship. The theme for the night is… A POINT OF BEAUTY.
“When the noise and ugliness got so loud, I focused in on a point of beauty.” –Maniza Naqvi
Five minute stories about the gobsmackingly gorgeous nestled in the mess, the astonishingly attractive, the sensationally stunning. Witnessing an awe-inspiring work of art, or admiring the humble daisy growing through the crack in the sidewalk. Seeing past the sound and the fury to find something unexpectedly exquisite.

The Accidentals
2024-04-25 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Long before glowing acclaim from ​NPR ​and ​Billboard​, packed shows, unforgettable festival appearances, millions of streams, and collaborations with everyone from BTS to Kaboom Collective, the journey of The Accidentals commenced in a public high school classroom in Traverse City, MI. As the story goes, concertmaster​ ​violinist Savannah Buist and cellist Katie Larson raised their hands at the request for volunteers to play a music boosters concert and wound up being musical soulmates. After Sav and Katie attended a school presentation by The Moxie Strings, their collective fate would be sealed forever. “If the Moxie Strings hadn’t come to our school, we might not have pursued music professionally,” admits Sav.
Sav and Katie transferred to Interlochen Arts Academy for the remainder of high school, and since then they have released six full-length albums, three EPs, and two live albums, scored the indie documentary “One Simple Question,” and collaborated with Keller Williams, Kaki King, Tom Paxton, Kim Richey, Dar Williams, and Mary Gauthier.
Joining Sav and Katie is Detroit multi-instrumentalist Katelynn Corll. The journey of The Accidentals has only just begun. “The goal of our music has always been shared experiences. Music helps us process things that are hard to process,” says Sav. “A lot of the writing comes from touring, and touring is just a myriad of extremes, triumphs, and failures. It’s how we connect with people in those moments that shape our experiences. Hopefully, people can relate to something we’re creating in a way that feels like understanding. Maybe it offers a different perspective, and that leads to less loneliness and more community.”

Bela Fleck "My Bluegrass Heart"
2024-04-26 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Over the last four decades, Béla Fleck has made a point of boldly going where no banjo player has gone before, a musical journey that has earned him 16 Grammys in nine different fields, including Country, Pop, Jazz, Instrumental, Classical and World Music. But his roots are in bluegrass, and that’s where he returns with his first bluegrass tour in 24 years, My Bluegrass Heart.
The Grammy award-winning album, My Bluegrass Heart is the third chapter of a trilogy which began with the 1988 album, Drive, and continued in 1991 with The Bluegrass Sessions. Fleck’s band will spotlight a multi-generational gamut of the best of bluegrass players, all sporting a myriad of Grammy Awards and nominations, as well as gigantic piles of IBMA awards for their instruments: fiddler Michael Cleveland, mandolin virtuoso Sierra Hull, celebrated multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Schatz, and the amazing Bryan Sutton on guitar.

VOICES featuring Ki5 and Marqu3tte
2024-04-26 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ann Arbor’s electrifying musical maestro, Kyler Wilkins aka Ki5, is back on the Ark stage! He’s delighted to be joined on a few songs by vocalist Aviva Match who carries a powerful, sincere tone that compliments his breathy, heartfelt vocal expressions.
Prepare to be spellbound as the mesmerizing loop station magic of Ki5 reimagines your favorite R&B, pop, and soul hits with the finesse of an a cappella virtuoso. His performance is a soul-stirring experience that transcends genres and defies expectations. Once again, he’s not just bringing you music – he’s taking you on an exhilarating journey through the sonic universe as soulfully written vocal lines collide with each other, beatboxing, and even light instrumentation.
Drawing inspiration from musical luminaries like Reggie Watts, Bobby McFerrin, and Bon Iver, Ki5’s authentic, empathetic, and liberating style is nothing short of transformative. His artistry has catapulted him to the spotlight, sharing stages with legends such as Erykah Badu, CeCe Peniston, and Reggie Watts – a testament to his boundless versatility as both an artist and a show-stopping performer.
He’s bringing new music to The Ark from his latest project, Mind, which is set to come out in summer 2024.
Also gracing the Ark stage for the fourth Voices show is Marqu3tte – an artist from Detroit that blends Soul, Rock and Pop sounds to create what some call Neo-Rock.
Voices is a series of artist-cultivated concerts at The Ark conceived and created by Ann Arbor musician Kyler Wilkins, AKA vocal looping artist Ki5. The series seeks to expand the representation of Michigan BIPOC artists and audiences at The Ark. Each show, intentional time will be taken to get to know each artist in the form of brief interviews and musical breaks to have them speak about their journey as musicians and performers with the hope that people in the audience are more connected to and inspired by those voices.

Sarah Jarosz: Polaroid Lovers Tour
2024-04-27 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Four-time GRAMMY winner Sarah Jarosz has announced her new album, “Polaroid Lovers,” and she’s bringing it to The Ark! The record is releasing on January 26, 2024 via Rounder Records. It features a decidedly more electric sound than Sarah’s earlier bluegrass-flavored efforts, and it shows this brilliant artist maturing as a songwriter. A Texas native, she’s spent most of her adult life living in New York City, but shortly before writing the album Sarah left her adopted home to join her soon-to-be husband in Nashville. The geographic shake-up led to a sonic one as well for “Polaroid Lovers.” For the first time in her career she opened herself up to collaborators, leading to writing sessions with Daniel Tashian, Ruston Kelly and Natalie Hemby. “‘Polaroid Lovers” is an album-long meditation on those strangely ephemeral moments that indelibly shape our lives. “What I love about a Polaroid is that it’s capturing something so fleeting, but at the same time it makes that moment last forever,” says Sarah. “It made sense as a title for a record where all the songs are snapshots of different love stories, and there’s a feeling of time being expansive despite that impermanence.”
Tonight’s show is sponsored by Dartbank Wealth

The Polaroid Lovers Tour VIP Experience Includes:

One (1) general admission — OR — premium reserved ticket (varies by show)
Pre-show soundcheck performance
Q&A with Sarah
Group photo with Sarah (Sarah stays on stage)
Exclusive signed poster
Early entry into the venue

Gemily
2024-04-28 13:00 - 15:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Gemily (Gemini + Emily) is the folk music trio comprised of Laz and San Slomovits and San’s daughter, Emily. Laz and San, as the highly popular family music duo, Gemini, have been performing throughout Michigan and the United States since 1973. Emily first began joining them on stage when she was just eight years old, and increasingly since graduating from college in 2016. All three are versatile instrumentalists and excellent singers. Between them they play over a dozen instruments including guitars, violins, ukulele, mandolin, pennywhistle, and a variety of folk flutes and hand percussion instruments.
San and Laz’s recordings have won numerous awards from, among others, the American Library Association, Parents’ Choice Magazine, National Parenting Publications, the Wolf Trap Institute, Early Childhood News and ASCAP. Emily, who studied classical violin for over a decade, is an excellent violinist in a variety of styles including classical, jazz and folk. In addition to Gemini, she has performed and recorded with Billy King, Annie and Rod Capps, Judy Banker, Billy Brandt, and Jill Jack.
Gemily’s concerts feature a wide range of traditional and contemporary folk, jazz and classical music. Their beautifully blended harmony vocals and exciting instrumental work breathe new life into a wide variety of American and international music, from folk to classical, klezmer to Broadway show tunes, traditional to contemporary. Audiences thrill to their musicianship, warmth, humor and ease on stage.

George Crotty Trio
2024-04-29 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
George Crotty has forged his own exciting vocabulary on the cello, pushing the boundaries of the cello as a jazz instrument. Following his graduation from the Berklee College of Music, Crotty immersed himself in New York’s jazz and world music scenes, playing with several ensembles, such as the Brooklyn Raga Massive, and the Detroit-based National Arab Orchestra. Additionally, he has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with Simon Shaheen, Paquito D’Rivera, Anat Cohen, and Darol Anger. The George Crotty Trio’s “Chronotope” (2022) showcases the Canadian cellist’s expressive fluidity and modal orientation. The group’s cross-cultural interplay draws on diverse influences within jazz and global music traditions including post-bop, modal jazz, Indian raga, and Arabic maqam.

The Arcadian Wild
2024-04-30 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.

Earthwork Collective Spring Tour
2024-05-01 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Earthwork Music is a collective steward of community, collaboration, and creativity. Earthwork Music members will be banding together for a special tour across Michigan’s Lower Peninsula performing their songs and telling their stories.
This year’s lineup:
Nicholas James Thomasma
Dede Alder
Josh Holcomb
Sari Brown
Ralston Bowles
Ben Traverse
Gregory Stovetop
Elisabeth Pixley-Fink
Samantha Cooper
Chris Good
Mark Lavengood
Sarah Cohen
Vince Russo
Amber Hasan
Audra Kubat
Joe Reilly
Graham Parsons
Mike Savina
Jordan Hamilton

For Pete's Sake
2024-05-02 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
On hiatus since 2019, “For Pete’s Sake”, an all-star, in-the-round celebration of the songs and life of Pete Seeger, returns to The Ark! This year’s revival of the longtime Ark tradition features Michigan music favorites San, Laz, & Emily Slomovits; host of “No Roots – No Fruit” podcast and popular community singer, Matt Watroba; folk-roots singer-songwriter and beloved troubadour, Chris Buhalis; Hollerfest prime mover and prolific singer-songwriter/performer, Billy King; Michigan folk royalty, Annie & Rod Capps; legendary writer of classics like “Angelo’s” and “What Would Brando Do” and a do-not-miss performer, Dick Siegel; and songwriter, performer, and active proponent of our southeast Michigan music scene, Judy Banker – coming together to celebrate Pete’s birthday by sharing stories and, in the true Seeger style, lots of singalongs. All proceeds from this event go to support The Ark.
In the spirit of Pete’s belief in the power of singing together, we are making the concert available via LIVE STREAM so you all can join us from wherever you are.

Carrie Newcomer
2024-05-03 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Carrie Newcomer weaves her life and her art together, with music, community activism, and personal concerns all playing a role. She’s one of those people who exudes a spirituality that’s all her own, and she has to be seen in concert to be truly appreciated. Says novelist Barbara Kingsolver: “She’s a poet, storyteller, snake-charmer, good neighbor, friend and lover, minister of the wide-eyed gospel of hope and grace.” And you can forget all that and just luxuriate in her incredibly rich alto voice! Carrie has traveled to India and performed as a U.S. cultural ambassador, and local religion journalist David Crumm, writing on the ReadTheSpirit website, named her to his list of “10 Spiritual Sages to Watch.” Carrie always comes to The Ark with new music, and this time she’s bringing a brand new album, “A Great Wild Mercy.”

Jill Jack
2024-05-04 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Jill Jack’s annual birthday bash has become a New Year’s tradition at The Ark! Jill’s magical connection to her audience is the result of her generous artistry. By combining her gifts as a conceptual visionary with a warm gathering of musical influences, Jill touches that secret heart of ours with her melodies and lyrics. In her hometown of Detroit, Jill needs no further explanation. She’s been lauded in equal measure to her talents: Since 1997 she’s won dozens of Detroit Music Awards in every conceivable category that applies to a singer-songwriter. Jill extends the tradition of the confessional (i.e. achingly open, unafraid of intimacy) singer-songwriter, and is proud of that style and its continuation. You get all of Jill Jack in a performance—her blend of folk and rock traditions, her open humor. Jill’s generous spirit has benefited plenty of other musicians around the Detroit area, so come and wish her a happy birthday!
This show has been rescheduled from an earlier date. Tickets purchased for the original date will be honored for tonight’s show. If unable to attend on this new date, ticket holders have until February 15th to request a refund.

The Mammals
2024-05-05 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The Mammals are folksingers Ruth Ungar, Mike Merenda, and a cohort of compelling collaborators who form a touring quintet on the fiddle, banjo, guitar, organ, bass, and drums. Over the past 20 years they have quietly composed a canon of original songs (“Some of the best songwriting of their generation” – LA Times) that both reflect our culture and offer a vision of how the world might yet be. “These days we sing about what we’re for over what we’re against,” says singer/songwriter, Mike Merenda, and what they’re for is “nothing short of sublime” according to (Americana UK).
A rough and tumble decade in the 00’s forged The Mammals identity as “subversive acoustic traditionalists” (Boston Globe) or a “party band with a conscience.” Re-emerging in 2017 from a hibernation period during-which the band’s founders explored new songwriting terrain as the duo Mike + Ruthy, The Mammals “don’t suffer from multiple genre syndrome, they celebrate it as if gleefully aware that the sound barriers separating old-timey music, vintage pop and contemporary folk are as permeable as cotton” (Washington Post). Their latest album, Nonet, “marshalls the defiant spirit needed to heal a damaged world” (No Depression).
In 2023 they released a series of singles recorded at their own Humble Abode Music, as well as issuing bonus material from 2020’s landmark album Nonet.

Eric Gales
2024-05-06 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Eric Gales is a blues firebrand. Over 30 years and 18 albums, his passion for the music and his boundless desire to keep it vital has never waned, even when his own light dimmed due to his substance struggles. Throughout it all, he continued to reinvigorate the art form with personal revelation in his lyrics and bold stylistic twists in his guitar playing and songwriting.
Five years sober, creatively rejuvenated, and sagely insightful, Eric is ready for the fight of his career. Aptly, he calls his masterful new album “Crown.” Here, Eric opens like never before, sharing his struggles with substance abuse, his hopes about a new era of sobriety and unbridled creativity, and his personal reflections on racism. The songs are delivered with clarity and feature Eric’s personal experiences and hope for positive change. In addition, the 16-track collection boasts his finest singing, songwriting, and his signature guitar playing that burns throughout. Produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, this is Eric at his most boldly vulnerable, uncompromisingly political, and unflinchingly confident.

Los Straitjackets
2024-05-07 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Los Straitjackets are the leading practitioners of the lost art of the guitar instrumental. Using the music of the Ventures, The Shadows, and with Link Wray and Dick Dale as a jumping off point, the band has taken their unique, high energy brand of original rock & roll around the world. Clad in their trademark Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling masks, the ‘Jackets’ have delivered their trademark guitar licks across 30 years, 16 albums, thousands of concerts and dozens of films and TV shows. Viva Los Straitjackets!
Opening is Wasted Major, a six man band and brotherhood joined together by their shared love of classic rock, southern rock, country, and each other. Formed in 2021 at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, the group has played up and down Broadway in Nashville, America’s southeast, and has rocked stages across Europe.

The Ark's Open Stage
2024-05-08 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.

John Hiatt
2024-05-09 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
A master lyricist and satirical storyteller, John Hiatt delivers songs filled with tales of redemption, relationships and surrendering on his own terms. Hiatt’s finest album is 1987’s Bring the Family; other catalog highlights include the pop and rock of 1983’s Riding with the King, the rough-hewn blues-rock of 2008’s Same Old Man, and 2021’s Leftover Feelings. His lyrics and melodies have graced more than 20 studio albums, have been recorded by Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and scores of others, and have earned him a place in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, a BMI Troubadour award, and a lifetime achievement in songwriting designation from the Americana Music Association.
Tonight’s show is sponsored by Blue LLama Jazz Club

Alan Doyle
2024-05-10 19:00 - 23:00 | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Welcome Home Tour
Alan Doyle— actor, producer, best-selling author, and best-known as lead singer for Newfoundland’s beloved Great Big Sea these past 20+ years— hardly needs an introduction. With five solo albums under his belt, Doyle has been touring the world with his ace six-piece band for the last decade. In late 2014, Doyle released his best-selling memoir Where I Belong, followed by A Newfoundlander In Canada released in October 2017, and All Together now released in November 2020. Amidst these projects, Doyle found time to write music for and appear on CBC’s Republic of Doyle, guest on CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries, a role in 2014’s Winter’s Tale and 2010’s Robin Hood. With his 2022 live album “Here, Tonight” and a recent JUNO nomination for his 2021 album “Back to the Harbour”, Doyle chalks up a lot of where he is right now to luck. “I’m the luckiest guy I’ve ever even heard of,” he says. “This was all I ever wanted, a life in the music business, singing concerts.”
Doyle hails from Petty Harbour, NL, and formed Great Big Sea in 1993 with Sean McCann, Bob Hallett, and Darrell Power, in which they fused traditional Newfoundland music with their own pop sensibilities. Their nine albums, double-disc hits retrospective, and two DVD releases have all been declared Gold or Platinum and have sold a combined 1.2 million copies in Canada.

Joe Jencks // Deidre McCalla
2024-05-10 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Deidre McCalla’s songwriting reveals an unyieldingly honest perspective expressed with a lyric touch that relentlessly celebrates the power and diversity of the human spirit. Deidre has shared the stage with a long list of notables that includes Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Holly Near, Odetta, Cris Williamson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Her current release, “Endless Grace,” dominated the June 2022 Folk Radio Charts as the number-one song “Shoulder To The Wheel, won the 19th Annual International Acoustic Music Award for Best Folk/Americana/Roots Song.
Chicago-based singer and activist Joe Jencks (you may remember him from the fine trio act Brother Sun, which he co-founded) has performed with such artists as Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, Joe Glazer, and Charlie King. A Joe Jencks concert, says the Seattle Folklore Society’s Brad Warren, is “an occasion for singing, a contagious rising up of voices, an act of joy and defiance.” Joe’s songs have traveled to every continent via his own performances, radio, CDs, webcasts, and other musicians. He is noted for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Joe Jencks weaves a diverse web of stories with brilliant musical skill, ensnaring even the most rigid of hearts, inviting them to open. His songs invite us to live inside of our passions and our beliefs.
This show is free for Ark members at the Solo ($50) level and above!

The Okee Dokee Brothers
2024-05-11 11:00 - 13:00, 2024-05-11 14:00 - 15:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
As childhood friends growing up in Denver, Colorado, Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing were always exploring the outdoors. Whether it was rafting down their neighborhood creek or discovering hiking trails through the Rocky Mountains, Joe and Justin were born adventurers. Now, as the GRAMMY® Award-winning Okee Dokee Brothers, they have put this passion for the outdoors at the heart of their Americana Folk music.
Joe and Justin record and perform family music with a goal to inspire children and their parents to step outside and get creative. They believe this can motivate kids to gain a greater respect for the natural world, their
communities, and themselves. The five-time Parents’ Choice Award winners have garnered praise from the likes of NPR’s All Things Considered and USA Today, and have been called “two of family music’s best songwriters.”

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
2024-05-11 19:00 - 23:00 | The Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Michigan, 48201, United States
Grammy winner Molly Tuttle brings her band to The Majestic Theatre with their new album, City of Gold. One of the most compelling new voices in the roots music world, Molly Tuttle is a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter with a lifelong love of bluegrass, a genre the Northern California-bred artist first discovered thanks to her father (a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist) and grandfather (a banjo player whose Illinois farm she visited often throughout her childhood).
City of Gold, the follow-up to 2022’s Crooked Tree—a widely lauded LP that won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, with Tuttle earning a Best New Artist nomination—the Northern California-raised musician’s fourth full-length album brings those narratives to a resplendent form of bluegrass rooted in her virtuosic guitar playing. Like Crooked Tree, whose accolades also include an International Folk Music Award for Album of the Year, City of Gold, is co-produced with bluegrass legend Jerry Douglas, showcasing the extraordinary musicianship that made Tuttle the first woman ever named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association. But this time around, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist chose to record with her live band for the first time—a move that lends a potent new energy to her exquisitely crafted sound. “When I was a kid we took a field trip to Coloma, California, to learn about the gold rush,” says Tuttle in revealing the inspiration behind City of Gold. “Just like gold fever, music has always captivated me and driven me to great lengths to explore its depths.” Noting that City of Gold “celebrates the music of my heart, the land where I grew up, and the stories I heard along the way,” Tuttle found her band essential to every aspect of the LP.

The Ballroom Thieves
2024-05-11 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
As acclaimed indie folk band The Ballroom Thieves wrote and recorded their upcoming album, one central question emerged as the theme: “What if we could all just be a little more tender?” The duo – Calin Peters (vocals, cello, bass) and Martin Earley (vocals, guitar) – started to ponder what they could do to be more self-aware of their mental health and of those around them in a world oversaturated by social media, pop-culture, and digital consumption. The result is a personal, lush, 10-track collection of thoughts on the human experience called Sundust.
For more than a decade, Earley and Peters have been combining their thoughts and musical abilities. They’ve toured the US dozens of times, ventured into Europe, Canada, and even managed a journey from Maine to Hawaii to Alaska in one trip, all to play their music for the dedicated fanbase they’ve been steadily growing, person by person. The two have played beautiful theaters like Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, well-loved festivals like Newport Folk, and legendary rooms like LA’s Troubadour. They’ve been known to power slide across stages on bloody knees with their full band and silence packed rooms for 90 minutes with their lyrics and harmonies, accompanied only by a cello and an acoustic guitar during their more intimate duo shows.
Their most personal album to date, Sundust is about self-awareness, breaking down walls that trauma creates, and healing from harshness, but it’s also about finding the glimmers, the striking beauty of being a person, and a longing for connection with healthy people. Sundust will be released on April 12 via Nettwerk.

Robbie Fulks & Scott Miller
2024-05-12 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Robbie Fulks is a singer, recording artist, instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter. His current release, “Bluegrass Vacation” on Compass Records, returns him to his bluegrass roots, with a large group of masterful musicians including Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Justin Moses, Ronnie McCoury, Alison Brown, David Grier, Tim O’Brien, Todd Phillips, John Cowan, Brennen Leigh, Randy Kohrs, Sierra Hull, Stuart Duncan, Shad Cobb, and Chris Eldridge. Across 11 new original songs (and one freewheeling interpretation of the Delmore Brothers), Robbie covers themes like small-town blues, the endurance of childhood memory, inebriation, love, divorce, the role of music in strengthening family bonds, losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s, and bluegrass itself.
Recently inducted to the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame, fiery roots-rock singer/songwriter Scott Miller returned to his native Virginia to tend the family farm while continuing to release and perform new music informed by that rural area, history, and Appalachia. “[Miller combines] the emotional honesty and intelligence of a singer/songwriter with the swagger and enthusiasm of a rock & roller… a gifted and eclectic solo artist.” (AllMusic.com) Recently on tour with Patty Griffin, Robbie Fulks, Paul Thorn, Robin & Linda Williams, and American Aquarium.

Community High Jazz Blowout
2024-05-13 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.

Grant-Lee Phillips
2024-05-14 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Audiences first discovered Grant-Lee Phillips’ thoughtful, literate songwriting in context of the rock band Grant Lee Buffalo, a trio which found success with the 1993 debut Fuzzy. The title track catapulted the group to international recognition. Grant Lee Buffalo followed up Fuzzy with 1994’s Mighty Joe Moon (an album featuring the modern rock hit “Mockingbirds”) and two more well-received full-lengths, 1996’s Copperopolis and 1998’s Jubilee. Beginning with his 2000 solo debut Ladies’ Love Oracle, Phillips opened another chapter in his career, as a folk- and Americana-focused artist crafting songs and stories rich with details and humanity. He returns to The Ark with his 10th solo album, “All That You Can Dream,” as well as the 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of his first solo album, “Ladies Love Oracle,” recorded in 1999.

ZG Smith
2024-05-15 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
The son of an English professor mother and a shipwreck diver/underwater archaeologist father, indie-folk singer-songwriter, artist, and Los Angeles native ZG Smith has called Nashville home for a decade. Before moving to Tennessee, he spent his youth surfing, dialing in complex percussion routines on an award-winning high school drumline, experimenting with various elicit substances, and eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in Ethnomusicology, with a focus on Brazilian percussion, from UCLA. Since moving to Music City in his mid-twenties, he’s racked up a formidable cache of musical successes including touring extensively throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, being frontman, primary songwriter, and founding member of Americana duo Smooth Hound Smith, and sharing stages with acts like The Chicks, Trombone Shorty, Collective Soul, and Devon Gilfillian. His poignant and ethereal debut solo EP, Nighttime Animal, was released in February of 2023 and has garnered airplay and attention from musical curators and press outlets alike, not the least of which include Minneapolis’s The Current, NPR’s World Cafe, Nashville’s Lightning 100, PopMatters, The Bluegrass Situation, NashvilleSCENE, UnderTheRadar, and more. He is currently touring selectively and working on new music.

Katie Pruitt - Mantras Tour
2024-05-16 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Katie Pruitt is living proof of music’s power to transform the way we experience the world. Soon after the arrival of her acclaimed debut Expectations—a 2020 LP on which she documented her journey in growing up queer in the Christian South—the Georgia-bred singer / songwriter / guitarist heard from countless listeners that her songs had impacted their lives on an elemental level. With her sophomore album Mantras, the Nashville-based musician now looks inward to explore such matters as gender identity, self-compassion or the lack thereof, and the struggle for peace in times of chaos and uncertainty—ultimately arriving at a body of work that speaks to the strength in undoing harmful self-beliefs and fully living your truth.
Mainly produced by Collin Pastore and Jake Finch (both known for their work with boygenius and Lucy Dacus), Mantras delves deeper into the empathetic storytelling and incisive self-examination that defined Expectations—an album that earned Pruitt a nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year from the Americana Music Association, in addition to drawing praise from major outlets like Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. This time around, Pruitt sets her lived-in lyricism to a folk-leaning sound informed by her love for the more experimental edges of indie-rock, stacking her songs with plenty of propulsive grooves and overdriven guitars.
Looking over the tracklist to Mantras, Pruitt notes that a certain narrative thread emerged without her intention. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but the throughline for this record ended up being my own personal journey of letting go and learning how to love myself again—it begins with tension, frustration, and fear and resolves to a place of acceptance, surrender, and stillness,” she says. “I hope when people hear the record they feel what I felt after writing it, which was a sense of trusting myself and trusting that—no matter how bad things look—there’s always hope where there’s fear. I know that so much of the time we feel alone in our pain, so hopefully these songs help everyone to see that they can work through those big life changes and end up loving themselves a lot more.”
