Neko Case Fall Tour 2024
2024-10-18 19:00 - 23:00 (America/Detroit) | Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St, Royal Oak, MI, 48067, United States
Is there another songwriter so fearless and inventive? Bending decades of pop music into new shapes, Neko Case wields her voice like a kiss and her metaphors like a baseball bat. She has cast the fishing net of her career wide—from Seattle and Vancouver to Chicago and Stockholm, setting up her home base on a farm in New England.

Gathering power year after year, Neko sings with the fierce abandon of a newborn infant crying in a basket in the woods. Since escaping the labels of country and Americana, the gorgeous train-whistle vocals of her early career sit submerged in her later style, where their ghost can appear any minute. When her voice jumps an octave, it’s almost visible, like sparks at night. “I never knew where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do with my voice,” she says, “but I just wanted to do it so bad.”

With a career spanning over twenty years, she has famously collaborated with The New Pornographers and Case/Lang/Veirs in addition to releasing many critically acclaimed solo albums, including ‘Fox Confessor Brings The Flood’, ‘Middle Cyclone’ and most recently 2018’s ‘Hell-On’ in addition to the career-spanning retrospective ‘Wild Creatures’ that was released in 2022. She also writes weekly pieces for her popular Substack ‘Entering The Lung’, where she ruminates on the nature near her rural home, life on tour, her pets, and anything else that comes to mind.

Neko is doing it on her own terms, but the legacy she’s building is one that can stand up to music made by any other solo artist in her lifetime. Don’t look away; you never know what might happen. “I’m just trying,” she says, “to be myself as hard as I can.”

Ana Popovic
2024-10-18 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Ana Popovic, the award-winning, hard-touring, guitar slinger, blends smoking electric funk and slide guitar, jazzy instrumentals and a tight blues groove with soulful, feminine vocals. Add to the mix her incredible stage presence, which makes her an irresistible force in the world of contemporary blues music.
Ana’s latest studio album, “Power,” made it to #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts. Her albums “Can You Stand The Heat” and “Unconditional” were Pick-Of-The-Week by USA Today and featured on NPR Music. She has been nominated for seven Blues Music Awards, and was the only female guitar player in the Experience Hendrix tour with Buddy Guy, Eric Johnson, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Carbon Leaf
2024-10-19 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Carbon Leaf’s fifteenth studio album, Time is the Playground, is both a call to action and an embrace of the moment. Marrying nostalgic storytelling to nuanced, folk-infused indie rock, the Richmond, Virginia band embroiders heartfelt melody and harmony with acoustic and electric instrumentation to create a 12-song rumination on time, love and personal growth that’s equal parts urgent epiphany and contented exhalation.
Originally formed as a college cover band in 1992 and with over 3,500 famously enthused live shows together, Carbon Leaf helped to define the aughts indie rock that they ultimately outgrew and outlasted. They first earned national recognition with “The Boxer,” a song that won the American Music Awards 2002 New Music Award and made Carbon Leaf the first unsigned band to perform before millions on the AMAs.
“The Boxer” entered regular radio rotation, Carbon Leaf’s tours grew bigger and better, and within a couple of years they quit their day jobs and inked a record deal. The band’s fanbase snowballed, drawn to their infectious spirit of commitment, empathy, communion, and selfreliance – not to mention supremely crafted songs with ultra-relatable, thought-provoking lyrics.
After a trio of charting albums for Vanguard Records, multiple songwriting awards and headlining shows, Carbon Leaf opted to return to the complete creative control of their indie roots. Guitarist Terry Clark, who co-founded the band with Privett and multi-instrumentalist Carter Gravatt, converted his garage into the band’s Two-Car Studio, where they’ve recorded releases for their own Constant Ivy imprint ever since. Carbon Leaf’s DIY spirit even extended to re-recording their three Vanguard albums in order to regain the rights.
Due in September, Time is the Playground is Carbon Leaf’s first full-length album in a decade, during which they released two EPS and a 27-song live performance album and Blu-ray. Time is the Playground gathers the best of songs written, in fits and starts, over 15 years, alongside brand new ideas.
“Thinking about these disparate pieces of music, I began ruminating on time itself,” Privett recalled. “The band’s been together a long time. You mature a bit and see yourself in place on the timeline … rolling around the scenes of love and growth.”
Time is the Playground will be accompanied by the tireless touring almost synonymous with Carbon Leaf, who’ve become a model for self-managing bands in the digital landscape.

Noah Gundersen with Abby Gundersen
2024-10-20 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Marking the 10th anniversary of his acclaimed album, Ledges, Noah Gundersen will play intimate, stripped-back shows with his sister Abby Gundersen playing fiddle.
It’s a strange thing to have a living artifact of your younger self. To observe the manifestations of a younger you’s inner life. To be honest, it’s often cringy and anxiety inducing. With the benefit of hindsight, our shortsightedness and misplaced fears and hopes seem so obvious.
As I look back, ten years later, to the person I was when I made Ledges, I see a young man full of ambition and naivety, desperate for validation and a sense of belonging. I see a boy with a singular vision and a hell of a lot to learn.
They say you have your whole life to make your first record and 18 months to make your second. Although Ledges isn’t technically my first album, for all intents and purposes, it feels like it. It was the one I spent years writing. Some songs were written on a mattress on the floor of a rented room I shared with a friend, in a run down old house I moved into when I left my folks place at 17. Some I wrote in my first apartment in Seattle. One was written in the early hours of the morning, waking up on a friend’s couch to a simple, beautiful piano arrangement Abby wrote. One, after the unexpected heroin overdose that resulted in the death of a friend. Another, after briefly reigniting an old flame, only to watch it quickly burn out.
Everything was new back then. The colors were brighter, the highs higher, the lows lower. Falling in love felt like the first time. Heartbreak felt like the end of the world. Ideas felt important and the future was a big, empty canvas.
There’s a lot of self importance in all of this and ultimately this is just some record that some kid made. But to that kid this record felt like his whole world. And like all records, it’s a little snapshot in time. And how lucky we are to have snapshots, photographs of moments and memories that ground us in the reality we’ve lived.
I don’t want to live in the past. But I’m grateful for this marker of how it once was. A little simpler, a little cleaner, a whole lot of potential. And maybe that’s a reminder that I’m living in that potential, right now. This is the future I imagined and hoped for. This is the person I am now. And it’s nice to be able to look back and see how far I’ve come. And if you found this record 10 years ago, I hope you can listen back with the same gentle hindsight.
VIP ticket includes:

One General Admission ticket
Pre-show acoustic performance (requests allowed!)
Opportunity for Q&A with Noah
Autographed setlist
Exclusive tour poster, signed by Noah
Commemorative VIP laminate
Early entry to the venue

The East Pointers - The Safe In Sound Tour
2024-10-21 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Fans of The East Pointers have Koady Chaisson to thank for being the kinetic force behind the JUNO-Award winning indie-folk trio since the group formed in 2014. The dancefloor-shaking, electro-trad glorious combination of folk/pop has brought so much joy to audiences around the world. And now, even posthumously, Koady’s energetic fire continues to blaze the musical trail onward.
It was on January 6, 2022 that Koady Chaisson of The East Pointers passed away from an unexpected heart aneurysm at 37. Those who were lucky to have been influenced by his creative and generous soul felt like a black hole had suddenly formed where the supernova of Koady’s light had been.
But before his passing, Koady, Tim Chaisson, and Jake Charron, had recorded most of the tracks for two new EPs. Unlike any of The East Pointers’ material to date, these precious songs are shiny and melodic, nostalgia-flared, folk experimental pop but with the same driving trad hooks for which the band has become known and revered.
David Howley of We Banjo 3 opens.

Pete Muller
2024-10-22 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Pete Muller has spent much of his adult life walking a tightrope between two vastly different worlds.
“One part of me is a very practical, analytical thinker,” says the gifted singer/songwriter and innovative business leader, “and the other is this creative artist who can’t help but express what’s going on in his soul. For a long time, I thought I had to choose between the two, but I’ve realized that I can love both sides of myself, that it’s AND, not OR.”
More Time, Muller’s captivating new album, is proof of that. Recorded in Memphis with producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price) and featuring a duet with Lisa Loeb, the collection marks a dramatic leap forward for Muller, who finds himself exploring the push and pull of responsibility and desire, predictability and adventure, commitment, and temptation. Where Muller’s previous work leaned more towards carefully arranged folk and roots, More Time is a freewheeling slice of rock and soul captured with an all-star band including celebrated bassist Dave Smith (Al Green, Wilson Pickett), famed Texas guitarist Will Sexton (Joe Ely, Roky Erickson), Memphis organist Rick Steff (Lucero, Cat Power), and longtime Wilco drummer Ken Coomer. The result is an ecstatic exploration of what it means to be human in all its messy, mixed-up contradictions, a sometimes-exultant, sometimes-pensive meditation that embraces AND over OR as it revels in the joy of discovering—and becoming—the people we’re meant to be.
The Ark’s Artist Spotlight Series is made possible with support from Ford Philanthropy. It is presented live, and also livestreamed on The Ark’s Facebook page.
Tonight’s show is FREE (nonperishables accepted for Food Gatherers).

Both Sides Now: The Music and Lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen
2024-10-23 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
“Two singer-songwriters sit on the edge of a cliff . . .”
With these words, we are drawn into the world of Both Sides Now, a theatrical concert that explores the music and lives of long-time friends and one-time lovers, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Created by, and starring Robbie Schaefer and Danielle Wertz, the cabaret-style performance travels decades alongside songs such as A Case of You, Hallelujah, Big Yellow Taxi, Suzanne, and many more. Both Sides Now is at once a piece of the 60’s and 70’s, and of right now–offering us a story about the messiness of being human, of lives persistently lived at the edge of growth, and of finding the courage to turn toward one another, again and again.

David Cross
2024-10-23 20:00 - 23:00 | Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Emmy Award winner and two-time Grammy Award nominee, David Cross is an inventive performer, writer, and producer on stage and screen. David’s eighth stand-up special, David Cross: Worst Daddy In The World, is available on the 800 Pound Gorilla Media YouTube channel, and he will join the cast of the Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy, for their fourth and final season premiering August 8.
David hosts the new podcast, Senses Working Overtime With David Cross, which premiered on December 7, 2023 with new episodes released on Thursdays available on all audio platforms and video available on David’s YouTube page.
In 2023, David was seen in the Julia Louis-Dreyfus film, You Hurt My Feelings, and the FX series, Justified: City Primeval. In 2021, Cross starred in the National Geographic series, Genius: Aretha, portraying famed music producer, Jerry Wexler opposite Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin; he made guest appearances in the, critically-acclaimed HBO Max miniseries, Station Eleven; and starred in the HBO Max film, 8-Bit Christmas.
On February 12, 2022, David premiered his comedy special, David Cross: I’m From The Future, as a livestream event available internationally on his website. David’s 2019 comedy special, David Cross: Oh Come On, is available on Amazon Prime and Peacock.
David was nominated for two Grammy Awards for the albums, …America…Great, and Shut Up You F***ing Baby, and his comedy special, David Cross: The Pride is Back, was named one of the 25 best stand-up comedy specials and concert films of all time by Rolling Stone in July 2015.
Other groundbreaking TV credits include Arrested Development, Goliath, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Freak Show, and The Ben Stiller Show. In 2020, David received rave reviews for his starring role in the dramatic film, The Dark Divide, and in 2018, he was part of the ensemble cast with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in Steven Spielberg’s The Post. David released the indie film Hits, which he wrote and directed, and he has appeared in numerous films including Kill Your Darlings, It’s a Disaster, Abel, Year One, Waiting for Guffman, Men in Black and Men in Black II, Ghost World, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pitch Perfect 2, I’m Not There, and he provided his vocal talents for several animated films, including Megamind, the Kung Fu Panda franchise and Curious George.

Sixpence None The Richer
2024-10-24 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Sixpence None the Richer began taking shape in New Braunfels, Texas in the early ‘90s, when guitarist Matt Slocum met vocalist Leigh Nash at a church retreat. The group recorded a demo before eventually signing with R.E.X. Records. Their debut LP, The Fatherless & the Widow, appeared in 1993 and their sophomore effort, 1995’s This Beautiful Mess won a Dove Award and was followed by the Tickets for a Prayer Wheel EP.
In 1997, Sixpence None the Richer released their self-titled album and two years later exploded globally when the track “Kiss Me”, from that album, was released as a single. The song has been featured in countless movies and TV shows and catapulted Sixpence None the Richer’s starpower into the mainstream, earning airplay in more than ten different countries.
Accolades continued as the band’s rendition of the La’s “There She Goes” also became a major hit. In fall 2002, Sixpence None the Richer returned to form with Divine Discontent. The band’s cover of the Crowded House classic “Don’t Dream It’s Over” pushed Sixpence None the Richer’s name back into the charts in early 2003. Although the group quietly disbanded in 2004, they remained active as individuals and continued to release music periodically, including the albums Dawn of Grace and Lost in Transition.
Fast forward to 2024 and all-original members (Leigh Nash, Matt Slocum, Dale Baker, and Justin Cary) have reunited and are writing and recording new music and preparing for a world tour. As a taste of the new music, you can hear “The Tide” released in late 2023 as Leigh Nash + Sixpence None The Richer, which has already amassed over 2 Million views and streams across platforms. Curb Records is also celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the band’s self-titled (Kiss Me) album by re-releasing it in a collectible vinyl series that also features the new track, “The Tide”.
Sixpence None The Richer has helped shape the musical landscape across generations and are gearing up for an exciting road ahead.

Steve Poltz
2024-10-25 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Steve Poltz is not normal. He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but has lived most of his life in southern California, and those geographic poles are quite likely responsible for his unhinged genius. With a cult following that includes fellow musicians, regular folks and festival goers who stumble onto his performances, there’s no common denominator to Steve’s fans. Steve toured and recorded with San Diego cult favorites The Rugburns (they still play annual sold-out reunion shows). But it was through his creative partnership with Jewel that he vaulted into the national spotlight; co-writing her multiplatinum Billboard Hot 100-busting smash, “You Were Meant For Me,” and continues to work with her to this day.
Over the years, Steve has built a fascinating solo catalog. No Depression crowned him, “A sardonic provocateur with a lighthearted acoustic-driven wit, suggesting at times a sunnier, less psychedelic Todd Snider, or maybe a less wan, washed Jackson Brown.” Among other collaborations, GRAMMY-winning bluegrass phenom Billy Strings tapped him to co-write “Leaders” on 2021’s Renewal and he’s co-written with Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Nicki Bluhm, Oliver Wood and even Mojo Nixon.
Steve’s newest album is Stardust & Satellites, produced by Oliver Wood and Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers.

Yasmin Williams
2024-10-26 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Yasmin Williams’ performance at The Ark in Ann Arbor, originally scheduled for Saturday, October 26, has been rescheduled to Friday, January 31, 2025. All tickets purchased for the October show will be honored for the new date. If you can’t make it to the new date, please contact the original point of purchase for a refund by November 18th. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding. Yasmin looks forward to sharing an incredible night of music with you in January! Thank you for your support!
Based in Alexandria, VA, Yasmin Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and film composer. She has an unorthodox, modern style of guitar playing and utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. Her “radiant sound and adventitious origins have made her a key figure in a diverse dawn for the solo guitar” (The New York Times). Williams’s music has been described as rich, harmonious, and “in a lot of ways, the joy and possibility she brings to the guitar reminds me more of Eddie Van Halen than any of the other fingerstyle guitarists to whom she’s compared” (NPR Music).
Her latest album, Urban Driftwood, has received critical acclaim from numerous major publications including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, NPR Music, The Fader, Wallstreet Journal, AllMusic, Paste Magazine, No Depression, and several other outlets. She was listed as one of the “25 New and Rising Artists Shaping the Future of Music in 2023” by Pitchfork. Most recently, Williams signed to Nonesuch Records and released a new single, titled Dawning, featuring Aoife O’Donovan on vocals, Kafari on rhythm bones, and Nic Gareiss on flat foot percussion.
Local trio, Brawny Lad, opens.

Trace Bundy
2024-10-27 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Internationally-acclaimed guitar virtuoso Trace Bundy must be seen, not just heard. His music is poetry in motion, using harmonics, looping, multiple capos, and his unique banter and stage presence to deliver an unforgettable live concert experience. Listening to his intricate arrangements is one thing, but seeing the fan-dubbed “Acoustic Ninja” play live confounds even the most accomplished music lovers as to how one person can do all that with just two hands and ten fingers.
Bundy’s unique career has brought him across the world, with concerts in 28 countries and counting – from high-tech performance halls in South Korea and Italy, to remote villages in Zimbabwe and Guatemala. He has independently sold over 150,000 albums on his record label, Honest Ninja Music. His video clips circulate virally at astonishing speed, with over 45 million YouTube views to date.
Dave Kirby from the Boulder Weekly says “Possessing a staggering acoustic technique, on both right and left sides, Bundy has made his reputation as a next generation solo guitarist of serious repute.”
Audiocast Magazine from Austin, TX agrees: “Bundy’s live show is without a doubt an event that needs to be witnessed rather than told about. With such a jaw-dropping performance, Bundy’s live concert is a slap in the face that would leave a palm print on the memory of everyone in the audience.”

Voices featuring Kenyatta Rashon and Gwenyth Hayes
2024-10-28 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Gwenyth Hayes, a bassist, song stylist, vocalist, and recording artist hailing from Ann Arbor, captivates audiences throughout the Metro Detroit area with her distinctive performances. Gwenyth’s unique reinterpretations showcase a fusion of classic tunes and soulful covers & contemporary originals across various genres that are centered around her sultry vocals, groove-infused bass lines, improvisation, and tight instrumental arrangements.
Born and raised in Ypsilanti, Kenyatta Rashon began her career in musical theater at age 16. Hip Hop and R&B are her first loves. She has shared her gift from the boardwalks of Venice beach to the subways of Harlem. Finally, closing 2019 with the opportunity to sing with Kanye West’s Sunday Service in Detroit, as well as being featured in the November issue of The Michigan Chronicle. Kenyatta hopes to be as inspirational as those who have inspired her such as Amy Winehouse, Beyoncé, Erykah Badu, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and that’s just to name a few.
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.
Photo credit Dori Sumter

Emily Slomovits & Friends
2024-10-29 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Emily Slomovits began playing violin at the age of seven, and has been joining her father and uncle (the duo Gemini) on stage since she was eight years old. She studied classical violin for more than ten years, adding jazz and folk fiddle styles to her repertoire along the way. In her early teens she began singing and playing guitar and has since then been performing solo, with Gemini, and in groups ranging from classical string quartets to folk and country bands. You may also have seen her play with the Encore Theater, Performance Network, and productions of Shakespeare in the Arb.
Emily will be joined by Billy King, Jen Sygit, San Slomovits, Peter Madcat Ruth, Tyler Driskill, and Marlene Inman.

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore with The Guilty Ones
2024-10-30 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement. “I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Gilmore answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.” Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album Texicali. Due out Jun 21, 2024 on Yep Roc Records, Texicali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore).
The album’s geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. The 11 songs on Texicali also connect the duo’s shared fondness for a broad range of American music forms. On their own, both have been prominent artists for decades. A philosophical songwriter with a captivating, almost mystical voice, Gilmore co-founded influential Lubbock group the Flatlanders in the early 1970s. Alvin first drew attention as a firebrand guitarist and budding young songwriter with Los Angeles roots-rockers the Blasters in the early 1980s.
Gilmore is primarily known for left-of-center country music, while Alvin’s compass points largely toward old-school blues. But there’s a lot of ground to cover beyond those foundations, and both artists also are well-known for transcending genre limitations. So it’s not surprising that they’ve spiked Texicali with cosmic folk narratives, deep R&B grooves and even swinging reggae rhythms.

Anna Tivel
2024-10-31 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Living Thing, the newest full-length album from Oregon-based songwriter Anna Tivel, is an arcing dive into the existential. Written through the tumultuous eyes of 2020 and recorded in Eau Claire, WI in profound collaboration with long-time friend and producer Shane Leonard, these are songs of struggle and aliveness expressed with great joy.
“I wrote feverishly in the strange chaos of that year, suddenly out of work and attempting to understand the shifting human fabric, the depth of desperation, and the overwhelming tenacity of spirit. The resulting songs felt rhythmic and vital, with more melody and soaring chorus than I’ve explored in the past. There was no way and no means to gather a full band, and I brought the songs to Shane’s doorstep knowing and fully trusting the skill and exuberance of his creative imagination. Shane stripped everything down to the studs and we rebuilt it together, just the two of us for a month in his garage studio, Shane dreaming up each sonic layer while I chased the lyrics to one last double chorus.”

Shane Koyczan
2024-11-01 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Internationally recognized author and spoken word artist Shane Koyczan has emerged as a creator of poetry that dares to belong to the people and speak directly to them in their own voice. In 2013, he collaborated with animators to make the anti-bullying viral video “To This Day” which has had over 13 million views, and he performed a customized version “For the Bullied and the Beautiful” to acclaim at the 2013 International TED Conference in Long Beach, California. Shane shapes his words and delivers in multi mediums from authored, video, spoken word, operatic, and musically performed.
Derrick C. Brown is a poet, novelist, comedian, and storyteller. In 2023, Paste Magazine named his Comedy and Poetry Record ‘Album of the Year.’ He is the winner of the Texas Book of The Year award for Poetry. The New York Times calls his work “…a rekindling of faith in the weird, hilarious, shocking, beautiful power of words.”

Natalie & Brittany Haas with Nic Gareiss
2024-11-02 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Sisters Natalie (cello) and Brittany (fiddle) Haas began their musical lives together, filling their childhood home with Bach suites and old-time tunes alike. It was on their own, however-following divergent paths through disparate musical traditions, countries, and cultures-that they both arrived as virtuosi and composers at the highest levels of contemporary string music. Fans of acoustic music can hardly mention one without referencing the other’s work. With HAAS, these singular musicians finally record together – in duo form – for the first time. It is a collaboration a lifetime in the making, and a music encompassing travels through time and through the world From Nashville to Norway, the Celtic Isles to California, Natalie and Brittany have absorbed, adapted, and made their own world of music. The result? HAAS.
Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” Nic Gareiss (he/they) has been hailed by the New York Times for his “dexterous melding of Irish and Appalachian dance” and called “the most inventive and expressive step dancer on the scene” by the Boston Herald. Nic has earned numerous accolades including a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for traditional singer of the year and the Michigan Heritage Award, the state’s highest distinction bestowed on traditional artists. Always jubilant, often puckishly queer, Nic Gareiss has emerged as one of the most beloved and singular performers of contemporary traditional dance and music.

Full Cord
2024-11-03 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
When it comes to movers and shakers in the bluegrass world, Full Cord is a super-group on the rise. After winning the prestigious 2022 Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition in Colorado, the Michigan-based group followed that with another much-coveted honor when the International Bluegrass Music Association named Full Cord its “Momentum Award Band of the Year.” While mandolinist Brian Oberlin notes the band’s music “is new and fresh to the ears of seasoned bluegrass fans,” the bluegrass traditions in Full Cord have deep roots.

The group’s members – Oberlin, guitarist Eric Langejans, bassist Todd Kirchner and fiddler Grant Flick – boast decades of musical artistry, with experience in popular performing bands from Michigan to Oregon. And with the recent addition of award-winning, Colorado-based banjoist Ricky Mier, Full Cord is ready to follow in the footsteps of fellow Michigan bluegrass icons Billy Strings and Greensky Bluegrass as yet another star in the making.

Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards
2024-11-04 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Laura Cortese has built a career weaving together a musical tapestry as diverse as it is masterful, highlighted with experiences like playing the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger in 2009, standing onstage at the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York with Band of Horses in 2009, and a stint touring alongside Uncle Earl in 2007. She has recorded with artists ranging from Aoife O’Donovan and Brittany Haas to Rose Cousins and Session Americana, and has released 7 albums under her own name. She has toured across the globe, acting as an ambassador of American music on behalf of the US State Department by performing and teaching in India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Estonia, Greece, Ukraine, and Montenegro. In July 2020 she was on the cover of Strings Magazine.

Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro
2024-11-06 18:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
This concert/lecture brings to life a twentieth-century world of Jewish responses to the pervasive climate of race prejudice that gave birth to the Scottsboro trials—and injustices to come—through a performance of Yiddish and English poems from the era newly set to music.
The Scottsboro Trials stand among the most renowned miscarriages of justice in the history of American jurisprudence. Beginning in 1931 with a false accusation of rape against nine Black teenagers, the case went on to invigorate a nascent Civil Rights movement, earn the international support of the Communist Party, and establish itself as a watchword among various strands of the American Left. It also inspired reaction from the contemporary world of arts and letters, most famously by poets Langston Hughes and Richard Wright and novelist Harper Lee, who adapted its events in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The international, politically oriented Yiddish intelligentsia of the 1930s was no less galvanized, producing a body of creative responses that passionately took up the themes of the trial, juxtaposing its American injustices with diverse images, tropes and language imbued with their own distinct histories of oppression. These writings are the basis of Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro.
This world premiere performance features Professor Amelia Glaser, author of Songs in Dark Times: Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine (Harvard UP), composer/vocalists Heather Klein and Anthony Russell, and composer/pianist Uri Schreter.
Presented by the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.
Amelia Glaser is professor of literature at UC San Diego, where she is the chair in Judaic Studies. A scholar and translator of Ukrainian, Russian, and Yiddish literature, she is the author of Jews and Ukrainians in Russia’s Literary Borderlands (Northwestern UP, 2012) and Songs in Dark Times: Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine (Harvard UP, 2020), the editor of Stories of Khmelnytsky: Literary Legacies of the 1648 Ukrainian Cossack Uprising (Stanford UP, 2015), and, with Steven Lee, Comintern Aesthetics (University of Toronto Press, 2020); and the translator of Proletpen: America’s Rebel-Yiddish Poets (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005) and, with Yuliya Ilchuk, A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails: Poems by Halyna Kruk (Arrowsmith Press, 2023).
Anthony Russell is a vocalist, composer, and arranger specializing in music in the Yiddish language. His work in Ashkenazi Jewish musical forms led to an exploration of his own ethnic roots through the research, arrangement, and performance of a hundred years of African American music, resulting in the album Convergence (2018), a collaboration with klezmer consort Veretski Pass exploring the sounds and themes of one hundred years of African American and Ashkenazi Jewish music. Inspired by an ethnographic trip to Belarus and Poland as a Wallis Annenberg Helix Fellow (2016–17), Anthony formed a duo, Tsvey Brider (Two Brothers), with accordionist and pianist Dmitri Gaskin for the composition and performance of original music set to Yiddish poetry. Their recent release, Kosmopolitn, features their settings of twentieth-century Yiddish modernist poetry for voice and string ensemble. A past Hadar Rising Song Fellow (2021–22) and a present Mandel Institute Cultural Leadership Fellow (2023–25), Anthony has expanded his work into cultural activism through collaboration with the Workers Circle and as an essayist in a number of publications and sites including The Forward, Tablet Magazine, JTA, PROTOCOLS, Full Stop Magazine, Ayin Press, and Jewish Currents.
Heather Klein follows her passion for Yiddish song and bringing stories to life. She has most recently been seen singing in the film “Burning off the Page” (San Francisco Jewish Film Festival), on PBS.com with the documentary “Harbor from the Holocaust,” working with the Folksbiene Theatre in New York City, and composing and acting for the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble in Berkeley. Heather has also worked with Sundance (MA), Music Theatre Group (NYC), YIVO (NYC), Ashkenaz Festival (Toronto), and the Yiddish Book Center (MA) as well as in Hungary and Israel, and extensively in the Bay Area and Canada. Klein has premiered many Yiddish roles and produced and recorded four albums. Her most recent albums were for her show “Shanghai Angel”—which Klein wrote, produced, and composed—about her grandmother’s journey from Nazi Europe to China and then to California, as well as “Rooted Lullaby,” an album with original trilingual lullabies. Klein will be recreating her show “Shanghai Angel” in 2024 at Angel Island, the former immigration station near San Francisco where her grandmother was detained in the 1940s. Heather works as the cantorial soloist at Temple Sinai in Las Vegas and produces the Yiddish Las Vegas festival.
Uri Schreter is an interdisciplinary musicologist, composer, keyboardist, and filmmaker. He was born in Tel Aviv and studied at Tel Aviv University, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in composition and musicology and a Master’s degree in history. He is currently pursuing a PhD in musicology at Harvard University, where he is researching postwar Jewish music and politics. Outside of academia, Uri has collaborated on music, theater, and film with numerous artists in Jewish culture and beyond, including Mike Burstyn, Shane Baker, and Judy Bressler.

Colin Quinn
2024-11-07 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
This show has been rescheduled from September 26 to November 7. All tickets purchased for the original date will be honored. Ticket holders have until October 17th to request a refund if unable to attend on the new date.
COLIN QUINN (Writer/Performer) is a stand-up comedian from Brooklyn (okay, Park Slope), who has been a part of your whole life even though you never asked for it. From MTV’s “Remote Control” to SNL to Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn,” Mr. Quinn is not one to take a hint and bow out gracefully. He’s been on Broadway with Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake and Colin Quinn: Long Story Short and Off-Broadway with his show Colin Quinn: Unconstitutional, Colin Quinn: The New York Story, directed by Jerry Seinfeld, Colin Quinn: Red State, Blue State, Colin Quinn: The Last Best Hope, and most recently Colin Quinn: Small Talk. Recent credits include Trainwreck, Girls, and his web series “Cop Show,” streaming now on Colin’s YouTube channel. His last book, “Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast of the 50 States,” is now out from Macmillan publishing.

Town Mountain with special guest John R Miller
2024-11-08 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Raw, soulful, and with plenty of swagger, Town Mountain has earned raves for their hard-driving sound, their in-house songwriting, and the honky-tonk edge that permeates their exhilarating live performances, whether in a packed club or at a sold-out festival. The hearty base of Town Mountain’s music is the first and second generation of bluegrass spiced with country, old school rock ‘n’ roll, and boogie-woogie. It’s what else goes into the mix that brings it all to life both on stage and on record and reflects the group’s wide-ranging influences – from the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and the ethereal lyrics of Robert Hunter, to the honest, vintage country of Willie, Waylon, and Merle.
The Rolling Stone says “Call it an evolution or a revolution but it’s clear that Town Mountain is at the forefront.” Town Mountain features guitarist and vocalist Robert Greer, mandolinist Phil Barker, fiddler Bobby Britt, and Zach Smith on bass.
John R Miller is a true hyphenate artist: singer-songwriter-picker. Every song on his thrilling debut solo album, Depreciated, is lush with intricate wordplay and haunting imagery, as well as being backed by a band that is on fire. One of his biggest long-time fans is roots music favorite Tyler Childers, who says he’s “a well-traveled wordsmith mapping out the world he’s seen, three chords at a time.” Miller is somehow able to transport us to a shadowy honkytonk and get existential all in the same line with his tightly written compositions. Miller’s own guitar-playing is on fine display here along with vocals that evoke the white-waters of the Potomac River rumbling below the high ridges of his native Shenandoah Valley.

Jonatha Brooke
2024-11-09 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Merging evocative folk, melodic pop and an edgier roots rock sensibility, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jonatha Brooke began releasing music in the early 1990s, first as a member of the duo the Story and more enduringly as a solo artist. After four major label releases, she started her own independent label, Bad Dog Records in 1999, and has since released ten more albums – including the companion CD to her critically acclaimed, one woman, Off-Broadway musical, My Mother Has Four Noses.
Jonatha has co-written and/or produced songs with Katy Perry, The Courtyard Hounds, and Jessica Simpson. She’s also written for four Disney films, numerous television shows, and she composed and performed the theme song for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. She won the 2019 International Acoustic Music Award for Best Female Artist for her song “Put the Gun Down,” and was the competition’s overall grand prize winner. And in 2020, she was awarded an Independent Music Award (IMA) for her EP, “Imposter.”

Rabbitology
2024-11-10 19:30 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Shoulder your capes of star-dusted moss. Venture into the land of the harebrained and burrowing. “Rabbitology” is a sonic project that seeks to explore the raw and odd. Beginning in a dorm room with percussion made from a dining hall apple, Rabbitology’s scrappy production style lends to each song’s eclectic and strange soundscapes.

The Ark's Open Stage
2024-11-11 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.

Craig Finn
2024-11-12 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Craig Finn is a Minnesota-bred singer/songwriter based in New York City, best known as the singer of The Hold Steady. Finn spent the ’90’s leading Minneapolis indie band Lifter Puller, which released 3 albums and an EP. After relocating to New York, he joined with Lifter Puller member Tad Kubler to form The Hold Steady in 2003. The Hold Steady quickly achieved critical acclaim and a worldwide fanbase with their unique pairing of dense lyrical narratives with big rock guitars. The Hold Steady’s ninth album, The Price Of Progress, was released in March 2023, commemorating the band’s 20th Anniversary.
Finn released his first solo album in 2012 with three additional solo LPs put forth from 2015 – 2019: Faith in the Future, We All Want The Same Things, and 2019’s I Need a New War – which coalesced into a sign-of-the-times musical trilogy. Finn’s debut book “I Can’t Keep Saying Thank You”, a collection of his song lyrics, was also released in 2019. A double album of B-sides/outtakes, All These Perfect Crosses, was released in 2021 accompanied by a limited-edition graphic novel/comic book.
Finn’s fifth solo album, A Legacy of Rentals, was released in May 2022 to great fanfare. Pitchfork praised it saying, “The writing remains the main attraction in Finn’s work, and both as a storyteller and a rock songwriter, he has never sounded more in control. From the beginning, he had a gift for meticulous, vivid world-building, and his wordplay has gotten tighter as his subjects have come down to earth.” That’s How I Remember It is Craig Finn’s podcast series, which just started its third season. Co-produced and distributed by Talkhouse, the podcast series examines the connection between memory and creativity. Each episode features a discussion between Finn and one creator – including musicians, authors, filmmakers, and more – about the role memory plays in their art. These exclusive conversations reveal the different ways each creator synthesizes their remembered life experience to tell stories about themselves and the world we live in.

Yarn
2024-11-13 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
You might expect a band that calls itself Yarn to, naturally, tend to spin a yarn or two. “That’s what we do, we tell stories, live and in the studio, truth and fiction”, singer/songwriter Blake Christiana insists. “We don’t always opt for consistency. There’s a different vibe onstage from what comes through in our recordings. There’s a difference in every show as well, you never know what you’re going to get.”
Yarn’s ability to persevere ought to come as no great surprise, especially for a band that spent two years honing their chops during a Monday night residency at the famed Kenny’s Castaway in New York’s Greenwich Village. In effect, it allowed them to rehearse onstage, mostly in front of audiences that often ranged in size from five to a hundred people on any given night. 10 studio albums followed. The band then took to the road, playing upwards of 170 shows a year at any number of prestigious venues. They have landed on the Grammy ballot 4 times, garnered nods from the Americana Music Association, placed top five on both Radio and Records and the AMA album charts, been streamed millions of times on Spotify, and accorded the “Download of the Day” from Rolling Stone. Shine the Light On found shared songwriting credits with John Oates (the Oates of Hall & Oates fame), and when audiences expressed their admiration, it brought the band a populist cult following of diehard devotees, popularly known as “the Yarmy.”
It’s proof positive that the Brooklyn and Raleigh based band have made their mark, and in dealing with their emotions, scars and circumstances, they find themselves in a position to share those experiences with others who have juggled similar sentiments.

Adam Ezra Group
2024-11-14 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
Welcome to Adam Ezra Group, who, along with nonprofit organization RallySound, host a free festival every summer that raised $143,000 for homeless veterans in 2023. 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.
If you haven’t connected with Adam Ezra Group yet, these are just a few examples to help understand how this underground, Americana songwriter and his bandmates seem to have popped out of nowhere, establishing a connection with their fans unlike any other, and are suddenly selling out theaters throughout the Northeast.
Adam Ezra will joke with you that while the “nowhere” part might be accurate, nothing has ever just “popped” for this folk musician, activist. Without resources, connections, or any kind of clue how the music world works, Ezra began playing shows over 20 years ago. He played bars, bookstores, fields, and parking lots, often raising money for causes he cared about; a practice that grew into his nonprofit organization RallySound.
So how did this band operating so far outside the traditional music world come to win New England Music Award’s “Americana Act of the Year” in 2023? What could have happened to inspire John Oates to call Adam and invite him to begin a songwriting friendship that would lead to John producing their upcoming release and co-write, “Hold Each Other Now”? What happened to catch the attention of The Wallflowers, who recently invited AEG to join them on their spring tour, or SPIN Magazine who recently proclaimed, “This Independent Underground Folk Band Is Blowing Up Without Selling Out”?
If you ask Adam, he’ll tell you: “One person at a time, over many years and thousands of shows, decided to turn their heads to listen… It’s no fairytale, but it sure makes me proud and humbled when I look out from the stage to watch theaters full of people singing along to our music.”
These days you’ll find Adam and his bandmates, Corinna Smith (Fiddle), Poche Ponce (Bass), and Alex Martin (Percussion), constantly out on the road. If you look at their tour schedule now, you can buy tickets to see them at festivals, rock venues, and theaters around the country, but you will also see their tour continuously peppered with activism and grassroots events; a testament to an artist who will never forget where he came from, and whose mission is about much more than music.

Riders in the Sky
2024-11-15 20:00 - 23:00 | The Ark, 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States
For more than forty years, Riders In The Sky have been keepers of the flame passed on by the Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, reviving and revitalizing Western music. And while remaining true to the integrity of the genre, they have themselves become modern-day icons by branding it with their own legendary wacky humor and way-out Western wit, and all along encouraging buckaroos and buckarettes to live life “The Cowboy Way!”
Riders In The Sky are stars of the stage, screen, the Grand Ole Opry, National Public Radio, Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, Saturday morning TV, and are the only exclusively Western artist to have won a Grammy Award. They truly are “America’s Favorite Cowboys!
