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.
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.
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).
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.
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, Alison Brown, and many more. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
Opener: Jack Van Cleaf
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesKatie 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.
Opener: Dean Johnson
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesPortland, Oregon's Jeffrey Martin is a minister's son who can build a house with his bare hands. One night in middle school he stayed up under the covers with a flashlight and a DiscMan, listening to Reba McEntire's “That's the Night that the Lights Went Out in Georgia”' on repeat until the DiscMan ran out of batteries. That night he became a songwriter, although he didn't actually write a song until years later. Jeffrey writes music that probes the depths of the human experience and doesn't shy away from its darkest corners. We were introduced to Jeffrey at last summer’s Ark Art Fair stage, and we’re looking forward to hearing more!
Opener: Ani Mari
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesOver the past twenty years, Michigan-based Joshua Davis has honed an impressive range of skills – songwriter, bandleader, guitarist, and vocalist among them – in the most honest possible fashion: night after night, song after song, show after show Davis simply delivered every performance as though his life depended on it. Investing himself in the American musical diaspora, he has explored the common thread connecting folk, blues, jazz, ragtime, and country forms – discovering his personal perspective as a composer in the process.
Michigan Emmy-winning songwriter Kitty Donohoe, based in Ann Arbor, is celebrating more than 50 years as a performing singer-songwriter. She recently received the 2024 Michigan Heritage Award for her 30 plus years of entertaining audiences with her original songs about our state, as well as being named a finalist and Outstanding Achievement Award for three of her songs by the Great American Song Contest in 2022. Drawing from her Irish, Canadian and American roots, Kitty backs herself on guitar, cittern and piano to write songs that can be uplifting, thought-provoking, celebratory, moody, quirky, humorous and everything in between!