With a career spanning decades and a dozen albums with Lowen & Navarro, Dan Navarro is currently on tour in support of his album, "Horizon Line." Dan’s music probes life at its most resonant. In his rich baritone, he sings songs of heart and insight, steeped in experience, soulful tales from a long road well-traveled. Attendance to this show is free for Ark Members at the Solo ($50) level and above!
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.
Special Guest: The Shootouts
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesFor over fifty years, Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson has been traversing the globe as an ambassador of Western swing music and introducing its irresistible sound to generation after generation. More than 100 musicians have passed through the Wheel, but Benson remains the front man and the keeper of the vision, in the process racking up more than 30 albums, ten Grammy awards and literally millions of miles on the road.
Sons of the Never Wrong is a turbo-charged Altfolk trio from Chicago that delivers witty, whimsical songs with their signature soaring vocal harmonies and gorgeous arrangements. Annie and Rod Capps have established themselves as well-respected songwriters, musicians and performers, with three albums topping the Folk Radio charts and as 2-time Kerrville New Folk Finalists. The Capps’ sound meets at the intersection of Americana & Folk drawing on rock, jazz, blues and bluegrass influences.
Vance Gilbert's performance on August 22 is being postponed while Vance recovers from cancer treatment. We look forward to having him back to The Ark when his voice returns. Tickets have been refunded from point of purchase.
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.
Once a year, Mark "Mr. B" Braun, Ann Arbor's own wizard of blues and boogie piano music, comes together with other top piano players from around southeastern Michigan and beyond. Call it a piano summit, or perhaps a meeting of the minds! Audiences in southeastern Michigan tend to think of Mr. B as a local hero, but in fact he's well known among fans and practitioners of blues and jazz piano music all over the country and around the world.
There’s something about the music of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys that cuts right through the noise of the world and speaks plainly to the soul. Formed in the Smoky Mountains, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys are at once exactly what you would expect and not at all what you would expect from a tattooed East Tennessee Bluegrass outfit. No strangers to hard work, the boys are as much at home riding in their 1965 GM Tour bus as they are crawling underneath to fix it when it needs maintenance. But they take pride in being ambassadors of their genre, and the group has brought their music from rural bluegrass festival stages to the rock clubs of Europe, with stunning results.
Just as the marbled salamanders emerge from under damp logs and leaves, the mushrooms—smooth, pearlescent ones and spongy morels—turn on like night lights glowing in the dark, and the long-horned beetles and regal moths begin buzzing. The fiddlehead ferns and trout lilies curl inward, a copperhead slowly swerves, and a fox steps into the moonlight looking for prey. It is here, in that restless middle of the night, under cover of darkness, where Caleb Caudle’s sixth studio LP Sweet Critters is nestled.
If World Music means the fusion of traditional, contemporary, jazz, classical and pop music, then Bensusan is one of the most eloquent World Music musicians of our time. A pianist in his beginnings then self-taught on the guitar, the originality of his style makes him one of today’s greatest guitarists and composers for the instrument. Also called “The Prince of DADGAD”, the Rose d'Or of the Montreux Festival, elected Best Guitarist of World Music by the readers of Guitar Player Magazine!
Born in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Anya Hinkle’s music is steeped in the tones of folk and bluegrass and seasoned by travels across the world with vivid storytelling, vibrant musicianship, and arresting honesty. Anya won the Merlefest Chris Austin song contest and was a finalist in the Hazel Dickens songwriting competition in 2019 for her song “Ballad of Zona Abston,” and was runner-up in the International Acoustic Music Awards in 2022 for “Hills of Swannanoa.”
Tyler Ramsey is a singer-songwriter and guitarist known for his evocative, genre-blending sound that fuses modern folk, rock, and alternative influences. Based outside of Asheville, North Carolina, Ramsey gained recognition as a key member of Band of Horses, contributing to their soaring indie-folk sound across three studio albums, each of which included Ramsey originals including Grammy-nominated "Infinite Arms" (2010). As a songwriter and guitarist, his intricate playing and introspective lyricism became a defining element of the band's music.
