Ari Hest is a Grammy nominated indie folk singer/songwriter who built a fiercely loyal following through relentless touring over the past two decades. Mike Vial is a singer-songwriter and educator based in Ann Arbor. He won the Ypsilanti Songwriting Festival award in 2010 and the Blue Owl Songwriting award in 2014.
Aaron Jonah Lewis's Ragtime Banjo Revival thrills and delights audiences with fresh arrangements of classic, novelty, and British ragtime pieces for cello, banjo and guitar, plus blues and early jazz fiddle music, centering the contributions and influence of Black American composers. The group creates a relaxed and enlivening space to experience popular music of the past and to connect with a greater sense of our shared cultural history. With a curious and optimistic spirit, Ragtime Banjo Revival educates and inspires, welcoming the newcomer and cultivating respect across the lines of difference.
With more than a dozen albums and over a thousand shows between them, Ty Greenstein and Ingrid Elizabeth of Mouths of Babes are no strangers to the contemporary folk-Americana music scene. For years, their respective bands Girlyman and Coyote Grace captivated thousands of loyal fans as they crisscrossed the country, rocked festival main stages, and toured with the likes of Indigo Girls and Dar Williams. Now they have distilled the very best of the songwriting, musicianship, and humor of their previous groups into a power duo that brings more depth and style than ever before.
Shawn Phillips helped define folk-rock in the 1960s and progressive rock in the 1970s. He co-wrote a lot of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" LP, introduced the sitar to pop music, and sang on "Lovely Rita." Since then he's recorded more than 20 albums that draw organically on folk-rock, jazz, progressive, pop, and classical styles. Shawn was born in Texas, lived for a decade in Italy, and now works as a firefighter, EMT, and sea rescue specialist in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where he remains very much creatively active and issues new music from his home studio.
Kyshona lends her voice and music to those who feel silenced, forgotten or alone. She began her career as a music therapist, writing her first songs with patients -- students and inmates under her care. She became compelled to write independently and find her own voice, an endeavor which led her to the Nashville creative community and songwriting culture. Since then, she balances her music career with her passion to heal in community through her organization Your Song. Kyshona comes to The Ark with her new album, “Legacy,” which tells the story of her family’s journey.
Mike Massé is the new voice of classic rock. Don't miss this amazing show of Mike performing some of the best classic rock songs of all time acoustically: Toto, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles... His YouTube video views are in the millions, and he’s a unique talent. Mike Massé returns to Ann Arbor for this intimate evening of acoustic music. Mike is an internationally acclaimed artist whose arrangements are praised for their originality and emotional honesty. Legends of rock, including Toto, Boston, Sarah McLachlan, Asia, and others have expressed their love and gratitude for his renditions of their finest works.
Four-time GRAMMY Nominee Justin Roberts is one of the founders of the modern family music scene. For 25 years, Roberts has been creating the soundtrack to families’ lives, helping kids navigate the joys and sorrows of growing up, while inspiring parents to remember their own childhoods. His songs are the kind of get-stuck-in-your-head pop nuggets that draw comparisons to Elvis Costello, Fountains of Wayne, and Paul Simon rather than simple nursery rhymes, prompting USA Today to call him “hands-down the best songwriter in the genre.”
New York singer-songwriter, harpist and guitarist Lizzie No is one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary indie folk music. Her 2017 debut album, "Hard Won," was hailed as "simultaneously understated and fervent" by Billboard magazine. No's 2019 album, "Vanity", was a hit at college radio stations across the country, cracking the NACC Top Adds Chart. Rolling Stone called the first single, "Narcissus," a "crisp alt-rock gem" and a Song You Need To Know. Since then she's released a sophomore album and a surprise home-studio-made EP, and she's bringing a bold new album, "Halfsies," to The Ark.
The remarkable rise of BBC Radio 2 award winning trio The Trials of Cato on the UK folk-scene has been the subject of massive critical attention. Dubbed "the Sex Pistols of folk,” (J Davis) they pay clear homage to the tradition whilst twisting old bones into something febrile and modern, with stomping tunes and captivating stories.
Some traditions die hard; others just continue to survive despite all odds. The latter is the case with the Cadillac Cowboys. When the Country Volunteers first took the stage of Mr. Flood’s Party in Ann Arbor, back in 1974 no one ever knew what assortment of rag-tag volunteers would show up from one week to the next. Eventually, the lineup began to solidify into a regular outfit that came to be known as the Cadillac Cowboys and, 50 years later, here they are playing the western swing, boogie woogie, classic country and rock & roll that’s as comfortable as an old pair of cowboy boots. Amazing enough. But what’s more amazing is that the Cadillac Cowboys play their tunes with the same freshness, rawness, and energy that they brought to the stage in those early years.
Seth Bernard’s journey—from potent young Interlochen Center for the Arts idealist to iconic troubadour of the Great Lakes region—has been rooted in the woods and water, soil and soul of Michigan. Born on Earthwork Farm in Lake City on April Fools Day 1980, Bernard has been playing the trickster-bard ever since. Like a true old-school folkie, he writes and plays the songs because they mean something, and that something they mean drives a life beyond just playing songs.
Special Guest: Ken Pomeroy
The Ark 316 S. Main, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesTulsa-based John Moreland returns to The Ark with his new album, Birds in the Ceiling. A compelling blend of acoustic folk and avant-garde pop playfulness, Birds in the Ceiling lives confidently in a space of its own, enriched by tradition but never encumbered by it. The songwriting that has stunned fans and critics alike since 2015’s High on Tulsa Heat remains potent, while the sonic evolution that unfolds on the record feels like a natural expansion of 2020’s acclaimed LP5.