Tag: Americana/Alt-Country

Jared Deck has been praised for his “powerful, beautiful voice” by Alejandro Escovedo. “The battle has always been internal, overcoming my own failures and working to improve,” he says. Raised on the dusty plains of an Oklahoma family farm, Jared worked in the fields as well as the town grocery, owned by his parents. “In a community of 1,200 people, big dreams seem impossible. We’re taught to manage expectations, put our nose down, and get to work.” Later he worked in an oilfield and a factory. During the Great Recession he got by with a job as a pianist in a Black church, where over the next six years, he received an unparalleled musical education. His songs tell stories in an honest voice of Midland America. “The American Dream” won first place in the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival Songwriting Competition. And on top of all this, he was recently elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Returning from Folk Festival, Jared has a recent release, “Bully Pulpit.”

The Talbott Brothers have earned a large and growing following for their songs consisting of down-to-earth messages that prove to be prevalent in today’s world. Originally from Imperial, Nebraska, they now call Portland, Oregon home. Billboard defines their music as “captivating with haunting brotherly harmonies.” Acoustic Selections from Ghost Talker is an EP of stripped down songs hand selected from Ghost Talker, the duo’s sophomore album. Rolling Stone named their latest single one of the ‘Top 10 Songs to Hear Now,’ defining their music as “cinematic folk-rock for open highways, widescreen skies and the limitless reach of the American Heartland.” We had The Talbott Brothers opening for Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies a few years back, and we enjoyed them so much we wanted to hear their full show.

Rachel Baiman’s 2017 label debut, “Shame,” was featured on NPR’s “Songs We Love,” called a “rootsy wake-up call” by Folk Alley, and described by Vice as “flipping off authority one song at a time.” She has toured for four years with 10 String Symphony and played fiddle for other musicians, including Kacey Musgraves. Raised in Chicago by a radical economist and a social worker, Baiman was surrounded by social justice issues her entire life. “If I wanted to rebel against my parents I could have become a finance banker or a corporate lawyer” she says of her childhood, and her music has a feminist social and political emphasis. Rachel comes to Michigan with a recent album, “Cycles,” that was recorded in Australia and inspired by Melbourne’s grunge scene.

Mary Gauthier’s 11th album, her first in over eight years consisting of all her own songs, “Dark Enough to See the Stars” follows the profound “Rifles & Rosary Beads,” her 2018 collaborative work with wounded Iraq war veterans. That album garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, as well as a nomination for Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association. Publication of her first book, the illuminating Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, in 2021, brought Marty more praise. Brandi Carlile has said, “Mary’s songwriting speaks to the tender aspects of our humanness. We need her voice in times like these more than we ever have.” The Associated Press called Mary “one of the best songwriters of her generation.” Mary Gauthier didn’t start writing songs until she was 35 and had moved from her native Louisiana to become a chef in Boston. Her music has been recorded by dozens of artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Dolly Parton, Boy George, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Bettye Lavette, Mike Farris, Kathy Mattea, Bobby Bare, Amy Helm and Candi Staton, and has appeared extensively in film and television, most recently on HBO TV’s Yellowstone. Michigan’s own Chris Buhalis is special guest.

There’s something uniquely fun about Amy LaVere, even when she’s breaking your heart. She is well known among songwriters and critics alike. NPR’s Robert Siegel says she “specializes in lyrics that are more barbed than her sweet soprano prepares you for.” Her growing catalog of material and steady critical acclaim suggest a first-tier presence on the Americana and indie-folk/punk circuits. Amy’s live performances are anything but predictable. She might appear on stage with a full band, sporting a mask and pink wig, or simply be in blue jeans and sandals, but her upright bass and clever song delivery are constants. Her voice is at once the bully and the victim. She’s performed in venues as wide-ranging as St. Andrew’s Hall in London and Memphis’ famed dive bar Earnestine and Hazel’s. There’s no room she can’t find an audience in and charm it to pieces. Tonight LaVere is joined by her guitarist (and husband since 2014), Will Sexton, an Austinite who has worked with Steve Stills, Roky Erickson, and Waylon Jennings.