Fri Jan 7 Peter Mayer. Singer-songwriter from Minnesota, very highly
regarded. Recommended to me by Jan Krist.
Fri Feb 4 Will Danforth. Michigan down-homey-but-topical singer-
songwriter. Sharp originals and a love for
the traditional.
Fri Mar 3 Chuck Brodsky. Chuck's songs range from the eloquent and
touching to the downright hilarious. His
silky and expressive voice is a pleasure.
Fri Mar 24 Brian Lillie and the
Squirrel Mountain Orchestra. Local funsters perform an
eclectic range of folk/pop
originals.
Fri Apr 14 Matt Watroba
and Jan Krist. Matt is a beloved performer of contemporary
and traditional folk. His WDET radio show
"Folks Like Us" reflects his love of the genre.
Jan Krist writes great songs and has an engaging
natural voice with the occasional twang and
yodel!
Fri May 19 Dick Siegel. Ann Arbor's own folk/blues icon. Crafter of
"Angelo's" and "What Would Brand Do?".
All shows start at 8 pm. Opening acts, if applicable, TBA.
Food and drink is available.
Green Wood is a great place to hear acoustic music in an intimate setting.
1001 Green Rd, S of Plymouth Rd and just north of Glazier Way, Ann Arbor.
Phone 734-665-8558.
31 responses total.
Is Will Danforth any relation to Percy Danforth?
He's never mentioned it.
Okay, I have a question. On New Year's Day I was listening to random radio while on the computer, didn't feel like pop or anything and didn't have a CD player in range, so I ended up on a folk program where they were listening to and talking with Christine Lavin, and some other guy whose first name was Andrew. I realized a few hours after I had turned the radio off that I really liked some of the stuff the Andrew guy played (I enjoy some of Christine's stuff, but it has never been enough that I have been inspired to buy an album). I think it may have been that "Folks Like Us" program Katie mentioned above. Or maybe Anna is just paying word association. The Andrew guy had these songs about teenagers growing up and leaving, and this other song called "Just one Angel". Andrew had laryngitis that day. Anyone know this Andrew guy's last name so I could maybe buy an album?
I'll throw out a guess for Andrew Calhoun. Look at http://waterbug.com/calhoun.html , there are some sound clips there.
Nope, it was Andrew Ratshins. You can't find him under his name. You'll find him as "Electric Bonsai Band" (solo effort) and "Uncle Bonsai" (his former group, reunited last year for one album).
Darn, that would have been my other guess. :)
Definitely Andrew Ratshin... His song about teenage angst is on the "Under the Radar" album that Lavin was supposed to release soon. (I have a copy, but haven't seen it in stores... man, it's fascinating getting things from the agents. Grin.)
Re #3: That was indeed Matt Watroba's program "Folks Like Us" you were hearing (on WDET, 101.9). If you surf over to www.wdet-fm.org (I think, can't check right now) you may even find the notes on the program. I was shopping for electronics for my mother during Matt's program, so I missed most of it. What I caught was excellent! If you find any new CD's from your search, please review them for us.
Okay, I will. Thing is, in the past I have found good folk music to be hard to find... not the artists, finding their CDs in stores, finding someone in the store who has heard of them. And I hear (but I don't know because I never go downtown anymore) that Schoolkids is gone, so that takes away the only source I ever had. I own one folk CD at the moment. Fred Small's "I Will Stand Fast". It was on the mellow side for me at the time (I was 14, I think), and I never really got into it. Right now its at school... I may pull it out one of these days. There are probably some great CD stores in East Lansing if I ever mke it out of my little world to go look. Thanks for the help! I figured I'd never know who that was...
Up at Michigan State, you can find a few folk CDs at Flat Black and Circular and Wazoo, and maybe even at Tower; but what you really want to do is drive to downtown Lansing for Elderly Instruments, which is the largest dealer of discount folk CDs in the country.
www.elderly.com if you want to browse Elderly's online catalog of CDs, which is pretty good and which is regularly updated. And Grex's reporting on the demise of the Schoolkids Records you knew is in item:149 & item:154.
(Sigh. I forgot this was a linked item. item:music,149 & item:music,1 54 .)
And Borders has a decent selection of folk, at least here in A2. The Downtown store, I hasten to add! Of course, I have been very bad and have bought a lot of my stuff online in the last year -- there are some Really Good folk stores out there which I tend to obsess over. (I haven't been to Schoolkids in Exile much, simply because those stairs are a Killer! Why it has to be down some nasty stairs is beyond me.)
For folk CDs, check out Collected Works on Main Street. The owner recently reduced the number of offerings because she wanted to be able to talk about them to her customers. She had had some she didn't know anything about.
I'll second that the selection at Borders Downtown Ann Arbor
is great to browse through. I'll also second the Lansing Elderly
Instruments Folk selection. They may even have the staff that can
lead you in 'If you like Christine Lavin, you may also like ....'
type of selections.
I would recommend:
Haute Chenile - The Chenile Sisters. from Ann Arbor, a
greatest hits package, good mix of humor and serious.
Several covers of other artists--if you like the tune
look up the songwriter later.
The Naked Truth - Joel Mabus. Originally from Lansing, now
in the KZoo area. About 10 years old now, a reissue
to CD that takes a concert performance and shows the
wide variety of material Joel can do.
The Essential Bonsai - Uncle Bonsai. A greatest hits package
of Andrews band--he's the one with the high voice.
They hail from Seattle.
All should be at Borders or Eldery, in store or on-line.
The music at Collected Works is actually Schoolkids in Exile. There is also a Schoolkids in Exile underneath Bivouac. Steve Bergmann will order any CD you want, and it usually come sin within 48 hrs.
Back to the Item Subject: Show just added! Sara Hickman, Fri, Mar 17. Sara's a great vocalist, song- writer, and interpreter. And tons of fun.
Where on Main Street is collected works? <apologizes to Katie for drift>
Across from the Ark.
<declares total ignorance> That doesn't help me any. I've only heard of the Ark.
(Do you know where Main St is? Downtown?)
(The Ark is on the west side of Main Street, between Liberty and William.)
Okay, cool. yes, I lived in the city for 18 straight years, and know wehre absolutely NOTHING is.
Hmmm. That's interesting... given that I know where every book store and record store (interesting to me) are and have since the first week I moved here, twelve years ago! How can you not know where the best places to score music/books/clothes are if you live in a town? ... just curious...
I grew up being rather apathetic about directions because I was always being taken everywhere. When I got my driver's lisence I remember having to ask my dad for directions to Meijer's because I honestly had no idea how to get there. I'm slightly better now, but I usually need to get directions to a place several times before I remember them. I also did bad in geometry. I'm sure these things are somehow related.
Well, I *don't* drive, but as long as I can walk there from the office, I'm cool... Grin.
Andrew Ratshin is neat. Other folk singers I'd recommend include Ellis Paul and Vance Gilbert, and... um... several others who don't come to mind at the moment. I got to see Gilbert in concert last week; can't help respecting a man who can write songs about both the Icarus/Daedalus myth and "Gilligan's Island." This is off-topic (my apologies, but all I can say about the performance lineup is that I'm cranky I don't live in Ann Arbor anymore ;)), but most of the folk music I'm familiar with is quite contemporary. What older albums (Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Janis Ian, Joni Mitchell, etc.) would people recommend to educate me on this matter?
I didn't mean to completely ignore swa's query, really; I figured some of the singer-songwriter fans might pick it up. As we were mentioning Andrew Ratshin above: I've just seen a posting from his record company on Usenet which claims that Uncle Bonsai will performing at The Ark in Ann Arbor on May 20. http://www.yellowtailrecords.com for more information, the posting says.
More upcoming Green Wood artists, for whom the dates are not yet set in stone: Mary McCaslin, Brooks Williams, Peter Mayer (returning by popular demand!), and Melanie (to be held in a larger venue). Come on out this Friday for the Will Danforth show!
Gotta come to the Peter Mayer show. Darn, but he's GREAT!
Re 28: Perfectly all right. I mean, hey, I haven't yet gotten in the habit of frequenting the music conference. Or even infrequenting it, really...
You have several choices: