SCOTT COOK
Scott Cook (scottcook.net) sings sturdy, straight-talking songs that see the good in you. Born in West Virginia and raised on the Canadian prairies, in 2007 he quit a job teaching kindergarten in Taiwan to embark on the life of a full-time troubadour. Since then, he's toured incessantly across Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, averaging over a hundred shows and a dozen summer festivals a year, and distilling his experiences into empathetic, keenly observant verse. Amid all the bitterness and division in the world, these songs are an ongoing invitation to circle up around the fire. Scott Cook makes you feel like he's traveled the world just so he can look you in the eye and give you the stone truth.
SWEET DEE AND THE WILD HONEYS
You know the cover of the Byrds album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, with a fringed cowgirl ready to climb off the cardboard and into your living room? Well, Dee Foster could BE that woman, rip-roaring, ready to go, bucked off the bronc but ready to ride again. Dee has been playing honky-tonk music with various acts since 1997, including a celebrated five years with the well-remembered Midnight Cattle Callers. After a time of stepping back and raising her children, Dee has come galloping back out onto the scene, playing every corner of West Michigan and beyond in the past year with her new outfit, Sweet Dee and The Wild Honeys (sweetdeeandthewildhoneys.com), with a high lonesome new album to offer the folks. Members of the band include Dee Foster (guitar, lead vocals), Sallie Bacon (bass, background vocals), Drew Howard (electric guitar, pedal steel), and Andy Wilson (trumpet).
We are gonna have us a time, living, loving and corralling dreams.
I.AM.JAMES
Sierra Cassidy plays music under the name i.am.james (iamjamesmusic.com). There are reasons for the name, but she might or might not tell you. What she will definitely do is sing and play with the gentle intensity of a spring shower that could widen into a thunderstorm at any moment. Forged in rural Leelanau, tempered in New York City, this is heartache you can dance to, adult music that hasn't lost its adolescent freckles, a cool northern Michigan sunshower of sound.
MARK LAVENGOOD BAND
Mark Lavengood (marklavengood.com) is a reverse Cheshire cat: you see his grin coming at you first. The western Michigan roots revivalist surrounds himself with the best players, books himself shows in the coolest venues, and plays his dobro like his bright yellow pants are on fire. A longtime member of Lindsay Lou's band, now an instructor, a producer, an entrepreneur, even a ringmaster: Mark is flying solo without touching the ground,
Known for his soulful interpretation of John Prine's classics and his engaging stage presence, Lavengood and his talented band will honor the remarkable legacy of one of America’s most beloved troubadours. The band is dedicated to capturing the essence of John Prine’s music, performing a selection of his most cherished songs that resonate with audiences both old and new. With standout hits and deep cuts alike, fans can expect a performance filled with laughter, poignancy, and the timeless storytelling that Prine embodied.
Filling out the Mark Lavengood Band are Loren Kranz (drums, vocals), Justin Avdek (bass), Dutcher Snedeker (keyboards), and Jen Sygit (guitar, vocals).
MOLLY
Molly (mollymollymolly.bandcamp.com) has an intensity of purpose during performance that makes it hard to look anywhere else when she's singing. This intensity also feeds her playing, her activism, and her fierce love for her family, including husband Scott Schultz (guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion). Other members of Molly’s band are Mike Savina (guitar, vocals, percussion), Christian Van Duinen (bass, keyboards, vocals, percussion), David Ward (drums, percussion, vocals), and Dutcher Snedeker (keyboards). The band’s deep soul sound comes from years in the trenches playing for their lives. Molly and Scott are both longtime veterans of the Grand Rapids music scene, through such acts as Vox Vidorra, Blue Molly, and Happy Hour, and very soon Molly's debut solo album, with Scott backing her up in every way possible. New album, newish parents, and battles ahead both old and new: the Schultz family is fighting for themselves and all of us to have the lives we deserve. This will be a powerhouse set of music from a top-notch band, showing you a way to do joy and pain at the same time.
RED THYME
Folk music has been seeing quite a revival among folks born in the 21st century. The members of Red Thyme (redthy.me) are Hals Smedstad (vocals, guitar), Jeremiah Wenger (guitar), Austin Benzing (banjo), Tyler Littleton (mandolin), and guest fiddler Keala Venema.
These folks are young, but their music reaches back before the days of sensory overload to a sound that is out of time and yet terrifyingly relevant to those of us living on this rock hurtling through space. Marked by clear harmonies, sharp instrumental interplay, and natural chemistry, powered by both Bluegrass and modern acoustic techniques, Red Thyme meets you where you're at on the generational bridge and takes your hand to go forward together.
KAIT ROSE
Kait Rose (kaitlinrose.bandcamp.com) is always moving, always restlessly propelling herself toward the next sung note, the next strummed chord; if you tied her feet together, she might not be able to play. That kinetic energy plays itself out across her music, a kind of Americana with a spiked brontosaurus tail, a land of wanderers and homebodies and bad mothers and awe at the vastness of the universe. Never one thing, Kalamazoo's Kait also tours with a tribute to Fleetwood Mac, as well as the All American Funk Parade, and works an ever-growing horse farm. But Kait’s original tunes, introspective, haunting, and utterly original, keep you going back to the beginning of the album for one more spin.
Kait (vocals, guitar) will be joined on the Centennial Stage by Aaron Stinson (flute, sax).
SILVER CREEK REVIVAL
From the backroads of Northern Michigan, Silver Creek Revival (silvercreekrevival.com) is an American band founded on the idea that the songs come first: songs that are simple, profound and accessible. These two men and three women craft their songs with a unique approach using banjo, saxophone, lush harmonies, soaring lead guitar and an intuitive rhythm section. The songs, and the band, tell a story.
Silver Creek Revival is composed of Ashley Christopher (Vocals, Banjo), Hannah Woodruff (Saxophone, Bass, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals), Jack Jensen (Drums), Kim Baker (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Piano), and Kevin Paul (Lead Guitar, Vocals ).
STANLEY & QUIGGLE
From the banks of the Muskegon River, up around Big Rapids way, comes Stanley and Quiggle (stanleyandquiggle.com), a pair of young men who strongly evoke the folk duos of 60 years ago but still steer their own raft through the rocks. Swapping instruments and lead vocals, with almost sibling-pure harmonies, these fellows conjure ghosts with their methods, but clear out the cobwebs with their impassioned delivery. Owen Stanley and Jameson Quiggle have long lives of music making ahead of them, and they're off to a really good start.
BLUE WATER RAMBLERS
Every up north festival worth its salt has a roster that includes an old timey string band. Usually made up of old coots. Blue Water Ramblers (bluewaterramblers.com), in its 24th year of existence, has recruited several YOUNG coots to the mission of delivering high times, fast rhymes, and strings dancing in the moonlit night. Multigenerational, multitalented, and devoted to serious fun, the Blue Water Ramblers set the controls for the heart of the heartland.
The Blue Water Ramblers are: Bear Berends (guitar), Jim Foerch (banjo), Dan Lynn (bass), Nate Myers (mandolin), and Connor Meston (fiddle).
DAN HAZLETT
Dan Hazlett (danhazlett.com) has a lot of technical skills, as a producer, engineer, businessman, and writer, but he never loses sight of what it's all for: human connection, of both the heartfelt and humorous kind. With a lived-in voice, a delicate pair of hands on the guitar, and a pair of red high-top sneakers, Dan has been making audiences laugh, think, and feel for more than 30 years, across eight albums and thousands of miles. Whether for local folks or big shots, Dan Hazlett has a song for every season.
MICHELLE HELD
Michelle Held (michelleheld.com) doesn't know the answers. She doesn't pretend to. But she knows the questions. A deep well of compassion serves her humanist songwriting, which is always luminously optimistic but never naive. This Detroit native fell into songwriting by chance, not design, but a nationwide audience is listening. Between the weight of unspoken things and the desire to make sense of them, the songs of Michelle Held live.
ASPEN JACOBSEN
Aspen Jacobsen (aspenjacobsen.com) is very young, but by no means a newcomer, having polished her own spin on traditional music since childhood. A recent college graduate, Aspen is building on her studies and her apprenticeship under master song craftsman Bruce Ling by expanding the notion of what folk music can be. So fierce her album is named “Arsonist's Daughter,” Aspen Jacobsen is a Molotov cocktail in the punch bowl at the square dance. Traditions are important, but so is the freedom of a young female artist to move the art form into the new century.
KYLE JOE
Kyle Joe (kylejoemusic.com) is a quiet man, friendly but reserved, likely to hang around the edges grinning and puffing a smoke while shenanigans ensue. But then he opens his mouth to sing, and the most beautiful damn tenor voice you ever heard delivers you songs ripped straight from a wounded but hopeful heart. If life since the Big Rona has knocked you around more than a little bit, you will find a sympathetic fellow traveler in the grooves of these records. Having played under the name Chain of Lakes for over a decade, the newly christened Kyle Joe is stepping out with a guitar, probably a hat of some kind, and a passion for the unvarnished truth at all times, whatever that looks like.
Kyle's uncanny skills in internal rhyme have also led to a sideline in children's music, super fun and never talky-downy, under the name the Real Humdingers. Often accompanied by his children, the Humdingers will school you on yucks and yums and polka folks, among other burning topics. Check them out on the Third Stage Sunday morning.
BILLY KING
Billy King (billykingdom.com) writes, plays and sings good old solid American music. And it can never be denied that few things are better than well-crafted American songs, in the vein of Dylan, Mitchell or Simon. Sometimes catchy folk/rock, sometimes searing blues, but always direct and thoughtful lyrics: this is original music from an original life, fully accomplished yet humble, and most of all real. Billy King does right by himself and by us.
ELIZABETH LANDRY
Elizabeth Landry (elizabethlandrymusic.com) chooses to live and work in northern Michigan. But her music contains tantalizing elements from much further afield: Chicago blues, New Orleans jazz, Nashville swing ‘n twang. No two songs in a row have the same feeling; a Liz Landry album or show feels like a five-course meal. Just when you think you have it pegged as folk, along comes some Detroit smoke or Memphis heartache. Either alone or with her long-running trio, Elizabeth Landry will take you through the beautiful dungeon but get you home safe and sound.
MADDY RINGO
Maddy Ringo (maddyringo.com) came up busking on the streets of Toronto, an environment where you get good quickly or the people don't drop their money. Her 21st-century take on the folk of Guthrie and Dylan traveled with her to Ann Arbor, where she's been making a name for herself with her rich expressive vocals, skills on multiple instruments, and a distinctly contemporary take on fighting the prevailing despair of these days and finding the hope underneath. This is music for people who see the emperor has no clothes, then pick up a needle and thread.
JOHN SANGER
At first impression John Sanger (facebook.com/JohnSangerMusician?) seems like one of the guys, big friendly goatee, not necessarily an artsy type. And he has some big broad comedy songs in his repertoire. But then the guitar comes out, the lights come down, and before you know quite what happened there are tears in your eyes. John's songs about his life could be your life, or anyone's life, and if you live it right, you put as much love in as what you get back. John Sanger overcame a lot to be here today, and to share what happens when the storm passes but we're still here to deal with the aftermath.
RACHAEL DAVIS
Rachael Davis (rachaeldavis.com) is felt before she is seen, like a pressure drop or a disturbance in the force. The room suddenly gets jollier, filled with her uproarious laughter and exclamations of "HOLY CRAP!" that rain down like hailstorms of love. When she pauses from sharing stories about her beloved family or her adventurous life to sing, her deeply empathetic message resonates: this is music for healing, acknowledging darkness without letting it take over.
For over 30 years, from her family band in northern Michigan to the Boston music scene and now as a beloved Nashville fixture, Rachael has captivated audiences nationwide. Whether performing solo or with collaborators like the Sweet Water Warblers or her husband, bassist Dominic John Davis, her music weaves commanding melodies.
But it’s not all fun and games. Rachael is dedicated to her craft, showcasing near-operatic vocals, guitar skills, and a deep understanding of folk traditions while pushing them into fresh territories.
The world needs more Rachael Davis music, and she invites everyone to set aside their sorrows and celebrate the hilarious beauty of life. After all, life is short—laugh now!
FRANK YOUNGMAN
Frank Youngman is an educator. He can't help it. He may be retired now, but if there's something cool to show someone, to help play better or write better, or, you know, live a better life, listening to Frank is never a bad idea. A whole lot of your favorite musicians hold Frank in the highest regard, not that he will toot his own horn--unless you hand him an actual horn. He's living a life of genteel retirement with his wife Shelley, but he still gets the itch to perform, with the All Stars at Harvest, with Mark Schrock and Tom Ball as Youngman and Oldmen, and with the swingin' grooves of Jive at Five. Let's listen to Frank and pretend we're kids in class again.
