Dan Hazlett 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.
Joel Mabus sings and plays very traditionally, but listen closely: that timeless tune on his tongue may be one he's written himself, or it may be from two centuries ago. Raised on the low lonesome gospel of the southern Illinois river bottomlands, Joel comes by his folk music credentials through both birthright and hard-won scholarship across 50 years in Michigan and beyond. From mountain banjo to jazz guitar, topped off by vocals telling the whole truth, Joel Mabus and his 28 albums of bright music for dark times are your resource for soul regeneration.
It can seem odd to see Alex Teller in full color and not in sepia tones. The Lansing based troubadour's warm, lived in voice and guitar tones evoke a distant American past, and times not necessarily simpler but certainly less frenetic. Born in Florida, raised on Long Island, and having lived in both the frigid north and the arid southwest, Alex has a unique perspective on the American dream. Living is hard but always worth it in Alex Teller's songs, and love is right around the corner, hopefully bearing fresh baked biscuits.
Grace Theisen has learned to stop apologizing for being herself. She will take up a lot of space, in fact she will wear heels. Her name is pronounced "Tyson," but she is not going to change it to make your life easier. She will revel in the sweet dirty Americana rocky twang sound she has settled on, smiling sweetly while spitting barbed wire. Grace returned from Nashville to Kalamazoo, when most alt country artists go the other direction, and will lead her own revolution of melody from here. Come down to the river with Grace Theisen, wild woman, and be baptized in your own power.
John D. Lamb has a background in journalism, and what that has meant for his music is songs that read well, give up their message easily and relatably, and reach for an absolute truth. For over 30 years, John has hosted a songwriting retreat, where creativity is harnessed into craftsmanship over and over. From his days in raucous rock bands, John has taken the intensity and applied it to plainspoken folk rock, dealing with love, loss, addiction, and grace. John Lamb writes for himself first, but has certainly produced a varied and relatable body of work that anyone can get into and identify with. When you get to the roots....dig deeper and find what you need.
Steff Kayser is a student of humanity: darkness and light, humor and gravity, celebrating the wins and commiserating with the losses. With a well weathered voice and a nimble pair of hands on the guitar, Steff spells out what it means to be alive in a time of fire and ice. Ann Arbor has a wealth of talent, and since moving from Seattle, Steff Kayser has carved out a space all his own in which to pick, grin, and shine.
The Rebel Eves are a phenomenon that can't be manufactured, it can only be homegrown. Three women with their own thriving music careers have discovered that by banding together, they can reach new heights of relevance, creativity, and connection, breaking down barriers between where we are and where we need to go. Grace Theisen, Katie Pederson, and Jilian Linklater have voices, in the physical sense and the songwriting sense, that dovetail perfectly, forming an unbreakable bundle of indelible melodies and shivery harmonies that are the opposite of otherworldly: they ground the listener squarely in THIS world, in all the ways it's wonderful but needs to get better, because none of us are free and equal until all of us are free and equal. The motto is "connection over perfection," but the Therapy Elves (long story) are already well ahead of the game, with nowhere to go but up.
Like a lot of great musicians, Dana Cooper started out on a major label in the early 1970s. Unlike a lot of great musicians, Dana Cooper has put in the work to stay here in the real world with us for all these years, riding the rising and falling waves of the music industry to get the art to the people who need it. Through so many adventures in life and tunes, Dana has amassed an unparalleled sense of what we need to hear, a disarming blend of virtuosity and vulnerability delivered with undimmed eagerness and enthusiasm. Thought experiment: what if you had never heard of Willie Nelson or Lyle Lovett, and then suddenly they played in your town? You owe it to yourself to discover the troubadour tales of Dana Cooper.
Caroline Barlow has roots in North Carolina, and a childhood spent in France, but when it came time to make a life, northern Michigan was the place to settle down, a place to put down deep roots and let the fresh waters nurture the seeds she's sown, raising up bumper crops of American folk storytelling based in tradition but bound to no rules. An ever restless muse has her moving between solo work, the traditional folk of the North Carolines, and the boisterous Americana of Lucky 17. Somewhere in there, she finds the time to serve as artistic director and co-director of Blissfest, using her platform to lift up a raft of diverse voices, while always making sure to leave some time for her own voice to ring out and tell the stories that need telling. Caroline Barlow is a song miner, and her resources will never run out.
Haunted and haunting, the sound of Detroit singer-songwriter Audra Kubat is like none other. Audra has been bringing her keen and intelligent intensity, carved into songs like water wearing away canyon walls, to audiences for over 20 years. Educator, activist, composer from a young age, she projects a deep wisdom beneath moody, atmospheric melodies. This is music from the hidden places between our dreams and our realities. Audra Kubat summons the sensation of tuning in forbidden frequencies when you should be sleeping, or working, or doing something other than dreaming. But you must dream.
Psychedelic rock n roll confetti pie with twang rock and jelly roll, and that's only the beginning. Around in amorphous form since 2010, The Go Rounds are Drew Tyner, Sam Woldenburg, Charlie Millard, and Graham Parsons: the weirdest band you'll ever see people furiously dancing to, these high strung tone-warriors are here to make you feel/think/move/feel some more. Just when you think they're gone for outer space and never coming back, an achingly lovely melody, led by Parsons' astonishing vocal range, will emerge from the chaos. The Go Rounds must be experienced to be believed, and under the stars at a Michigan festival is the best way to do it.
Third Coast Swing has been playing the music of The late Belgium born Romani Gypsy, Django Reinhardt & his band, The Hot Club Of Paris 1930’-1940’s. Think Louis Armstrong with a French accent. Instrumental since 2020, the band has changed it up a bit and is currently touring with the Detroit native Dave Bennett, Violinist Grant Flick, Vocalist Ella Jury Jarvis & Pianist Andrew Henley. Ella and our guitarist Kaedin Plummer did a deep dive on early jazz classics by Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billy Holiday and then arranged these songs to fit Third Coast Swing's eclectic style. Dancing is not required, but highly encouraged.
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