Live at The Ark: RFD Boys (Jan. 6); Yellow Room Gang (Jan. 7); Lily Talmers (Jan. 8)
THE RFD BOYS
Friday, January 6, 2023, 8pm
Tickets at the door: $11 ($10 members)
Still delivering great bluegrass!
Ann Arbor’s own RFD Boys last had a real retrospective at our 40th-anniversary Folk Festival, and on that occasion, it was brought home to everyone there how deeply this group of musicians has been woven into the musical life of Ann Arbor. Recently they celebrated their own 50th anniversary (with a new album, “Still Delivering,” no less!). It’s hard to believe, because each show is fresh and new, but the RFD Boys have been delighting Michigan audiences since 1969 with their fabulous musicianship and sly, exquisitely timed between-song humor. They’re legends of Michigan bluegrass, but they’re more than that. With an appearance on the cover of Bluegrass Unlimited, with songs recorded by the likes of the Country Gentlemen, and with performances alongside bluegrass greats like Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, the RFD Boys are a part of America’s bluegrass tradition.
https://www.rfdboys.com/
THE YELLOW ROOM GANG
Saturday, January 7, 2023, 8:00pm
Tickets: $20
“Superb music and great spirits”—Folkstage, WFMT Chicago
The Yellow Room is the “brilliantly yellow” living room of Tamulevich’s house on Ann Arbor’s Old West Side, where gang members meet monthly for musical brainstorming and mutual critique. Tonight’s show features all eight members of the gang: contemporary country-folk road warrior Annie Capps, Irish-American chanteuse Kitty Donohoe, four-time Detroit Music Award winner Jan Krist, Michael Hough and David Tamulevich of the “Music to Cure What Ails You” duo Mustard’s Retreat, “One Shining Moment” composer David Barrett, Jim Bizer (who wrote a song about a romance that began with someone falling off a 30-story building), and southeastern Michigan folk veteran Matt Watroba. Come and be a fly on the wall as the exchange of creative ideas flows freely! “To have any one of these songwriters perform at Trinity House is a real treat,” says promoter Bill Keith. “To have them perform together is unbelievable.” The Yellow Room Gang has been around for 15 years now, with all the members coming up with new music all the while.
http://yellowroomgang.com
LILY TALMERS w/support by JOHN CUSHING
Sunday, January 8, 2023, 7:30pm
Tickets: $20
Lyricism as wistful as it is cutting from a rising Michigan-born songwriter
Lily Talmers hopes her voice will lull you into Midwestern-accent-induced submission. A metro Detroit native who now resides in Brooklyn, New York, Lily released her second full-length album, “Hope is the Whore I Go To,” last July. A writer, musician, educator, lecturer and former Ann Arbor community member, Lily studied comparative literature, and ethnomusicology during her undergraduate years at the University of Michigan. She is a teacher during the spring at the University of Michigan’s New England Literature program, and has taught as a guest lecturer through the U-M’s Residential College and Performing Arts Technology Programs. With a voice described as ethereal, and lyricism as wistful as it is cutting, Lily credits the likes of Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Gillian Welch and Leonard Cohen for her beginnings as a songwriter, and various odds and ends for her development as a musician and instrumentalist. Her sound is rooted in the 60’s folk revival, with moments that reveal her broad fascination with music— the influence of Greek, Lusophone, and classical music all subtly swirl around in her melodies. Brooklyn singer and composer John Cushing provides support
