WHAT:   The 46th Ann Arbor Folk Festival, a fund-raiser for The Ark, Ann Arbor’s non-profit home for folk, roots, and ethnic music. Presented by The Ark and Bank of Ann Arbor with support from the University of Michigan Center for Campus Involvement.

WHEN: Friday, January 27, 2023, 8 PM

Friday Night Folk: BanjoFest! at The Ark, 316 S. Main St, Ann Arbor

VALERIE JUNE headlines this in-the-round evening featuring her own specially curated lineup of phenomenal women banjo players, including Michigan’s own RACHAEL DAVIS.

Saturday, January 28, 2023, 6:30 PM

Saturday night at Hill Auditorium, 825 N University Ave, Ann Arbor

A lineup featuring exciting headliners and new Ark favorites to discover!

ANI DIFRANCO

1. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES

                        PATTY GRIFFIN

                        GINA CHAVEZ

                        OSHIMA BROTHERS

                        KYSHONA

                        JARED DECK BAND

                        PETER MULVEY with SISTASTRINGS, emcees

                        special guest appearance by PARKER MILLSAP

*program subject to change

Get ready to Find Your Folk!  The 46th annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival returns live in a slightly modified format after a two-year hiatus. Saturday night, January 28, will take place as usual in beautiful Hill Auditorium with a lineup you won’t want to miss. Friday, January 27 we’ve cooked up something on a smaller scale: an intimate, in-the-round evening at home in the 400-seat Ark!

The festival is the largest annual fundraiser for The Ark, Ann Arbor’s non-profit home for folk, roots, and ethnic music. Presented by The Ark and Bank of Ann Arbor, the 2023 Folk Fest brings two nights of music in two beloved venues. The festival delivers the full spectrum of “Ark music,” presenting a taste of what’s happening on the leading edge of acoustic music while delving into the very heart of folk and roots traditions.

Check out the information below to see how to Find Your Folk at the 46th Ann Arbor Folk Festival and follow The Ark on all our social media channels for music, video, artist info and updates. All funds raised through the Festival benefit The Ark. More info at www.theark.org.

ON-SALE INFORMATION FOR FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE ARK

Pre-sale: By Phone

Who’s eligible? Anyone purchasing Benefactor, Platinum or Gold Circle tickets for Saturday night at Hill may pre-order tickets for Friday night’s event at The Ark at that time.

November 28 through December 2, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily by phone @ 734-761-1800

PLATINUM CIRCLE

• $250
• The best seats in the house—within the first 4 rows on the floor

GOLD CIRCLE

• $120
• Reserved seating in drink rail areas—may be expanded beyond the usual area

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

• $45
• First-come, first served seating in remaining areas

Public On-sale: Online and By Phone

Friday, December 16 at 10:00 am

Who’s eligible? Anyone

• Same tickets and prices as during the Pre-sale above
• org/folk-festival or 734-763-8587
• MUTO ticketing fees apply

ON-SALE INFORMATION FOR SATURDAY NIGHT AT HILL

Benefactor, Platinum, and Gold Circle Tickets Pre-sale: By Phone

Who’s eligible? Anyone

November 28 through December 2, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily by phone @ 734-761-1800

$10 per order processing fee

BENEFACTORS CIRCLE

• $1,250 contribution includes an $840 tax-deductible contribution in support of The Ark
• 4 Platinum-level tickets to Saturday, January 28
• Personalized seat selection- Ark staff will work directly with you to select your seats
• An invitation to our Folk Festival Pre-Glow Party prior to Saturday’s program
• Parking pass
• A copy of the limited edition 2023 Ann Arbor Folk Festival poster
• A framed copy of a 2023 Ann Arbor Folk Festival photo
• Recognition in the Festival program
• An opportunity to include a quarter page message in the Festival program
• The opportunity to pre-order tickets for Friday night’s BanjoFest at The Ark

PLATINUM CIRCLE

• The best seats in the house—within the first 10 rows
• An invitation to our Folk Festival Pre-Glow Party prior to Saturday’s program
• Parking pass
• Recognition in the Festival program
• $250 per ticket for Saturday ($150/ticket is tax-deductible)
• The opportunity to pre-order tickets for Friday night’s BanjoFest at The Ark

GOLD CIRCLE

• Main floor seating
• Recognition in the Festival program
• $120 per ticket for Saturday ($50/ticket is tax-deductible)
• The opportunity to pre-order tickets for Friday night’s BanjoFest at The Ark

Member Pre-sale: Online and By Phone

December 7 & 8              online 10:00 am Wednesday through 10:00 pm Thursday

by phone 10:00 am – 6:00 pm daily @ 734-637-8587

MUTO ticketing fees apply

Who’s eligible? Ark members at the $20 Friend level and up

• Ability to select your seats at time of purchase
• $70 per ticket for Saturday; $47.50 per upper balcony ticket for Saturday
• Better seats than will be available during the public sale
• org/folk-festival or 734-763-8587

 Public On-sale: Online and By Phone

Friday, December 9 at 10:00 am

Who’s eligible? Anyone

• Same tickets, prices and fees as during the Member Pre-sale above
• org/folk-festival or 734-763-8587
• MUTO ticketing fees apply

Lineup: Friday, January 27, 8pm, The Ark

VALERIE JUNE

Valerie June is a Grammy-nominated artist from Tennessee who has brought new perspectives to the banjo. She’s been hailed by The New York Times as one of America’s “most intriguing, fully formed new talents.” A musician, singer, songwriter, poet, illustrator, actor, certified yoga and mindfulness meditation instructor, and author, she honorably served as a Turnaround artist working with students for the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities and continues serving through The Kennedy Center.  She has recorded three critically acclaimed, best-selling solo albums and has also written songs for legendary artists such as Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama. An Amazon #1 Best Seller in poetry, her first book, Maps for the Modern World, is a collection of lyrical poems and original illustrations about cultivating community, awareness, and harmony with our surroundings as we move fearlessly toward our dreams. When she’s not touring, she splits her time between Tennessee and New York.

RACHAEL DAVIS

Multi-instrumentalist Rachael Davis is as renowned for her expressive—and explosive—voice as she is for uniting the often-disparate worlds of folk, blues, country, and pop. Her clear tone and uncanny memory for just about every song she’s ever heard came early, and has served her well throughout her career. At eight she joined the family band Lake Effect, performing regularly at folk festivals throughout her home state of Michigan and around the U.S. “My slant on acoustic music can be explained by a mixed cassette tape that my father played during my early childhood while driving in our family’s Chevy Cavalier station wagon we nicknamed Iggy. On one side of the cassette was the soundtrack for the film “The Big Chill.” On the other was John Hartford’s ‘Aeroplane,'” Rachael says. She describes her music as “Motown-Banjo.” Recently Rachael has collaborated in the critically acclaimed Michigan supergroup The Sweetwater Warblers, with Lindsay Lou and May Erlewine.

Additional artists to be announced soon!

Lineup: Saturday, January 28, 6:30pm, Hill Auditorium

ANI DIFRANCO

 Widely considered a feminist icon, Grammy winner Ani DiFranco is the mother of the DIY movement, being one of the first artists to create her own record label, Righteous Babe, in 1990. While she has been known as the “Little Folksinger,” her music has embraced punk, funk, hip hop, jazz, soul, electronica and even more distant sounds. Her collaborators have included everyone from Utah Phillips to legendary R&B saxophonist Maceo Parker to Prince. She has shared stages with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Bon Iver, Brand Carlile, Billy Bragg, Michael Franti, Chuck D., and many more. Ani’s most recent albums include 2021’s “Revolutionary Love” and the July 2022 25th Anniversary Edition reissue of her iconic live album “Living In Clip.” Her memoir No Walls and the Recurring Dream was released in May 2019 by Viking Books, and was a New York Times Top 10 best seller. Ani’s lyrics are rhythmic and poetic, often autobiographical, and strongly political.

1. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES

 St. Paul and The Broken Bones is an eight-member soul band based in Birmingham, Alabama. The band is composed of Paul Janeway (vocals—he’s St. Paul), Browan Lollar (guitar), Jesse Phillips (bass), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keys), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Amari Ansari (saxophone), and Chad Fisher (trombone). Formed in 2012, this “Southern soul revival” band (Rolling Stone) has shared stages with The Rolling Stones, Lizzo, and The Black Pumas, and played renowned festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo and more. They caught the ear of Sir Elton John, and gave a riveting performance at his Oscar party. The band is a sonic powerhouse, delivering a genre-bending convergence of rock & roll, soul, R&B, psychedelia and funk. And the band’s latest, “The Alien Coast,” offers something completely new: it “strays far,” they say, “from the time-bending soul of past work like their 2014 debut, arriving at a convergence of soul and psychedelia, stoner metal, and funk.” “The title actually came from reading about the history of the Gulf of Mexico, which is home for us,” Paul Janeway notes. “When the settlers—or invaders, really—first came to the Gulf Coast they couldn’t figure out what it was, and started referring to it as the Alien Coast. That term really stuck with me, partly because it feels almost apocalyptic.”

PATTY GRIFFIN

Among the best pure songwriters of our era, Patty Griffin started out as a Maine native and a Boston coffeehouse sensation. She headed south to Austin, and her work combines Southern roots sounds and Northeastern poetry. Her elegant lyrics, bluesy alto vocals, and melodic guitar style aim directly at the deepest emotions of her listeners, and top artists on the country and acoustic side—like Emmylou Harris and even Kelly Clarkson—keep close tabs on what she’s up to. Emmylou says, “I would go anywhere, any time, to hear Patty Griffin sing her extraordinary songs.” Patty can rock a bit; she can sing straight gospel (and win a Best Traditional Gospel Grammy for it); she can do the sparest and most minimal kind of folk singer-songwriter performance. But what really distinguishes Patty Griffin is a body of deeply poetic songs, personal in unexpected ways. Her power lies in how, in the words of writer Holly Gleason, “her songs seem to freeze life and truth in amber.” Patty comes to Michigan with a new album, “Tape,” a collection of home recordings and unreleased demos that Americana Highways calls “a rare glimpse behind the curtain at an artist of consequential importance creating.”

GINA CHAVEZ

A multiethnic Latin pop songstress, Gina Chavez is a ten-time Austin Music Award winner. Her bilingual record “Up.Rooted” topped both the Amazon and Latin iTunes charts following a feature on NPR’s All Things Considered and has gained wide critical acclaim. Her Tiny Desk concert made NPR’s top 15 of the year. A recent cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, Gina offers passionate bilingual songs that take audiences on a journey through the Americas, blending the sounds and rhythms of the region with tension and grace. Her Spanish-language anthem “Siete-D” (Grand Prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest) recounts her experience volunteering in a gang-dominated suburb of San Salvador, where she co-founded the Niñas Arriba College Fund for young Latinas. Gina’s music is deeply personal, taking audiences on a journey to discover her Latin roots through music as she shares her story of life in Texas as a married, queer Catholic. She comes to the Folk Festival with her first all-Spanish album, the Latin Grammy–nominated “La que manda.”

OSHIMA BROTHERS

Maine-based indie duo Oshima Brothers have been creating music together since childhood. The brothers blend songs from the heart with blood harmonies to produce a “roots-based pop sound that is infectious.” (NPR) On stage, Sean and Jamie offer lush vocals, live looping, foot percussion, electric and acoustic guitars, vintage keyboard and bass – often all at once. They want every show to feel like a deep breath, a dance party and a sonic embrace. When not recording or touring Sean and Jamie say they find time to “film and produce their own music videos, tie their own shoes and cook elaborate feasts.” Maine Public Radio’s Sara Willis describes their songs as “beautiful, those brother harmonies can’t be beat. They are uplifting and, let’s face it, we need uplifting these days.”

KYSHONA

Kyshona, says No Depression, sings “protest music for a new generation.” Kyshona is an artist ignited by untold stories, and the capacity of those stories to thread connection in every community. With the background of a licensed music therapist, the curiosity of a writer, the patience of a friend, the vision of a social entrepreneur, the resolve of an activist, and the voice of a singer: Kyshona is unrelenting in her pursuit for the healing power of song. She lends her voice and music to those that feel they have been silenced or forgotten. She facilitates writing sessions with groups and individuals who feel left out or marginalized, in hopes of reconnecting those who are divided. After her powerful performances, concertgoers often ask, “What can I do?” Her response? “Listen.”

JARED DECK BAND

Jared Deck has been praised for his “powerful, beautiful voice” by Alejandro Escovedo, and Rolling Stone named him one of Ten New Artists You Need to Know. Jared takes life one fight at a time. “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. Jared has a recent release, “Bully Pulpit,” and he’s bringing a full band.

emcee

PETER MULVEY with SISTASTRINGS

Our MC, returning from the 2019 Folk Festival, is Peter Mulvey. To call him an acoustic singer-songwriter and guitarist just doesn’t cover it. He’s equally—and tremendously on all counts—gifted as a singer, writer, and guitarist. Says the Irish Examiner: “Peter Mulvey is one of the most accomplished guitarists you’re ever likely to hear … utterly original … it is nigh on impossible to explain him to the uninitiated … his intelligent and sometimes complex songs engage both hemispheres of the listener’s brain.” Peter grew up in Milwaukee, made his debut on the streets of Dublin, and moved to Boston, performing in subways and finally clubs. He has released 18 albums, and each one brings something new.

Lately Peter has been joined in shows by the Milwaukee-based sister duo SistaStrings, who combine their classical background with R&B and a touch of gospel influence that culminates for a vibey, lush sound. The Peter Mulvey–SistaStrings pairing have a great new album Love Is The Only Thing out now on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe record label. With thick, string harmonies between violin and cello and soulful voices, SistaStrings takes you on a journey. Formed in 2014 after Chauntee and Monique graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the sisters began doing string arrangements for local hip-hop artists, and the rest is history. SistaStrings has performed at Carnegie Hall and with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, with Malik Yusef, and they have opened for Black Violin, Bone Thugs ‘N Harmony, Lupe Fiasco, BJ The Chicago Kid, and The Roots; and they have toured with Brandi Carlile and Allison Russell. Outside of playing music venues, SistaStrings goes into schools and conducts assemblies, encouraging young people to pursue the arts and to not be afraid of hard work.

guest appearance by

PARKER MILLSAP

When The Ark first hosted Parker Millsap early in his career, Ann Powers of NPR had just called him “a star in the making.” She was right! Raised in small-town Purcell, Oklahoma, on Texas songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Parker started writing songs in his early teens. He developed a soulful sound and a gift for captivating live shows with character-driven narratives. Parker has toured with the likes of Jason Isbell and Lucinda Williams, and taken the stage at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, and the Newport Folk Fest. And in a particularly memorable turn of events, Parker joined singer/songwriter Sarah Jarosz for a 2016 show in Atlanta and drew raves from none other than Sir Elton John, who hailed the performance as “one of the best concerts I have ever seen” and noted that the night “restored my faith in music.” Now he’s on tour with our headliner, Patty Griffin, and he comes to Michigan with his fifth album, “Be Here Instead.”

About The Ark: Considered one of the top music clubs in the world, The Ark is renowned for the quality and breadth of its programming. The Ark is an intimate 400-seat club presenting performers who fall into the

wide-ranging genres of folk and roots music.  The Ark, now in its 57^th year, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the enrichment of the human spirit through the presentation, preservation and encouragement of folk, roots and ethnic music and related arts. The Ark provides a welcoming atmosphere for all people to listen to, learn about, perform and share music.  Visit theark.org for more information.

316 South Main Street • Ann Arbor, MI 48104 • (734) 761-1800 • www.theark.org