The Ark/Bank of Ann Arbor Present Friday Night Folk Jan. 27

Night One of the 46^th Ann Arbor Folk Fest

WHAT: Presented by The Ark and Bank of Ann Arbor, the 46th Ann Arbor Folk Festival is a fund-raiser for The Ark, Ann Arbor’s non-profit home for folk, roots, and ethnic music. Night one of this year’s Folk Fest features four fantastic multi-instrumentalists together on the Ark stage in an in-the-round performance.  Dubbed “BanjoFest”, the evening will highlight the instrument as the artists trade songs and stories. VALERIE JUNE headlines night one and is joined by her own specially curated lineup of phenomenal women musicians: THAO, YASMIN WILLIAMS and Michigan’s own RACHAEL DAVIS.

WHEN: Friday, January 27, 2023, 8 PM

Friday Night Folk: BanjoFest

WHERE: The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor

 *program subject to change

Get ready to Find Your Folk!  The Ann Arbor Folk 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 for more about our Friday Night Folk lineup, and follow The Ark on all our social media channels for music, video, artist info and updates. More info, including the lineup and ticket information for Night Two which takes place at Hill Auditorium, at www.theark.org.

Tickets for Friday Night Folk: BanjoFest – Night One of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival – are priced at $250 for Platinum Circle seats within the first 4 rows front and center, $120 for Gold Circle in the drink rail areas, and $45 for general admission. Tickets are on sale to the public on Friday, December 16 at 10am.  Purchase tickets online or by phone at 734-763-8587. All funds raised through the Festival benefit The Ark.

Lineup: Friday, January 27, 2023, 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, author, certified yoga and mindfulness meditation instructor, 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.

THAO

Thao is a veteran artist, songwriter, touring musician, and producer. Her latest album, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s “Temple,” was released in May of 2020 on Ribbon Music. Her music is influenced by folk, country, and hip hop, and it has a strong activist streak. Based in Oakland, California, after growing up in Falls Church, Virginia, Thao Nguyen first picked up a guitar at age 12. She has worked with a long list of acclaimed artists including Andrew Bird, Mirah, Laura Veirs and producer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens). Thao has toured the U.S. with the nationally syndicated NPR program “Radiolab.” Says The New York Times: “Ms. Nguyen’s voice, wobbly and rich, is engaging, and her gently confessional lyrics … are equally beguiling.” And Spin calls Thao’s single “Holy Roller” “a lusty yet flighty song…an intricate, enigmatically charming creation.” Thao has a fresh sound that NPR calls “insanely infectious,” and though we’ve heard her at The Ark with her band, The Get Down Stay Down, the 2023 Folk Festival will mark her solo Ann Arbor debut.

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.

YASMIN WILLIAMS

Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Yasmin Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and banjoist with an unorthodox, modern style of playing. She utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. Her “radiant sound and adventitious origins have made her a key figure in a diverse dawn for the solo guitar” (The New York Times). Williams’s music has been described as rich, harmonious, and “in a lot of ways, the joy and possibility she brings to the guitar reminds me more of Eddie Van Halen than any of the other fingerstyle guitarists to whom she’s compared” (NPR Music). While in high school in 2012, Jasmin released her first EP, “Serendipity,” which she recorded and mixed herself. Her first album, “Unwind,” charted highly on several Amazon and iTunes charts, including No. 1 on the iTunes‘s Folk chart. Her latest album, “Urban Driftwood,” has received critical acclaim from numerous major publications including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, NPR Music, The Fader, The Wall Street Journal, AllMusic, Paste Magazine, No Depression, and several other outlets.

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.