FRIDAY, MAY 09 - 8:00 PM - $5 - acoustic / singer-songwriter
Chicago, IL - Al Tauber was raised in Champaign, Illinois, inheriting Christian values from his mother, an appreciation for blazing guitar solos from his rock-listening older brother, and a soft spot for the undulating expanse of a cornfield from his surroundings. Andi Tauber's early musical upbringing was somewhat neglected without older siblings to counter the influence of her parents' Tom Jones and José Feliciano albums. Singing has always been a part of her life - as far back as she can remember, she made up harmony parts to sing along with her favorite recordings. Andi and Al began playing music together after their marriage in 1989. They played first in church, then at coffeehouses and events, then bars, clubs, used car dealerships - you get the picture - pretty much a downhill slide. Their career picked up in 1995 when they moved to Chicago, which remains their home to this day. They still play coffeehouses, and bars, but now "only your bigger, nicer, used car dealerships."
SATURDAY, MAY 10 - closed for private event
THURSDAY, MAY 15 - 7:30 PM - $5 - fingerstyle jazz guitar
Nashville, TN - As a professional musician working in a competitive industry, Tim Thompson has learned to play his strengths in more than one area of the business. Not only is he considered a guitar virtuoso and talented singer/songwriter, he's also a much sought after independent producer and session player. Thompson grew up in a musical family in Minnesota, where he began playing piano, then trombone, and eventually guitar. Ambitious and focused, he practiced and challenged himself and by age fourteen was playing guitar professionally. Tim placed 2nd at the prestigious International Fingerstyle Guitar Competition in Winfield Kansas in September 2007. He travels with his 12 year old son, Myles, who is a talented fiddle player and has accompanied his father on stage for the last 2 years. Tim has been written up in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine 3 times in the past two years. Tim can often be heard at Nashville's famed Bluebird Cafe playing his intricate and energetic fingerstyle interpretations of songs such as "Eleanor Rigby," and "The Flintstones" or delivering his original songs in his signature raspy voice.
FRIDAY, MAY 16 - 8:00 PM - $10/$8 adv - country / swing
double CD release with RACHAEL DAVIS
Lansing, MI - Toting an ample supply of vintage instruments and a sound that brings listeners back to the days of old-time radio, Steppin' In It is determined to make a dent in the roots community. Hailing from Lansing, Mich. -the heart of Factory Town, USA- these young men pound out their own brand of roots combining old-time country, swing and blues playing what Performing Songwriter Magazine calls "some of the liveliest and most rocking acoustic roots music around." Upright Bassist Dominic Suchyta and multi-instrumentalist brothers Andy & Joe Wilson compliment the strong songwriting talents of singer/songwriter Josh Davis, who's haunting vocals paint a picture of rural and urban Michigan breaking its blue-collar back under troubled times. This show is the West Michigan release of the band's new album, "Simple Tunes for Troubled Times."
Michigan songwriter and frequent Steppin' in It collaborator Rachael Davis was born in Lansing and grew up in Cadillac. What grabs you first about Rachael is the voice, with a bluesy richness that will make you pull off the road to listen. Add in the incisive songwriting on Rachael's new "Antebellum Queens" album, and you have a Michigan phenomenon. Says songwriter Susan Werner: "We don't have Eva Cassidy anymore, but we do have Rachael Davis."
SATURDAY, MAY 17 - 8:00 PM - $5 - acoustic rock / indie
with The Darts
and Brandenmann & the Congregation
Acoustic rock, blues, indie and soul from South Haven (Jake Simmons), Lansing (The Darts), and Kalamazoo (Brandenmann & the Congregation).
FRIDAY, MAY 23 - 8:00 PM - $5 - variety
ALPHABAND SOUP!
feature bands TBA
SATURDAY, MAY 24 - 8:00 PM - $5 - hip hop / rap
M.I. HIP HOP SERIES
presented by Northern Exposure Records
FRIDAY, MAY 30 - 8:00 PM - $7/$5 adv - gypsy / americana
"Highway Prayer" CD release
with Orpheum Bell
Winnipeg, MB - "Twilight Hotel is the hottest couple to join musical voices in years. The aptly titled band of two presents dark, road songs that sizzle on and seduce off stage. Two guitars or a guitar accompanied by accordion, two rich vocals, two composer-lyricists: Twilight Hotel fills a whole band's bill with only two members" (Folkwax). Twilight Hotel has teamed up with producer Colin Linden to record "Highway Prayer," the follow-up album to their critically acclaimed 2006 release, "Bethune," which was nominated Best Americana Album at the 2007 American Independent Music Awards. Highway Prayer continues the duo's provocative love story showcasing their characteristic dark twang and noir cabaret all centered around their rich vocal harmonies. Recorded in Nashville, Tenn., Highway Prayer features prolific guest musicians including the late Richard Bell (Janis Joplin, The Band), Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits), and Dave Roe (Johnny Cash). The 12 original songs run the gamut from the opening rockabilly jump manifesto, "Viva la Vinyl," the street busker feel of "Shadow of a Man," to the heartbreaking confessional closer "Sand in your Eyes." Their repertoire combines songs inspired by their off stage life together on the road and are informed by their uniquely Canadian sensibilities.
Ann Arbor, MI - From barroom stomps to sultry lounge numbers, from country ballads to gypsy waltzes, Orpheum Bell's unique "Country and Eastern" sound enlists accordion, banjo, guitar, fiddle, clarinet, saw, autoharp, and the double bass. The band's members have been performing together in and around their home town of Ann Arbor since early 2005 and, with the release of their debut album, "Pretty as You" (2007), are expanding their touring presence throughout Michigan and beyond.
SATURDAY, MAY 31 - closed for private event
MONDAY, JUNE 02 - 7:00 PM - $8 - indie / songwriter
An evening with.... Steve Poltz
San Diego, CA - He trick-or-treated at Liberace's house, planned a two-day stay in Amsterdam that ended a month later with him escaping the city under the cover of darkness, and was Bob Hope's favorite altar boy. Alone, these anecdotes go well with a fistful of peanuts at a cocktail party. But on top of all this, he also co-wrote the longest-running song on the Billboard Top 100 (Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me"), had a debut solo album that earned three and a half stars in Rolling Stone, and was awarded the title of "San Diego's Most Influential Artist of the Decade" at the San Diego Music Awards. What you end up with is one of the most engaging, twisted, and prolific songwriters of our time - Steve Poltz. Poltz has cultivated his reminiscences into a heartbreakingly gorgeous collection of songs for his new album, "Traveling." But Poltz is not just another golden-voiced honey dripper, belting out ballads for tender make-out moments. This is the same Steve Poltz who pioneered punk-folk music as the front man for The Rugburns, the San Diego-based band whose repertoire boasts a thunderous collection of fist-pumping anthems about cannibalism, football, and the peaks and valleys of the Epicurean life. Poltz even released an album called "Answering Machine," consisting entirely of 45-second songs that he recorded for his outgoing answering machine message. Fans all over the world have ordered copies faster than they can be printed, and Neil Young himself has remarked that he counts this among his favorite albums.
THURSDAY, JUNE 05 - 8:00 PM - $8/$6 adv - alt-country / indie
with Annie & Rod Capps
Knoxville, TN - "Like a good cry-and like the best country music-Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn's songs are all shuddering sighs, aching confessions and upturned hearts spilling out over layers of pedal steel, fiddle and acoustic guitar, delivered by two of the most disparately beautiful voices to ever meld" (Paste Magazine's "Top Albums of 2007"). The everybodyfields from Johnson City, Tenn., are rapidly gaining a reputation as the front-runners of the newest generation of the alt-country movement. Their melancholic interpretations of universal human stories are set to achingly beautiful melodies and put to life with such instrumentation as lap steel, lead guitar, electric bass, piano and acoustic guitar. The members cite their influences as country, rock and roll, and folk. Fronted by Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews, the two share instruments and seamlessly merge their wildly different voices. Quinn's echoing twang reverberates like a long-lost radio broadcast and provides a hard edge to Andrews pure, soothing tones. Straightforward and sure, the everybodyfields are more accessible to listeners than many modern musicians. Their sets' gentle humor combined with songs about real-life sorrows demonstrate an appreciation for tradition, while at the same time conjuring up something that is not, in fact, traditional at all.
FRIDAY, JUNE 06 - 8:00 PM - $5 - variety
Alphaband Soup!
featuring TBA
SATURDAY, JUNE 07 - closed for private event