Caller: Carol Steiner
Band: Banjo Tramps

Two performers with deep Michigan roots combine to share songs and stories, and to celebrate the Ten Pound Fiddle's 50th season! Claudia has given over twenty Fiddle shows, as a soloist, with Sally Rogers for over ten Mother's Day weekend concerts, and as a song leader at the Mid-Winter Singing Festival. Rachael is right behind, either performing solo, as one third of the Sweet Water Warblers, or as part of the Mid-Winter Singing Festival. The Fiddle is billing this show: Two Voices: One Terrific Night of Music

Our first Fiddle Scouts meeting of the 50th season will feature Rachael Davis! Stay tuned for more info.

Each year, as May Erlewine travels farther and wider, sharing her poetic music with the world, she has not forgotten her Michigan roots. Now an annual event, May's solo show at the Ten Pound Fiddle is more of a Fall Homecoming when May shares new songs and stories with her many friends and fans.

Birthday Dance for Abby Schwartz and Hanno Meingast
Caller: Darlene Underwood
Band: Big Fun

"It's hard to imagine another artist on the folk scene who combines the same concise, deceptively understated, lyrical insight and sometimes devastating wit with such world-class instrumental prowess." -MUSICHOUND FOLK

What happens when some of the finest singers and musicians in West Michigan gather with two of Michigan's beloved harmonica virtuosos? Come see for yourself! Winners of the 2024 WYCE Jammie Award for 'Best Blues & Soul Album' for Faith in Love, The Schrock Brothers - Jasen, Andrew, and Papa Mark bring together Peter Madcat Ruth and Andy Wilson on harmonicas, well-known percussionist Mike Shimmin and dobro master Joe Wilson for a night of high-energy original and traditional blues, soul, and Americana tunes.

Caller: Laurie Pietravalle
Band: Purple Martins

Co-produced with the Women in the Arts Festival. Who is crashing the Americana music charts with her New Orleans-based brand of soulful, real music?

Joy Clark's songcraft, paired with sophisticated progressions, and themes of freedom, love and self-acceptance gained her notice on the national folk and Americana scenes just a few years ago with appearances at Americanafest. She caught the attention of Grammy-winner Allison Russell and was offered a regular spot in her backing band The Rainbow Coalition, earning her the chance to jam with superstars Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls. Talking to The Tennessean, Russell described Joy as a "a brilliant artist, writer and singer."

Co-produced with the Women in the Arts Festival. Activist, collaborator, singer, songwriter, song leader, artist, and teacher, Holly Near continues to wear many hats. Well known to Ten Pound Fiddle and Michigan Womyn's Music Festival fans, Holly's stop at Greater Lansing's Women in the Arts Festival is a sort of homecoming - the home of Goldenrod Music, the current music distributor of Holly's music and that of countless other womyn artists, and home to a cultural festival which has celebrated women artists for almost 40 years. This year Holly will provide an evening of a cappella song and storytelling.

Co-Production with Peace Education Center's Annual Alternative Holiday Sale. A veteran song leader at the Ten Pound Fiddle's annual Mid-Winter Singing Festival, Reggie Harris has devoted his life to teaching, singing and sharing the songs of freedom and acceptance. HIs solo concerts are filled with haunting melodies, poignant stories, and familiar songs where everyone can join in.

"Reggie Harris is part of the solution. His marvelous music, his hard-earned wisdom, and his loving presence lift up any room he enters. Reggie reaches across all boundaries and makes strangers into friends. Give yourself and your community the gift of a transformative visit with Reggie Harris. ,Rabbi Jonathan Kligler, Teacher, Leader, Musician, Lev Shalem Institute, Woodstock, NY

Caller: Rick Szumski
Band: Tana and the Tall Boys

Fresh from touring with Our Native Daughters (Rhiannon Giddens, Allison Russell, and Leyla McCalla), opening for Brandi Carlile, playing The Grand Ole Opery, and receiving a Grammy nomination ("Black Myself"), Amythyst Kiah returns to Lansing for one very intimate solo show. Over the last six years, Fiddle audiences have twice experienced her immense musical talent. Don't miss this opportunity to hear this rising star in an intimate setting. (Tickets will go quickly.)

Robin and Linda Williams return to the Fiddle after a (too) long absence. A powerhouse acoustic duo for decades, they became household names as frequent guests on A Prairie Home Companion. Now, they spend time at home in Virginia, writing music, and touring 1-2 long weekends a month.

Caller: Martha Vanderkolk
Band: The Curb Climbers (Midwest) (Mike Ross, John Hatton, Sam Herman)

Do you love to sing holiday music? Would it be too much fun to sing along with terrific pianist Doug Austin as he rolls the keys on a huge grand piano? Have you ever experienced an expert play gorgeous holiday music on the hammered dulcimer (Doug Berch)? During a few singing breaks, Greater Lansing Poet Laureate Ruelaine Stokes will recite a few spoken word pieces. You are invited to join song leader Sally Potter and sing wonderful songs with your community, all evening long. Lyric sheets provided.

Caller: River Abel
Band: Pimento Mori

Chicago Caller Moose Flores
Band: the Banjo Tramps

Caller: Maeve Devlin
Band: Pimento Mori

2024 Michigan Heritage Award winner Kitty Donohoe returns to the Fiddle for a special 3 pm Sunday afternoon show. Children's book author, songwriter, singer, guitarist, pianist, storyteller and Ireland tour leader (Inishfree Tours), Kitty is a modern-day renaissance woman. Did you know that when she raised her two kids in East Lansing, Kitty was the booking manager for the Ten Pound Fiddle? Kitty has deep roots in Greater Lansing and the Ten Pound Fiddle community. In a sense, this show is a 'Welcome Home.'

Caller: Renn Eisenhauer
Band: TBD

What happens when a Venezuelan harpist starts playing music with an award-winning bluegrass artist? Absolute magic! Come hear one of the hottest new acts on the folk music circuit. (Yes, there is a circuit, with a several hundred venues.)

"The headline for this duo is the odd couple pairing of two master musicians. On one hand, you have GRAMMY nominated artist Joe Troop, a brilliant musician and songwriter, staunch political activist, and one of the first openly queer voices in bluegrass. On the other hand, you have Venezuelan harpist Larry Bellorín, an asylum seeker and former construction worker whose rough hands fly impossibly delicately across the strings of his harp. But what's really astounding with this duo is the precision and boldness of their craft. Working with jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, they took two very different worlds, bluegrass and Venezuelan llanera music, and built a new musical language to unite them. Their virtuosity is jaw dropping live; they were easily the best music I saw at the Folk Alliance International conference earlier this year. But more than that, they both take great, transcendent joy in making this music together, and that kind of joy is contagious." - Folk Alley

The Fiddle is very excited to host 'The American Songster,' Dom Flemons, multi-instrumentalist, singer, historian and storyteller of all things acoustic folk music. Flemons won a Grammy as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and has received a Grammy nomination for one of his solo recordings. Now based in Chicago, Flemons has performed in countless venues all over the world. We are delighted he will make the trip around the lake to share his music and adventures with the Fiddle.

From the Twin Cities, 'The Piano Man,' Dan Chouinard will help celebrate the Ten Pound Fiddle's 50th season, and the 21st Mid-Winter Singing Festival. An incredible musician and favorite Singing Festival song leader, Chouinard chooses songs from all genres of the Great American Songbook, adding accompaniment on the grand piano or accordion. Lyric booklets provided. So, sit back, relax, sing any part you dream up, and make a gorgeous sound with hundreds of other voices, all led by one of the best, Dan Chouinard.

From 11 am - 3 pm, Saturday, Feb. 1, the Singing Festival will host a few singing workshops and a Community Sing. Details TBA.

Caller: Carol Steiner
Band: TBD

Guy Davis is a two-time, back-to-back Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Blues, a musician, actor, author, and songwriter. Guy uses a blend of Roots, Blues, Folk, Rock, Rap, Spoken Word, and World Music to comment on, and address the frustrations of social injustice, touching on historical events, and common life struggles. His storytelling is sometimes painful, deep, and real, an earthy contrast to modern-day commercial music, meant to create thought, underlined by gentle tones from his guitar or banjo fingerpicking.

Lansing's Nic Gareiss travels the world both performing and teaching dance. Each season, Nic gathers very talented friends and plans a Michigan tour, making a Friday night stop at The Ten Pound Fiddle. This year, Nic and Old Time musician Jake Blount and hammered dulcimer player Simon Chrisman will combine their sound and talent to present a night of exceptional performance pieces.

Caller: River Abel
Band: Banjo Tramps

The queen of on-stage, impromptu comedy returns to the Fiddle, sharing clever, funny tunes with her long-time fans. This special Sunday (3 pm) show allows for more people to spend the day with Christine. Come early (1 pm) and enjoy a few stitches and plenty of conversation in Christine's all-comers knitting circle.

Bob Stein’s 90th Birthday Bash
2 - 5. English Country Dance
5-7 Potluck dinner
7-10 Contras and Squares
Caller: Gaye Fifer
ECD Band: Alchemy
CD Band: Sting Rays

One of the premier acoustic bands of Ireland, The Jeremiahs are just as adapt singing a classic Irish ballad as reving up with room with jigs and reels.

"Great songs, poignant, emotional vocals, masterful guitar and fiddle/flute conversations that work like fine embroidery, no wonder critics love them. You will too!" - Larry Groce, host of NPR Music's "Mountain Stage."

Over the last three years, Annie Capps has collected some of the Michigan's finest acoustic musicians and created a Super Group: The Badass Women Band. Fresh from a summer of festivals and a fall full of concerts, their top notch show includes 3-4 selections originating from each band member: Annie Capps, Annie Bacon, Sara Gibson, Anne Heaton, Carolyn Koebel, Cori Somers and Julianna Wilson

"This bluegrass band has the right formula: heavenly harmonies on top of furious fingerpicking, trucking down the highway at 200 mph" - Time Out, Chicago

Caller: Laurie Pietravalle
Band: Banjo Tramps

You are invited to spend actual St. Patrick's Day in a gorgeous room, Sleepwalker beverage in hand, singing Irish songs with song leaders Michael McConeghy, Abbey Hoffman, and Sally Potter. Lyric sheets provided.

Sara Pajunen was one half of a Finnish duo that stole people's musical hearts at a past East Lansing Great Lakes Folk Festival. Now based in Minneapolis, Sara has only enhanced her concert repertoire adding songs and commentary to her stunning Finnish fiddle pieces. Sara will share the stage with special guest and fellow Minnesotan, fiddler / pianist Frances Olson.

Bluegrass meets Celtic when JigJam starts to play.

"JigJam demonstrates a verve and versatility that allows them to transcend any singular style and simply create a sound that doesn't defer to any preconceived parameters. In that regard they are fully capable of conveying any number of truly tuneful treats" -BLUEGRASS TODAY

For the Ten Pound Fiddle's 50th Anniversary season, Sparky and Rhonda are the perfect act to highlight the roots of folk music. It has been too long since this duo has graced the Fiddle stage; the Fiddle is delighted that they can be part of this year's schedule.

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker deliver uplifting presentations of toe-tapping songs spiced with humor, history, and tall tales. Their music includes a variety of old-time blues, Appalachian music, slave songs, and spirituals as well as originals, and they accompany themselves with fingerstyle picking and bottleneck blues guitar, old-time banjo, blues harmonica, piano, spoons, and bones.

If you remember hearing sacred harp singing in the films "Cold Mountain" or "Behold the Earth," or the distinct sound of the lead vocalist of Cordelia's Dad, that is Tim Eriksen.

Tim Eriksen is acclaimed for transforming American tradition with his startling interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines hair-raising vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar and bajo sexto - a twelve string Mexican acoustic bass - creating a distinctive hardcore Americana sound.

Caller: Rick Szumski
Band: TBD

Who better to start off the Ten Pound Fiddle's 50th Anniversary weekend than the multi-talented writer, composer, singer and performer extraordinaire, Susan Werner! It has been too long since Susan has graced the Fiddle stage, sharing stirring and funny songs and stories playing the piano, guitar or just plain singing a cappella.

Susan Werner's Friday night concert will start off a busy 50th Anniversary weekend full of concerts, jams, and workshops - TBA. Stay tuned for the full schedule of Saturday, April 12 events (11 am - 10 pm).

When guitar phenom Elden Kelly lived in Lansing (has since moved to Memphis), he could be found jamming at local gigs with musician extraordinaire Andy Wilson. In the meantime, via electronic magic, the two have recorded a brand new CD and will celebrate its release with a Ten Pound Fiddle concert hosted by The Robin Theatre.

Caller: Maeve Devlin
Band: Pimento Mori

"75 Septembers," "Aces," "Driving Home," "Estate Sale," " If It Were Up To Me," "Gandhi / Buddha," "When Fall Comes To New England," are just a few of the Cheryl Wheeler songs now played and shared throughout the folk music world. Concert partner Kenny White adds some accompaniment and several beautiful selections of his own. Both artists are very funny.

The Fiddle will wrap up its 50th year with a party at Old Town Lansing's UrbanBeat. Planet D Nonet, Detroit's award-winning big band will make its way through the Great American Songbook, highlighting songs and tunes from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Burt Bacharach, Carole King and many more... UrbanBeat offers food and beverage service.

Caller: River Abel
Band: TBD

Spring Celebration
Caller: Gaye Fifer
Band: The Johns

Caller: TBD
Band: TBD