Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Singer Songwriters”
Pat Humphries lived in Lansing in the late 80s, a period when she penned many folk music community favorites. Since then, Pat and Sandy O. have been musical leaders in the peace and justice movement. “If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” – Emma Goldman
Fourty years ago, John won the prestigious New Folk Award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, and the rest is history. A part of the NYC New Folk Movement, John has been a fan favorite for years. The Fiddle welcomes John back to town.
Every 2-3 seasons, James stops by the Fiddle to share both new material and old classics. Yes, bassist extraordinaire David Woodhead will be along, too. On this Good Friday, the show will be at the Robin Theatre, Lansing.
Old Town’s UrbanBeat will give Lucy Kaplansky fans an opportunity to be up close and personal with one of folk music’s favorite singer songwriters. Food and beverage service available. Only 120 tickets are available.
Joy Clark dazzled folk music promoters at last October’s FARM (Folk Alliance Region Midwest) conference. Then, she stole hearts at last November’s Women in the Arts Festival. Now, she will team up with our own Kate Peterson to present a night full of skillful songs filled with deep sentiment.
Local fans may remember Jerron from his visits to East Lansing’s Great Lakes Folk Festival. He returns with fellow NYC all-around musician Dennis Lichtman to brilliantly present tunes and songs from the 1920s and beyond.
While Katie visited the Fiddle two years seasons ago, RJ and Hope are making their Fiddle debut. This show is a great opportunity to catch these three talented songwriters on their weekend tour of the Great Lakes states.
A veteran of many popular bands, including the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Hubby travels to East Lansing for a solo show filled with familiar songs and unique stories.
Garnet has been a fixture on the Fiddle schedule for long time. Billed as his ‘Last US Tour,’ be sure not to miss this chance to hear from one of Canada’s finest performers.
From 11 am – 9 pm, it will be your last opportunity to sift through thousands of classic folk, blues and Americana CDs and LPs, most for $1 each. All proceeds go to fund Fiddle Scouts, a program where musicians play music with children.
Lansing’s Twyla Birdsong has put together a program of favorites, entitled “Don’t Waste Time,” accompanied by some of Mid-Michigan’s finest musicians.
Windborne has taken traditional singing to a whole new level, combining four part a cappella with unique arrangements to present a dynamic range of material – from classic labor songs to haunting 17th century ballads. This is their fourth visit to the Fiddle.
Co-Production with Peace Education Center’s Annual Alternative Holiday Sale. Fiddle fans may recognize Chris Walz when Weavermania led songs at a Mid-Winter Singing Festival, or when the Fiddle featured the Chicago-based bluegrass quartet Special Consensus. Since then, his recent solo album has topped the folk music charts. It is time for the Fiddle to feature the talent of Chris Walz.
The next generation of Old-Time Music is safe in the very capable hands of Amy Lou Keeler and Lisa Maria from Halifax, NS. Winners of the Canadian Folk Music Award for Ensemble of the Year, Mama’s Broke will be hosted by Elderly Instruments for a special mid-week Ten Pound Fiddle production.
It has been too long since the Fiddle has hosted The Mammals, one of the most popular groups on the folk music circuit. Led by Ruth Ungar, daughter of Jay Ungar (“Ashokan Farewell”) and singer Lyn Hardy, and her husband, Mike Merenda, The Mammals are indie-roots trailblazers, offering high-octane Americana – from rafter-raising anthems to hear-a-pin-drop balladry. They’ll be on tour across the US supporting their long-awaited new double album Touch Grass Vol 1 & 2.
Every fall, May travels downstate to share her warmth and songs with Fiddle audiences. This annual homecoming fills the packed house with community, connection and love.
The Paul McKenna Band is a staple of Scottish folk music. This show is mid-week stop on a rare solo tour by one of Scotland’s biggest voices. Think Martin Sexton, or Stan Rogers. Great songs sung by a clear, strong, engaging voice. This is Paul McKenna.
In January, 1975, Joel gave the Fiddle’s second show, held in Old College Hall at the MSU Union. This will be Joel’s 45th solo concert in the Fiddle’s 51 seasons of producing shows. Each year, Joel shares his newly penned pieces along with old favorites.
Fiddle fans may remember that tall, dynamic fiddler in Connie Kaldor’s family band. Now out on his own, Alekis is taking the folk music world by storm, winning several newcomer awards from Canadian and US music organizations.
Co-Produced with the Robin Theatre. Banjoist extraordinaire Chris Coole teams with fiddler John Showman to present both new material along with creative renditions of old-time music classics.
Co-Produced with the Robin Theatre. This twin bill is a way to feature both Lansing’s Jen Sygit and Detroit-based Mike Ward, together in an intimate concert at the gorgeous Robin Theatre, Lansing.
Co-produced with the Robin Theatre, join folk legends Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy, visiting from England, for an enchanting evening of timeless melodies and spellbinding storytelling. Don’t miss this rare chance to experience the iconic father-daughter duo live on stage during their special U.S. tour!
Co-produced with the Robin Theatre, don’t miss an engaging evening with John Depew, the 2022 Kansas Mandolin Champion, as he brings his masterful picking and heartfelt melodies to the stage. Experience the magic of bluegrass, folk, and beyond from one of the Midwest’s most celebrated mandolin virtuosos!
“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.
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.
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
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.
Annual Ten Pound Fiddle Membership Meeting, 7-7:15pm. All are welcome.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.’
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.)
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
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-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.”
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.
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
“Last Thing On My MInd,” “Marvelous Toy,” “Rambling Boy,” “Whose Garden Is This?,” “Home To Me (Is Anywhere You Are), “Peace Will Come,” “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound,” “Bottle of Wine,” are only a fraction of Tom Paxton’s countless additions to the Great American Songbook. Traveling with Tom are the DonJuans, providing musical back-up and a few great songs of their own.
On his way to the Great Lakes Music Camp (greatlakesmusic.org), Bruce makes a stop at Lansing’s Robin Theatre for an intimate night of songs and tunes on the banjo, guitar and fiddle. An instructor at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Bruce travels all around the world almost every day school is not in session. This Fiddle production is an opportunity to hear from one of Old Time Music’s finest working musicians.
Author of familiar songs “Christmas in the Trenches,” “Calling All the Children Home,” “Cut the Cake,” and “The Night That John Prine Died,” and interpreter of many more songs by Si Kahn, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and many others, folk music’s renaissance man John McCutcheon will visit the Fiddle for a very special SUNDAY NIGHT concert at our new location.
“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
Transatlantic Singer-Songwriter from Manchester, UK and the writer of “The President Sang Amazing Grace.”
Co-produced with the Robin Theatre. Often described as an old soul singer songwriter, “what Sam Robbins does looks effortless. He’s self-motivated, genuine and has a quiet confidence that simply grabs your attention any time he is on stage.” — Patty Duffey, Music On and Up
Co-produced with the Robin Theatre. A Michigan-based supergroup of bluegrass virtuosos featuring Jason Dennie, Scott Kendall, Keith Billik, and Aaron Markovitz.
Two singer-songwriters bring uniquely overlapping styles for a magical night of authentic, soulful folk.
Old friends Anne Hills and Matt Watroba will join together to share a night of new songs and old favorites.
“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
Featuring Annie Bacon, Fay Burns, Emily Slomovits, Sara Gibson, and Julianna Wilson… what does Annie Capps have in store?
Two of Michigan’s finest acoustic duos team up for a night of original songs, old favorites, and a lot of laughs.
“In a crowded field of Americana artists who claim influence from disparate genres…. Violet Bell truly pushes against the limitations and expectations of genres and genders.. Ross’s soulful vocal gymnastics sound downright wild… defying stylistic bounds.” -Indyweek
Co-Produced with The Peace Education Center/ Alternative Holiday Sale. A veteran of the peace and justice caucus under the folk music umbrella, Joe Jencks presents songs to make us laugh, cry and sing along.
The young and vibrant Southwest Louisiana band takes Cajun, honky-tonk, and string-band music as their starting point, and keeps an open mind about where their song craft will lead them. Food and Drinks available on site at Urban Beat.
UPDATE: The Ten Pound Fiddle has just learned that Seth Bernard has COVID and cannot be part of tonight’s show. That means that tonight’s audience will be treated to a full night of music from the multi-talented, delightful, Earthwork Music Collective member, Jordan Hamilton. See you there!
“One of Canada’s best loved troubadours” –Toronto Star, “The closest thing [Canada] has to Woody Guthrie” –The Georgia Straight
Annual Ten Pound Fiddle Membership Meeting, 6 pm – 7 pm. All are welcome. (Only) Fiddle members vote on any issues. Meet the Fiddle Board of Directors. Held at the UUMC before the concert.
What happens when the finest Klezmer fiddler of his generation teams up with a friend, a marvelous multi-instrumentalist? Come find out!
The Springtails – led by Julianna and Andy Wilson – are a Michigan-based band known for their swing-era style vocals and eclectic instrumentation. Joining forces with the incomparable Joe Wilson, this special show will celebrate the release of their new recording AND their new line-up.
“With songs ranging from heartbreakingly beautiful and soft to loud and boisterous, Cassie and Maggie’s sisterly voices blend in such a way that you automatically know it is genetic… theirs are voices that wrap themselves around each other more than others.” -No Depression
“Katie Dahl’s songs aren’t just melodies and words, they’re journeys that are firmly grounded in a sense of place—beautiful, real landscapes that help you feel places that you may have never been before. That’s the very best kind of songwriting. – Dar Williams
“In a crowded field of Americana artists who claim influence from disparate genres…. Violet Bell truly pushes against the limitations and expectations of genres and genders.. Ross’s soulful vocal gymnastics sound downright wild… defying stylistic bounds.” Indyweek
James Keelaghan returns to the Fiddle in support of his CD release for ‘Second Hand.’
Fiddle favorites Matt Watroba and Claudia Schmidt return for a heartwarming evening of song and story.
“An especially eloquent mixture of the old and the new.” – New York Times
Co-produced with The Robin Theatre, in Lansing´s REO Town.
Co-Produced with The Peace Education Center/ Alternative Holiday Sale. “The best musical discovery of the year…Old songs. Bold harmony. A profound vocal experience. “Stunningly powerful vocal harmony…Windborne sets a new bar for folk harmony singing today”-Brian O’Donovan, GBH Boston
It’s a 10-year Reunion show! Co-produced with the East Lansing Women in the Arts Festival, the Fiddle is excited to welcome back Kate Peterson and Sarah Cleaver of Nervous but Excited for a very special evening at Edgewood United Church.
Michigan’s May Erlewine returns to the Fiddle to give a rare solo performance. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience wonderful songs penned by this marvelous singer. May Erlewine has the sort of soul-baring voice that moves the Alan Lomaxes of the world to abandon the ivory tower for the back roads of rural America.” – The Harvard Independent
The Smoke Rise, GA-based musician, whom Johnny Cash once referred to as “the most impressive instrumentalist I’ve ever heard” is greatly looking forward to sharing his new music as well as beloved favorites with the Ten Pound Fiddle audience.
