Sparky and Rhonda Rucker

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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.

Canceled – Sara Pajunen wsg Frances Olson

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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.

Jake Blount and Nic Gareiss and Simon Chrisman

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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

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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.

Kitty Donohoe – Sunday Afternoon Show

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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.’

Amythyst Kiah – Wednesday Show

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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.)

Reggie Harris, Peace Education Center’s Alternative Holiday Sale

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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

*SOLD OUT* Holly Near, Women in the Arts Festival

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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.

Tom Paxton and the DonJuans

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“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.

Stella! Photo by Rustic Dandelions Photography.

Stella! and The Lesser Halves

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Stella! is the Michigan-based, singer-songwriting trio of Jo Serrapere, Jen Sygit, and Julianna Wilson. From comic relief to heartbreaking ballads, they accompany their three-part harmonies with guitar, banjo, upright bass, and percussion. For this special event, each member of Stella! will also perform with their respective lesser half: John Divine, Geoff Lewis, and Andy Wilson.

SOLD OUT! The Chenille Sisters, wsg The Royal Garden Trio

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From Ann Arbor, the Chenille Sisters return to the same building where they played their first Ten Pound Fiddle performance 30 years ago.    Word was out. That night, the Copper Chimney Lounge was packed to the brim. For this show, we’ll be in the much larger sanctuary. The night will begin with a shorter set by the incredibly talented, Michigan-based Royal Garden Trio.  

Postponed: Katie Dahl and Kitty Donohoe: Twin Bill

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New Date: October 14, 2022. “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  ‘Kitty is making a name for herself in Irish America and you can see why from the high quality of the work here.‘ Irish Music Magazine.

May Erlewine

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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

Yellow Room Gang

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When seven singer songwriters gather to swap real-life songs and stories, things could get a little intense, but Yellow Room Gang members Annie Capps, Kitty Donohoe, David Tamulevich, Jan Krist, David Barrett, Matt Watroba, and Jim Bizer keep it all light and lively.

Joshua Davis

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Since his third place finish in The Voice, Joshua Davis has shared his poignant songs and smooth presentation with the nation. To Mid-Michigan, he is an old friend returning for what is now his annual Ten Pound Fiddle show.

Scott Cook (Thursday)

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“He sings his heart and soul, and in doing so lets light flood into your own… He has a good eye for imagery, a gentle human touch, a wry sense of humour, a whole lot of integrity, a warm, rugged voice and a bunch of memorable lines… Truly one of Woody Guthrie’s children.” -RnR Magazine

Windborne

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Co-produced with the Peace Education Center in conjunction with it’s Alternative Holiday sale. Internationally acclaimed vocal group Windborne is known for the power and innovation of their arrangements, as well as their unrivaled mastery of polyphonic music from around the world. Currently Windborne is touring a project called Song on the Times, songs of social struggle from movements over the past 400 years.

“Music of the 1960s” – Sunday Afternoon Two Audio/ Visual Presentations by Dick Rosemont, FBC Co-Founder

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1 – 3 pm: 1960s Rock Music Overview; 4 – 6 pm: The Rise and Influence of Motown. Dick Rosemont will present an entertaining and incisive look at the music environment of the 1960s. It was a significant period for changes in all aspects of culture and the music business. Hear some of the significant songs of the era and recordings that influenced future artists and styles. The first session provides a general overview of 1960s rock as it evolved musically, culturally, and commercially: from pre-Beatles pop to later-decade “acid rock.” The second session looks at Motown and its influences, tracing the rise and success of the largest black-owned company in the country, and its impact on music culture.

Twin Bill – Irish Mythen & Amythyst Kiah

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Come hear two of the hottest and up-and-coming performers in today’s acoustic music world –
“Kiah is an important and innovative presence in contemporary traditional music. Describing herself as a “Southern Gothic, alt-country blues singer/songwriter,” Amythyst has a repertoire that honors tradition while crossing genres to illuminate many common threads.” ~ Sam Gleaves, The Bluegrass Situation

“I had no idea what to expect when this five foot nothing lady took the stage, all smiles and twinkling eyes and guitar. Then, she opened her mouth and out flew a voice that came straight from the Heavens with all the power and the glory and the truth of someone destined to be a singer. I’ve been blessed with seeing and hearing a lot of talented musicians in my life, but I have never experienced anyone quite like Irish Mythen. She is a force of nature and a gift from Almighty Herself.”
~ Lisa Schwartz, Philadelphia Folk Festival

Joe Crookston

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“At every festival I hope to find the gift of one artist whose songwriting and performance stand out. Joe Crookston was that gift for me this year at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Stunning performance, great songs, and not a word wasted! I LOVE That!” David Francey – Songwriter Ontario