Local Spins hit the road to cover the Ann Arbor Folk Festival (with The Crane Wives on the bill), but there were some sizzling West Michigan shows, too.
Folk Fire: Jeremy Styles of the Pearl & The Beard trio performing at Hill Auditorium on Friday night. (Photo/Anna Sink)
This year, with Groundhog Day falling on the same day as the world’s most-watched spectacle, Punxsutawney Phil earned a little share of the Super Bowl spotlight.
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And considering the abominable winter we’ve had — with days that feel like something out of the movie “Groundhog Day” — millions prayed that the fuzzy little fellow wouldn’t see his shadow, thus ensuring an early end to the misery. But alas, we all know how that turned out.
Even with another snowstorm pounding the state this weekend, capacity crowds of 3,500 jammed the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium for the Ann Arbor Folk Festival, which has become so popular, the annual two-day fund-raiser for The Ark sells out in a flash.
Rick Chyme and Molly Bouwsma Schultz at Founders Brewing. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
In addition to performances by Americana/folk/alt-country stars such as Iron & Wine, Neko Case, Patty Griffin, Jeff Daniels and Ingrid Michaelson, West Michigan’s own The Crane Wives and Ann Arbor’s Appleseed Collective landed a rare opportunity to share the stage with these giants of the scene.
The plethora of “folk” styles was dizzying: The vehemence and bravado of New York City’s innovative Pearl & The Beard trio, the expressive singing and singular alt-country of Neko Case, the born-in-another-era, ’50s-like country twang of Justin Townes Earle, the multi-bearded, multi-faceted folk-rock of Iron & Wine, the two-banjo, seven-beard attack of New York’s Pigpen Theatre Co., the retro-styled Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, the engagingly unique Johnnyswim husband-and-wife duo, the humor-and-tale-filled folk of Emmy Award-winning actor Jeff Daniels, the upbeat indie-pop of Ingrid Michaelson’s trio and, finally, the melancholy beauty of one of Americana’s leading songwriters, Patty Griffin, who performed with guitarist/producer Craig Ross.
Patty Griffin on stage at Hill Auditorium. (Photo/Anna Sink)
The weekend also included touching tributes to Pete Seeger, the folk legend who died earlier this week and who played the folk festival as recently as 2009. Organizers at one point on Friday led an audience sing-along of Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer,” with video of that below. Michaelson sparked a similar, poignant sing-along to “We Shall Overcome” on Saturday night.
Local Spins got a chance to follow The Crane Wives in their first-ever Folk Festival appearance and you can read more about that in a behind-the-scenes feature on Monday at Local Spins, with more photos and a video.
Things were lively in West Michigan, too, with Conspirator (and Cosby Sweater) lighting up The Intersection, hip hop’s Rick Chyme (with Molly Bouwsma and Scott Schultz, and Sir Manley) getting creative and collaborative at Founders Brewing Co., Chicago’s Common Shiner celebrating the two-year anniversary of the SpeakEZ Lounge, and Tennessee singer-songwriter Erick Baker playing Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up.
From one end of the state to the other, it was a diverse weekend of live music amid another blast of winter’s wrath. Somebody really should have thought to put a blindfold on that Punxsutawney Phil critter.
(See even more photos from the Ann Arbor Folk Festival at the Local Spins Facebook page.)
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
