The Luddites are an 11 piece folk orchestra that redefines the image of acoustic music. The Luddites take their name from a rabble of desperate English textile workers who, in the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution, took to smashing factory machines in an effort to preserve the ideals of humanity and craftsmanship.

Today’s Luddites are no less rebellious, shunning electronic trappings and embracing all things wood. Equipped with an arsenal of stringed, skinned, and reedy things they play original music that mix-matches folk, rock, zydeco, calypso, klezmer, ragtime, and Bourbon Street swing. They are often silly, sometimes sobering, always very entertaining.

Alvin’s
5756 Cass Ave.
just south of I-94 on W.S.U. campus Detroit.
313-638-6300.
$5 cover.

First Place winner Julianne, Second Place winner Dennis G. Donoho, and Third Place winner Ralston will perform at the Trinity House Theatre. Come hear these wonderful songwriters and performers in the best small concert venue in the Detroit area. For more information and reservations, go to www.TrinityHouse.org or call the theater at (734) 474-6304.
Julianne will be accompanied by Kris Kurzawa.

Trinity House Theater
38840 W. Six Mile
Livonia, MI 48152-2605

A new book being released on Penmanship Books of New York. The book is called “Moonwalking.” It’s a collection of poems regarding the life, career and influences of Michael Jackson, The King of Pop. Blair will be reading poems from the manuscript and then his band Blair & The Boyfriends will play a full set and very special guest Dee Matthews, straight from her 2nd place showing at Women of the World Poetry Slam, will open the show.

“Moonwalking,” is about the life, career and influences of Michael Jackson, The King of Pop. To discuss Michael is to discuss race, gender, sexuality, poverty, super-stardom, abuse of self, child abuse, justice etc. This book… is about America .

Blair will read poems published in The Pedestal Magazine, University of Alabama ’s Punch Journal, Metro Times, Dispatch Detroit , Between the Lines Newspaper and Critical Moment as well as poems from a forthcoming manuscript, Where The Mothership Landed, poems for and about Detroit .

Blair is 2010 Seattle Haiku Slam Champion, 2009 Metro Times Best Urban Folk Poet, Seattle , Washington’s BENT Writing Institute 2008 Mentor of the Year Recipient, 2003 Real Detroit Reader’s Poll Best Solo Artist, 2002 National Poetry Slam Champion, a published poet and seven time Detroit Music Award Nominee. His new book and CDs will be available for purchase.

The Park Bar
2040 Park Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226-1620

Highlonesome From Milwaukee
Petal Shop From Detroit
Rachel Brooke From Detroit Area
The Crow Family Big Band From Detroit

Doors are at 8:00pm and Its only $5.00

The Crow Manor 3407 Trumbull. Detroit, Michigan

David Nefesh, Photo by Rio Scafone / Feral Fotography

Lamb’s Songwriters Showcase
Featuring:
Host-John D. Lamb
Dave Edwards (from the Look) (Detroit Music Award nominee)
Bob Monteleone (from Black Market)
Emily Rose (DMA nominee)
David Nefesh (DMA nominee)
John Natiw & Rochelle Clark (Potter’s Field)
Chris Degnore

Named after the popular country singer’s hit single “I Love This Bar,” Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill will feature live country music and dancing and the occasional surprise performance by Keith himself, along with cowboy hats, a mechanical bull, and drinks in mason jars from an 85-foot guitar-shaped bar. The home-cooked, southern-style fare includes the singer’s own favorites, such as pulled pork sandwiches, honky tonk meatloaf, freedom fries and his signature fried bologna sandwiches and southern-fried Twinkies, to name just a few.

Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill
Great Lakes Crossing 4698 Baldwin Road
Auburn Hills, MI

Bernice Johnson Reagon (mother) and Toshi Reagon (daughter) come together to create a collaborative, live presentation of music and talk that celebrates the African American musical tradition and the role of art in the struggle for what is just and right. Independently these women have broken new ground charting the course of their lives as prolific, socially conscious recording artists.

Bernice Johnson Reagon began her work during the 1960s as a freedom singer, and continues to perform since retiring from “Sweet Honey In The Rock,” the internationally renowned a cappella ensemble she formed in 1973. A brilliant songwriter, Toshi Reagon is a powerful genre-bending musician, whether working solo or fronting her own dynamic band, “Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely.”

These artists will reflect on their lives in music and the civil rights movement, how the two worlds overlap and how they have used each to make better the other – and of course, to perform! This is a “don’t miss.”

$10 Members / $15 non-members, $10 each in groups of 10 or more. Tickets can be purchased online here: https://www.maah-detroit.org/reagon/index.php

Package deals are available with other great events such as Emergency (2/24), Sarah Jones (3/18) or Passing (3/28). For more information, please call (313) 494-5800.

Brought to you with the generous support of Bank of America, DTE Energy, and Masco Corporation.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48201-1443

http://www.CharlesHWrightMuseum.org

Wheatpaste>

The Hentchmen and Wheatpaste provide a night of musical entertainment for the benefit of the HUB of Detroit!
Doors at 9pm
Regretfully this show is for people 21 years old and older only.
$5 gets you in with part of the door and bar take going to the HUB of Detroit to fund our services for the community.

Also, there will be HUB t-shirts for sale along with other merchandise needs that you all have. And if you are feeling lucky, buy a raffle ticket for a chance to win a three speed cruiser built for your riding pleasure by the HUB of Detroit!

The Park Bar, 2040 Park Ave, Detroit, MI 48201

The Deep River is a grass roots community choir dedicated to the roots of American music and the diverse culture of Detroit. Y Arts at the Boll Family YMCA started the choir in 2007 to answer the question, “How can we keep from singing?”

Their music celebrates of the survival of the human spirit in adversity. It includes offerings as varied as the sweet harmonies of the contemporary folk song A SIMPLE FAITH, by David Tamelevich to the raw emotion of GOIN HOME, a prison work song written by Irvin Webb and originally recorded in 1956 by the great music historian Alan Lomax.

The Choir is lead by veteran choir director Bobbi Thompson and acclaimed musicians and educators Matt Watroba and the Reverend Robert Jones. Historically Detroit has been a destination for people seeking a better life, and in that spirit, the volunteers who make up this choir come from all over the world.

EMERSON CHURCH UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST
4230 Livernois
Troy, Michigan 48085
248-524-9339
Tickets:
$8 Adults/4$ children under 16/$20 Families
Order in advance by emailing: deep.river@ecuu.org
Support for the Deep River Choir is provided by
the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan

Photo by Juan N. Only
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juannonly/3078521715/

In Yoruba mythology, an Odù is one of 256 divinatory principals, each associated with a traditional set of verses (or Ese), representing thousands of years of observations and predictions. In the Detroit music scene, Odu is an Afrobeat Orchestra comprised of the city’s best musicians, each of different genres, age, race, and background, representing Detroit’s strength in it’s musical diversity, and always delivers nothing short of a spiritual experience with every performance they give. The group is led by Adeboye Adegbenro on vocals/alto/tenor saxophone, who came to Detroit via Lagos, Nigeria, where he used to sit it with the great bandleader Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Fela Kuti, founder and namesake of Afrobeat, whose countless vinyl re-issues and work with greats such as Cream’s Ginger Baker have brought Afrobeat to the forefront of African music in recent years. Although the primary output of Afrobeat music was recorded in the nineteen seventies, many have continued to carry on its unbelievably funky rhythms and unmistakable sound. Over the years we have witnessed everyone from Brian Eno and David Byrne to Ann Arbor’s Nomo taking cues from Afrobeat’s grooves, yet few have managed to do this while retaining the spiritual roots woven deep within the beat—the soul, of you will. Odu is one of the few that do, a child of tradition, bringing dance and even (their namesake) The Odù Ifá, whose sixteen principals of divination also double as rhythm patterns.

Adegbenro has kept a good family of musicians behind him over Odu’s five years or so as a band. The current lineup includes the exiled Bohemian National Home’s founder and coordinator Joel Peterson on bass; Emmanuel on drums; Nick Schillace on guitar; Dan Velic on guitar; Marko Novachcoff on baritone sax; Michael Carey on tenor sax; Sam Beaubian on trumpet; Jennie Knaggs with vocals/percussion; Ryan Gates on percussion; and Bill Hafer on percussion.

The Odu Afrobeat Orchestra is currently gearing up for a show at the newly renovated Alvin’s (5756 Cass Ave Detroit, MI 48202) on February 5th where they plan to make a live recording of their set.

Jer Coons

The AA Folk Festival celebrates its 33rd year with some of the finest in traditional and contemporary artists. The Festival returns to Hill Auditorium for two dynamic and different nights of folk and roots music on Friday, January 29, and Saturday, January 30, beginning at 6:30 p.m. each night. In keeping with the Festival’s longstanding reputation, each night will feature a blend of renowned and up-and-coming performers, providing audiences with the opportunity to hear popular artists working at the top of their field while discovering terrific new talent. All funds raised through the Festival benefit The Ark, Ann Arbor’s non-profit home for folk, roots, and ethnic music.

Jer Coons plays on Friday evening with Iron and Wine and Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo) & Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) performing as a duo.

Jer Coons released his full-length debut Speak September 29, launching it with at a sold out record release show at Higher Ground in his hometown of Burlington, VT. Jer followed the release with a national tour including CMJ, California shows, and a number of sold out performances including a run of east coast dates with Colin Hay of Men at Work.

For more information and a free download of “Legs”, visit Jer Coons at: http://www.myspace.com/jercoons or www.jercoons.com

Ann Arbor Folk Festival Line Up:
Friday, January 29

Iron and Wine
Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard
Band of Heathens
Hoots & Hellmouth
Po’ Girl
Jer Coons
Nervous But Excited
Patty Larkin, MC

Saturday, January 30
Rosanne Cash
Richie Havens
Doc Watson
Raul Malo
Hot Club of Cowtown
Enter The Haggis
Patty Larkin, MC

http://www.theark.org/ann_arbor_folk_festival.html

Hill Auditorium
825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109
(734) 764-2538
http://www.music.umich.edu