2026 Performers
Michigan singer/songwriter Andy Baker has spent 3 decades captivating audiences with his unique style of soul satisfying folk. His recent accolades include winning the 2020 Kerrville Newfolk Songwriting Competition and the 2022 Great River Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, and well as being named an Official Showcase presenter at FARM in 2025 and an Emerging Artist at the 2020 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. His 2020 album “North Country Sky” spent several months on the National Folk DJ charts, and Jon Stein, host of WTBQ’s Hootenanny Cafe declares “Andy weaves breathtaking lyrics and melodies…He left me wanting more…much more!” andybakermusic.com
Andy Baker
The Songs of Darkness and Light made their debut in 2024 on the The Ark's renown stage, and instantly became one of the most sought-after supergroups in Michigan. Known for their ability to write honest, powerful and deeply personal songs that evoke pure joy, brutal heartbreak and everything in between, award-winning singer-songwriters Jen Cass, Amy Petty, Sarah Schingeck and Jennifer Naegele have created a rare and special magic you won't soon forget.
Songs of Darkness & Light
Rosco is best known as a harmonica player, but he is more than that. He is a songwriter who takes the craft seriously. He is a producer who has a knack for adding the special spice that makes the song tastier. And, yes, he plays harmonica in ways that most folks haven’t heard – sure, he can swing out on a blues tune, but he can also accompany a ballad with beautiful tone and taste. He has toured the US in the rock band Maybe August, and played harmonica and sung on dozens of tracks for various recording artists. He is in demand as a sideman in many styles of music, doubling on harmonica and vocals. Rosco released a solo album of his own original songs, ‘Kneaded and Thrown’, in 2014, and produced several recordings showcasing his songwriting and the talents of his favorite singers. He currently performs with Michael Robertson and the Broken Hearted Saviors, The Lucky Nows, Donny Brown and the VanDeltones, Sky Blue Sky, and is a frequent guest of Honesty and the Liars.
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Rosco has lately concentrated on songwriting and recording, working closely with Andy Reed of Reed Recording Co to craft songs in a variety of styles which display the broad range of his tastes. FOR Collective is his dream project, pairing his favorite singers with songs specially crafted for them, and utilizing his many stellar musician friends to provide the perfect support.
Rosco Selley:
F.O.R. Collective
Kyle Brown is a singer/songwriter based out of west Michigan. For over a decade Kyle has been honing his craft in clubs and barrooms throughout the Midwest. His band, The Human Condition, consists of Nina Sofia (Vocals & Guitar), Mike Schertenlieb (Drums), Kosta Karis (Bass), and Mikey Olsen (Keys). Together, they create a dynamic sound rooted in Folk-Rock with tinges of Country & Americana. When not with The Human Condition, you can catch Kyle playing solo along the shores of Lake Michigan.
Kyle Brown
& The Human Condition
The Go Rounds are a strange phenomenon. A blue-collar band with true upper-echelon accolades. A cultural staple in their home range, but still yet to be tracked by the larger limelight. After all, they’re a band that used to co-bill with Billy Strings, a band who’s headlined the Mazunte International Jazz festival, and a band whose recordings have featured in various major formats such as Warren Miller’s “Here, There and Everywhere”, and as cue music for NPR.
If you've heard their brilliant albums or seen one of their mind-bending live shows, chances are you are either from Michigan, or Mexico City, where they have built an unexpected cult following. Their music sounds like nothing else out there. With first class musicianship and tireless creativity they push the boundaries of indie, reaching a place in which psych-pop, americana and twang-rock come together in one beautiful controlled explosion.
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The Go Rounds have gained a reputation as a Band’s Band and have created a living legacy over their 15 year performance and production history. From sold out shows with Vulfpeck, Liz Cooper, and Caroline Rose, to award-winning and widely beloved recorded works.
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Versatility is their hallmark. From serving the setting of a 100-person listening room to lighting up thousands of festival goers across the US, Canada and Mexico, the band consistently delivers a skin-tingling performance.
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Soaring buttery vocals are masterfully supported by a bold and vibrant sonic palette. An enlivening labyrinth of arrangement and a honed ability to connect deeply with audiences has garnered them both an international and inter-generational following. Their ability to perform impactful live shows is matched by their relentless recording history, having compiled 10 studio albums and various EP’s and singles since 2010.
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Like debris that never sinks in an eddy, The Go Rounds summon a spirit that continues to revolve, evolve, and rise.
The Go Rounds
Kate Hinote Music
Detroit area journalist, Jeff Milo, describes Hinote’s voice as “cinematic and operatic, a mood-setting, mellifluous intonation that fits inside candle-lit lounges, late summer night feverdreams, or as a torch song from a surreal soundtrack.”
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Hinote has always been singing, but it wasn’t until she collaborated with her husband, Tony Hamera, beginning in 2004, that she discovered she could also write her own songs to sing and that melodies came naturally to her. That collaboration has resulted in eight full length albums and a handful of EPs between the various Hinote/Hamera projects, including Detroit Music Award nominated The Blueflowers (Alt-Rock), as well as Ether Aura (shoegaze/dreamwave) and Sound of Eleven (apocalyptic folk). The Blueflowers’ most recent release is 2022’s Time Didn’t Matter EP. A common theme throughout them all is a darkness and melodrama that Hinote is clearly drawn to and delivers.
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Hinote’s most recent musical collaboration and with whom she is most often seen performing live these days is the Kate Hinote Trio, a contemporary folk ensemble featuring Hinote on vocals, longtime Blueflowers bandmate, David Johnson, on acoustic guitar and Matthew Parmenter (Discipline) on violin. Known for the melodic interplay between voice and violin, as well as creating dynamic and engaging indie-folk music, the Trio performs predominantly original material, while weaving in a handful of retro and modern covers to which they have applied their unique sound. The group leans into narrative-driven songwriting on their sophomore album, “Stowaways” (out June 2025), showcasing 10 new original songs that establish the signature sound they have passionately been delivering at live shows for six years.
Jan Krist
Jan Krist is a singer-songwriter with a rich catalog of recorded music, and a fine, resonant voice. Born in Detroit, Krist was raised on rock, and schooled in the folk and acoustic music of the ’60s and ’70s. Today, Krist’s work reflects the power and poetry of having matured as an artist in that place and time.
Perhaps you’ve caught her live, heard her on the radio, or streamed one of her videos on YouTube. Jan Krist has performed all over the U.S., and has released 13 solo recordings to date. Critical response to her music has been strong and effusive, and her work has been praised in the pages of Entertainment Weekly Magazine, Dirty Linen, Image Journal, and Billboard Magazine, among other publications.
“Jan Krist is a singer songwriter whose music has an uncanny way of cutting to the heart of a topic and providing the listener with food for thought,” writes Bob Darden in Billboard Magazine. “Her talent as a songwriter equals – if not surpasses – her vocal gifts.“
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Darden describes Krist’s voice as being “…somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush, but it’s all Jan Krist. Unreservedly recommended.”
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Jan has twice been a finalist in the New Folk Competition, held each year at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas. She has also won four Detroit Metro Music Awards, having been nominated for that honor 13 times.
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Or perhaps you’ve heard Jan Krist perform with the Yellow Room Gang, a celebrated songwriting collective based in southeast Michigan, or with her new band, Diamonds in the Rust.
Or, if you’re particularly fortunate, you may have even taken a songwriting course with Jan. She teaches a songwriting workshop at the Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, Washington twice a year, and has taught songwriting at the Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters in Harbor Springs, among other venues.
You may even have some of Jan’s work on one of your walls, or in a place of honor in your living room. She is a gifted visual artist, and works mostly in watercolors and clay these days.
And if you haven’t heard Jan Krist yet, you’re in for a treat.
The Widdershins are a college-town band from the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti area which take their name from a Scottish adverb meaning “to move counterclockwise or in a contrary fashion”. It is led by Milan Seth, a talented vocalist and composer who plays rhythm guitar, backed by Dan McConnell’s exotic collection of basses, old-hand Scott Marlowe with his unique lead guitar style and backing vocals, and Jerome Drummond on bop kit. They play as many original Seth/Marlowe compositions as they do covers – music that is tuneful, refreshingly literate, and always widdershins – music to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
Milan Seth
& The Widdershins