ANDY ROGERS COURTESY PHOTO
Staff Writer
As the Ann Arbor Folk Festival approaches, musicians Kate Peterson and Sarah Cleaver are nervous, excited and, most famously, Nervous but Excited.
“Right now, we’re both fans of Iron and Wine and Benjamin Gibbard. Just being able to play on the same stage as them is a humongous honor, along with the other artists that we’ve gotten to know over the years like Hoots & Hellmouth and Po’ Girl,” said Cleaver, 30, of Ann Arbor.
Nervous but Excited, the self-proclaimed “pleasantly aggressive folk duo,” is one of 13 musical acts to be featured during the Ann Arbor Folk Festival at the Hill Auditorium on Jan. 29 and 30. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. on both nights and will be emceed by Patty Larkin. It features such headliners as Rosanne Cash, Iron and Wine, Doc Watson, Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard and Richie Havens.
“It’s our hometown,” said Peterson, 30, of Ann Arbor. “I think the fact that we’re the only local act at the festival this year feels like a real honor.”
The Ark, a folk venue downtown, uses The Ann Arbor Folk Festival as a fundraiser. This will be the 33rd year that The Ark has organized the event.
Tickets are $30 and $45 for one night and end at $50 and $80 for both nights. In addition, there are patron and sponsor tickets available that offer preferred seating and a tax-deductible donation to The Ark. Sponsor ticketholders will be invited backstage during intermission to enjoy snacks from Zingerman’s.
ANDY ROGERS COURTESY PHOTO
“The Ark is a nonprofit organization. It’s been around since 1965 and everybody that works upstairs at The Ark is a volunteer,” said club manager Emily Ross, 28, of Ann Arbor. “As a nonprofit, we rely heavily on membership, sponsorship, grants, volunteers, you know, all of these things.”
Hill Auditorium’s size makes this a potentially lucrative fundraiser.
“The capacity at Hill Auditorium is just over 3,000, so we expect to have close to 6,000 people come through,” said Barb Chaffer Authier, 41, of Ypsilanti, marketing director of The Ark.
“People are tending to buy their tickets a little later in this economy than perhaps in other years, but I’m expecting that we’re going to have a pretty similar crowd to what we’ve had in the last few years,” she added. “Last year, Saturday night of the festival had Pete Seeger. He certainly was a big draw and was part of the reason we sold out Saturday night.”
Many fans of the upcoming festival are, once again, drawn by the folk names they know and trust. Sandi Arredondo, 42, of Toledo, will be going to Saturday night’s show. She’s most excited to see Rosanne Cash.
“You know, I always did love music. I wanted to be a singer and nobody ever picked me,” Arredondo said. “I don’t know why! (I think it is) because they don’t know good, quality voice when they hear it. So I go and I live vicariously through the performers and have a great time.”
Headliners will be playing on both nights of the festival, but each night has its own specific taste, character and even audience. All of the artists are defined as folk in some way, but the Friday night performance features less traditional acts.
“Friday night is a great lineup,” said Ross. “It appeals to people that are familiar with popular music that they would hear on college radio or regular radio, but also people that are under the radar and should be acknowledged.
“Saturday is just full of classics like Doc Watson and Richie Havens – they have been huge, huge influences on so many artists today.”
For most of the artists, the festival will be a return to The Ark’s musical force. Some, however, go way back.
“Doc and Richie are both headliners,” Ross noted. “When they played in the past, they were probably somewhat of an up-and-coming talent that has now made it big to the point where they’re the headliner.”
ANDY ROGERS COURTESY PHOTO
The Ark hopes to give the lesser-known acts the same opportunity they were able to give Doc Watson and Richie Havens. The idea is that headliners like themselves will pull in crowds so that the up-and-coming artists have the opportunity to play for them.
“They’re in front of thousands of people and those people are there to see them and see new music,” said Ross. “That’s a great opportunity for the new artists. We like to look at the artists that we’ve had that are new, see who we like and bring them in to the festival and help them develop their talent and help them move forward in their career.”
Festival goers who buy their tickets in anticipation of seeing a lot of Iron and Wine or Rosanne Cash will not be disappointed. Likewise, those concerned that opening acts won’t receive the playtime they deserve need not worry.
“The spotlight acts — the up-and-comers — they tend to play about a 15-20 minute set, just sort of a taste of what they do. Then there’s an opportunity for people to come and see a show of them at The Ark in the spring,” Chaffer Authier said. “The headliners play sets of about an hour each.
“Every year, there’s somebody that I see that I’ve never seen before that I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I didn’t know them before and now I want to go see them every time they come to The Ark!’”
Nervous but Excited looks forward to sharing the stage with huge names in front of a huge audience. They also feel blessed to be a part of The Ark aura.
“I think there’s an unspoken rule at The Ark that you just keep quiet. And you listen,” Peterson said, almost whispering. “You stop thinking about your work and your performance. Everyone there does it too.
“I think that’s why it’s such a treat for people to come and play at The Ark.”
Line Up:
| Friday January 29: |
Saturday January 30: |
| Iron and Wine Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard Band of Heathens Hoots and Hellmouth Po’ Girl Jer Coons Nervous but Excited Patty Larkin, Emcee |
Rosanne Cash Richie Havens Doc Watson Raul Malo Hot Club of Cowtown Enter the Haggis Patty Larkin, Emcee |
Recent Comments