May 18, 2017 • 7:00 pm
May Erlewine comes from a family of artists and musicians. Early on she was exposed to music (and people) of all kinds. May was home-educated, came up singing and while still just a teenager hitchhiked all across North America playing in small and large towns, riding freight trains with her little dog, and busking on the streets. In her travels May Erlewine came to know the land and the pulse of the people. Her songs show a very real connection and concern with everyday folk.
May 20, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Hullabaloo is a Michigan based music collective that produces original rock and ska music blended with Latin-Caribbean rhythms. The Hullabaloo experience is an upbeat sonic expression.
Hullabaloo prides itself on being able to produce original music in many different genres that appeal to all audiences.
The group’s unparalleled energy and unique sound has lead Hullabaloo to perform regularly over the past fifteen years at night clubs, festivals and municipal events throughout the Midwest.
June 17, 2017 • 7:00 pm
The Big Boss Band is one of the hardest working blues roots bands in Michigan. John Sinkevics, Grand Rapids Local Spins writer adds; “With decades of professional musicianship in its ranks, Big Boss Blues formed in 2012, has quickly made its mark on the region’s blues scene.” The Big Boss debut album, Melting Pot, released in June 2015 has received stellar reviews, has had consistent regional airplay and sold well at live shows! The Big Boss “MELTING POT” album; is a ten song, all original collection of blues-roots music written, recorded and self-produced by the band.
June 27, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin Add to Calendar
BREATHLESS: Prepare a five-minute story about having to pause for just a moment. Tell us about brilliant vistas, the largest ball of yarn you have ever seen, spontaneous upside-down kisses, your first time seeing snow. Whether at the top of a mountain, in a dark theatre, on a crowded dance floor, under a vast starry sky, in a hospital bed seeing your newborn for the first time.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
June 20, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin Add to Calendar
OUTNUMBERED: Prepare a five minute story about being in the minority. In times of crisis: back alley brawls, political skirmishes, family reunions. Or times of plenty: pool boy at swim suit model’s retreat or the lone voice of reason in a sea of panic. The quixotic thrill of taking on a bigger army or the panic of getting flanked.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
June 6, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin Add to Calendar
MYSTERY: Prepare a five-minute story about puzzling events. Whodunits, secret deals, curious details and shadowy figures. Facts that don’t add up. Unsolved happenings. Anonymous packages and secret admirers. The cagy, the cryptic and the covert! The butler did it, Sherlock.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
May 16, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin Add to Calendar
TRAPS: Prepare a five-minute story about a speed trap, mouse trap or emotional trap. Held hostage at your coworker’s Tupperware party, caught in a ponzi scheme, clocked with radar on the highway or ensnared in a maddening tango with a rodent in the pantry. Or tell us how you broke free from psychological ambush, blackmail or a bad blind date.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
May 2, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin Add to Calendar
FIRST IMPRESSION: Prepare a five-minute story about the indelible mark made upon meeting somebody for the first time. Online date adventures where alter egos or earnest personalities mix for the first time. Long awaited introductions to long lost family or life’s absent characters. Books with misleading covers and second chance moments that reinvent relationships.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
April 18, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin Add to Calendar
REFUGE: Prepare a five-minute story about your safe haven. Sanctuary from bullies, vindictive lovers, bosses, the law and other sometimes unpleasant realities. Political asylum or a refugee in your own home. Coming to the rescue or crying out for help. For some a quiet room, for others a mosh pit. The roof over your head! The safe space in your head! Shelter from the storm.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
April 4, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin
DUPED: Prepare a five-minute story about deception. Swindled, tricked or fooled. Trojan horses, prank calls, fine-print stipulations or flat out fabrications. White lies and con jobs. April Fools!
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
March 28, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin
BROKEN: Prepare a five minute story about a time it all fell to pieces! Promises never kept, to hearts left shattered to be swept. The time YOU dropped the glass at your great-aunt’s house, or when your best friend’s 97’ Nissan finally gave out. Saving your smartphone from catastrophe! And still, theres a scratch. From laws, to limbs, to fragile iPhones tell us about the brokenness of life.
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
March 7, 2017 • 6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin
MAKING PEACE: Craft a five-minute story about Making Peace: The laying down of arms, the olive branch, the surrender to the greater good or the fierce battle for an even playing ground. Stories of all manner of amity welcome: peace with a nation, a neighbor or a notion. Loving your enemies is a tall order, but how about you just make nice?
*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.
Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.
This venue is 21+
March 31, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Boston born and currently living in Nashville, Elisabeth Beckwitt writes music inspired by indie-pop acts such as Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles. Elisabeth writes with heart and confidence, her clear voice typically accompanied by piano. Elisabeth self-released her debut album, “Then We Do,” in December and is excited to hit the road in Spring 2017 to support the new record.
March 2, 2017 • 7:30 pm
Multiverse Investments and the A2 JAZZ FEST are proud to announce a creative film/video competition for the general public. Creative individuals are invited to craft an original 5-7 minute silent film/video to be featured during the JAZZ+FILM concert event on March 2, 2017 at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The 1st place winner’s work will be shown during this concert performance, and will have an improvised jazz accompaniment, provided live, in the moment by the Tim Haldeman Quartet. Three winners will be selected. The Grand Prize winner will receive a $500 cash prize, the 2nd place winner will receive $200 and the 3rd place winner $100.
April 29, 2017 • 7:00 pm
The Whiskey Charmers is a Detroit-based Americana band led by Carrie
Shepard and Lawrence Daversa. Fans have often compared their sound to
the feeling of riding in the middle of the desert with the top down.
Their debut self-titled album has received airplay and excellent
reviews in the U.S. and abroad and was nominated for a Detroit Music
Award for Outstanding Americana Recording. Special guest Bill Edwards will open.
April 22, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Salmagundi is a classic rock and soul band with a powerful horn section, performing cover songs and original material. We feature music created by legendary Memphis-soul and Motown artists during the ’60 & ’70s. Salmagundi mixes soulful R&B with guitar-driven Classic Rock to create a diverse selection of music that is familiar, upbeat and irresistible.
April 15, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Drift the night away to the jazzy sensibilities of Dede and the
Dreamers. Described as Ethereal Gypsy music this band will mesmerize
you and send you into a dream world with sweet melodies and full
sounds to tantalize your brain. This collaboration will have you
snapping your fingers, singing along, dancing with your lover, and
cuddling up to your closest friends.
April 8, 2017 • 7:00 pm
The Hearts’ patented Rock-A-Bayou Hillbilly style can be likened to a
Southern gothic collision of the rural and the urban; the electrified
string band sounds of Luke Thompson, Hunter Watts and Hollis Albin
blending with a Cajun back beat.
April 1, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Lifelong buddies RJ Spangler & Tbone Paxton started working together
in 1980 with the dynamic Sun Messengers band. Back then Tbone was
awarded the Motor City Music Award for best trombonist. Since that
time, he has also become quite an engaging vocalist. The Great
American Songbook: Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington &
the Harlem Jive of Fats Waller as well as the proto jump/swing of
Louis Jordan is part of each performance. Add some gut-bucket trombone
& RJ’s experience with blues, swing and world jazz on drums and you
have an idea what to expect at their shows.
March 25, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Timothy Monger is a Michigan-based singer, songwriter, and
multi-instrumentalist who first established himself as co-founderof
seminal Ann Arbor folk-rock outfit Great Lakes Myth Society. Over the
course of three albums, his concurrent solo career has extended as a
natural outgrowth into explorations of chamber folk and jangling power
pop.
March 18, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Award winning guitarist, educator and performer Rollie Tussing has
performed in concert halls, major music festivals and sidewalks all
over the United States and parts of Europe. His raggedy brand of music
is informed by the era of 78 rpm records, juke-joints, and street
performers. He composes a lot of his own songs and has a knack for
re-working an old obscure tune, finding beauty in the forgotten
scratches, pops and grooves of his esoteric record collection.
March 11, 2017 • 7:00 pm
The Akropolis Reed Quintet takes listeners on extraordinary musical
adventures, performing an innovative repertoire with acclaimed
precision. Akropolis has released two studio albums to critical
acclaim and commissioned more than 25 reed quintet works to date.
Their dynamic concerts feature accessible contemporary works framed by
invigorating arrangements of classical music spanning four centuries.
March 4, 2017 • 7:00pm
Danny Kroha is a singer, songwriter, guitar player, record producer,
and performer who has been working and performing in Detroit since the
1980s. In the last thirty years, he has been a member of 8 bands,
including the influential blues-punk group the Gories (singer and
rhythm guitarist) and the minimalist, performance art garage trio the
Demolition Doll Rods. His work has been extensively written about,
including his first solo full-length album, Angels Watching Over Me,
released in 2015, featuring traditional gospel, blues, and folk songs
performed on a range of instruments including mouth harp, diddley bow,
and slide guitar.
February 25, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Sam Corbin is an Ypsilanti, MI based singer songwriter, full time dad, and fan of the classics! With a style tuned to Americana, Sam writes honest and thought provoking songs based on day to day life with themes of love, loss, and human struggles. Sam plays in many configurations, and is seen often with fellow Earthwork Artist Jen Sygit! Together they formed the band Lincoln County Process featuring Michael Smalley, Geoff Lewis, and Mike Lynch. More recently, Sam has been promoting his latest album “Let The Fire Burn Strong” and has been bringing out his full band for shows across Michigan.
February 18, 2017 • 7:00 pm
9-piece, horn-driven Afrobeat, Funk, R&B, Jazz & Caribbean band based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2012, Jive Colossus debuted at the 2013 Water Hill Music Festival. Originally an instrumental group, the 10-piece ensemble added lead vocalist Shelley Catalan in late Fall 2014. Her lively vocal stylings percolate over danceable, infectious grooves punctuated with colorful horn riffs. From Afrobeat to Funk, Jazz, Calypso, R&B, Soul, Reggae, Rock and more, the music of Jive Colossus reflects the deep musical roots and diverse experiences of its members.
February 11, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Old school rock, soul, & blues meets modern. Classic covers carefully mixed with outstanding originals. Nominated for the 2012 Detroit Music Awards “Outstanding Blues Artist”, their award-winning music hits you at your core, sounding familiar yet unique at the same time. Their lyrics are woven with surprising depth, and their grooves will get your feet moving, your heart beating, and your soul leaping!
February 4, 2017 • 7:00 pm
With inspiration ranging from bluesy rock to 90’s metal and country folk, this young singer-songwriter and guitarist is out to show an audience a good time. Though still young, Syd Burnham has played many Michigan Festivals, breweries, and The Ark, solo and backed by a band. She is a musician on the rise. Look for originals alongside a few covers of modern female rockers like Grace Potter and sweet renditions of songs like “Everlong” by Foo Fighters.
January 28, 2017 • 7:00 pm
The Big Boss Band is one of the hardest working blues roots bands in Michigan. John Sinkevics, Grand Rapids Local Spins writer adds; “With decades of professional musicianship in its ranks, Big Boss Blues formed in 2012, has quickly made its mark on the region’s blues scene.” The Big Boss debut album, Melting Pot, released in June 2015 has received stellar reviews, has had consistent regional airplay and sold well at live shows! The Big Boss “MELTING POT” album; is a ten song, all original collection of blues-roots music written, recorded and self-produced by the band.
January 21, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Corndaddy’s music harkens back to the glory days of country rock through filters of power pop, bluegrass and British Invasion bombast. You’ll hear hints of Willie Nelson, the Stones, the Byrds, Buck Owens, Beck and Otis Redding. Songs touch on the search for meaning in everyday life, lessons learned as time goes by, river worship, loves now and long ago and legends and lore we’ve heard and imagined.
January 14, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Ryan Racine first made a name for himself as the front man of Ann Arbor’s rockabilly outfit Lucky Haskins. Formed when he was only 15, the band burst onto the metro Detroit rockabilly scene and quickly garnered attention and a loyal fan base. Besides introducing the genre to a whole new generation in the area, they earned spots opening for legends like Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Lee Rocker as well as a slot in the 1995 Detroit Music Awards. The sound is still very much grounded in American Roots music but is unbound by the narrow concepts he has applied to previous outings.
January 7, 2017 • 7:00 pm
Blues & Americana singer/songwriter – 2008 Blues Music Award Nominee for “Best New Artist” 2008 and 2011 Blues Blast Music Awards Nominee. Considered a true rising star in the blues world ever since her debut album, Allow Me to Confess, brought her world-wide acclaim in 2007, Gina manages to raise the bar even further with It Wasn’t Real, throwing down a music gauntlet of soul, power, grit and energy for others to follow. Her songs and performances gracefully cross genres on the new album, too, with echoes of soul, rock and even Americana woven throughout the tapestry of sound she’s created on the new disc, bringing Gina’s music to an even wider audience.
December 19, 2016 • 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
As the weather cools down and the holidays draw near, we can’t help but start thinking of the delicious cocktails that come with the season.
Please join us at Ann Arbor Distilling Company for the special Cocktail Class: Holiday Edition. We will feature some classic holiday cocktails as well some some new ideas using local, seasonal ingredients. We will delve into the flavors of the holidays and teach you how to turn them into delicious drinks.
The class includes 5 small seasonal cocktails and light snacks: $50/person
November 7, 2016 • 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Please join us at Ann Arbor Distilling Company for the next in a series of classes featuring some fresh cocktail ideas using local, seasonal ingredients. We will delve into the flavors of fall and teach you how to turn them into delicious drinks.
May 16, 2016 • 6pm (EST)
Gin is a finicky spirit that can be blended a variety of different ways. Join us at the Ann Arbor
Distilling Company on Monday, May 16th at 6pm (EST) for a introduction to Gin blending with head distiller Ari Sussman, Learn about different botanicals, processes, and styles of Gin. Attendees also receive a bottle of Water Hill Gin, a couple of sample gin cocktails, and a wealth of knowledge.
$85/per person
May 9, 2016 • 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Did you miss out on the first cocktail class? Well due to the popularity of our first class, we have decided to open up a second date to make it available for more people.
Please join us at Ann Arbor Distilling Company for the second in a series of classes featuring some fresh cocktail ideas using local, seasonal ingredients. We will delve into the flavors of spring and teach you how to turn them into delicious drinks.
The class includes 5 small seasonal cocktails and light snacks: $50/person.
April 24, 2016 • 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Learn about the history of whiskey and watch it being made in our first hands-on whiskey seminar! Join A2DC distillers as we mash local grains, evaluate fermentations and divide the spirit into ‘heads,’ ‘hearts’ and ‘tails.’ We’ll also be checking the progress of some of our barrels of whiskey. Must be over 21+ years to attend. Space is limited, so sign up soon.
Guests also will have the opportunity to purchase a 2-liter barrel filled with whiskey spirits to participate in the barrel-aging process right at home. Barrel price: $200.00.