Concerts

Ayers Basement Systems Tuesday Evening Music Club brings talented local and regional musicians and cultural organizations to the Frederik Meijer Gardens Amphitheater stage, on Tuesday evenings between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Jordan Hamilton + Grace Theisen

The annual Fifth Third Bank Summer Concerts at Meijer Gardens series brings the finest national and international musicians to West Michigan, thrilling music lovers across all generations and genres.

Nickel Creek is the platinum-selling, internationally renowned roots trio of mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins and guitarist Sean Watkins. The Grammy-winning band has revolutionized folk and roots music since first performing together as children at a pizza parlor in San Diego in 1989, signing to acclaimed roots label Sugar Hill Records after wowing the bluegrass circuit for a decade. Nickel Creek quickly broke through in 2000 with their Grammy-nominated, Alison Krauss-produced self-titled LP, which showcased not just their instrumental virtuosity but their burgeoning songwriting prowess. The trio quickly followed that effort with the Krauss-produced This Side, a landmark release that earned Nickel Creek the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and brought their progressive take on acoustic music to a broader audience, greatly influencing the sound and trajectory of roots music in the process. 2005’s Grammy-nominated Why Should the Fire Die? found the trio pushing genre boundaries even further, incorporating elements of alt-rock and indie pop into their singular brand of acoustic music. Nickel Creek’s most recent album, 2014’s critically acclaimed and joyously received A Dotted Line, ended a seven-year recording and touring hiatus for the band, during which members explored other musical and creative avenues.

For over 25 years, O.A.R. have embodied the kind of joyfully communal spirit that’s transcendent for artist and audience alike. Since forming in Maryland in 1996, the multiplatinum-selling band have merged their musical DNA into a free-flowing sound and exhilarating live show, repeatedly selling out legendary venues thanks to their massively devoted community of fans. In a thrilling new chapter for the ever-evolving collective, O.A.R.’s tenth studio album, The Arcade, marks their most collaborative effort yet: a boldly unpredictable body of work fully showcasing the extraordinary expanse of their singular musicality. The mission of making music with a profoundly life-affirming impact has defined O.A.R. since its earliest days. First taking the stage at an eighth-grade talent show, the group grew a grassroots following while attending The Ohio State University, largely on the strength of their exuberant live performance and their fans’ feverish sharing of live recordings. O.A.R. have maintained one of the most dedicated fanbases in the world while amassing many platinum and gold certifications. Known for their rare level of autonomy in the music industry, they’ve engaged in a great number of philanthropic endeavors, including establishing a scholarship at The Ohio State University and founding the Heard The World Fund to support youth and education in underserved communities throughout the U.S.

Preston Cooper will be opening the show.

The Carl Webb Band + Soul Syndicate

Globally recognized musician, activist, Soulshine Bell hotel owner, and award-winning filmmaker Michael Franti is revered for his high-energy live shows, inspiring music, devotion to health and wellness, worldwide philanthropic efforts, and the power of optimism. During his multidecade career, Franti has earned three Billboard No. 1’s, six Top 30 Hot AC singles, 10 Top 25 AAA Singles and three Billboard Top 5 Rock Albums. In January 2019, Franti released his self-directed documentary Stay Human, which won an array of awards at film festivals worldwide and influenced his writing for his album Stay Human Vol. II (Thirty Tigers), which debuted at No. 1 on the Americana and Independent Album charts and received critical acclaim from USA Today, Billboard, Associated Press, and Paste. His Stay Human podcast presented by PACT is nearing its 100th episode and features creatives from all walks of life, with new episodes available each week. Franti continues to foster community on and off stage with a wish-granting nonprofit organization, Do It For The Love, founded by Michael and his wife, Sara. Do It For The Love brings those with life-threatening illnesses, veterans, and children with severe challenges to concerts worldwide, fulfilling over 3,300 wishes and touching the lives of over 12,000 people to date.

Tegan and Sara are still evolving the way they collaborate, even 20 years into recording together and 20 more as twin sisters. For their 10^th studio album, Crybaby, they got inside each other’s songs in a whole new way. Informed by some of the intense new experiences they’ve had the past couple years—the stress and trauma of the pandemic, the upheaval of changing their entire professional team including their label and management, other personal trials and tribulations—the twins found some of their most potent inspiration yet and a willingness to try doing things differently. Although the source of the title Crybaby isn’t revealed until several tracks in, as a refrain in the bridge to the deliriously catchy “Under My Control,” the word is meaningful for the album as a whole. In the past, they both tried to avoid using the words “cry” and “baby” in their songs, out of feeling both words had become cringe-inducing clichés. But similar to naming their chart-topping 2013 album Heartthrob to reappropriate the word from its masculine connotation, they wanted to explore new contexts for the words, separately and together. The twins have begun to feel a renewed sense of intensity around all of their creative projects, whether the upcoming album or the TV show or various other endeavors they’ve undertaken.

The Wood Brothers have learned to trust their hearts. For the better part of two decades, they've cemented their reputation as freethinking songwriters, road warriors, and community builders, creating a catalog of diverse music and a loyal audience who’ve grown alongside them through the years. That evolution continues with Heart is the Hero, the band's eighth studio album. Recorded analog to 16-track tape, this latest effort finds its three creators embracing the chemistry of their acclaimed live shows by capturing their performances in real-time direct from the studio floor with nary a computer in sight. An acoustic-driven album that electrifies, Heart is the Hero is stocked with songs that target not only the heart, but the head and hips, too. Throughout Heart Is The Hero, those performances are matched by the visceral storytelling and songwriting chops that have turned The Wood Brothers into Grammy-nominated leaders of American roots music, even as their music reaches far beyond the genre's borders. The albumis bold, bright, and singularly creative, a fully realized collective effort ultimately greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps that's to be expected from a group whose willingness to experiment has earned acclaim from Rolling Stone and NPR, as well as an annual touring schedule of sold-out music halls and theaters on both sides of the Atlantic.

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The year 2022 marked a decade since Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent released their debut album O’ Be Joyful, the first formally billed as Shovels & Rope. That first decade included the release of six full-length albums, three collaborative covers albums, a curated music festival in their South Carolina hometown of Charleston, a musical film and countless dynamic live performances all over the planet. But it was in the rear courtyard suite of the Decatur St. house belonging to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans where the duo began polishing up the songs that became the stark personal musings of their most recent album, Manticore. There was a piano in the room and a little desk. There were piles of scattered and folded papers lying on the bed and copious digital ideas in the form of voice memos. An image here and a rhyme there, scratched into a note pad for later. Ten years since O’ Be Joyful, amidst a sea of their peers, Shovels & Rope are still master commentators of the human experience and maintain a rare gift that allows them to address the most gnarly of life’s lows while always keeping an eye on hope, compassion and community.

Grammy-winning guitarist Peter Frampton is among the most celebrated artists in rock history. At 16, he was lead singer and guitarist for British band the Herd. At 18, he co-founded one of the first super groups: seminal rock act Humble Pie. His recording session and live performance collaborations include such legendary artists as George Harrison, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, Dion, Hank Marvin, Ringo Starr, B.B. King, Mike McCready and Matt Cameron, Buddy Guy, and Steve Miller. He worked closely with Cameron Crowe on his Oscar winning film, Almost Famous—as a technical advisor, writing music for fictional band Stillwater and making a cameo as Humble Pie’s road manager. In 2007, he won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album and in 2014 was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame. He received the prestigious Les Paul Innovation Award from NAMM’s TEC Awards in 2019 and his album All Blues was No. 1 for 15 weeks on Billboard’s Blues Chart. In 2020 Frampton was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, his autobiography debuted on The New York Times Bestsellers list, and his 2021 album saw widespread critical acclaim. Last fall, a sold-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall was filmed and airs on PBS as part of their Pledge Drive. The numbered limited-edition vinyl box set Frampton@50, featuring three essential 1972–1975 studio releases, is slated for late July. After 46 years, Frampton’s relevancy has not waned in the least.