Concerts

With one foot in the real world and the other in a charmed dimension of his own making, Amos Lee creates rare music: emotionally raw yet touched with a certain magical quality. He intimately documents his real-world struggles on 2022’s Dreamland—an outpouring born of deliberate, often painful self-examination. He collaborated with producer Christian “Leggy” Langdon on itsunpredictable, endlessly imaginative sound—a prime showcase for Lee’s warmly commanding voice and soul-baring songwriting. The first song they created together, “Hold You” set Dreamland’s standard for open-hearted confession. Its delicate convergence of exquisite sonic details—luminous guitar tones, ethereal textures, tender toy-piano melodies—finds Lee looking inward and uncovering a deep urge to provide comfort and solace. Throughout Dreamland he embraces an unfettered honesty, shedding light on the darkest corners of his psyche. Last fall Leeunveiled the 16-song My Ideal (A Tribute To Chet Baker Sings), which pays tribute to his musical hero, reflects on the Billboard chart-topper's deep jazz roots, shines a light on his Philadelphia music community, and toasts the excitement of returning to the road and releasing new music. Chet Baker Sings, a record Lee always loved, holds even deeper meaning as a source of light in the pandemic’s darkest days—where Lee’s daily routine included waking up, meditating, and playing the 1954 jazz epic front to back, diving deep into its nuances.

GRAND RAPIDS SYMPHONY

Recognized nationally for the high quality of its concerts and educational programs, the Grand Rapids Symphony has been an important cultural resource in Grand Rapids and the West Michigan community for almost a century.

Led by Music Director Marcelo Lehninger, Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt, and Assistant Conductor Duo Shen, the orchestra presents more than 400 performances each year, enriching the lives of approximately 200,000 people. Thousands of those who benefit are students, senior citizens, and people with disabilities who are reached through the orchestra’s extensive education and community service programs.

The Grand Rapids Symphony released its 13th professional recording, Strauss & Villa-Lobos, a collection of live performances under the direction of Lehninger, in late 2021. Another notable recording, Invention & Alchemy, featuring jazz harpist Deborah Henson-Conant, was nominated for the Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album during the 49th annual Grammy Awards.

The orchestra boasts longstanding partnerships of over 60 years with the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus and the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony & Classical Orchestra, and more recently has formed an additional affiliate in the Grand Rapids Bach Festival.

The Grand Rapids Symphony made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 and returned in 2018 for a triumphant performance with the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus under Lehninger’s baton.

Musicians from West Michigan will gather at Meijer Gardens this summer to present the Sunday Strings live classical chamber music concert series. Produced and Directed by Haijin Choi.

Rock 'n' roll collective The Revivalists—David Shaw (lead vocals, guitar), Zack Feinberg (guitar), Andrew Campanelli (drums), George Gekas (bass), Ed Williams (pedal steel guitar), Rob Ingraham (saxophone), Michael Girardot (keyboard, trumpet), and PJ Howard (drums, percussion])—made the journey from hole-in-the-wall gigs to sold-out shows at hallowed venues, multiplatinum success, more than 800 million streams, and major media praise. Their life-affirming fifth album, Pour It Out Into The Night, is about living in the moment, fueled by lessons in gratitude and life realizations. As the world came to a standstill in the years since their last album, personal experiences and life challenges abounded with band members having their first children, getting married, and navigating the mental hurdles of lockdown. On lead single "Kid"—a hopeful anthem about capturing the essence of life, self-belief and living for the spirit—piano peeks through bright acoustic guitar as a bold beat powers a chantable chorus. “Kid”introduces an album offering a nostalgic hopefulness rooted in living for who you are, an unburdening, and an appreciation for the here and now. Renowned for their live prowess, soulful alt-rock anthems, distinct mix of many classic styles of American music, and outward generosity through their philanthropic Rev Causes initiative, The Revivalists broke through with 2015's Men Amongst Mountains, featuring the double-platinum smash single and Billboard Hot 100 hit "Wish I Knew You.”

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There might be no other band able to channel the generational anxiety in those early millennial years and turn it into such powerful and inclusive art quite like Band of Horses. The band fashioned gorgeously ragged epics, Ben Bridwell’s high-flying vocals and eccentric enunciation floating like a specter that felt like a prelude to a dream. Full of profundity, truth, and sometimes just homespun advice on how to live, Band of Horses songs became anthems and touchstones for fans. Emotionally intense on a personal and elemental level, the songs for sixth album Things Are Great find Bridwell more autobiographical than he’s ever been on record, detailing the nebulous frustrations and quiet indignities of relationship changes and what a person will do to make things right—and what you do when you can’t. Band of Horses comprises Bridwell, longtime members Ryan Monroe and Creighton Barrett, and new members bass player Matt Gentling (Archers of Loaf) and guitarist Brett Nash. This fresh chapter finds the band recapturing the raw emotion and unpolished punk-rock spirit of its early days. The songs on Things Are Great document the connections in Bridwell’s life that have shifted or remained, yet the epic album is not an exercise in nostalgia or regret. It’s closer to the classic pattern of the hero’s journey—where Bridwell doesn’t locate those elusive answers but finds himself in the end, providing hope all of us can do the same.

Lighting Matches + Hatchwing Rider

Orville Peck is a country recording artist and songwriter known for his deep baritone voice, strong musicianship and songs that are sincere yet bold in their storytelling. Never confirming his identity, Orville, who is openly gay and lived an itinerant life, is never seen without his signature, fringed mask. Following the release of his self-produced debut album Pony in 2019, Orville signed with Columbia Records and released his Show Pony EP. Released to immediate critical acclaim in 2020, the EP features a duet with global icon Shania Twain and puts Orville’s triumphant songwriting skills and intentional craftsmanship on full display. Orville, known for his unique personal style, has collaborated with many fashion brands including but not limited to Beyoncé’s Ivy Park, Dior, Michael KORS and Pamela Love amongst others. When Orville is not performing or touring, he lends his time to activism and the causes he is committed to.

Boz Scaggs launched his solo career with 1968's seminal album Boz Scaggs, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, for Atlantic Records. Scaggs continued to mine a personalized mix of rock, blues, and R&B influences, along with a signature style of ballads on such influential 1970s albums as Moments, Boz Scaggs & Band, My Time, Slow Dancer, and 1976’s Silk Degrees. The latter release became a massive commercial breakthrough, reaching No. 2 and remaining on the album charts for 115 weeks. It spawned three Top 40 hit singles: "It's Over," "Lido Shuffle" and the Grammy-winning "Lowdown." Subsequently, "We're All Alone,” from that same album, would become a No. 1 single for Rita Coolidge. Silk Degrees was followed by the albums Down Two Then Left and Middle Man, and such hit singles as "Breakdown Dead Ahead," "Jo Jo," and "Look What You've Done to Me."

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With five Grammys, 14 Blues Foundation Awards, and a groundbreaking career spanning nearly 50 years under his belt, Keb’ Mo’s got nothing left to prove. Just don’t tell him that. Born and raised in Compton, Keb’ began his remarkable journey at age 21, when he landed his first major gig playing with Jefferson Airplane violinist Papa John Creach. For the next 20 years, Keb’ worked primarily behind the scenes, establishing himself as a respected guitarist, songwriter, and arranger with a unique gift for linking the past and present in his evocative playing and singing. He recorded a 1980 one-off album under his birth name, Kevin Moore, yet it wasn’t until 1994 that he introduced the world to Keb’ Mo’ with the release of his widely acclaimed self-titled debut. Critics quickly took note of his modern, genre-bending take on old-school sounds; two years later, he garnered his first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album with Just Like You. Keb’ looked to his own story for inspiration on his captivating new album, Good To Be, artfully linking the grit and groove of his Compton roots with the strum and twang of his more recently adopted hometown Nashville—where he’s lived and worked for the past 11 years—and weaving together a joyful, heartwarming, relentlessly optimistic tapestry that manages to encompass the entirety of this once-in-a-generation artist’s larger-than-life career.

Musicians from West Michigan will gather at Meijer Gardens this summer to present the Sunday Strings live classical chamber music concert series. Produced and Directed by Haijin Choi.

A Jason Isbell record always lands like a decoder ring in the ears and hearts of his audience: a soundtrack to his world and magically theirs, too. Weathervanes carries the same revelatory power. This is a storyteller at the peak of his craft, observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. He shrinks life small enough to name the fear and then strip it away, helping his listeners make sense of how two plus two stops equaling four once you reach a certain age—and carry a certain amount of scars. The roots of this record go back into the isolation of the pandemic and to Isbell’s recent time on the set as an actor on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. There were guitars in his trailer and in his rented house and a lot of time to sit and think. The melancholy yet soaring track “King of Oklahoma” was written there. Isbell also watched the great director work, saw the relationship between a clear vision and its execution, and—perhaps most important—saw how even someone as decorated as Scorsese sought out and used his co-workers’ opinions.

Train, a multi-Grammy and Billboard Award-winning band from San Francisco, has had 14 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 list since the release of their debut self-titled album in 1998. Train's climb to the top began in 1994, as the original band tenaciously built a loyal hometown following.The tumbling wordplay of "Meet Virginia'' gave them their first unlikely radio hit and 2001’s Drops of Jupiter broke them to multiplatinum status, thanks to the double-Grammy Award-winning title song that spent 10 months in the Top 40, has been certified seven times platinum in the United States, and earned the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. Train has sold more than 10 million albums and 30 million tracks worldwide, with multiple platinum and gold citations including three Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, and dozens of other honors. Front man Pat Monahan also partakes in ventures outside of music: His award-winning wine portfolio—Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co, created in 2011—has sold over 10 million bottles and won over 100 medals. Proceeds from his wine business support Family House, a San Francisco charity that supports families of children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Additionally, Monahan has appeared on television and in film and has executive producer credits.

Steve Hilger and the River City Rollers