Open Mic Night Featuring For Pete’s Sake

Thursday, Jul. 13 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

Where else in Harbor Country can you go for an evening filled with amazing talent? Come experience Harbor Country’s most exciting array of acts, packed into one night on the fabulous Acorn stage with a state of the art, professional sound system.
No Admission Fee, Donations Encouraged

Performer Inquiries: Email openmic@acornlive.org

This activity is supported in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and sponsored by The Frederick S. Upton Foundation.

Featured Artist:

For Pete’s Sake is an acoustic group of multi-instrumental musicians featuring Cole Latimer, Dan Moser and Jim McClure. The band plays regularly at Irish Pubs, breweries and wineries and they love to participate in the plethora of local festivals. They describe themselves as musicians playing “Irish, bluegrass, classic country, Cajun, sea shanties, maybe even a polka!”

In addition to being a superb fiddle player, Cole also plays mandolin, bodhran, tin whistle, guitar, banjo and bass. Dan shares vocals and also plays a variety of acoustic instruments including the Irish concertina. Jim is the percussionist who rounds out the group.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Pride Open Mic Night Featuring Dylan Reed Leavitt

Wednesday, Jun. 21 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

The Acorn is proud to present a very special Acorn Open Mic Night, showcasing LGBTQIA+ performers and Allies. Hosted by the 2020 winner of The Acorn's Singer-Songwriter Competition, Dylan Reed Leavitt.

Where else in Harbor Country can you go for an evening filled with amazing talent? Come experience Harbor Country’s most exciting array of acts, packed into one night on the fabulous Acorn stage with a state of the art, professional sound system.

No Admission Fee, Donations Encouraged

Performer Inquiries: Email openmic@acornlive.org

This activity is supported in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Featured Artist:

Dylan Reed Leavitt was the winner of The Acorn’s 2020 Singer-Songwriter Competition. Her original style and natural audience rapport has built her a significant following. She also has impressive vocal ability - effortlessly moving between high and low pitches, incorporating interesting embellishments and adding dynamic expressiveness. In addition, Dylan is an accomplished musician and singer-songwriter. Once you experience one of her unforgettable performances, you will absolutely want to see her again.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

SuperBlue: Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter

Friday, Sep. 29 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Grammy Award-winner Kurt Elling is without question today’s preeminent male jazz vocalist, renowned worldwide for his unparalleled virtuosity and flair for trailblazing artistic exploration. From his stunning reinvention of timeless standards to his own captivating original songcraft, the Chicago-based musician has fused his dazzling talents across a panoply of musical approaches, emblazoning each with signature imagination, insight, and emotional intelligence.

Where many male jazz vocalists at this stage in a much vaunted career have tended to stick to the tried and true, Elling seems to be growing more ambitious and experimental with the passing of time, a tendency evidenced by his stunning new LP, SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree. The followup to 2021’s remarkable SuperBlue, the album once again sees Elling joining forces with producer/guitarist Charlie Hunter and multi-instrumentalist duo drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison for a kaleidoscopic collection of new songs, surprising covers, and dynamic reinventions.

Tickets go on sale Friday, April 28 at 10am ET.

The Acorn's RESERVED SEATING ticket option includes an additional $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

The Acorn Tree House presents Birds of a Feather

Saturday, Jun. 29 | 12:00pm ET (11:00am CT)

Birds of a Feather is a new American indie family superduo consisting of two kids music luminaries - Brooklyn’s, longtime children’s music pioneer, Suzi Shelton and Filipina-American Little Miss Ann of Chicago. Individually, Suzi and Ann have each maintained a strong presence within the national kids music community performing with their own bands across the country and producing many award-winning albums on their own. For over a decade, these longtime friends have also been inspired to perform together regularly at esteemed venues including the Kids stage at Lollapalooza (Chicago), The Overture Center (Madison), Jewish Museum (NYC), The Cabot (Beverly, MA) and Wolftrap (DC) to name a few.

Over the years, Suzi and Ann have recorded many singles together including “Spread More Love” and “Welcome Spring” which have been featured on national family radio stations such as Sirius XM Kids Place Live. In 2023, the duo decided to take it one step further and began collaborating by weekly zoom songwriting sessions to create their debut full length kids music album “Rock Together” produced by GRAMMY award winning Dean Jones highlighting their distinctive musical styles, unique vocals, infectious, joyful energy and rich harmonies to be released June 7th, 2024. The album features a plethora of diverse talented special guests from around the globe including Mista Cookie Jar, Ronnie Boy Kids, Uncle Devin, Mil's Trills, Joanie Leeds, Aaron Nigel Smith, Red Yarn, Michael Napolitano, 123 Andrés, Claudia Robin Gunn, and Katie Ha Ha Ha.

Rico! A Tribute To Santana

Friday, Jun. 23 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Rico is defined as a band with a rich sound of diversified musical cultures. A mixture of sophisticated melodic genres and ethnicity coming together is the essence of Rico!

About the Artists:

Rico is defined as a band with a rich sound of diversified musical cultures. A mixture of sophisticated melodic genres and ethnicity coming together is the essence of Rico! This sound can be heard on their CD’s entitled “Make Music (2010)” and “Casa De Tambores (2004)”. Influenced tremendously by the sound and spirit of Santana, you can say Rico is the modern day Santana. These musicians also do a three hour tribute show paying homage to their main influence Santana. The band is comfortable in any genre and is right at home putting their spin on covers from Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Kanye West, Hendrix, Santana, etc.

Rico creates an immense fiery soulful sound through bass, congas, percussion, drums, timbales, keyboards, guitar, and pure passion. The band will move you physically and mentally with their hypnotic blend of afro-cuban rhythms, or purge deep into your soul with their eminent sense of melody. They are influenced and inspired by all the innovative rock, soul, jazz, afro-cuban, blues, funk, reggae, and hip-hop pioneers.
Rico! is a conglomeration of all the great musical idioms, with a cast of talented musicians to stir and season a rich flavorful sound. The world’s music is Rico! and their vision is to play inspiring music bridging the gap and bringing all people together in peace, harmony and happiness.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Cathy Richardson

Friday, Jun. 09 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Grammy-nominated rock goddess Cathy Richardson, lead singer of Jefferson Starship and Cathy Richardson Band, returns to The Acorn!

About the Artist:

It’s hard to think of any musician who’s had a more varied career than Chicago-based singer Cathy Richardson; from scrappy indie rock singer selling albums out of her car to commercial jingles, off-Broadway stage productions to fronting Jefferson Starship and a variety of side projects, she also picked up a Grammy nomination along the way. The twists and turns of her career feel impossible to follow, and incredibly unlikely, but are owed to the vast range of Richardson’s dynamite-packed vocal cords and her dogged perseverance to achieve goals she set as a teenager.

“When I set out to do rock and roll, I was like, 'I'm going to be a rock star.' Not, 'I want to be a rock star.' I'm going to be a rock star,” she says. “I thought that it was, 'Oh, I'm going to write songs and I'm going to shop them to a record label and then I'm going to get signed and then I'm going to be rich and famous.' That's how I thought it was going to go down and that was my sort of plan. I had no idea how I was going to enact that plan, but I just blindly started trudging down that path. And then it was just always one little door after another that kept opening. It was just these little sort of victories along the way, these little dangling carrots that I would chase after and then I would get them, and then it would be like, 'Okay. What next? What's next?'”

What’s next for Richardson is as varied as her list of credits, but in the immediate future is performing with her deep well of self-penned songs, which she’s built up over decades as the frontwoman for a list of bands too long to list here, and, in Voice Box, a monthly songwriting and storytelling event she co-hosts outside Chicago for the last eleven years.

“I collaborate with Maureen Muldoon on this show called 'Voice Box,’ where the stories are in a theme of a song title,” she says. “I listen to the storytellers with the audience and then jump up and play a song spontaneously, based on their story. We’ve also been writing some songs and using them for different film projects. So I'm thinking that there may be a new Cathy Richardson album that comes out of it.”

You can see Richardson pull from this catalog of her own songs--and from her Goddesses of Rock showcase celebrating the iconic women of the rock n’ roll era--on tour. In addition to seeing her solo, she’s consistently touring with Jefferson Starship, which she’s been a member of since 2008, when the band’s founder Paul Kantner asked her to join the band after seeing her touring with the original Big Brother’s Holding Company, with whom she played following her days playing Janis Joplin in an off-Broadway stage play called 'Love, Janis' (remember the little doors she mentioned earlier?). In 2020, Jefferson Starship also released their first album since 2008, 'Mother of the Sun,' featuring songs written by Richardson, including 'It’s About Time' co-written with guitarist Jude Gold and Grace Slick.

“The first song we wrote was, 'What Are We Waiting For?' and I played that for Grace, and she cried and she loved it so much. She's like, 'It sounds old and it sounds new and the message is right on.',” Richardson says. “And I said, 'Well, you know, we're doing a whole record. Why don't you send me some words and we'll see if maybe we can make them into a song?' We were watching the Women's March on TV at her house and I said, 'You know, we should write the ultimate female empowerment anthem.' I'm like, it's about time. Let us run the world, guys. Come on. It's about time. So, she sent me these “It's About Time” lyrics and I grabbed bits and pieces of it and Jude Gold had this riff that he had been playing with, and I wrote a chorus and we put it together for the album.”

As she enters her fourth decade carving her own unique trail through the thickets of the music industry, Richardson’s live shows--for herself and for her various projects--are the thing that keep her going through new doors and accepting new challenges, the thing that makes sticking it out through unforeseen twists and turns worth it.

“When I was really young, I performed a Barbara Streisand song for a talent show. I did my thing with my costume and I belted it out, and at the end, everyone jumped up out of their seats, applauding. And I was terrified. I was like, 'What's happening?,” she remembers. “And I walked off the stage shaking, and my mom meets me backstage, so excited. 'Cathy, they gave you a standing ovation.' And I'm like, 'What does that mean?' And she said, 'That means they really liked you.' And that was it, man. That was the litmus. I was like, 'I need to make them stand up every time.'”

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

The Chicago Experience

Saturday, Aug. 12 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

The Chicago Experience is just as it sounds – a group of musicians who call Chicago home, and who share a love for the music of one of the greatest rock n’ roll bands of all time... Chicago. Together, the band recreates the sound and feel of Chicago’s music, whose hit songs have touched generations of fans spanning several decades.

The Chicago Experience invites you to relive memories of the music that captured everyone’s hearts – from the early hits off Chicago Transit Authority’s 1968 self-titled album, such as “Beginnings” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” through the 1980s, with Chicago’s hits “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” and “You’re The Inspiration,” you will share in the joy these songs bring.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Will Hoge

Saturday, Jul. 29 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Americana singer, songwriter, and musician Will Hoge comes to The Acorn.

About the Artists:

Will Hoge is a mainstay of 21st century rock & roll, carrying the torch for a blue-collar sound rooted in ringing Telecaster guitars and anthemic songwriting. He makes music for roadhouses and rallies, for car stereos and dive-bar jukeboxes, for Saturday night hell-raising and Sunday morning comedowns. In an era of social media influencers looking to fast-track their way to fame, Hoge has proudly taken the long way around, dedicating himself not to the destination, but to the journey itself.

The trek continues with Wings On My Shoes, the twelfth studio album in a career whose milestones include Number One hits, Grammy nods, major-label record deals, and hard-won independence. Written amidst the doom and gloom of a pandemic that brought his touring schedule to a standstill, it's a record that seeks out silver linings, emphasizing bright moments over looming darkness. For Hoge, Wings On My Shoes also marks a recommitment to the amplified Americana sound that's earned him a global audience, as well as nods from Rolling Stone, Forbes, and NPR.

"I always want to embrace change — to accept new things artistically— but at the end of the day, I can try to run from this idea that I love good, guitar-based rock & roll music, or I can wear that badge of honor," he says. "I'm in the 'wearing the badge of honor' phase now."

He wears it proudly with songs like "All I Can Take," a fast 'n' furious blast of bar-band bombast that he recorded in a single take. "Dead Man's Hand" slows the tempo but deepens the groove, with Hoge delivering a Springsteen-sized story of desperation and dirty business dealings. "John Prine's Cadillac" celebrates life and love with power chords, cymbal crashes, and a nod to Hoge's songwriting hero, while "It's Just You" remakes the jubilant jangle of Buddy Holly's best work into a heartland-rock love song.

Recorded during a week's worth of live performances at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios, Wings On My Shoes spotlights the chemistry shared by Hoge and his group of hard-touring road warriors: guitarist Thom Donovan, drummer Allen Jones, and bassist Christopher Griffiths. Hoge pulls triple-duty as the album's writer, frontman, and producer, while guest multi-instrumentalist Joshua Grange adds touches of pedal steel and organ throughout. Featuring few overdubs and zero studio trickery, Wings On My Shoes stands tall as a document of a hardscrabble band at work, wearing its rough edges with pride, sweating and stomping its way toward rock & roll redemption.

"There are common things we all love — the Beatles, the Stones, the Mount Rushmore of rock music — but everyone brings their own influences to the table," Hoge says of Wings' lineup, whose members previously joined him on Tiny Little Movies and My American Dream. "Allen comes from a punk-rock background. Christopher is a Detroit native with Motown influences. Thom loves Johhny Marr and does great things with guitar effects. As we're arranging the songs, I'm encouraging these guys to push a little bit and help steer. I don't want to make a record where I play everything, because that defeats the whole purpose of ensemble playing. I'm trying to incorporate everyone else's gifts into what we're doing."

At its core, though, Wings On My Shoes remains a songwriter's record. Hoge began writing these 10 songs months into the Covid pandemic, his world rattled by the isolation that came with the world's shelter-in-place recommendation. "I was a mess," he remembers. "I didn't realize how much this touring lifestyle had afforded me a certain level of built-in vulnerability and connection with people. Normally, you get into a van with a group of musicians, and you naturally hang out during the weeks that follow, and there's a communal aspect. There's a feeling of being connected. I'd gotten used to that, and without it, I went through something of a nervous breakdown. I needed to recenter myself."

Hoge revamped his schedule, making time for daily blocks of journaling, exercise, and songwriting. He meditated. He practiced yoga. He read and wrote. "It was regimented and unsexy," he admits, "but it helped. There was a real focus on songwriting once again. Over the course of eight to nine months, that's where the music came from, and I got really excited about this new batch of songs."

Those daily songwriting sessions yielded more than full-throttle rockers. On the acoustic "Whose God Is This," Hoge explores the middle ground between classic country textures and irreverent Bible School takeaways. "Queenie" finds him strumming a gentle salute to the strong, determined women in his life, while the stunning "The Last One To Go" — a career highlight, laced with gorgeous strings and interwoven acoustic guitars — tackles hard realities about marriage and mortality. Wings On My Shoes makes room for all of it, highlighting the diverse perspectives of a craftsman whose songs turn southern storytelling into universal sentiment.

Years before Americana music received its own category at the Grammy Awards, Will Hoge was on the frontlines, helping to pilot and popularize the genre's blend of American roots music. With Wings On My Shoes, he distills that sound down to its strongest ingredients, steering himself from roadhouse rock & roll to southern soul, from guitar-driven grease 'n' grit to Tennessee twang, from amplified barn-burners to acoustic numbers. For Will Hoge, that's how you take flight, and Wings On My Shoes finds him flying high.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Journeyman – A Tribute to Eric Clapton

Saturday, Jul. 22 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Shaun Hague has built quite the resume in the last decade of his life. At just 17, he was named “The Best Young Blues Guitarist” by The House of Blues and by 21, the young guitarist was playing guitar for blues phenom Kenny Wayne Shepherd. His career has also seen him sharing the stage with Amos Lee, John Waite, Terra Naomi, performing on Jay Leno and sitting in with John Fogerty.

In honor of his biggest musical influence (Eric Clapton), Hague has been making waves with his Journeyman – A Tribute to Eric Clapton. The band provides a powerful performance of all aspects of Clapton’s career from Bluesbreakers to From The Cradle!

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes

Friday, Jul. 14 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Folk band Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes return to The Acorn.

About the Artists:

The son of a small-town farming community, Cody Diekhoff logged plenty of highway and stage time under the name Chicago Farmer before settling in the city in 2003. Profoundly inspired by fellow Midwesterner John Prine, he’s a working-class folk musician to his core. His small-town roots, tilled with city streets mentality, are turning heads North and South of I-80.

“I love the energy, music, and creativity of Chicago, but at the same time, the roots and hard work of my small town,” he shares. Growing up in Delavan, Illinois, with a population less than 2,000, Diekhoff’s grandparents were farmers, and their values have always provided the baseline of his songs.

He writes music for “the kind of people that come to my shows. Whether in Chicago or Delavan, everyone has a story, and everyone puts in a long day and works hard the same way,” he says.
“My generation may have been labeled as slackers, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t work hard - many people I know put in 50-60 hours a week and 12-hour days. That’s what keeps me playing. I don’t like anyone to be left out; my music is for everyone in big and very small towns.”

He listened to punk rock and grunge as a kid before discovering a friend’s dad playing Hank Williams, and it was a revelation. Prine and Guthrie quickly followed. The name Chicago Farmer was originally for a band, but the utilitarian life of driving alone from bar to bar, city to city - to make a direct connection to his audience and listener, took a deeper hold.

“You can smell the dirt in the fields, hear the wind as it blows across the plains, and see the people that Chicago Farmer sings about. Each track captures a moment in time, whether for a person or a particular place. Imagine if a John Steinbeck short story had been written as a song, and this will give you a fairly good idea as to what Chicago Farmer accomplishes on his albums.”
— HONEST TUNE

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.