Three Oaks Summer Solstice Block Party

Saturday, Jun. 22 | 4:00pm ET (3:00pm CT)

Join the shops, restaurants and galleries of downtown Three Oaks for the inaugural Summer Solstice Block Party. Special performance by Planet D Nonet at the South Elm Stage starting at 7:30 pm. Food by Oaks Eatery and Drier’s Grill, shops open late and more!

Open Mic Night featuring StarHeart

Friday, Aug. 09 | 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.

About the Artists

StarHeart are sibling duo Jake Michael and Jess Lucille. They grew up in South Bend, Indiana and have been making music as StarHeart for 10 years. They have 2 full length full band albums available on every streaming music platform and they love Three Oaks & The Acorn!

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.

Open Mic Night featuring Maggie Kubley

Wednesday, Jul. 10 | 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.

About the Artists

Maggie Kubley is a solo performer, songwriter, comedian, writer, storyteller, and video artist. She has been making her uniquely midwestern multimedia performance works for the better part of the last two decades.

Kubley’s music, comedy, video works, and evening-length multimedia performance pieces have been presented at various music venues, (Lincoln Hall, Metro, Subterranean, Schubas, Constellation, Donald E Stevens Convention Center), listening rooms, storytelling events, performance salons, (Salonathon, Chicago Home Theatre Festival, CHIRP Radio’s First Taste, Chicago Cultural Center, David and Reva Logan Center for the Arts) and theatre/music events (The Fly Honey Show, Taste of Chicago) throughout Chicago. The music of Celine Neon, Maggie’s feminist-forward pop duo, has been featured in national commercials and has performed in venues throughout Chicago and Los Angeles. The Chicago Tribune described Kubley as “compelling and one-of-a-kind” and The Chicago Reader hailed her “boisterous production and infectious pop melodies.”

Kubley’s genre-blending 2019 musical “Come Over” was featured in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Lookout Series and enjoyed sold-out audiences. In 2022, Kubley premiered "Lossed" her second evening-length musical work at Chicago’s Den Theater, courtesy of a grant from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Lossed will be featured in the 2024 Indianapolis Fringe Theater Festival and in Cannonball Fest 2024 (Philadelphia, PA).

Kubley currently serves as the owner and lead educator at Noteworthy Music School, a community-minded music school in Plymouth, IN.

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.

Cracker

Thursday, Sep. 12 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

Cracker is an American rock band formed in 1990 by lead singer David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman. They are an Acorn favorite and we are thrilled to have them back in the theater this September!

About the Artist:

Cracker has been described as a lot of things over the years: alt-rock, Americana, insurgent-country, and have even had the terms punk and classic-rock thrown at them. But more than anything Cracker are survivors. Co-founders David Lowery and Johnny Hickman have been at it for over a quarter of a century–amassing ten studio albums, multiple gold records, thousands of live performances, hit songs that are still in current radio rotation around the globe [“Low,”“Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now),” “Euro-Trash Girl” and “Get Off This,” to name just a few], and a worldwide fan base–that despite the major sea-changes within the music industry–continues to grow each year.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $35 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $35 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Tickets go on on sale Friday, 5/31 at 11am ET.

Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore with The Guilty Ones w/ Paul Cebar

Friday, Nov. 01 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, take the stage with The Guilty Ones at The Acorn!

About the Artists:

When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement. “I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Gilmore answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.” Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album Texicali. Due out June 21, 2024 on Yep Roc Records, Texicali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas(Gilmore).

The album’s geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. The 11 songs on Texicali also connect the duo’s shared fondness for a broad range of American music forms. On their own, both have been prominent artists for decades. A philosophical songwriter with a captivating, almost mystical voice, Gilmore co-founded influential Lubbock group the Flatlanders in the early 1970s. Alvin first drew attention as a firebrand guitarist and budding young songwriter with Los Angeles roots-rockers the Blasters in the early 1980s.

Gilmore is primarily known for left-of-center country music, while Alvin’s compass points largely toward old-school blues. But there’s a lot of ground to cover beyond those foundations, and both artists also are well-known for transcending genre limitations. So it’s not surprising that they’ve spiked Texicali with cosmic folk narratives, deep R&B grooves and even swinging reggae rhythms. “There’s such a strange variety through the whole thing,” Gilmore says. “And I love that.”

They’re both quick to credit the musicians who joined them in the studio as crucial to the sound and spirit of the album. On Downey To Lubbock, they recorded primarily in Los Angeles with a crew that included ringers such as the late Don Heffington on drums and Van Dyke Parks on accordion. This time, though, Alvin’s longtime rhythm section of drummer Lisa Pankratz and bassist Brad Fordham played a larger role, along with guitarist Chris Miller and keyboardist Bukka Allen. “After the time we spent touring, Jimmie and I became members of this band,” Alvin says. “The band can play just about anything, which the album shows off.” Texicali also found Alvin and Gilmore increasingly focusing on original songs. Among them are “Trying To Be Free,” which Gilmore wrote more than 50 years ago; “Southwest Chief,” a collaboration between Alvin and the late Bill Morrissey; and “Death of the Last Stripper,” which Alvin wrote with Terry Allen and his wife Jo Harvey Allen.

Just as important, however, are the choices they made for non-original material. The covers on Texicali include “Roll Around” by Gilmore’s longtime friend Butch Hancock; “Broke Down Engine” and “Betty And Dupree” from blues greats Blind Willie McTell and Brownie McGhee, respectively; and Stonewall Jackson’s “That’s Why I’m Walking,” which marries Gilmore’s country croon to a New Orleans R&B arrangement. Gilmore says he loves New Orleans music, “but it’s not the music I play.” Dave slyly counters: “It is now!”

Paul Cebar:
Taking cues from the dance bands of western Louisiana (and his native Midwest,), the streets (and 45's) of New Orleans, touring African and Caribbean combos and the soul, funk & blues of his youth, Paul Cebar is a masterful synthesist of rhythmic culture. His time spent in his second home of New Orleans, as a musicologist in Florida, and as a journeyman wanderer in Cuba, is reflected in his musical worldview.

At the core is gifted songwriting, and the company Paul keeps bears it out. Bonnie Raitt, Nick Lowe, Chris Smither, John Hiatt and Cesar Rosas are among his friends and admirers.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $35 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $35 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Tickets go on on sale Friday, 5/31 at 11am ET.

Shemekia Copeland with Nathan Graham

Friday, Nov. 15 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Shemekia Copeland possesses one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time. The multi-GRAMMY nominee is beloved and honored worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty and humor of her revelatory songs, as well as for her winning, engaging personality. The Chicago Tribune says, “Copeland is the greatest female blues vocalist working today. There’s no mistaking the majesty of her instrument, nor the ferocity of her delivery.”

“Shemekia Copeland is the greatest blues singer of her generation.” –The Washington Post

“Shemekia Copeland has established herself as one of the leading blues artists of our time. Profound and truly powerful...inviting you to think and to party.” –NPR Music

“Shemekia Copeland gets her message across loud and clear. She transcends with a mix of styles including gospel, rock, blues, soul, and Americana, proudly representing her generation with style and grace in a voice too strong to be ignored.” –No Depression

About the Artists:

On Copeland’s new album, Blame It On Eve, the songs all hit hard, with jaw-dropping performances that instantly take hold and command repeated listening. “There’s serious business on the new album,” Copeland says, “but there are a lot of smiles here too, a lot of joyous moments. It’s my blues for sure but it’s the brighter side. Issues are always important to me, but so is rocking, dancing and just having fun. And that’s something we all can all agree on.”

Blame It On Eve was recorded in Nashville and produced by instrumentalist/songwriter Will Kimbrough (who also produced her previous three albums). It features 12 new songs that tackle subjects as important as a woman’s right to choose and climate change, but also leaves space for Copeland to have fun and unwind. From the autobiographical, rocking blues boogie Tough Mother to the anthemic title track’s good-humored but serious focus on reproductive self-determination to the happy hour of Wine O’Clock, Copeland is inspired throughout.

Famed multi-instrumentalist Jerry Douglas adds his dobro to the fascinating, true story of Tee Tot Payne, the obscure early 20th century Alabama musician who taught Hank Williams the blues, and sacred steel player DaShawn Hickman brings his magic to the feisty and uplifting Tell The Devil. Shemekia’s friend, roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo, joins in on the anguished, celestial query Is There Anybody Up There?. On the sad lover’s tale Belle Sorciere, Copeland sings the chorus in French, with the haunting melody composed by Pascal Danae of the Paris-based band Delgres (who were recently featured on the cover of Rolling Stone France). Copeland’s blistering, deep blues delivery of Down On Bended Knee—by her late father, the great bluesman Johnny Copeland—sets up the thought-provoking closer Heaven Help Us All, a song originally made famous first by Stevie Wonder and later by Ray Charles. Taken as a whole, the passionate, charismatic, joyous and at times confrontational Blame It On Eve is bound to become among the most celebrated releases of Copeland’s impressive, still-unfolding career.

Born and raised in Harlem in 1979, Shemekia Copeland first stepped on stage with her famous father at New York’s Cotton Club when she was eight. Upon release of her Alligator Records debut Turn The Heat Up in 1998 when she was only 18, Copeland instantly became a blues and R&B force to be reckoned with. The New York Times and CNN, among many others, praised her talent, larger-than-life personality, dynamic, authoritative voice and true star power. With each subsequent release, Copeland’s music continued to evolve. From her debut through 2005’s The Soul Truth, Shemekia earned eight Blues Music Awards and a host of Living Blues Awards. 2000’s Wicked received the first of her five GRAMMY nominations. After two successful releases on Telarc (including 2012’s GRAMMY-nominated 33 1/3), Copeland returned to Alligator Records in 2015 with the GRAMMY-nominated, Blues Music Award-winning Outskirts Of Love, melding blues with more rootsy, Americana sounds.

With 2018’s America’s Child, Copeland brought out the first of her celebrated trilogy of albums concerning the state of the world, sung from her perspective as a young, Black woman and new mother. MOJO magazine named America’s Child the #1 blues release of 2018. It won both the Blues Music Award and the Living Blues Award for Album Of The Year. In addition to earning a GRAMMY Award nomination, Copeland’s groundbreaking 2020 follow-up, Uncivil War, was named the 2020 Blues Album Of The Year by DownBeat, MOJO and Living Blues magazines. “Shemekia Copeland is a powerhouse,” said Rolling Stone. “She can do no wrong.” She received her fifth GRAMMY nomination for Done Come Too Far, which closed the trilogy with a searing set of truth-to-power, rock and Hill Country blues-fueled songs. “Shemekia Copeland is an antidote to artifice,” said The Philadelphia Inquirer. “She is a commanding presence, a powerhouse vocalist delivering the truth.”

Copeland has performed thousands of gigs at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world, and has appeared in films, on national television, NPR, and has been the subject of major feature stories in hundreds of magazines, newspapers and internet publications. She’s sung with Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Dr. John, James Cotton and many others, and has shared a bill with The Rolling Stones. She entertained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait in 2008, a trip she says, “that opened my eyes to the larger world around me and my place in it.” In 2012, she performed with B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, Gary Clark, Jr. and others at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama. She has showcased on PBS’s Austin City Limits, was featured in a six-minute story on the PBS News Hour and was the subject of a major Washington Post Sunday magazine piece. In April 2022, she performed at the United Nations General Assembly Hall to a worldwide audience of millions as part of International Jazz Day celebrations. In 2023, Copeland guested on the GRAMMY Award-winning compilation album, Basie Swings The Blues, on the Candid label. She continues to receive regular radio airplay on stations all over the globe. Additionally, Copeland hosts her own popular daily blues radio show on SiriusXM’s Bluesville.

Forbes declared, “Shemekia is fearless, honest and hopeful...she holds back nothing as she delivers hard-hitting musical truths.” The late John Prine paid her a huge compliment when he said, “She simply doesn’t sound like anybody else.” And none other than Copeland’s friend, the legendary Mavis Staples, announced, “I am so happy Shemekia is delivering these songs that the world needs to hear. Her voice is strong and soulful, and her message comes from her heart.”

With Blame It On Eve, Copeland embarks on what she calls “a vacation from all the heaviness.” Blame It On Eve contains plenty of Copeland’s trademark bold and courageous songs, but here Copeland is also looking to unplug from the weight of world. “My last three records have dealt with breaking news,” she says. “This record is for people like me who want a break from the news.”

Nathan Graham
Born and raised in Chicago, Graham meshes South Side Blues with Nashville Americana, beginning his career backing blues singers at famous haunts like Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines. He spent a decade as a guitar-for-hire before picking up a mic to tell his own stories on the stage.

Soulful and steady, Graham’s music offers a raw introspective of the human condition that’s both painful and comforting. His guitar conveys heartbreak, lyrics tell stories of regret, but his rich vocal delivery offers the remedy.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $30 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $30 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Marty Robbins Tribute with Wild Earp & The OK Chorale

Saturday, Aug. 31 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Wild Earp & The OK Chorale perform Marty Robbins’ seminal “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs.”

About the Artist:

Wild Earp is a purveyor of country & western and everything on the borderlands thereabouts. The recipient of the 2023 Ameripolitan Award for Western Swing Male, Earp brings a creative approach to traditional American Roots music, developing his own style that honors the masters of the past while still allowing the genre to evolve in all the right ways. He's joined by The OK Chorale, his harmony-focused group that celebrates the American West of our collective imagination.

In honor of the 65th Anniversary of the Marty Robbins classic Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, they'll be performing the album in its entirety, followed by a set of other cowboy classics and original songs in the same tradition.

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.

Rocks Off: A Tribute To The Rolling Stones

Friday, Aug. 30 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Rocks Off is Chicago's premier and authentic Rolling Stones tribute, delivering the music, the look, and the attitude of the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band!

Whether it be deep album cuts or your favorite live version, Rocks Off captures the Jagger moves, Keef riffs, Charlie Watts' groove, and the blazing Mick Taylor solos from their golden era of 1968-1973. And of course not overlooked is the era of the mid 60's that launched the Stones as rock and roll superstars; Rocks Off nails all your favorites from the Brian Jones and Ronnie Wood eras. If you want to see the next best thing to being there 50 years ago, come and see Rocks Off!

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.

Lydia Loveless

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

Endings are messy. Falling in love is messy. Change is messy. Perhaps, change is the messiest of them all. Especially when eyes are on you; when you blast out of adolescence onto stages across the country, then into your twenties, onto more stages and, finally, into your thirties—all on those same stages. The stages that Lydia Loveless has sung her heart out on, has collapsed on, and laughed on, all mirror the stages of her life thus far for the world to see. When Loveless released her first album over a decade ago, she was still a teenager whose songs of debauchery, guzzling alcohol and doing cocaine were an audio wet dream for a certain type of listener who not only wear their music tastes on their (tattooed) sleeve, but in the lifestyle that they emulate: “outlaw” music with brains – akin to Steve Earle, Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams, vintage country heart with a heartland rock soul.

About the Artist:

In the end, the music industry is still sadly a man’s world and, as such, Loveless grew up in the spotlight (or perhaps, more accurately, the bar lights) while she was placed on a pedestal. Her voicemail greeting is a tongue-in-cheek ode to this: “Hi, this is Lydia Loveless, savior of cowpunk. Please leave a message and I will get back to you.”

The time between their late adolescence to now is defined by a shelf full of records, hundreds of thousands of miles on the road, and a ribbon of heartbreaks pockmarking their trail. Loveless is a fiercely brave writer who bluntly assesses their life in song: their struggles with alcohol and depression, and the uncertainty of not only the future, but what piecing together the past will mean for the present.

In 2020, they put out their excellent fourth full-length Daughter on their own label, Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records, with encouragement from their friend Jason Isbell, but could not tour behind it; the one consistent throughline in Loveless’ life was impossible due to the pandemic. They were living in North Carolina with their boyfriend at the time, stuck, away from the stages they grew up on, isolated from their family, and going stir-crazy. As the world came undone and then back together again, Loveless returned to Columbus, where their career first began. Starting anew, Loveless found part-time work at a recording studio (Secret Studios) and began processing the last two years of their life. The title of their new album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again, came easy—like a mantra from the heavens.

Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again continues the evolution of Loveless. The artist who once sang that she would rather stay home and drink gallons of wine is now on the other end of the bottle, where a bit of resignation resides. She sings on “Feel”: “I’m getting older and my jets are starting to cool, if I ever get sober it’s really over for you fools.” Though a melancholic weight rests on the record—as it was written after the breakup with her longtime boyfriend and following a period of isolation and depression during the pandemic—it also feels like a triumphant moment from an artist who’s continuing her stride. Loveless has always been a brutally honest songwriter, one whose articulation of love, heartbreak and bad habits is wrapped not only in catchy melodies but also her finesse with words.

Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again musically retains the spirit of Loveless’ previous records, but also moves past the chunky drunk and almost out-of-control riffing of their earliest work. Present here is something more akin to Rumors and Tusk-era Fleetwood Mac—and it works incredibly well. Their voice is more controlled and wiser. Although the subject matter that they are mining is, at times, desolate, they mask it with the smoother production. It’s as beautiful and tragic as a woman crying in the rain, with make-up streaming down her cheeks: at once real and mesmerizing.

Gently crushing standout “Runaway” opens with a floating piano chord, slowly building with detailed, multifaceted flourishes to a memorable chorus: “I don’t like to run, I just like to run away.” It’s a stunning showcase of Loveless’ powerhouse vocals and heart-wrenching lyricism. On “Toothache,” she sings about the mundanity of daily life feeling catastrophic enough to precipitate a breakdown, as kinetic, dynamic arrangements add to the track’s intense and claustrophobic mood. Album highlight “Sex and Money” was made for driving with the windows down on a sunny summer day, and Loveless’ wry and self-deprecating sense of humor sparkles: “I know I’m not saving the world / But I gotta live in it so I might as well splurge / On 200 cotton t-shirts with my face on the front.” “Poor Boy” recalls the excitement, energy and rebellion of bands like The Replacements, but Loveless makes the mood her own with a subtle twang and a lot of vulnerability: “I need to clean up my mess and leave the poor boy alone.”

Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again is not only a break-up record drifting back to some of the best of its kind, like Richard & Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights, Superchunk’s Foolish and of course, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, it’s also a reminder to keep improving oneself, taking ownership and moving forward—alone, if needed. Complex and captivating, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again is a brave declaration from a person who has survived a lot. Here they lay bare not only their raw pain, but also the strength and resiliency they’ve earned along the way, that only Loveless could hold.

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.

Illegal Smiles: A Tribute To John Prine

Saturday, Jul. 27 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

The Illegal Smiles are a group of Chicagoland songwriters and musicians with a deep love for the songs of John Prine, from his stunning debut to The Tree of Forgiveness, and everything in-between. The beauty of Prine fans is that we all know the words, whether they make us sob or smile, so come sing-a-long, it don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while.

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.