arts&life

music/cover story

Roots rockers Brother Hallow

Pickin’ & Grinnin’

A pair of music

afi cionados bring

down-home music

to the porches of

Ferndale.

JULIE EDGAR
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

details

For more information about the
Front Porch, including a map of
porches, visit thefrontporchmi.com.

38

June 15 • 2017

T

he only fretting on these
stages will come from
guitars and banjos.
On Saturday, June 24, a swath
of porches in Ferndale will
come alive with the sounds of
more than 35 bands and musi-
cal performers — lots of acous-
tic acts and at least one gospel
artist — curated by Detroit’s
best-known music writer,
Gary Graff, and his music afi-
cionado friend and business
partner, Michael Benghiat.
The Front Porch, as the
event has come to be called,
is intended to showcase rising
and established musical per-
formers in Detroit and beyond
on some 25 porches — and
possibly to become a television
show of the same name.

jn

The front porch concept
migrated from Ithaca, N.Y., in
2007 and made its way to vari-
ous university towns like Ann
Arbor and other bohemian
enclaves. Benghiat saw one
outside of Cleveland and loved
it. Graff, founder of the Detroit
Music Awards and a former
Free Press pop music critic,
liked it, too.
The friends thought they
could film artists playing on
their own front porches inter-
spersed with interviews and
create a series of episodes for
television, a la Soundstage
or Live from Daryl’s House.
The pair formed Front Porch
Productions and pitched the
idea to some local PBS folks.
PBS loved the concept, said

Gary Graff (left) and Michael Benghiat

