Fall 2018 — 7E
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Music and magic at the first night of the 41st Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival

On Friday, Jan. 26, Ann Arbor 
locals and residents from the 
far corners of the mitten state 
alike flocked to the University’s 
own Hill Auditorium for the 41st 
Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival. 
Being so close to the festival, in 
geographical terms, might make 
University of Michigan students 
write the event off as a minor 
happening, but the festival is, in 
reality, central to the Ann Arbor 
music scene. At its core, Folkfest, 
as it’s often amicably referred 
to, serves two express purposes. 
First, it is a fundraiser for (and 
by) The Ark, a local venue and 
hub for all things folk. Second, 
it draws people from all over the 
Midwest together to partake in 
an oft-underappreciated genre. 
A folk festival whose headliners 
include Jason Isbell and John 
Prine can only be expected to 
meet expectations, but Friday’s 
portion of the annual event far 
surpassed them. While the final 
act of the night was always sure 
to be a success, there was never 
a dull moment during the night’s 
earlier 
performances. 
Every 
set was musically compelling 
and honest, and a few artists 

managed to touch on the current 
state of affairs in a way that felt 
refreshing and candid.
At half past six, as the audience 
continued to fill the auditorium, 
Chastity Brown took to the stage. 
If the occasional usher’s light 
or the murmur of conversation 
were 
distracting, 
she 
didn’t 
show it, and soon after she began 
playing the room fell quiet. 
With 
sparse 
instrumentation 
— acoustic and electric guitar 
as well as a single bass pedal — 
she set the tone for the night: 
intimate, 
soulful, 
reflective. 
Before playing her last song, 
she offered her thoughts on the 
past year, recounting in specific 
an incident immediately before 
one of her shows when a white 
supremacist 
approached 
her, 
shouting insults and threatening 
violence. Though the story itself 
was disheartening, Brown’s tone 
during the following song was 
overwhelmingly hopeful. With 
the mood defined and a powerful 
set delivered, she exited the stage.
One thing that we absolutely 
can’t help but credit The Ark for 
is their efficiency. Every year, 
Folkfest 
is 
a 
demonstration 
not only of folk music and the 
culture that surrounds it, but 
also of entertainment at peak 

efficiency. Only moments after 
Brown exited and before her 
applause had subsided, emcee 
Joe Pug appeared stage right, 
guitar and harmonica at the 
ready. A talented musician in 
his own right, and even more 
impressive 
entertainer, 
Pug 
kept the audience’s attention 
between sets. While he played 
original songs and offered his 
tastefully subtle sense of humor, 
stage hands and audio engineers 
prepared the stage for the next 
set with a degree of coordination 
that could qualify as art in and of 
itself.
After Brown came the duo 
Dead Horses, comprised of Sarah 
Vos on acoustic guitar and Daniel 
Wolff on double bass. Though an 
ostensibly odd pairing, the two 
managed to fill the room with 
their hymnal-like sound, Wolff’s 
fingers dexterous on the neck of 
his bass. Next was Lori McKenna, 
writer of “Humble and Kind,” 
which took the Grammy for 
Best Country Song in 2017. Her 
apparent comfort on stage was 
infectious, no doubt a product of 
her experience as a performer, 
and the songs she performed 
were influenced in part by her 
five children.
Also a proud parent — though 

to four rather than five — 
Massachusetts-based 
Stephen 
Kellogg played the final set 
before intermission, a rousing 
romp that consisted of just four 
or five songs, ones 
that made me wish he 
would play one or two 
or five more. What 
was beautiful about 
Kellogg’s performance 
was 
his 
sheer 
exuberance at being 
on stage. He beamed 
out at the audience 
with an eagerness and 
thankfulness that was 
reflected 
perfectly 
in the energy with 
which he delivered his 
uplifting folk-anthems. 
It was hard not to be 
excited both with him 
and for him.
Following intermission were 
JJ Grey & Mofro, a prolific group 
whose performance received an 
immediate standing ovation at 
its conclusion. The act featured 
not one but two trumpets, both 
of whom played huge solos, and 
John 
Higginbotham 
(aka 
JJ 
Grey) himself on harmonica. 
Afterward, Jason Isbell and the 
400 Unit took to the stage. Now, 

although 41st anniversaries don’t 
tend to be particularly notable 
in and of themselves, the Folk 
Festival’s 41st marked at least 
one significant change. During 
the final set 
of the night, 
several 
stadium-
style 
lights 
came 
on, 
filling 
the 
hall 
with 
motion 
and 
colorful 
patterns. 
This was the 
first 
year 
for 
these 
features, and 
more 
than 
providing 
pretty 
visuals, they 
signify growth for the festival, 
and hopefully not a departure 
from what has made it so near 
and dear to Ann Arbor’s heart for 
the past two generations.
Isbell 
and 
company’s 
set 
made the lights feel appropriate, 
and 
guitar 
solos 
abounded. 
The most valuable parts of the 
performance, 
though, 
came 
between 
songs, 
when 
Isbell 

exhibited his charisma, making 
well-received jabs at the kind of 
people who leave the room when 
he plays “White Man’s World” 
and giving a nod, before his 
last song, to his struggles with 
alcoholism. It was the sort of 
honesty that wouldn’t necessarily 
be expected from a festival 
headliner, even if the festival 
were a folk festival in Ann Arbor, 
and that’s not even mentioning 
the 
counterintuitiveness 
of 
Isbell’s decision to write and 
perform a song that he knows 
challenges a significant portion 
of his listeners. At the end of the 
night, attendees had a choice: 
They could leave Hill with a 
splendid night of music behind 
them, memories of soaring vocals 
and subtle harmonies, harmonica 
solos played at a breakneck 
pace and softly sung acoustic-
guitar ballads, or choose to see 
a community being fostered. 
Four bars of music can sound 
as pleasant as you want, but it’s 
seeing and knowing the human 
side of it that makes those 
melodies truly awe-inspiring and 
that brings the folk community 
together. It makes me excited 
for Folkfest 2019 — even just two 
days after 2018’s iteration.

SEAN LANG
Daily Arts Writer

It’s seeing and 
knowing the 
human side of 
it makes those 
melodies truly 
awe-inspiring.

ALEXIS RANKIN / DAILY

ALEXIS RANKIN / DAILY

