It’s starting to sound like summer in Washtenaw County, thanks to the start of several local music festivals and events taking place this month. Whether inside or outside, on the street or in a barn, during the day or at night, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of summer music festivals and events to satisfy your ears.

Third Place Music Fest 
June 4-June 7, Ann Arbor 
This four-day festival of experimental music, from classical and jazz to electronic and world, includes multiple concerts in spaces around Ann Arbor. Third Place Music Fest brings together artists, community members, and businesses to celebrate the power of the third place—public spots that can foster a sense of community. The festival kicks off June 4 with performances from Magnolia Rohrer and Dr. Prof. Leonard King’s Proportioned Orchestra at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. It wraps up June 7 with sets from Leith and Dave Sharp Worlds Quartet at Canterbury House. For details, visit the festival’s website.

Sounds & Sights 
June 5-July 31, Chelsea 
This festival features free live performances every Thursday night on 10 different stages in downtown Chelsea. Artists include Hullabaloo, The Town Band, Bowdish Brothers, Seventh, Corndaddy, The Band Mint, the Kate Hinote Trio, Annie and Rod Capps, Wilson and Brenner, Luna Pier, and more. There’s also a weekend edition July 25-26 with live music from Magic Bus, The Square Pegz, Bret Maynard, Blaine Luis, Scotty Karate, Ben Daniels Band, and The Crasherz. For details, visit the festival’s website.

A2 Summer Streets 
June 5-August 31, Ann Arbor 
Downtown Ann Arbor’s streets transform into a bustling hub of music and art every weekend this summer, thanks to Main Street Ann Arbor. Beginning June 5 and continuing every weekend through August 31, Main Street, Liberty Street, and Washington Street will close to vehicle traffic. Live music starts June 5 with the Depot Town Big Band on Main Street by Conor O’Neill’s. Additional performers include The Huron Valley Harmonizers, Four Roses Band, The Vicissitones, II-V-I Orchestra, The Glen Leven Band, and more. For details, visit A2 Summer Streets’ website.

Dave & Kristi feel a special connection to the chickadee.

The Dexter duo embraces the songbird as a symbol of joy and hope on their new folk album, The Chickadees.

“The chickadee reference is about the spiritual part of you that lives on,” said Kristi Davis about her latest release with husband and musical partner Dave Boutette.

“That’s the hopeful part, and they represent good luck, happiness, knowledge, truth, and adaptability. That’s exactly the stuff that we need right now.”

Davis and Boutette channel the chickadee’s positive spirit as they reflect on love, loss, and aging across the album’s 13 tracks.

“As far as things that are on the record, we’ve experienced a lot of loss in the last two or three years,” Boutette said. “And also this summer we’re both turning 60. It’s everything from family members and friends passing.”

This story originally ran November 2, 2023. We're republishing it because the Judy Banker Band is performing on Friday, May 30, 6:30 pm at the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Avenue.

Judy Banker keeps things real on Bona Fide.

The Ann Arbor singer-songwriter explores genuine feelings of heartbreak, grief, and love on her new Americana album.

“One of my litmus tests for myself with a song is: Does it ring true to me? When I think of the vignette, the experience, or the feeling of that kind of relationship dynamic, does it say what I want to say?” said Banker, who’s a University of Michigan alumna and a therapist.

“That’s what I do with my songs—if it doesn’t say it strong enough or it doesn’t capture it quite right—there’s a certain tension that I want to be able to express. I feel like every single one of those songs is like my diary.”

On Bona Fide, Banker takes listeners on a personal journey that explores the cycle of relationships and the emotions that accompany them. The album’s rich harmonies and rootsy instrumentation bring those experiences to life across 11 heartfelt tracks.

“I’m a therapist by day, and on a big-picture level, my adult life has been dedicated to trying to help people to name, understand, and get the complexity of emotions … and that it’s important to work with them and embrace that,” Banker said.

“It’s a very selfish motive in the sense that these are my expressions and my songs, and I like them, but I just hope people say, ‘Oh, I’ve had that feeling.’”

Tom Curless and Chip Saam anticipate life’s twists and turns and adjust their plans and perspectives accordingly on Consequences & Detours, the new album by their band, Crossword Smiles.

“At this point in our lives, we start to have a different perspective on life,” said Curless, who lives south of Flint in the town of Grand Blanc.

“You start to see things a little higher at a 30,000-foot view. I’ve lost people, I’ve lost my parents, and all of a sudden, you say, ‘Wow, life seems a little bit different now.’”

That wise perspective permeates Crossword Smiles’ songwriting on its sophomore release, which features 11 tracks about anticipation, disappointment, and discovery.

“I don’t think you can get away from it,” said Saam, who previously lived in Dexter and now resides in the West Michigan town of Dimondale. “If you’re making music and writing songs, some of your life is going to seep into it. There are some specific references to things like in ‘Typical Waving Goodbye.’ I lost a buddy … and I didn’t know when I was saying goodbye to him that I was saying goodbye for good.”

Jess Merritt no longer silences her inner voice.

The Ann Arbor singer-songwriter follows her instincts and unleashes her authentic self on Wild in Me.

“It’s been a big journey,” said Merritt, aka Jess Oberholtzer, about her new folk-rock-soul EP.

“Over the past five years or so … I went through a divorce, the pandemic, and coming out. It’s been a real transformative time. I look back, and I’m so grateful that I took those steps because I feel so much closer to my true self now. Even though things are a little bit scary as far as what the future holds, I just feel solid in myself.”

Merritt embraces that bold mindset through an honest and inspirational collection of songs about self-discovery, growth, and freedom. The four tracks on Wild in Me come to life through soulful vocals, cathartic lyrics, and soaring instrumentation.

After a tumultuous period, Kyle Rasche prefers to pause and reflect.

The singer-songwriter and guitarist ponders heartbreak and growth after experiencing many life changes on Take It Easy.

“These songs were born in a period,” said Rasche, who performs as Kyle Joe, about his latest indie-folk album.

“There was a lot of heartbreak, and there was a lot of really beautiful love, too. And then as the writing went on, I started leaning into more of the lessons I was learning along the way and trying to make the music represent those moments instead of just the heartbreak.”

In those vulnerable moments, Rasche rediscovers himself and his sense of purpose across seven tracks. Collectively, they demonstrate the resiliency that comes from weathering a divorce, loving yourself, and finding kindred spirits.

“I hope more than anything that people hear the hope,” said Rasche, who hails from Alto, a small town about 20 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. “It can get pretty dark … but there’s some light in there.”

In 2019, George Mashour aspired to make a psychedelic rock album.

The anesthesiologist and neuroscientist had just turned 50 and wanted to step outside the medical world to pursue a musical project.

“I was reflecting on what I wanted to do in the next phase of my life … and [I’d] been writing all these songs—sometimes just in my head—some of them [were] decades old,” said Mashour, a University of Michigan researcher who studies consciousness and has been dabbling in music over the years.

“For my 50th birthday, my wife got me a gift certificate for studio time at Big Sky [Recording], which was cool, and in retrospect I’m really glad she did that.”

Later that year, he became chair of U-M’s Department of Anesthesiology, and then COVID hit in early 2020.

“I was super busy, and of course, everything was shut down,” Mashour said. “And yet I still had that physical gift certificate for eight hours of studio time … so it was just always on my mind. And then it was 2023 when I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to do this,’ so I got in touch with Geoff [Michael], who’s the owner of Big Sky.” 

London Beck doesn’t hesitate to share what’s on their mind.

The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer sings about reclaiming their power and undergoing a personal transformation on Vengeance Be Mine.

“When I started to put together this album, this was a way for me to say … I’ve gotten to a place where if [something] is really bothering me, I’m not going to keep that secret because I’m protecting somebody else,” said Beck about their latest album, which features infectious elements of R&B, soul, house, dance, and hip-hop.

“Someone very close to me said, ‘You’re going to worry yourself to death and then you’re going to pass away. And the things that are happening that are grieving you will continue to happen whether you’re here or not. So why are we going to hold that in and keep that in?’”

Beck followed that advice after recently experiencing an illness, a vocal cord injury, and the death of their grandmother. They channeled those struggles into 17 bold tracks about identity, growth, and heartbreak on Vengeance Be Mine. 

In April 1993, I took my first step into the world of Rocky Horror.

I went with three high school friends to see a midnight screening and shadow cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the State Theatre in Ann Arbor.

Upon arrival at the theatre, I was greeted by one of the shadow-cast actors fully dressed in her costume. She walked over to me and asked, “Are you a virgin?”

Somewhat taken aback, I asked, “Who wants to know?”

The actor just laughed and said, “You’re my very special virgin.”

Being a naïve, clueless teen and new to Rocky Horror, I didn’t get the reference at first. I thought the actor was nosy and wondered why she asked me such a personal question.

Her question didn’t click with me, though, until the start of the show. As the emcee, she made some announcements and invited me to join her on stage as the “Very Special Virgin.”

A mature tree blooms every year. Fruit trees can take two to five years to produce. It took Tree City 13 years for Pure Levels to flower.

The Ann Arbor hip-hop group spent that time shaping and defining the album’s tracks before releasing it late last year.

“It’s a time capsule, and it’s a good chunk of our personal evolution as artists and as a group,” said Evan “Clavius Crates” Haywood, a Tree City MC and producer, about the group’s first collection of new songs since 2010’s Thus Far.

“It’s exciting that it’s finally at the point where we’re happy with it and we felt like it was ready. We did not want to release it when it was just good enough. We wanted to release it when we felt it was something really timeless, something that would hold up to repeated listens, and something that would hold people’s interest.”

Pure Levels features Tree City’s four MCs—Clavius Crates, Silas Green, DJ Cataclysmic, and Cheeks—rapping candid rhymes about broken relationships, aging family members, systemic issues, and capitalism alongside fantastical space-themed wordplay over sci-fi-sounding beats by producer Michael Dykehouse and several others.