Some knew Jay Stielstra as an activist who ran for Ann Arbor City Council in 1964 and served as a board member of the Washtenaw County chapter of the ACLU.

Others knew Stielstra as an athlete who attended the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship. He played football, basketball, and track and became a Big Ten champion in the long jump.

He also was a public school teacher who introduced Black history into the curriculum at Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School and coached the football team.

Stielstra also connected with others through his creative pursuits, including novels like Meet Me at the River, musicals like North Country Opera, poetry collections like In Drought Time: Scenes From Rural and Small Town Life, and a revered catalog of music.

As a singer-songwriter, he brought all his passions together. He wrote songs about the devastation of war, social justice, the passage of time, drinking in taverns, the beauty of Northern Michigan’s woods and waters, finding and losing love, and getting old.

For over 50 years, Stielstra—who died March 1 at age 90—performed these songs on stages large and small.

“He walked through so many different communities in the course of his life,” said Barbara Schmid, Stielstra’s widow.

To celebrate Stielstra’s legacy, Schmid and Ann Arbor singer-songwriter Judy Banker are hosting a tribute and benefit show September 28 at The Ark—a place that nourished Stielstra and was one that he loved. 

Celebrating the Music of Jay Stielstra will feature a lineup of Michigan musicians performing his songs in acoustic styles from blues to bluegrass. It also doubles as a fundraiser for the Ann Arbor folk and roots music club.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features hip-hop by Gostbustaz, atmospheric folk by Rabbitology, fuzzy power-pop by Pet TV, outsider folk by Do We Have a Problem?, and live jazz-world fusion by The Missing Cats.

This story originally ran March 27, 2024. We're republishing it because Mark Jewett & The Strategic Advisors perform on Saturday, September 22, 6:30 pm at the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Avenue.

These days, Mark Jewett moves at warp speed.

The Plymouth singer-songwriter maintains a frantic daily pace on his latest single, “Too Fast.”

“It was more of a general feeling of being closed in and trapped and things just coming at me faster than I could deal with them,” said Jewett about the folk-pop track, which features a collaboration with Sav Madigan and Katie Larson of The Accidentals.

“One day, I just took a break at my desk, and I picked up my guitar. I started doing this chunking rhythm like you hear at the beginning of the song. I was drinking coffee, and I thought, ‘I need some energy,’ and the line just popped into my head.”

That initial opening lyric was “I’ve got a thousand watts of black coffee / Pumpin’ through my veins,” but Jewett upped the ante to “Two thousand watts of black coffee” instead.

“Kyle Rasche caught me between shows up at Nor-East’r last year when I was in the merch barn. He said, ‘Man, that’s a great line,’ and he thought I had said something about ‘8,000 watts,’ but it was originally, ‘I’ve got a thousand watts,’” said Jewett, a University of Michigan alumnus, who started writing the track last spring. “I thought maybe there was too much there, so starting it with 2,000 [watts] just punctuates it right at the beginning.”

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features indie-gaze by The Nuts, post-everything by Post-Ford, modern classical by Carlos Taboada, remixes of Annie Bacon songs, and electro-pop by Lovepark.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features emo-tinged punk by Geranium Red, yoga music by Golden Feelings, electronica by Evan W, improv and electronics by Panto Collapsar & Cyrus Pireh, and indie-tronica by Ness Lake with DJ FLP.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features three electronica artists from the Sunbabe Records stable—Magoose, Caly3r, and Billion Dollar Mind—along with R&B from Vonsiwel and more electronic beauty via Otherseas.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features punk rock by Sex Change, electro-prog by The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, space rock by Tomorrowland, Americana by Wells & the Outfit, and distorted beats by Foreign Carnivals.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features Irish-American fiddle folk by Hannah O'Brien & Grant Flick, original electronica courtesy of MEMCO, drum 'n' bass by Indigo Virus, country-folk by Kathy Wieland, and a Phil Collins cover by Chris DuPont.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features prog-post-noise rock by Lunch, electro-screamo by Oblivion Heirs, emo-indie by Fawn, dark electronics by Model No. 1021999, and live jams by Chirp.

VAZUM didn’t expect a Western film to inspire the title of its latest album.

The Jackson duo of Zach Pliska (vocals, guitars, drums) and Emily Sturm (vocals, bass) stumbled upon the phrase “Western violence” while watching The Quick and the Dead.

“We had some of the songs fleshed out and usually we go with a ‘V’ in the name for our albums. We were watching [the 1995 film] by Sam Raimi and the rating was ‘R,’ and it said two words: ‘Western violence,’” said Sturm about the duo’s doomgaze album, Western Violence.

“We said, ‘Oh my god, that’s what we’re writing about,’ and it just summed it up. And then we said, ‘That’s what we’re living in … This is how our society expresses itself now.’”

On Western Violence, VAZUM reflects on the disintegration and disillusionment of our country and provides a social commentary on the personal, cultural, and political events that impact it.