Detroit born Jan Krist is a well established veteran of the acoustic music scene. Jan's musical gifts have been recognized by Billboard Magazine, Entertainment Weekly Magazine, Dirty Linen, Image Journal, and others.

With 13 nominations and 4 Detroit Metro Music Awards under her belt, Krist has proven herself to be a Detroit area favorite. She can also claim the honor of being a finalist at the Kerrville song writing competition, in Kerrville TX, an annual event which helped to launch the careers of Lyle Lovett and Nancy Griffith. Krist takes her ordinary, plain Jane demeanor and all the elements we've learned to take for granted (6 strings and common time) and lets us know, this is not your ordinary woman with a guitar, even if it is.




If hearing the name Kitty Donohoe brings to mind an award-winning songwriter with three critically acclaimed albums to her credit, who successfully merges her Irish and American roots in her music, you'd be right.

In the 70’s Kitty moved to the town of Lansing, in the middle of Michigan, where she began working as a full-time musician. At a Folk Alliance Conference in Cleveland in 2000, Kitty met Ann Arbor multi-instrumentalist David Mosher. An immediate friendship between them became a musical one as well, with Mosher co-producing Kitty’s next CD with her. Her song about September 11, “There Are No Words,” received a Michigan EMMY and has been performed by Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame.

“Northern Border”, is getting airplay around the country and it contains her 9/11 song “There Are No Words”, which is being used in a Pentagon film about their September 11th experience. On hearing the song, Kitty and her band have been invited to perform it at the unveiling of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial on September 11, 2008.



With her sweet, wry, perspective on things, Annie puts herself – and a host of other subjects – on a laboratory slide, peers in close, and makes discoveries that ring satisfyingly true. A warm, earthy voice carries her rich and captivating melodies. She creates “midwest urban folk” music that is both sophisticated and disarming - offering thoughtful, somber, tender and frisky songs that have at their core a warm, funky groove and a soulful glow.

Just released in August 2009, Annie's sixth CD with her husband Rod, “My Blue Garden”, finds her at her absolute best. The album became a quick favorite of many folk DJs placing it at #2 on the charts with both the #1 and #3 songs for the month. It remains in regular rotation earning them yet another top 40 album this time in 2009. Seeded with fresh, beautifully crafted songwriting, "My Blue Garden" is a collage of soulful sketches rooted in small town USA, where familiar and accessible characters might be your next door neighbor, a member of the family or a close friend. Co-produced by Glenn Brown (Jeff Daniels, Rachael Davis, Steppin in it) this album features an essential cast of some of Michigan’s finest musicians most prominently, Jason Dennie, on virtuoso mandolin and sweet harmony vocals. Drew Howard soars on pedal steel and dobro, and the angelic voices of Rachael Davis and Jan Krist are high points.

 

Jill Jack has dominated Detroit’s folk/rock scene for the past decade. A woman with a strong drive and ambition, Jill has a voice with a distinct timbre that sets her apart – each year and each album, her voice becomes more clearly defined as uniquely her own. Songwriter Sessions was recorded over those two nights in the historic Hartland Music Hall in Hartland, Michigan – 15 previously unreleased songs in two concerts specifically crafted around the theme of songwriting. Each song was introduced with a story on where and how the song came about. “So many people would ask me how I came to write a certain song, or tell me that they remembered the story behind the writing of a song and that’s why they bought the record, that I thought it would be a good idea to just show that process. People are extremely curious about the songwriting process, and I thought having an audience share the experience a little through me telling the story behind each song, and then to perform it in pretty much its virginal state – like I said, it was a huge undertaking,” she laughs, “ but I thought, if I pulled it off, it’d be really good!”