A Michigan music collective is ready to spring forward with a new tour and music sampler.
Earthwork Music, a collective of artists and musicians that fuses music with cultural and environmental awareness, is kicking off its first collaborative tour in five years this week with a run of Michigan shows.
“The spring tour features 18 musicians and will be a cabaret-style show featuring each person leading one song with a varying backing band supporting. It will be beautiful, chaotic and absolutely magical,” said Nicholas James Thomasma, a Grand Rapids folk singer-songwriter and an Earthwork Music collective artist.
“Sometimes it will just be one or two people on stage; sometimes it’s a full band. Sometimes there are strings, sometimes drums, sometimes acoustic guitars and sometimes all 18 of us will be on stage together. Part of the excitement about this tour is that even the artists aren’t sure how it’s all going to work yet!”
“The thing I enjoy most is the thoughtful and creative people that make up our collective,” Thomasma said. “It’s a treat to play music with these folks, but even more so it’s a treat to simply know them as friends and spend time with them off stage.”
Taylor DeRousse experiences an emotional transformation on “Winter Ghost.” Artwork – Taylor DeRousse
Taylor DeRousse slowly expels the lingering spirits of a haunted past.
The Royal Oak indie-rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist calmly exhales former selves and bygone relationships in her latest heart-melting single, “Winter Ghost.”
“The writing of this song was a cool experience for me. Last winter, I tried writing a song a day for a while to challenge myself,” DeRousse said. “This song came from that. It was snowing outside, and I got the first line in my head … ‘It snowed today.’”
Throughout “Winter Ghost,” DeRousse thaws frozen memories and warms icy self-doubt as ethereal synths, pensive electric guitar and sanguine acoustic guitar prompt a spiritual awakening.
She sings, “I saw the sun today/It’s mid-July, and now I’m feeling the weight of you wash away/White was the world in my heartbreak/And pale as snow was my skin while the ghost of you remained/Saw the color come back into my face.”
“And then I thought, ‘Why would someone not like the snow?’” DeRousse said. “Then, as it all came together, I was like, ‘This is definitely an experience that I’ve had in my life, but the details are different,’ and yet the theme is still the same.”
DeRousse seamlessly carries “Winter Ghost’s” transformational theme forward while Traverse City producer John Piatek conjures an otherworldly soundscape.
“When I go up and record, and by the time I make it home, John has sent me something. I remember he had sent me the rough track of it … and I listened to it, and I was just floored,” she said.
“The vocals that he adds on that track are my favorite part of the whole song. It felt like, ‘Wow, this is how it was supposed to always be,’ but I could have never gotten it there myself.”
Jeff Socia performs live in northern Michigan. Photo courtesy of Jeff Socia
Four years ago, Jeff Socia decided to reenter the Michigan music scene.
The Traverse City Americana singer-songwriter created a home studio, started playing live shows and honed his songwriting chops. Socia continued to build his momentum until last March when COVID-19 hit and instantly shuttered the live music world.
“I started booking some stuff on my own, and then last year happened. It’s probably a story you’ve heard a lot from other people – the lockdown was the time they were going to record and release something. I decided to go along with that story and take it one step further,” he said.
Nine months later, Socia dropped his thoughtful, melodic full-length debut album, Release, via all streaming platforms. The fervent 10-track project whips listeners down cozy, winding alt country roads filled with life-changing tales of love, growth, gratitude and risk.
“Everyone needs a release a right now, and this one happened to be mine. Hopefully, when someone listens to it, this can be their release. It’s been cool for me to hear from people who listen to my songs from elsewhere,” Socia said.
“I’ve gotten feedback from people in Ireland and other places. What we do here touches other people, and it’s their release. You never know what you’re going to put out there and how it’s going to affect someone. That’s why I called it Release.”
Stormy Chromer will host a fall hometown show tonight in Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor will groove three times over tonight with Stormy Chromer at the musical helm.
The Ypsilanti progressive jam quartet will host a fall hometown show at The Blind Pig with Biomassive and RADO filled with danceable improvisational rock, jazz, funk and electronica.
“We have a long list of covers that’s somewhere near 80 or 100 total. Every time we perform one, we log it into an Excel sheet. We’ve been going back over this past summer and looking at it to see which ones we can let fall by the wayside, so we have a few things up our sleeve in terms of things you haven’t heard us play in a long time,” said Ryan King, Stormy Chromer’s bassist.
“In terms of originals, we might have some new stuff for you. We’re not entirely sure if we’re going to be playing some of it live yet, but we have new material in the works.”
Along with bandmates Brendan Collins (lead guitar), Spencer Hanson (lead guitar) and Amin Lanseur (drums), King has grown his improvisational chops during a month-long mini-residency at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill in Grand Rapids as well as several Michigan-based festivals and a tour out west.
“The goal for a long time was just to be comfortable enough doing it in front of a crowd and to be not doing it where they don’t stop moving,” said King, who’s racked up more than 30 original songs with Stormy Chromer. “I think that’s going to be the direction the band is headed in right now and trying to do something live that’s really unique and special at every show in terms of creating something that’s only gonna be there for that night.”
Together, Stormy Chromer started cutting their improvisational teeth after forming in 2014. Named after an accidental tribute to the legendary Michigan cap company, the band blends complex songwriting with real-time compositions to create a unique live experience. In true jam-style fashion, Stormy Chromer has performed a growing roster of live shows locally and nationally with unique nightly setlists for a dedicated fan base.
Four Michigan artists will share the stories, successes and secrets behind their music tonight in the Motor City.
Brian Perrone, Shawn Butzin, Mike Gentry and Mark Jewett will host a “Singer-Songwriter Night” today at Detroit’s historic Cadieux Café, 4300 Cadieux Road, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For the artists, it’s a rare chance to share their eclectic, timeless music in a live, intimate acoustic setting on the city’s east side. Perrone, a Livonia singer-songwriter, relishes any opportunity to bring talented local artists together.
“I try to find artists who are somewhat similar, but still different enough for the audience,” said Perrone, who’s organizing tonight’s show. “I like to set it up where we either all take the stage at the same time and take turns rotating songs, or we each go up, play two songs and do a round like that. That way, it’s not just one act for four or five songs.”
During tonight’s show, each artist will reveal past and present tunes from their musical catalogs and introduce their favorite covers. They also might surprise the audience with a new song.
The Traverse City rock electronica sextet will join Stormy Chromer and Chirp for a night filled with guitar-driven funk and jazz tunes fused with improvisational jams at The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St.
“We’re definitely going to be bringing our new stuff as well as some of the songs we’ve been playing for a while,” said Chris Burhop, a guitarist for Biomassive. “We’re also going to be unleashing a cover we’ve only done once in the past.”
New Year’s Eve show poster
This isn’t the first time Biomassive has played with Stormy Chromer, a Ypsilanti-based homegrown progressive jam band. However, it will be the first time they’ve shared the stage with Chirp, a Tree Town progressive rock, funk and jazz fusion quartet.
“Stormy Chromer definitely brings a rockier side. They bring a lot of energy, and we’ve always considered them to be our closest band buddies as far as mentality goes and stylistically,” Burhop said. “We played at the same Sacred Vibrations festival as Chirp earlier this year, but not at an actual personal show with them until now.”
Formed in 2012, Biomassive blends catchy electronic beats with ground-shaking, sub-bass mechanics and features the talented musicianship of Connor Lindsay (synth, keys), Randall Erno (bass), Ben Wyler (synth, keys), Shandon Williams (percussion), Matt Zimmerman (drums) and Burhop.
Reminiscent of their Umphrey’s McGee and Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) influence, Biomassive fuses funk and progressive rock to arrive at an unparalleled sound. This anomalous Northern Michigan band redefines the sound of the electronic genre and plays distinctive covers and mash-ups ranging from The Grateful Dead to Gorillaz.
“The different guitar players that we’ve had have definitely influenced different sounds that are incorporated with songs like that,” said Burhop, who grew up in Petoskey and started playing guitar in middle school. “Now that I’m playing the guitar instead of bass, we’re trying to go back to our roots and get back into the electronic side of music more.”
Biomassive’s latest single, “Earth Girls Are Easy,” brings ethereal elements of rock, electronica and hip hop together into a mesmerizing musical orbit. Named after the 1989 Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum romantic comedy, science fiction film, it’s the perfect tune for an out-of-this-world sonic escape.
Burhop credits Lindsay’s fascination with bizarre ‘80s pop culture for inspiring the tune’s musical direction. “We’ve been playing that song for the past four or five years now, and it was always just one of those songs that we never really finalized and put into a recording,” Burhop said. “The recording that you hear now is going to be off our new album, which is about to be released.”
While Biomassive’s upcoming album will be released this spring, Burhop and his bandmates are already writing and recording more material for the next project. The band has previously released several other albums and EPs, including “Biomassive” (2013), “Instinct” (2013), “Certified Organic” (2013) and “Spiritbound” (2014).
“We’re going to focus on writing some more new material and getting myself and our new member, Randall, up to speed on the parts on the songs that we already have in our repertoire,” Burhop said. “We also have some of our biggest festival announcements that we’re sitting on right now.”
Show details:
Stormy Chromer with Chirp and Biomassive
Tonight at The Blind Pig, 208 S. First St. in Ann Arbor
The Stratton Setlist 