The Ark experimented with the format of its annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival on Friday night, Jan. 30, at Hill Auditorium.
And in Greensky Bluegrass, it couldn’t have found a better band to do that with.
For the first night of the 49th annual incarnation of the Ark’s largest fundraising event, the festival eschewed the usual multi-act bill (six will be part of the lineup on Saturday. Jan. 30) with truncated sets and presented a more traditional headliner-with-opening act (Junior Brown). That allowed Greensky, formed more than 25 years ago in Kalamazoo, to do what it does best — take a couple hours and stretch out, mixing tight songcraft with improvisational daring do, its five members improvising and dancing around expansive song arrangements.
It’s certainly worked for the group, whose plugged-in approach with acoustic instruments has made it one of the darlings of the nu (blue)grass world and a large-venue headliner around the world.
But the Greenskyers were clearly stoked to be playing their first Folk Festival, as well as returning to Ann Arbor for the first time since 2013; dobro player Anders Beck told the audience that the group, which headlined at the Fillmore Detroit last August, was actually planned to not play shows this winter and instead focus on making a new album, but that the Folk Festival was a gig on the band’s bucket list.
“It’s good to be playing Greensky Music in Michigan,” he noted.
The troupe’s two-hour, 16-song set certainly reflected that feeling as well as the sea change in approach for the festival, with many Greensky faithful standing throughout while some mainstays noticeably drifted out during the show.
Following a characteristically fiery set from country singer-guitarist Brown — an Ark regular resplendent in his suit and cowboy hat and dazzling as always on his hybrid “guit-steel” double-neck guitar — Greensky set the tone with a fast-paced “Past My Prime,” with mandolinist Paul Hoffman singing and the Beck picking through the first of his many solos during the night and the band’s custom light show immersing itself onto Hill’s walls and ceilings. But the set hit stride as the next three songs — “Monument,” “Streetlight” and a warp-speed “Burn Them” — flowed into each other, their sturdy melodies giving way to improvisational forays by Beck, Hoffman, guitarist-vocalist Dave Bruzza and banjoist Michael Bont, while Mike Devol held things together on his bass.
Likely takeaways for Greensky fans were epic, extended performances of “Whatchoo,”the Traveling Wilburys “Handle With Care” and “Don’t Lie,” as well the dobro-mandolin exchange during “Weather,” a particularly emotive “Windshield” and a playful romp through “Fixin’ to Ruin.” The group also covered fellow Michigander Billy Strings’ “While I’m Waiting Here,” and it encored with appropriate version of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman’s “Drink Up and Go Home.”
Whether it was a successful start for the festival will be the subject of review and discussion in days to come. But, no question, it was another successful — and more than that, really — night with an undeniably upper-strata live act.
The Ark’s 49th Ann Arbor Folk Festival concludes at 7 p.m. Saturday,. Jan. 31 at Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor. Amos Lee, Dawes, the Crane Wives, Jon Muq, Rabbitolgy and emcee Ryan Montbleau perform. 734-761-1800 or theark.org.
