Kelly Hoppenjans – Midwest Made

Sunday, Jul. 21 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

Midwest Made at The Acorn continues with indie-rock singer-songwriter Kelly Hoppenjans.

About the Artists:

Kelly Hoppenjans is an indie-rock singer-songwriter from Nashville, now based in Ann Arbor. She creates empowering, feminist, grungy rock with catchy pop melodies and introspective folksy lyrics. She has released three EPs and one full-length album. Kelly has had her music featured on NPR, American Songwriter, The Alternative, Lightning 100, KUTX, and many other press outlets and radio stations. She has also been a finalist in numerous songwriting competitions, including The Acorn’s 2023 Singer-Songwriter Competition, NewSong, Kerrville New Folk, and John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and she was a winner of the Eddie's Attic songwriting competition.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Help Hounds – Midwest Made

Sunday, Jul. 14 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

Our Midwest Made summer concert series continues – this week experiencing indie/folk and Americana with the Northwest Indiana band Help Hounds!

About the Artists:

Help Hounds are a four piece from Northwest Indiana writing Americana, indie/folk songs. Self-reflective and a little self-deprecating at times, they sing about nice weather and the human condition. Each member brings a little something different from toe-tapping melodies to classical cello, airy guitar sweets to driving banjo picking. It’s the peoples’ romp and roll!

Jon Eddy (Cello)
Josiah Tipton (Guitar)
Marco Sassman (Banjo)
Zac Sassman (Bass)

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

The Backups – Midwest Made

Sunday, Jun. 30 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

The Backups are a soulful, harmony-driven lady trio made up of Leslie Sypian, Meredith George and Morgan Ingle. A love for music and sharing it brought this group together.

About the Artists:

The Backups are a soulful, harmony-driven lady trio made up of Leslie Sypian, Meredith George and Morgan Ingle. A love for music and sharing it brought this group together. All hailing from Southwest Michigan, the trio met through running in the same musical circles in the Benton Harbor Arts District. Leslie (The Sypian Family Band) and Morgan (Slim Gypsy Baggage) have had each other's backs for the last 10 years selling out epic Thanksgiving-Eve shows with their bands at The Livery. Meredith met the two after working at The Livery and performing at Open Mic Nights. Before 2017 they had all sung together in some capacity or another by backing each other up on harmonies. After several suggestions from friends and local fans the three decided to join forces. One back porch summer night the three sang as a trio for the first time, and it was magic. Each voice slid into their own part without hesitation. Several goose bumps and giggles later The Backups were forged.

Seven years going strong, the Trio has found their sound without forgetting their harmony-driven roots. The Backups are now joined by Marc Churchill on drums, Nate Edwards on bass & Nate Sypian on lead guitar. The ladies all share the spotlight vocally while highlighting each other's talents.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

The Jayhawks w/ Beth Bombara

Friday, Jul. 05 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Over the course of almost 4 decades, 11 albums and countless memorable live shows The Jayhawks have soared to heights few ever achieve while winning the hearts and minds of numerous critics, fans and peers in the process.

Tickets go on sale Friday, February 16th, 2024 @ 10am ET.

About the Artists

The incredible harmonies and distinctive arrangements of The Jayhawks set them apart from the rest of the Minneapolis music scene that emerged in the 1980s. Over the course of almost 4 decades, 11 albums, countless memorable live shows and enough personal drama to fill a couple of Behind the Music episodes, this beloved band soared to heights few ever achieve while winning the hearts and minds of numerous critics, fans and peers in the process.

After releasing 2 Indie albums in the 80s, The Jayhawks had become a driving force and inspiration behind the growing Americana movement in the early 1990s. Combining the talents of singer-songwriters Gary Louris and Mark Olson, The Jayhawks released their major label debut, the acclaimed Hollywood Town Hall (1992) on the Def American label. This was followed by Tomorrow the Green Grass (1995), which produced the alternative radio hit single “Blue.” When Olson left to pursue a solo career, Louris singularly took over the songwriting role in The Jayhawks creating the band’s enduring sound on some of their best selling and well received albums including Sound of Lies (1997), Smile (2000) and Rainy Day Music (2003). Louris continues to write and tour with the longtime core group of Marc Perlman, Karen Grotberg, and Tim O’Reagan.

While the touring line-up has changed over the years and Olson briefly reappeared in 2010 to record and tour, this classic lineup maintains a commitment to excellence and forward motion in their shows and in their recordings. Paging Mr. Proust (2016), was produced in Portland with Peter Buck and Tucker Martine and found the band moving in several new exciting directions. The band's 10th studio album, Back Roads And Abandoned Motels, was released in the summer of 2018, featuring Jayhawks versions of songs Gary Louris had previously written with other artists plus 2 new compositions. In July 2020 The Jayhawks released their latest album, XOXO, that features songwriting and lead vocal contributions from all 4 core members. The Jayhawks have made music in 4 different decades and are as vital now as they were in 1985. They definitely have earned their reputation as a true American treasure.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $50 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $50 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Tickets go on sale Friday, February 16th, 2024 @ 10am ET.

Sold Out

Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues

Friday, May. 10 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Internationally recognized blues harmonica players, and celebrated composer, blues pianist, singer, songwriter, band leader and author Corky Siegel returns to The Acorn. His ensemble's latest release is Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues – MORE Different Voices.

Few can claim to have forged an entirely original genre of music, but in 1966, Corky Siegel did just that. Guiding the blues of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters out of the smoky cavern of Big John’s and onto the stages of the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic and beyond, the harmonica-playing mad scientist had the tuxedo-and-gown crowd on its feet, clamoring for more of this blues-classical alchemy. These days, the harmonica virtuoso and composer is continent-hopping with Indian percussion and string quartet in Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, continuing to bring classical and blues fans shoulder-to-shoulder…and obliterating musical categorization in the process. – Doyle Armbrust

The Chamber Blues ensemble members are: Jaime Gorgojo – violin (Madrid), Chihsuan Yang – violin (Taiwan), Rose Armbrust – viola, Jocelyn Butler-Shoulders – Cello, and Kalyan “Johnny Bongo” Pathak – Tabla (India).

About the Artists

Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee Corky Siegel is known internationally as one of the world’s great blues harmonica players, and is a celebrated composer, blues pianist, singer, songwriter, band leader and author. Born Mark Paul Siegel in Chicago in 1943, Corky’s professional music career began when he co-founded the now legendary Siegel-Schwall Band in Chicago in 1964 with guitarist Jim Schwall. Corky Siegel has a catalogue of recordings on RCA, Vanguard, Alligator, and million selling blues/classical recordings on the iconic classical label Deutsche Grammophon. At a young age, he learned his craft - personally - at the feet of such legendary first generation bluesmen as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and Otis Spann and all the great blues masters he performed with beginning in 1965. In the earlier days of Chicago blues, he was an essential part in the blues rock revolution, and his surprising and continuing success in bringing together blues and classical audiences (with his symphonic and Chamber Blues recordings and performances) make him a pivotally unique figure in popular music history.

Corky founded Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, featuring himself on harmonica, piano and vocals, the West End String Quartet of topflight Chicago classical string players, and Frank Donaldson on world percussion instruments. The novel ensemble performed Siegel’s pioneering blues/classical music compositions and released its first album, Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, on Chicago’s famed blues label Alligator Records in 1994. The album gained rave notices from publications like Billboard and Stereophile, and has been followed by four more albums, the last two receiving DOWNBEAT EDITOR PICK for 2017, DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE’S BEST ALBUMS OF 2022. The latest ensemble includes the newest member tabla virtuoso Kalyan Pathak (India) who has been with the group for 7 years, Jaime Gorgojo from Spain (Violin), Chihsuan Yang from Taiwan (Violin and Erhu), Rose Armbrust (Viola), Jocelyn Butler Shoulders (Cello) who have all been part of the ensemble between 12 and 17 years.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Alejandro Escovedo w/ James Mastro

Sunday, Apr. 21 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)

American rock musician, songwriter, and singer Alejandro Escovedo returns to The Acorn! His songs point out all the majesty and mystery of how he sees the world. The sounds he makes take him places that he might not even predict, but once there, greatness always follows.

About the Artists

Alejandro Escovedo's New Album Echo Dancing is an Adventure in Life

No one has really ever been able to define themselves and their music like singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo does. His life in music of all kinds sometimes feels like a swirl through the sky, where his songs point out all the majesty and mystery of how he sees the world. The sounds he makes take him places that he might not even predict, but once there, greatness always follows.

It's just the way Escovedo is. It has happened over and over for decades, almost like a fateful agreement he has with the cosmos. There is a good chance it cannot be explained, especially by him. Maybe that's because this is a musician who feels magic, both in himself and the world around him, and is open to the experience of whatever comes his way. It is not always easy, and can have a high demand on how a person lives. But it is the way that Escovedo is always moving forward.

On this new album, Alejandro Escovedo has taken a road rarely traveled, which is totally in keeping with how he has lived his life in music. Echo Dancing is an experiment in how to use the past to shape the future. By recording completely new and repurposed versions of songs from his past, Escovedo actually gets a chance to rewrite his own history. It's also an idea that pushes growth into the present, and asks an artist to see themselves anew. "I always feel that a well-written song can withstand a lot of abuse," Escovedo says. It is an area of creativity that the man has always honored. "Turning a past song inside out leads to discovery of new ideas you might not have understood about the song," he says. "Even lyrical refurbishing has proven helpful and effective. It's like interpreting your own work anew. The songs never seem to be complete. They are always evolving." And with those words, Alejandro Escovedo succinctly explains the new levels of artistic exploration he's undertaken on his new album. It's a unique adventure into recording new versions of songs from his past, and approaching them as challenges to totally express what the music means to him today. Songs like "Bury Me" and "Castañuelas," while they were powerful in their original form several years ago, now announce themselves as highlights of Escovedo's long career. They speak to an eternal world that lives inside so much of his music, like it was formed in a way that cannot age. There is something very permanent in the career of the Texas- born artist, an inner flame that is always there. It feels like it is a part of musical history that is rarely captured at such peak performance, let alone reappears with a new life. If the life of an artist is always to push ahead, to leave what was done alone in favor of contemporary creations, then Escovedo's basic concept of Echo Dancing is a revolutionary concept of high beliefs. That the past can live again as a reborn entity. "I was planning this record just prior to boarding a plane to Italy to record with Don Antonio and Nicola Peruch," Escovedo says. "My original idea was to record an album of new material. But then I changed my mind and thought that revisiting songs from my various past albums throughout my career would be more interesting. I have a great faith in these two artists to always create something interesting with whatever I might bring to the session. These songs were already dressed for the dance."

Everything on Echo Dancing has a feeling of absolute freshness about it, and at the same time, there is a strong link to the past. It's almost like reincarnation in the recording studio, but everything seems brand new. All the musicians are dedicated to finding the new amongst the songs' prior history. It is not something that happens often, and it surely has never occurred quite like it does on this fascinating new collection.

Alejandro Escovedo knew that an experience like the one he was embarking on needed all the freshness he could find, and off he went to Italy. Sometimes there are now choices in how to approach a new vision. It simply has to be started with total dedication. "I find that recording in a foreign country opens the creative eye in a way that working at home lacks," he says. And the way the experiment works was proof that today's approach to these songs has a rock-solid beauty to it. A new sonic world has opened. "Surprises were a daily occurance," the musician says, "and we embraced them with exuberance. Is it the beginning or the end? I feel there have always been certain songs on my albums that have guided me to new approaches in my music. That is really the goal of recording. To keep moving forward no matter what it takes. That's why I continue to work on new ways to tell these stories."

Truer words were never spoken than Alejandro Escovedo's love for exploration in the music he writes and plays. The son of a Mexican immigrant and a Texas native, the sounds that Escovedo first discovered and then performed morphed into all kinds of exciting styles of his life.

A member of the first-wave punk rock group The Nuns in San Francisco, he moved to New York and joined the Judy Nylon band and experienced the total electricity of the late 1970s there. Moving then to Austin was a radical shift of geography and musical style when Escovedo helped form one of the country's first so-called Cowpunk adventurers. It often seems like the man has been on a pirate-like adventure through the kinds of music he is drawn to. Those sounds are usually new and often have a strong edge of the avant-garde in them.

Deeply embedded in the burgeoning Austin scene in the 1980s, Escovedo was a prime architect in the new band True Believers, which included his brother Javier and Jon Dee Graham. In many ways the band helped build the gateway to the whole burgeoning Americana music scene which prospers to this day, but it was also the turning point for Alejandro Escovedo to take his life in his control and record solo albums. In the thirty-plus years since that decision has come a wild roller-coaster ride of groups, spinoffs, tribute albums and even original dramatic projects and experiments. In 1998, No Depression Magazine named him Artist of the Decade. For this musician, though, that was just the start of a life that twists and turns wherever Escovedo's clearly uninhibited imagination takes him.

The 21st century has been a time of widely successful excursions that only a few American musicians are able to create. Between adventurous solo albums, continuing collaborations with other musicians, and an ever-growing sense of boundary-breaking, Alejandro Escovedo has created his own definition of what a modern rock artist can accomplish. Which is exactly why Echo Dancing comes at the perfect time for this man.

While it does seem Escovedo has his own category of accomplishments, to now bring together these songs he has previously recorded and inject such exciting new and different life into them is a complete exoneration of his belief in the future. "I said goodbye to certain phases of my life as I have grown," the musician says. "I greeted new acquaintances musically. And I was extremely surprised by the outcome. That is the thrill of being alive. I feel we have now made a beautiful collection of songs recorded in an effortless vibe of collaboration and camaraderie. I can't give Nicola and Antonio enough credit and thanks for their musicianship and wide-open approach to making this album. And I should also mention Ivano Giovedi, who incredibly engineered the recordings. He did an amazing job."

"Everyone involved has guided me to new approaches to my music, like other musicians have my whole life. I have always worked hard to discover new ways to tell the story. I've never hidden my love for Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Judy Nylon, Cluster, along with the Stooges, New York Dolls, MC5, Roky Erickson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Joe Ely, Terry Allen; you get the picture. There is always more work to be done and joy to be made. I am nowhere near finished."

Echo Dancing makes sure Alejandro Escovedo's evolving circle remains unbroken.

James Mastro - guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter extraordinaire - has toured the world dozens of times over as a supportive musician with some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed rock and pop artists ever to grace a stage including Ian Hunter, Patti Smith, John Cale, The Jayhawks, Alejandro Escovedo, Garland Jeffreys, Jesse Malin, and with Robert Plant as his musical director for a benefit concert for an artist they both admired immensely, Love’s Arthur Lee. From The Beacon Theater to the Shepherd's Bush Empire (UK), Mastro has roused crowds with brilliant performances channeling the sonic inventiveness of David Bowie and the tastefulness of Mick Ronson. Discussing his new album for MPress Records, Dawn of a New Error, the Americana-rock singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer reveals: "As an underage kid, I used to do whatever it took to see the bands I loved: wait in line for hours for tickets, or sneak into clubs and push my way to the front of the stage. Now, as an overaged kid, I’ve had the best seat in the house playing guitar onstage with many of those same artists that inspired me to do what I’ve been doing all these years. And I still feel like I’m sneaking in!”

Dawn of a New Error finds Mastro firmly in frontman territory, unleashing 11 brand-new, fiery cuts that will make even the most jaded music listener sit up and listen. What makes Mastro all the more impressive - band cred aside - is his arsenal of sounds. Textural and otherworldly one minute and retro-rock the next, each track on his MPress debut is a swoon-worthy, master class in crafting timeless hooks, intelligent lyrics, and kick-ass playing that any fan of Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, or Wilco will embrace.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

The Acorn is hosting a Community Book Drive in celebration of the life and legacy of Dolly Parton! Bring a book to The Acorn throughout the month of April and receive a Dolly Parton themed gift. Bring a book to The Acorn the night of The Music of Dolly Parton on April 27 for $3 off our specialty drink for the night - the Wine to 5! Books should be new and chosen for children of any age - infants through teens! Books will be distributed to River Valley Schools.

Jackie Venson

Friday, May. 17 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Jackie Venson is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter known far and wide for her beautifully complex music and blazing guitar skills.

This concert serves as our next recording partnership activity with 88.1 WVPE Public Radio which will air in a future "The Sauce Live from The Acorn" broadcast on WVPE! We'll be capturing LIVE footage at the show - come get in on the action! 

About the Artists

Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Jackie has traveled the world playing to crowds both as a headliner and as support for major acts such as Keb' Mo', Gary Clark Jr, Aloe Blacc, Melissa Etheridge, and Citizen Cope, to name a few. In 2020, Jackie released her studio album Vintage Machine, her first studio follow up to 2019's Joy. Music from Vintage Machine was featured heavily on Jackie's taping for Austin City Limits' 46th season, and she released the full set on "Live at Austin City Limits" that year. In 2021, she released Love Transcends, her first studio album centered around the blues and at the start of 2023 she released Evolution of Joy, a reimagining of her breakout album Joy, with producer Frenchie Smith (Jet, Toadies, Wild Child.) With the uncertainty of the times we're living in, one thing holds true for Jackie Venson-she's going to play her music, speak her truth, and spread as much joy as she can doing it.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Despite The Smoke w/ Jack Cunningham

Friday, Mar. 08 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Despite The Smoke is Nich Lampson, Kevin Krizmanich, Cory Miller and Brian McGuire, an emerging alt-folk rhythm and rock band born in the Midwest and based in New York City. With deep roots in Detroit, Indiana, and Ohio, the crew has an affinity for the music they grew up listening to in these areas. As the people and highways of this region naturally invite others from all over the world to pass through, so too does this band invite influences from other geographies and time periods to shape their sound.

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Peach Jam - A Tribute To The Allman Brothers Band

Friday, Mar. 01 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Peach Jam is a collective of some of the best musicians Chicago has to offer celebrating the music of the legendary Allman Brothers Band.

About the Artists:

Formed in 2022, these players will transport you back in time to the Fillmore East and keep you moving all night long. Peach Jam brings together members of Chicago mainstays Cornmeal, Terrapin Flyer, Old Shoe, Helping Phriendly Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Charmers for a cosmic gumbo of hot jams, tight grooves, soaring vocal harmonies, and down-home blues that’ll make a believer out of any ABB fan. “People can you feel it? Love is everywhere!”

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

Grahame Lesh & The North

Friday, Apr. 19 | 8:00pm ET (7:00pm CT)

Midnight North takes its cue from the fertile Bay Area music scene. Formed in early 2012 by singer/songwriters Grahame Lesh and Elliott Peck, whose harmonies came as naturally as the initial songs, along with bassist Connor O'Sullivan. The band's current-day lineup was completed with the addition of drummer/banjo player Nathan Graham.

A Message from Midnight North:

An update for our dear friends & fans,

We - and especially Elliott - are so thankful for your well wishes for her health these last few weeks. It really has been a special thing to see the outpouring of support and love that has come Elliott’s way as she recovers. Since our last update Elliott underwent a complex surgery to remove the tumor, which was fortunately deemed quite successful. Of course, because of the intensity of the surgery her recovery will not be very fast, so it will be some time before Elliott is back on stage and even longer before she’s back on tour.

Our April shows in the Midwest will go ahead, but similar to last weekend we will be billing them as Grahame Lesh & The North (that’s our buddy Justin Mazer who always refers to us as “the North”). There is no Midnight North without Elliott, so we’ll be holding off on calling ourselves MN until Elliott is ready to lead us onstage ❤️

Stay tuned as we keep you updated beyond the spring, and keep the healing love, thoughts, and prayers flowing!

⁃ Elliott, Nathan, Grahame, Connor, & TJ

About Midnight North

"Wanderer shine on high/Brightest star in the midnight sky/Swing down low, the night so black/Ace of diamonds in the zodiac" – 'Jupiter' (lyrics by Robert Hunter)

Midnight North takes its cue from the fertile Bay Area music scene. Formed in early 2012 by singer/songwriters Grahame Lesh and Elliott Peck, whose harmonies came as naturally as the initial songs, along with bassist Connor O'Sullivan. The band's current-day lineup was completed when drummer/banjo player Nathan Graham came aboard after a chance meeting at a benefit concert in Philadelphia in 2016 following the release of its third, and breakthrough, album, Under the Lights, in 2017. In the early days, the group was able to grow as a unit thanks to an association with Lesh's family venue, Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California.

Diamonds in the Zodiac — on the Americana Vibes label — is Midnight North's fifth studio album (along with three live discs), representing a continuation of the musical direction on 2021's There's Always a Story. The title comes from the unearthed Robert Hunter lyrics for "Jupiter," one of two extended tracks on an album — the other, Grahame's opening "Questions." Other than those two, Diamonds is increasingly song-oriented and steeped in bluegrass, country, soul, blues, funk, jazz and gospel — a true Americana melting pot.

It also turned into a real, second-generation family affair, as it was produced by the band's dear friend Amy Helm, daughter of The Band's Levon Helm and singer/songwriter Libby Titus, and features Grahame's dad Phil and brother Brian. "Things have come full circle in that it was meeting Amy and Levon Helm at a Ramble in the Barn that gave my parents the inspiration to open Terrapin Crossroads, and having Terrapin was so instrumental in the band's development. And now Amy produced this album and shepherded these songs to their ultimate form," said Grahame.

Diamonds was mixed by D. James Goodwin, who has worked with such luminaries as Bob Weir, the Hold Steady, The National, Goose, and Bonny Light Horseman among many others. Micah Nelson, aka Particle Kid, and Willie's son, did the honors on the album cover artwork, using acrylic paint mixed with floetrol poured on wood.

Recorded at Dave Schools' (Widespread Panic) Spacecamp in Occidental, California, Diamond in the Zodiac's 10 tracks represent a truly collaborative effort , featuring band members playing different instruments and many friends & collaborators stopping by the studio to contribute to the music and the vibe. Phil & Brian Lesh, Jason Crosby, and TJ Kanczuzewski all contributed significant moments, and all of the focus was on pulling the best version of the song out of the ensemble.

"What's unique about this band is we have two lead writers in Grahame and I, with very different approaches," says Elliott. "I've always been more in the singer/songwriter mold, while Grahame comes from the jam band ethos of extending things. I feel Grahame has really evolved as a songwriter on this record, where a song like 'Questions' is more lyrically driven."

Grahame acknowledges taking his cues on the track from listening to the audiobook of Jeff Tweedy's "How to Write One Song" in writing "Questions." "Elliott recommended it to me during the pandemic, and that's the song that came out of it. His idea in the book was just to start and finish one song and not worry about a whole repertoire."

Elliott based the piano-driven "The Colors Here," the first single — which features Phil Lesh on bass, Jason Crosby on violin, and producer Amy Helm on harmony vocals — on memories of tornadoes in her Midwest Chicago childhood along with the Judy Garland movie of Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz," where the screen goes from black-and-white to technicolor when Dorothy finds she's not in Kansas anymore.

"It's all about how suffering through a major tragedy can open the door to your salvation," explains Elliott. "You can find beauty on the other side. There's always hope."

Grahame acknowledges the influence of Grateful Dead albums like Workingman's Dead and American Beauty on his "Back to California," another early track which has the warm country flavor of the Allman Brothers' "Sweet Melissa." "Back to California" features backing vocals from the entire choir of the band and extended family of musicians who were at the studio that day, including Phil Lesh, Amy Helm, and touring keyboard player TJ Kanczuzewski. The song first appeared in a very different form on Under the Lights.

"The Under the Lights album was written right after the first time we'd been out in the world as a band on tour," says Grahame. "It felt like we could claim some of that classic rock and roll imagery of troubadours on the road eating up the miles. Even though it's a younger me who wrote those lyrics, they seem to fit the themes of this record too. We changed the key and updated the feel, and it feels like it finally fits musically with where the band is now. It has become one of my favorite songs to play live, and I'm thrilled that this version is on the record."

Nathan's "Walk the Runway" offers an East Coast perspective. It's a story about falling in love with the bartender at an unnamed New York haunt, revealed by the band to be Fanelli's "at the corner of Prince." "Old Country," written by Brian Lesh and featuring his harmony vocals and mandolin playing, is a folk song in which he asks, "Won't you see me sitting there/Grinning at the moon?" under Nathan & Connor's driving country groove.

Other musical flavors include the funky "Round & Round," with Jason Crosby tickling the ivories and Connor's driving funk bassline pushing the action (and which Elliott co-wrote with Grahame while jamming on her '70s Wurlitzer), and the plaintive "In the Sunrise," in which Elliott shows off her vocals — equal parts Janis Joplin's primal scream, Bonnie Raitt's soulful ache and Brandi Carlile's naked vulnerability.

The epic centerpiece of the album, and the piece de resistance for Deadheads, is undoubtedly "Jupiter" — featuring Phil on bass and Brian on harmony vocals — which harks back to Phil Lesh & Friends' "Planet Jams" of some 20 years ago, the Quintet with guitarists Warren Haynes and Jimmy Herring, keyboardist Rob Barraco and drummer John Molo.

"I grew up watching that lineup in my early teens through high school, when that band was really cooking," said Grahame. "They often wrote with Bob [Hunter] at the time for the Phil & Friends album There & Back Again and other projects, and the lyrics to 'Jupiter' come from that time. My dad never put the lyrics to the music he wrote, and at some point passed them along to me, and a few years ago I wrote music to the lyrics. I didn't change any of the words."

"Hunter very much meant for the words to speak for themselves," says Grahame. "I always think of the clip from the Long Strange Trip movie where they asked him to explain the lyrics to 'Dark Star,' and he responded by reciting the lyrics and then saying, 'what is unclear about that? I mean, it says what it means.'"

With its top-flight pedigree, Midnight North is intent on carrying the torch for this distinctly American music from one generation to the next. "Songlines" sums up the idea of a group of individuals putting their unique experiences into the common thread of music. Elliott and Amy join their voices together, singing, "Pass the lyric down to a troubled heart/A broken choir sings to light up the dark."

"It's a generational thing," acknowledges Grahame. "It's about what's passed down to us and what we pass on. The verses are about different people in the dark needing the light, and that's where they get it, from families and friends."

Elliott's "A Great Farewell" brings the album to a suitable close. It's about starting over, trying new things, but never forgetting what got us here in the first place. "I guess we'll repeat the same mistakes/Knowing nothing's going to change," she sings, adding, "There's a light out there/If we're open to the spark."

Diamonds in the Zodiac shows not even the sky is the limit for Midnight North.

"The songs and the community are the pillars holding this up," says Lesh, who has toured with his father as a member of Phil Lesh's Terrapin Family Band and Phil Lesh & Friends. "We're so thankful to be part of this scene. This music is timeless."

RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $25 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $25 Donation per ticket holder in your group.

The Acorn is hosting a Community Book Drive in celebration of the life and legacy of Dolly Parton! Bring a book to The Acorn throughout the month of April and receive a Dolly Parton themed gift. Bring a book to The Acorn the night of The Music of Dolly Parton on April 27 for $3 off our specialty drink for the night - the Wine to 5! Books should be new and chosen for children of any age - infants through teens! Books will be distributed to River Valley Schools.