Rising Sun Presents:
An Evening of Music with Valerie June, Rachael Davis, Thao, Yasmin Williams @ The Colonial Theatre
Friday, November 17, 2023
Doors at 7:00 PM / Show at 8:00 PM
All Ages
A Musical Conversation with Valerie June, Rachael Davis, Thao & Yasmin Williams is a collective of multi-instrumentalists influenced by a kaleidoscope of musical traditions. All these powerful artists were invited by the visionary promoter, Anya Siglin, to perform at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. After an exhilarating evening of songs and stories that transfixed the audience, each artist was excited to take the show on the road. Their performances weave interactive conversation segments with songs in a Nashville-style round. This powerhouse collective of women from uniquely different backgrounds, ages, and views share united auras of sound and music.
A portion of each ticket sold will be donated to Girls Write Now. Girls Write Now is a national non-profit organization serving girls and gender-expansive youth. They work to break down barriers of gender, race, age and poverty to mentor and train the next generation of writers and leaders for life.
- The Musical Conversation Meet & Greet Experience Includes:
- Conversation live (varies by city)
- Access to an exclusive pre-show experience including:
- -Acoustic performance of 2-3 songs not being performed during the show that night
- -Moderated Q&A
- -Meet & Greet with group photo opportunity
- Commemorative VIP laminate
- Merchandise shopping opportunity prior to doors opening to the public
- Early entry to the venue
**Please note this VIP ticket does NOT include your seat to the show**
About Valerie June
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
Blending folk, soul, blues, and traditional Appalachian elements into a refreshingly timeless sound that sits outside any particular musical era, Valerie June is a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who began her career in Memphis, Tennessee. She received some early attention for a pair of independent releases and her participation in the 2009 MTV series $5 Cover, but it was her Dan Auerbach-produced third album, Pushin' Against a Stone, that served as both her critical and commercial breakthrough. With a significant audience in Europe as well as the U.S., June's ascent continued with 2017's highly rated The Order of Time, another critically lauded release showcasing her increasingly distinctive sound. Her fifth album, 2021's The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, featured a guest spot from Memphis soul legend Carla Thomas, and she paid tribute to her roots with the 2022 covers EP Under Cover.
About Rachael Davis
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
Multi-instrumentalist Rachael Davis is as renown for her expressive--and explosive--voice as she is for uniting the often disparate worlds of folk, blues, country, and pop.
Davis grew up not only in a family of musicians, but in an extended village of remarkable musicians and songwriters who nurtured and mentored her from the time she was born. Beginning by jingling ankle bells in perfect time on her months old feet in the middle of old timey jams and song circles, to contributing newly minted songs to Music Sundays, Rachael has always found her own unique part in the music. Her clear tone and uncanny memory for just about every song she’s ever heard came early, and has served her well throughout her career. As a child Davis took to harmony, piano, and ukulele, and at 8, joined the family band Lake Effect, performing regularly at folk festivals throughout her home state of Michigan and around the U.S. By age 12, and continuing each year since, Rachael has brought the Wheatland Music Festival to its knees closing the Sunday morning gospel set with her stunning solo acapella version of Amazing Grace.
About Thao
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
San Francisco-based Thao & the Get Down Stay Down is led by Thao Nguyen. Their critically acclaimed album 'We the Common' was released last year by Ribbon Music, and was produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Bill Callahan, The Walkmen). The album is raw and rollicking, homemade and reckless — 12 songs capturing this utterly unique writer and performer like never before. In addition to embarking on national and international tours, and playing major festivals, Thao participates in her local community, most notably advocating for those incarcerated in the San Francisco county jail and California state prison system.
About Yasmin Williams
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
Based in Alexandria, VA, Yasmin Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and film composer. She has an unorthodox, modern style of guitar playing and utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect. Her “radiant sound and adventitious origins have made her a key figure in a diverse dawn for the solo guitar” (The New York Times). Williams’s music has been described as rich, harmonious, and “in a lot of ways, the joy and possibility she brings to the guitar reminds me more of Eddie Van Halen than any of the other fingerstyle guitarists to whom she's compared” (NPR Music).