From rocking folk to film classics, metro Detroit’s musical soul is blasting at full volume this weekend. Prepare your ears for some great performances from here to Ann Arbor, and see the sights of local art across multiple venues and forms. 

Upcoming events (Jan. 29 to Feb. 4)

Process + Perception exhibition

  Detroit Artists Market

Thursday Jan. 29 through Feb. 21

  Free

The Detroit Artists Market’s Process + Perception exhibition explores the techniques and results of careful layering in both 2D and 3D works of art. Curated by Andy T., the exhibit promises a range of artworks from “quiet and contemplative, to intense and overwhelming”. It’s open every Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until well into February. 

The Piano Lesson

Detroit Repertory Theatre

 Jan. 9 through March 15 

 $35

Sit feet away from a moving performance that will immerse you in a familial conflict over legacy. In the latest installment of the Detroit Repertory Theatre’s performance of playright August Wilson’s Century Cycle, siblings Berniece and Boy Willie have a dispute over an heirloom piano and whether it should be seen as a wealth of family history or a profitable antique that could fund their futures. 

Epic Film Scores

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Friday, Jan. 30 through Sunday, Feb. 1

$20.95+

Nothing sets a tone like a film’s score. Sit back and travel across worlds, times, and emotional highs and lows with the a soundtrack composed of Hollywood’s best, from Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful shrieking “Psycho” track to epics you can hum along to, like the “Star Wars” theme. The live performance by the Detroit Symphony and conductor Steve Reineke lasts about two hours. 

Ann Arbor Folk Festival

The Hill Auditorium

Friday, Jan. 30 to Saturday, Jan. 30

$50+

Jam out to a set of phenomenal performers two days and help raise money for The Ark, a place known for being the heart of folk, roots, and acoustic music in Ann Arbor. Featuring Amos Lee, The Crane Wives, Jon Muq, Rabbitology and more, you can hear seasoned artists perform live and find new favorites.

Plymouth Ice Festival

Downtown Plymouth

Friday, Jan. 30 to Sunday Feb. 1

Free

Come chill out with some breathtaking ice sculptures at the Plymouth Ice Fest. You’ll be able to explore the charming downtown and watch live ice-carving demonstrations. Plus, there’s also a zipline available if you’re in need of an extra thrill.

Meet Starlings! Or at least half of Starlings. My guests this week were Nick Chevillet (guitar/vocals), Adam Liles (guitar), and Darren Shelton, (keyboards). You can see Shelton on the far right, up top, who immediately joked that he “only has one look” when it comes to photos, otherwise, his energy is significantly mirthful, ebullient even, and certainly exuding lots of encouraging energy toward his bandmate, Liles (he’s the tallest one in the picture) just released his debut solo album “Slow Pony” this week.

During the last segment of this week’s show, I spoke with Liles about his new album, including debuting a song from it, “Heart Attack Machine.” Then Liles treated WDET listeners to a live acoustic version of another song, proper for these chilly winter nights, titled “Silver Letter.”

Liles has been in several bands over the last decade, including Pia The Band and The Indigo Curve, but he’s also been working on solo material, albeit a bit more quietly, for just as long, having released demos in the late 2010s, along with a solid single, “Ripcord.”

Chevillet shared a charming anecdote about how Liles came to join Starlings. This six-piece band grew out of a collaboration that Chevillet started, somewhat on a lark, with singer-songwriter Adam Padden. Chevillet and Padden were already well-acquainted after years of playing together in another indie-rock group, Handgrenades.

Starlings started as a bonding creative project during the quarantine days of Covid, when both Chevillet and Padden had just become new fathers and were eager to fill some of that precious quiet time when their newborns were napping; naturally, they filled it with songwriting.

Liles is a natural fit for Starlings, since Chevillet and Padden’s initial batch of songs matched his own sensibilities for propulsive mini-ballads of melodic brooding post-punk mixed with pedal-augmented guitar phrases, welded over sophisticated compositions that support and sweeten (or bitterly sweeten) the lilts of poetically heavyhearted lyrics.

Shelton had previously set up an impressive recording space Downriver, where Chevillet revealed he’s been working on a slew of new Starlings tracks for future recordings; their debut EP, “Try Hard Town,” was released last year. Liles, in turn, also admitted that while he’s eager to continue recording and performing with Starlings, he’s also got plenty of solo material that could fill a follow-up to” Slow Pony” soon.

Also on tonight’s show, I looked ahead to this weekend’s annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival, a fundraiser for that city’s musical mecca of roots music, The Ark. I featured tracks from two artists performing on Saturday at Hill Auditorium: the versatile Americana-folk-rock ensemble The Crane Wives, and Rabbitology, who weaves a heartwarmingly witchy brew of atmospheric folk that sounds like it’s building her up to be the inheritor of the torches of Kate Bush and Florence Welch.

Also on this week’s show, a track from Tony Mugg’s solo project, DUDE, a dazzlingly jazzy-indie-rock instrumental from Seth Bernard, and a swooning ballad from Annie Bacon. We even found some time to flash back to 2016’s world of local music releases, with two seemingly long-lost music projects known as Real Ghosts and The Good Things.