Your RoadTripping, PorchChilling, BoatFloating, CampfireStoking Northern Michigan Mixtape

What ties an eclectic NoMi mixtape together: From the biggest Northern-born bands to touring singer-songwriters on the rise, they all claim this oneof-a-kind part of Michigan as their siren song.

By Joe Beyer, Ross Boissoneau & Lynda Twardowski Wheatley

Drew Hale

The thought of summer arriving used to fill Drew Hale with fear. “We really fried eggs on the sidewalk, man,” he recalls from his years growing up in El Paso. After 15 years in Northern Michigan, he has finally stopped looking at lakes as a mirage, even though he is still a Texan at heart. It’s home now with his wife Emily Hale—and so, like good locals, they never take summer for granted.

For a man with three adopted boys (all turning 10 or 11 this year), a new boat hobby and a career in country, blues and rock music, Hale seems downright relaxed. His faith grounds him and has always been a big part of his expression as an artist, and where music started for him as a shy piano-playing kid. There’s something special about this summer for him. His shows will focus on a handful of venues, both old and new (including Rove Estate Vineyard & Winery and Lake Ann Brewing Co.), where he can return to his roots as a solo performer and stay close to what matters most to him. “I wanted to play the way I started and reconnect with venues I haven’t been to in a while, and fans and people I’ve missed.” drewhalelive.com

Playing on repeat: Among the line-dancing, summer-themed hits Hale has released, the most famous is “Great Lakes Summer Night.” Runner up is the straightforward “Made for Summertime”—a rockin’ head bop anthem perfectly paired with floating in a tube down a Michigan river. —J.B.

The Shouting Bones

Launched last year in Petoskey, The Shouting Bones (aka Holly and Eric Jaqua) may not have existed without caffeine and a stubborn, patient crush. “He thinks he was into me first, but I really made the first move,” Holly shares. That was more than five years ago when she hired The Pistil Whips to play a show at her coffee shop and Eric walked in (he’s been playing with the group for more than 10 years now; their new album is expected this fall).

She was into playing punk rock at the time, and he was into her. The Michiganders married last year; the indie-centric duo has always wanted to write and perform together. “To play now feels more special and there’s more of a bond,” Eric adds.

Their name, funnily enough, was the first one that felt right after they used a band-name generator app live on the recording of their podcast Rep Your Set to pick one. They’ve leaned into it with macabre and tongue-in-cheek ballads like “I’m Going to

Be the One Who Holds You

When You Die.” Some of their upcoming sessions will be at local haunts including Ethanology Distillation in Elk Rapids, Mammoth Distilling in Bay Harbor and The Little Fleet in Traverse City. facebook.com/shoutingbones

Playing on repeat: When The Shouting Bones needed a music video for their single “Marble Stone,” they just called up friend and photographer Alex Childress to meet them the following morning at Petoskey State Park where they shot the playful project in one day. —J.B.

Laurel Premo

Hearing Laurel Premo play—earthy and ethereal dives into blues, roots and traditional American and Nordic folk—is an experience of pure atmospheric pleasure. Watching her play—fingers wildly deft whether dancing on banjo, fiddle, lap steel, electric guitar or, one might assume, most any strings—is downright transcendent.

Best and internationally known as half of Red Tail Ring, her old-timey roots duo with Michael Beauchamp-Cohen, Premo is less vocal but no less captivating on her second solo album, Golden Loam, a hypnotic and languid assortment of three originals and several finger-pickin’-good legacy tracks she’s reinterpreted. You don’t need to like or even know Appalachian music legends The Carter Family or a Norwegian wedding march to appreciate Premo’s music, but after experiencing this Traverse City multi-instrumentalist play and sing, trust us, you will. Hear her at Blissfest Folk & Roots Festival this July. laurelpremo.com

Playing on repeat: Golden Loam’s “Calloway,” “Jericho” and “Ma’s Maw.” —L.T.W.

Eliza Thorp

With stirring arrangements, reflective lyrics and a voice that stretches from warm and wooly to a cool, airy silk, the music of Eliza Thorp casts a meditative cocoon that still commands we sit up and listen.

The Petoskey native and Berklee College of Music grad credits NoMi’s Caroline Barlow and Charlie Millard (whose accordion graces Thorp’s excellent ’22 album, Stories We Told Along the Way) “for believing in me as a musician and giving me a stage (literally) to share my stories.” elizathorpmusic.com

Thorp also gives due to Mother Nature for that magic making her sound especially resonant: “The natural world is such a staple to my inspiration. Michigan, with her many varied ecosystems … is such a bountiful place for that spark of creativity.” Catch Thorp this summer on familiar stages like Gabriel Farms & Winery in Petoskey, Two K Farms in Suttons Bay and Blissfest.

Playing on repeat: Stories We Told Along the Way’s “Superhero,” “Every Little Thing”; Queen of the Sea’s “Queen of the Sea,” “Unravel These Days.” —L.T.W.

Tim Jones

Opening for The Black Crowes? Check. Writing and performing with future stars like Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat? Check. Living in Frankfort? That, too. It all makes sense in the world of troubadour Tim Jones. His wife Katie Jones had long summered in Frankfort, and after she was named executive director of the lovingly restored Garden Theater downtown, they relocated. Much to his delight: “I’ve always wanted to be here,” Jones says. However, finding a home wasn’t easy—by a long shot—and their experience led him to become deeply involved with the Frankfort Area Community Land Trust.

His rootsy sound embraces country and Americana. The singer-songwriter has lived in Los Angeles (where he and Katie met), New York and Nashville, and is or has been a part of Whiskey Wolves of the West, Truth & Salvage Co., Old Pike, Beej and Teej and other outfits, noting that he prefers working with others. Jones also teaches songwriting at Interlochen Center for the Arts and leads songwriting workshops at the Country Music Hall of Fame. facebook.com/timleejonesmusic

Hear Jones with various collaborators this summer at Lake Ann Brewing Co., the Garden Theater, Music in the Streets in Beulah, Short’s Pull Barn in Elk Rapids and the Frankfort Film Festival.

Playing on repeat: We’re fans of Truth & Salvage Co.’s “24 Hours,” with “only three chords and kind of a Fleetwood Mac vibe,” shares Jones. “Old Piano” is a co-write by Jones, Brian Wright and Katy Perry (yes, that Katy Perry). “We’d share songs with each other at this old piano at The Hotel Cafe.” —R.B.

Jetty Rae

The day in May 2016 that Charlevoixraised indie songstress Jetty Rae boarded a refurbed Airstream and set out, husband and kids in tow, to sing her soulful

Yet we couldn’t hate Music City for taking her. It’s where the prolific singersongwriter, who has released one album nearly every year since her first (2007’s Blackberries, recorded in a Charlevoix pole barn), recorded what we believe is her best LP yet: 2022’s Time Traveler

An honest, introspective account of her last half-decade—crisscrossing three countries, growing her family, losing her beloved father, finding her way again— every track seems built by and for the wheel-turning rhythms of the road.

That road ultimately brought Rae and family back to Northern Michigan, but don’t count on a live show soon. Rae’s husband/manager Jason Stewart tells us she’s pressed pause on recording and performing until 2024, while she works on another project: “Baby number five … due July 5.” acoustic-folk way around North America, our collective heart cracked. When word came that the family planned to park in Nashville indefinitely, it fully broke.

Playing on repeat: Time Traveler “Time Traveler,” “Bad Loop” and “Dragon’s Lair.” —L.T.W.

Michigan Rattlers

Stripped-down steel-toe rock with a rustcountry edge and pure Midwestern heart, the Michigan Rattlers—Graham Young (lead vocals/guitar), Adam Reed (bass), Christian Wilder (piano) and Tony Audia (drums)—are as rollicking a live band as they are barstool therapist for the lonesome and life-weary. We’ve loved ’em both ways, always, since their Petoskey high school days as a classic rock cover band to their bandmate-by-bandmate trickle to Los Angeles and the inevitable raves that followed their first EP of originals, 2016’s self-titled Michigan Rattlers, and 2018’s Evergreen

Rolling Stone c alled them one of “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know” and by 2019, audiences around the nation—at Bonnaroo, Firefly, Electric Forest and dozens more—heard and loved ’em, too. The pandemic halted the band’s relentless tour schedule but not their momentum. In 2021, the Rattlers released That Kind of tally and lyrically sincere, red-dirt-kickin’ beaut that’s best played loud with the win dows down.

We’re craving more, and so far, 2023 is looking promising: the band dropped a sweet single, “Pure Resistance,” in late spring and though most of their summer tour is keeping them out west, Wilder tells us they’ve booked one show close to home: June 10 at Coyote Crossing Resort in Cadillac. michiganrattlers.com

Playing on repeat: Michigan Rattlers’ “Illinois Sky”; Evergreen’s “ Evergreen” and “Drinking Song”; That Kind of Life’s “The Storm.” —L.T.W.

You’ve read the stories— now stream the UP North summer playlist we curated just for you. Listen online at: link.mynorth.com/summermixtape

Blake Elliott

A natural southpaw, Blake Elliott began playing her mom’s guitar upside down before finally buying (and restringing) her own. “Music was part of the household,” says Elliott, who was immersed in everything from James Taylor and Barbra Streisand to The Chieftains and Weather Report.

Working past what she calls “horrible” stage fright early on, the Traverse City musician became one of the region’s most recognizable performers, with her soulful, bluesy take on originals like “Back in Line,” which “is about the end of a relationship and you know you’ll be okay,” she shares. At the other end of the spectrum, “Here I Go” is about falling in love at an inopportune time.

She is a working artist in every sense; there are abundant chances (in June alone!) to fall in love with Elliott’s music: June 1, 8 and 15 at The Union in Northport (with Aaron Dye); June 2 at Furnace Street Distillery in Elberta; June 3 at Cafe Santé in Boyne City; June 10 at The Parlor in Traverse City; June 12 at Charlevoix Public Library (with Aaron Dye and Kevin LaRose); June 16 at Little Traverse Inn in Maple City; June 17 at Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort; June 22 at M22 Wine Bar in Glen Arbor; June 23 at Cellar 152 in Elk Rapids; June 29 at The Cantina in Charlevoix; June 30 at Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville. blakeelliottmusic.com

Playing on repeat: “Faster Than Your Eyes Can See” is sweet and gritty at once, pairing irresistible horn parts with Blake’s gorgeous guitar and gravel. —R.B.