Folk Concert Series

SCMC’s Acoustic Cafe Folk Series continues to bring fabulous musicians to the sublime listening-room setting of Royce Auditorium. Featuring everything from folk legends and bluegrass heroes to award-winning singer/songwriters, this popular series delivers incredible music magic at every show.

Upcoming Folk Concerts

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Janis Ian: Last North American Tour

Folk

10/19/2022
October
19
1:30 pm
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Janis Ian keeps a sign above her workspace at home, a North Star that guides her after more than five decades as a revered songwriter who dares to say what no one else will. “Do not be held hostage by your legacy.” When you’ve written, starting at age 14, some of pop music’s most evergreen songs — “Society’s Child,” “At Seventeen,” “Jesse,” and “Stars,” among them — it’s no wonder she’d need a reminder to shake free of our expectations...

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The Wood Brothers

Folk

10/27/2022
October
27
7:30 pm
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Dubbed “masters of soulful folk” by Paste, The Wood Brothers formed after brothers Chris and Oliver Wood pursued separate musical careers for 15 years. Chris already had legions of devoted fans for his incomparable work as one-third of Medeski Martin & Wood, while Oliver toured with Tinsley Ellis before releasing a half-dozen albums with his band King Johnson. With drummer Jano Rix added as a permanent third member, it’s become quite clear that The Wood Brothers is indeed the main act.

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Mat Kearney

Folk

11/18/2022
November
18
7:30 pm
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Unexpected, unplanned moments often yield the most beautiful results. That’s how Mat Kearney arrived at his sixth album, January Flower, a collection of honest, stripped down songs that brings the Nashville-based, Oregon-born musician back to his singer-songwriter roots.

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Patty Griffin

Folk

1/29/2023
January
29
7:30 pm
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Patty Griffin is among the most consequential singer-songwriters of her generation, a quintessentially American artist whose wide-ranging canon incisively explores the intimate moments and universal emotions that bind us together. Over the course of two decades, the 2x GRAMMY® Award winner – and 7x nominee – has crafted a remarkable body of work in progress that prompted the New York Times to hail her for “[writing] cameo-carved songs that create complete emotional portraits of specific people…[her] songs have independent lives that continue in your head when the music ends.”

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Chris Thile

Folk

2/5/2023
February
5
7:30 pm
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Chris Thile’s Laysongs is his first truly solo album: It’s just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on a set of nine new tracks, combining original songs with three wisely chosen covers that contextualize and banter with his ideas.

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Josh Ritter

Folk

3/2/2023
March
2
7:30 pm
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As I listen, I find myself singing along, laughing, entered into a shared place of joy. This is secular church music, because it unifies us, bonds us, brings us together in a search for love, peace, understanding and an escape from the earthly cruelty all around us.

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Sam Bush Band

Folk

3/10/2023
March
10
7:30 pm
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There was only one prize-winning teenager carrying stones big enough to say thanks, but no thanks to Roy Acuff. Only one son of Kentucky finding a light of inspiration from Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys and catching a fire from Bob Marley and The Wailers. Only one progressive hippie allying with like-minded conspirators, rolling out the New Grass revolution, and then leaving the genre’s torch-bearing band behind as it reached its commercial peak.

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Joshua Davis

Folk

4/27/2023
April
27
7:30 pm
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An upbringing residing in the city of Detroit while spending summers on the southern tip of Lake Superior in Marquette, MI brings into view the backdrop of Davis’ latest works. The Way Back Home follows a series of singular recordings (Fool Rooster, Magnolia Belles, A Miracle of Birds) by the prolific songwriter who has shared the stage with a “Who’s Who” of American folk music icons such as Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Greg Brown, and Abigail Washburn. Recorded in East Lansing, MI by legendary engineer Glenn Brown, The Way Back Home highlights Davis’ longtime collaboration with Jack White’s bassist Dominic John Davis, pianist Mike Lynch (Willie Nelson, Leon Russell), and drummer Mike Shimmin (The Olllam).

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The Lone Bellow

Folk

5/4/2023
May
4
7:30 pm
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Throughout their lifespan as a band, The Lone Bellow have cast an indelible spell with their fine spun songs of hard truth and unexpected beauty, frequently delivered in hypnotic three-part harmony. In a departure from their past work with elite producers like Aaron Dessner of The National and eight-time Grammy-winner Dave Cobb, the Nashville-based trio struck out on their own for their new album Love Songs for Losers, dreaming up a singular sound encompassing everything from arena-ready rock anthems to the gorgeously sprawling Americana tunes the band refers to as “little redneck symphonies.” Recorded at the possibly haunted former home of the legendary Roy Orbison, the result is an intimate meditation on the pain and joy and ineffable wonder of being human, at turns heartbreaking, irreverent, and sublimely transcendent.

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Leo Kottke

Folk

5/16/2023
May
16
7:30 pm
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Acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke was born in Athens, Georgia, but left town after a year and a half. Raised in 12 different states, he absorbed a variety of musical influences as a child, flirting with both violin and trombone, before abandoning Stravinsky for the guitar at age 11.

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Driving Directions

St. Cecilia Music Center is centrally located in downtown Grand Rapids, MI. On the corner of Fulton Street and Ransom Avenue, SCMC is easily accessible to most locations in Grand Rapids and the nearby communities.SCMC’s parking lot offers 50 parking spaces on a first come, first served basis for our events. If our lot is full when you arrive, the following options are within walking distance to St. Cecilia Music Center.

Printable Directions

Parking

  1. Park Congregational Church, 10 E Park Place NE
    Entrance located directly across from the SCMC lot. Rate and availability may vary.
  2. Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library Street NE
    For up-to-date parking information, please visit the Grand Rapids Public Library website.
  3. GRCC Parking Ramp, 140 Bostwick Ave NE
    Entrances both on Ransom Street and at the corner of Bostwick Ave and Fountain StreetFor up-to-date parking information, please visit the Grand Rapids Community College website.
  4. Most city meters are free after 6pm and on the weekend. For up-to-date parking information, please visit the Grand Rapids City website.