Haunted Like Human * Ben Traverse * Billy Blanchard

***THIS SHOW IS IN THE THEATER, WHICH IS ON THE 2ND FLOOR & ACCESSIBLE ONLY BY STAIRS. We would love nothing more than to be able to welcome every human into the theater and are working really hard to have an elevator built in the near future.***

On Tall Tales & Fables, Nashville duo Haunted Like Human (Cody Clark & Dale Chapman) delve deeper into the meticulous songwriting, sparse arrangements, and frisson-inducing harmonies that marked their earlier work. The songs are honest above all else—real, tender, messy honesty—and limned with nostalgia and soaked in Southern gothic lore. Clark began in metal and punk bands until his evolution brought him to composition at Lionel Hampton School of Music (U of Idaho). After buying a steel-string guitar and switching to an entirely fingerpicked style, Clark knew he’d found a place in acoustic music. It was this evolution that inspired Clark to drive from Oregon to Nashville hoping to find serious collaborators. Within a couple days, he met Chapman. She deduced that he was a lost tourist and struck up a conversation, leading to a cowriting session. Next thing they knew, Clark had relocated to Nashville and they were making their first album. For fans of: The Civil Wars, Gregory Alan Isakov, The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile, The Secret Sisters.

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Ben Traverse is a young person with a very wide hat who commands a wide array of instruments in their mission to bring the finest traditional folk music into the 21st century. With deep Michigan roots, they find good company as a member of the Earthwork Music Collective, using traditional music as a vehicle for education, equity, and environmental action. Ben’s musical journey truly began nearly a decade ago at a collaborative after-school program presented by Earthwork Music and SEEDS celebrating Alan Lomax’s 1938 ethnomusicological expedition in Michigan and Wisconsin. Always keen on history, especially from a cultural perspective, traditional music quickly became Ben’s biggest passion. After moving to Grand Rapids and getting a degree in audio engineering, they quickly became heavily involved behind the scenes with many West Michigan acts. Ben’s spent the better part of a decade playing listening rooms, festivals, and bars, and found a passion in steeping in the rich history of traditional folk music and its use as a vehicle for community, collaboration, education, and activism.

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Billy Blanchard is a songwriter from Grand Rapids with a unique sound of finger-style and folk guitar. His songs communicate reflections and inspirations drawn from life’s day-to-day moments and the larger themes of Being. As part of the swamp-folk trio WETLANDS and the old-time DIY trio Peg & Awl, he’s made music with guitar, clawhammer banjo, and voice that is as much a part of the long tradition of folk music as it is music of its day, or perhaps tomorrow. He also produces the podcast HomeField Recordings, a gentle, meandering patchwork of songs and sounds recorded in nature and his surroundings.