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Earthwork Harvest festival gathers for last time

The storied Earthwork Harvest Gathering will meet for the last time this weekend in rural Missaukee County—about an hour southeast of Traverse City. For 22 years, thousands of musicians, artisans, and activists have flocked to Bob Bernard’s farm near Lake City to celebrate the end of summer, dance in the fields, and foster community. Bob’s son Seth, who grew up on the farm, is a well-known musician and activist who founded the Earthwork Music Collective. “For me it’s emotional just to think about this one being the last of its kind. I’m so proud to have been able to work with these folks through all these years, so many people who have inspired me to be a better human being. I just want to extend a hearty invitation for people to come out and experience some of the beauty of northern Michigan and some of this beautiful culture of active artisans and activists and music lovers who know how to have a really good time.”

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Seth Bernard headlines new-look LivelyLands

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What do you call someone who combines activism with health, wellness and mindfulness? Who founded a recording label and an all-things-to-all-people festival, both named for his family farm? Don’t forget to throw in gifts as a singer, songwriter and musician known for collaborating with others from across the musical spectrum, and plying those gifts for the benefit of others. The answer is Seth Bernard. One of Michigan’s favorite musical sons, he is returning to LivelyLands with cellist and good friend Jordan Hamilton in tow. They will open the festival’s new season June 16, a.k.a. Father’s Day. Groove-based world music jam band SoSoHiFi will close the show.

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“Music brings people together, breaks down barriers”

The fields at Backyard Burdickville in Empire Township will come to life once again with the sound of music. The LivelyLands Music Festival returns, Aug. 20-22, to the former Empire Eagles’ campground on M-72, which the Lively family purchased in 2019. LivelyLands was canceled last year during the COVID-19 shutdown. With guitar picking and beautiful maladies crooning through the fields and forests, this intimate, “backyard” festival carries the legacy of Leelanau County summer music festivals.

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Old Art Building celebrates Summer Solstice with solar panels, Seth Bernard concert

On June 22 the Leelanau Community Cultural Center (LCCC) at the Old Art Building will host a Solstice Celebration to honor the summer sun. The event will also celebrate the installation of the 20-kilowatt rooftop solar system made possible by a $60,000 grant received from All Points North Foundation.

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LivelyLands music festival launches in Leelanau, with Austin pulse

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The first annual LivelyLands is about to kick off, Aug. 25-27, at the 5-acre Lively farm off Bow Road, just one mile south of Big Glen Lake. Headlining acts include Austin favorite The Deer and northern Michigan songster Seth Bernard.

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Fighting for teachers’ rights and organized labor

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Cindy Hollenbeck surprised herself this past winter when she took a personal day and drove to Lansing to join a demonstration against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Manager bill — which was signed into law on March 16 and gave the governor the right to dissolve economically troubled schools and public municipalities and appoint his own fiscal managers to run them.

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Emma Cook’s Days of Wonder

If 2011 continues to be as full of excitement, exhilaration, and adulation as its first weekend, Emma Cook is headed for quite a year. On the evening of Sunday, Jan. 2, Emma packed The Loading Dock restaurant/bar in Traverse City with almost 200 of her closest friends for the release party of her new CD, “Days of Wonder”. The fruit of a semester off from the University of Vermont, and an autumn of intense work with Patrick Niemisto at the Holy Wah Studio near Maple City, Days of Wonder is a harvest of Emma’s crystalline voice and emerging songwriting skills.

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Day 9 of Run Across Ethiopia: Music to our ears

Earthworks musicians Seth Bernard and May Erlewine joined the team for today’s 16-mile run, which took us into the Yirgachefe coffee region, and a mere 36 miles from our ultimate destination on Thursday. At every water and food stop along the road, Seth and May lit up the crowds of villagers and children, who clapped, danced, and engaged in the sort of cross-cultural love and understanding that music knows best.

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Logging Miles and Building Schools in Ethiopia

On Sunday, Jan. 9, a team of American runners (most with northern Michigan roots) will leave the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on a 250-mile run. For 10 days they’ll jog through the ancient Rift Valley, sleep in highland villages and raise awareness with folks back home about rural poverty and lack of schools. Ten marathons in ten days! On Jan. 20 they’ll arrive in Yirgacheffe, one of the world’s great coffee-growing regions.

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