Taking off the sandles and Steppin’ In It

By Jacob R. Wheeler
Sun editor
You don’t want to be caught napping in your lawn chair when Joe Wilson starts going mad on his fiddle or when lyricist Joshua Davis morphs into a young Woody Guthrie. The Glen Arbor Art Association encourages you to bring chairs and prepare to picnic at the Steppin’ In It concert on August 3 at the Thoreson Farm, on Thoreson Road between Glen Arbor and Port Oneida Road. But don’t catch yourself sitting when you should be steppin’, or stompin’, or groovin’. This roots-folk-country-bluegrass-calypso-cajun-swing band from Lansing will make you glad you have two hips and know how to use them.

Steppin’ In It just opened at Interlochen for folk music tycoon Greg Brown, who thought highly enough of them to bring the four guys on stage for a jamboree encore. They recently rocked the U.P. from dusk ‘til dawn on the dancin’ stage and then around their campfire at the Hiawatha Music Festival. Ask anyone who’s witnessed Steppin’ In It for an assessment and you won’t get much more than a grin out of them because they’re probably still out of breath.
Between Joe and Andy Wilson, and Davis and Dominic Suchyta, you’ll hear the upright bass, triangle, dobro, steel guitar, fiddle, acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, and amazing harmonica – basically a cornucopia of sounds. And there’s no better setting for this jam than outside in the National Park. Thoreson Farm belongs to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore but is managed and used by the Association as a non-profit creative partnership. For years the Association’s Manitou Music Festival has held concerts at the Dune Climb, but this will be the first at one of Leelanau County’s numerous old farmsteads. In case of rain, this concert will be moved to The Leelanau School just north of Glen Arbor.
The Festival concludes four days later, on August 7, with a Claudia Schmidt performance outside on The Leelanau School’s Graduation Green. Schmidt’s concert in Glen Arbor has become an annual event, and her local fan base has soared since she moved to the area from Beaver Island several years ago. “Claudia’s style is a mix of her own unique compositions coupled with jazz standards,” says Festival Director Crispin Campbell. “Claudia is a hugely talented, improvising singer, who uses her voice as if it were a musical instrument. She also has a gift of language, so her original songs make for a witty and moving performance.”
Schmidt’s roots are as a folk musician, but her repertoire is a kaleidoscope of sounds, from blues to ballads to classical. She will be accompanied by the Aurora Quintet – five household names at the Manitou Music Festival who will play Mozart and Brahms. They are violinists John Lindsey and Marla Rathbun, viola players David Holland and George Myers and Campbell on cello. Campbell is the festival’s founding director and a pioneer in bringing live music to Glen Arbor. He will step down after this concert, having fathered the festival throughout its 13-year existence.