UnCaged unleashed again in Northport

By Ross Boissoneau

Sun contributor

The sound of music will once again fill the air throughout Northport on Sept. 26, just as it has every fourth Saturday since 2013. That first Leelanau UnCaged was such a success that every year since, with the exception of the pandemic years, it has been a way for throngs of locals and visitors to join in and celebrate the end of summer and coming of fall.

With 32 different performing groups at various stages in four different locations throughout town, plus 50 artists displaying their wares and various food trucks joining Northport’s bars and restaurants, shops and sights, Leelanau UnCaged truly has something for everyone. So, once again expect the streets to be filled with as many as 8,000 people.

Leelanau UnCaged features live music from noon to 10 p.m. Funk, bluegrass, jazz, folk, blues, Americana, singer-songwriter, world music, country, zydeco – you name it, the festival’s got it. Music organizer Jonah Powell says this year the organization had 130 bands apply, from which 32 were selected. The six-person music committee reviews the applications, including any YouTube videos of performances. “We watch to see what’s interesting, what’s new, what’s unusual,” Powell says.

They then cull the list, taking pains to make sure the rotation features a variety of genres and formats. No band is allowed to perform two years in a row, other than community-based groups such as those from Northwestern Michigan College or Interlochen Center for the Arts. “We don’t want it to get stale,” Powell says.

Powell does allow that the committee leans toward artists from nearby, with a couple from outside the area as well. “We bring in a couple outside groups every year. We (do) have a bias toward local and regional (bands),” says Powell. This year’s lineup includes Detroit’s Paxton Spangler band, which plays a mix of blues, swing and jazz, and Grand Haven bluegrass band Full Cord.

“We mix and match genres, jazz to Cajun to singer-songwriter to funky rock,” he continues. While things like rap, hip hop, metal, polka or progressive rock are largely absent, he says that’s more a reflection of the applicants than any prejudice by the selection committee. “We judge the applications based on musicality and what they bring. It’s not about our own tastes. If there’s an audience for it, never say never.”

For musicians, the appeal is twofold. One, they get to perform in front of people, the lifeblood of any performing musician. Two, they get to hang with other musicians and enjoy their music, which is not often the case.

“It’s the whole town overtaken by a bunch of stages,” says veteran musician and UnCaged performer Al Jankowski. He and Funky Uncle will be on the Mill Street stage beginning at 12:30.

“It’s a lot of really great live jazz, funk, blues—a lot of different music. No matter what you like you’ll find it there. And it’s always great when all the different musicians can get together.”

It will be Brian Oberlin’s first time at the festival. The Grand Rapids-based mandolinist will be on one of the Waukazoo stages with his bluegrass band Full Cord at 4 p.m., following a 2 p.m. set there with his wife Sallie Bacon in Sweet Dee & the Wild Honeys.

Oberlin, who recently played at the Alluvion as part of the Mandolin Carnival show, says he is looking forward to it. “Full Cord plays the Leelanau area all the time, on the west side of Michigan frequently,” he says. The band won the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Contest in 2022 and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Momentum Award as Band of the Year.

Joshua Wagner, who heads the NMC jazz program, says the festival provides exposure for the various bands to people who have never seen them before. “It gives us the opportunity to play for different folks,” he says. People who would not typically attend a show by a big band at Milliken Auditorium or the Alluvion can catch a taste of it at UnCaged.

Ditto people who might not usually go to a show by a bluegrass band or indie-folk collective. “It gives everyone exposure to a variety—an organ trio, rock, folk. How many (festivals) have that variety? It’s not all rock, jazz or bluegrass,” Wagner adds.

Realizing that the crowd is not your typical jazz/big band audience also gives Wagner the opportunity to pull out music his bands might not typically perform in a more jazz-centric setting. “Knowing it’s a different crowd I try to balance the variety,” he says. For example, the band is working on a Tower of Power tune while eschewing pieces by the likes of Thelonius Monk or Miles Davis.

Andy Thomas founded UnCaged as a result of seeing one of the Musicircus performances by composer/visionary John Cage, who famously told people, “Get yourselves out of whatever cage you find yourself in.” Thomas attended the Musicircus event, which took place around the infield of a track with 25 music and dance groups performing simultaneously as attendees walked around the oval.

Thomas’s subsequent vision has seen thousands of people descend on the tiny town at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula for a day-long street festival, where, true to the original vision, attendees are free to roam around the town, listening to various performing groups.

UnCaged also serves as a homecoming for residents, local visitors and musicians. They are able to connect or reconnect with a town, a festival and friends they may not see the rest of the year.

It also provides an opportunity for bands to showcase new material or approaches that may have changed since they last performed there. For Funky Uncle, that means demonstrating how the band has grown, both in numbers and in its artistry. “Funky Uncle has always been good, but we’re finding our place musically,” says Jankowski. “It’s been a lot of hard work.

“Ralph and Nancy will also be back,” he continues, referring to founding bassist Ralph Humes and flutist Nancy Stagnitta. “Ralph has been on the road with Dave Matthews (where he worked as a chef, his other vocation) and Nancy is an official member of Funky Uncle when she’s not out with Paul Simon.” Stagnitta became part of Simon’s band in early 2025.

For more information, including a schedule of performances, visit LeelanauUnCaged.com.