Although she’s still only 19 years old, singer/songwriter Kanin Wren wants to be a role model for younger kids. Already known for her popular touring Taylor Swift Experience—where she covers many of the megastar’s biggest hits, while performing a few songs of her own—the rising Michigan-based pop star surprise-released her debut studio album, Wren, back in late June.
It’s hard to picture Marc Rebillet as anything other than an improvisational musician and actor. But before Rebillet stepped into his silk robe and signature boxers full-time, he worked a decade’s worth of odd jobs.
Back in the summer of 2019, Connor and Kendall Wright of Grand Rapids indie duo Cal In Red weren’t thinking about streaming numbers, festival sets, or how to balance a growing music career with adulthood.
Our annual Arts & Music Issue is the time when we here at Revue have the opportunity to bring attention to many bands, musicians, and other artists who are right on the cusp of breaking through to a bigger and wider audience. Across all genres, and coming from all around West Michigan, it’s both a challenge and an honor to handpick only 10 of the countless talented acts putting in the work onstage, on tour, and in the studio, finding their voice, and mastering their craft.
The past meets the future with the recent opening of Grand Rapids’ new large events and entertainment venue, The Big Room.
The Rebel Eves—singer/songwriters Katie Pederson, Grace Theisen, and Jilian Linklater—emerged in 2022, after countless Zoom sessions, and one fateful lakeside songwriting retreat, determined to build something more than just a band.
Julien Ehrlich, the falsetto-singing drummer of Chicago indie band Whitney, has long written songs about heartbreak, including their viral, breakthrough hit, 2016’s “No Woman.”
Addie Sartino didn’t have a typical teenage experience. While her peers were focused on high school sports and college applications, she was getting permission slips signed to go on tour as the lead singer of The Greeting Committee, an indie rock band formed in Kansas City.
Whether you’re heading up north, cruising along the lakeshore, or just exploring forgotten corners of West Michigan, every great trip needs a great playlist. So we’ve got it covered. Featuring some longtime favorites and rising newcomers, consider this a sampler of the many tastes and flavors making up our extended local music scene. Jazz, pop, rock, country, folk, punk, rap, it’s all in here, so get ready to open your mind as you venture out on the open road.
With the scorching hot days of summer upon us, life on the road for a nonstop touring band like Florida indie-rockers flipturn can border on breakdown.
Songs that began in Joe P’s New Jersey basement have since traveled their way around the world–and to millions of listeners.
Devin Weber, frontman for Grand Rapids alt-country band The Local Commuters, admits it’s taken a long time to finally release the group’s debut EP.
Nearly a decade after their last album together, multi-platinum pop-rock band The Fray weren’t dead, but it’s safe to say they were on life support. Beloved for their 2005 debut album How To Save A Life, the Grammy-nominated Colorado band had announced that they had parted ways with lead singer Isaac Slade in 2022, after officially going on hiatus in 2019, and going into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. “We really had a couple years of soul searching."
For Seth Avett–one half of the folk-rock duo The Avett Brothers–there’s no such thing as an ordinary day. “Right now, I’m sitting at the kitchen table,” said Avett as he spoke to Revue. “The curtains are pulled back just a little, not all the way, but enough for the room to be completely filled with gray sunlight. It’s a little bit overcast, but it’s stunning. It’s very normal and very regular, but if I will allow myself, I can be newly inspired right now.”
