Now it hurts, now it heals

Michigan BluesFest brings 25 diverse acts to Old Town

How many kinds of blues are there? It will take an extended weekend in Old Town, and three stages packed with music, to properly address this crying question.

From the gospel-soaked lyricism of singer Twyla Birdsong to the savage power chords of Just Magnetic, this year’s Michigan BluesFest showcases the variety of blues experience.

The blues is a slippery concept, culturally, emotionally and musically. BluesFest co-founder and organizer Terry Terry couldn’t even say for sure how long BluesFest has been going on, only that the festival evolved from its predecessor, the more rock-oriented OctoberFest, in the late 1990s. (City Pulse’s archives reveal it officially transitioned in 2002.)

The blues is so deeply embedded in nearly every significant American genre of music, from country to jazz, rock and pop, that a festival devoted to blues seemed like a natural way to showcase mid-Michigan’s remarkable musical vitality.

Some are hard blues cases through and through; others are multi-talented artists who play or sing in rock, jazz, pop or other bands.

“We’ve got an incredible range of talent,” Terry said. “To me, Lansing is the musical capital of Michigan. You go to other towns, and they just don’t have as much music going on. Here, we’ve got it everywhere.”

Drawing on the expertise of the Capital Area Blues Society, and the ever-growing roster of artists who have performed at the UrbanBeat venue in Old Town, Terry and his team have assembled a slate of 25 performers and bands this year.

The bands will perform on two outdoor stages at either end of Turner Street and inside UrbanBeat, where after-hours jams will stretch into the night.

Most of the performers are local favorites, like multi-talented guitarist and singer Greg Nagy (7:30 p.m. Friday, South Stage) and rhythm and blues cover band Blue Avenue Delegates (9:30 p.m. Friday, South Stage), a staple at The Green Door for 15 years.

“They don’t get together that often, and we’re happy they are doing it for us,” Terry said. And BluesFest would hardly seem complete without local favorites Frog & the Beeftones (10:30 p.m. Friday, UrbanBeat).

But BluesFest, like UrbanBeat itself, draws musical greats from beyond the Great Lakes. Memphis, Tennessee-based singer, harmonica player and songwriter John Németh (9:30 Saturday, South Stage) brings a country blues feeling to a broad palette of melodies, moods and grooves. At first glance, Németh comes off as a bluesman in the classic mode, commanding a room with an urgent harmonica lick before cutting straight to the bone and growling out classic blues declarations like “I work for love, baby.” But he has a bag of musical change-ups that are all his own. His songs pop with a surprising rhythmic variety, from reggae shuffles to street-corner improv to nimble, light-footed balladry.

The variety and musicality of Németh’s brand of blues has earned him a slew of awards and the chance to open for legends like Keb’ Mo’ and Robert Cray.

One versatile local artist who is welcome at any event is charismatic, compelling vocalist Twyla Birdsong (7:30 p.m. Saturday, South Stage). Birdsong gives the blues a joyful, soulful spin, having grown up in the church with gospel music. She is comfortable and authentic singing everything from Billie Holiday to Motown, but she’s had the blues in her blood since she was a little girl, sitting in the back seat of her dad’s Olds 88 with B.B. King on the radio. In 2016, she won the Capital Area Blues Society’s Blues Brawl, earning a trip to Memphis to compete in an international blues competition.

Birdsong describes the Lansing sound, if there is one, as “eclectic,” and this weekend’s BluesFest lineup backs her up.

You could hardly find a group that more starkly contrasts with Birdsong’s lyrical joy than Just Magnetic (9 p.m. Friday, UrbanBeat), a four-piece dynamo based in mid-Michigan.

Rather than massaging your woes away with melody, Just Magnetic drop-forges power chords on your head until your troubles are shaken out of your bones, clenching into an accelerated, punkish frenzy when the mood strikes. Following in Birdsong’s footsteps, Just Magnetic was the 2025 Capital Area Blues Society Blues Brawl champion and people’s choice award winner.

There’s a reason so many blues songs start with the words “I woke up one morning … .”  What follows is seldom good, but oh, it feels so good to share it. Sunny Bleau and the Moons (8:30 p.m. Saturday, South Stage) is a hard-working band from Oxford, Michigan, with an uncanny power to settle in and tell a story. Singer SunnyBleau (Kelly Brock) puts on the lyrics of a song like “Two Glasses of Whiskey on Ice,” from the band’s aptly named album “Passion & Regrets,” like a second skin. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. Bleau sings out her profound disgust at the man who not only left her, but took her dog and — worst of all — didn’t put the coffee on before he left. “That, I just cannot have, oh, oh, oh,” she sings.

There are many more flavors of blues to savor this weekend, but you get the idea.

As performance spaces go, it’s hard to top the coziness and community feeling of the southernmost stretch of Turner Street, in the heart of Old Town. The starlit cavern of historic buildings creates a warm and lively acoustic “room,” with seating in the middle of the street and ever-flowing rivers of visitors on each side, ideal for some world-class people watching.

“It’s a great way to experience the arts in a community setting, perhaps meet new friends,” Terry said.

In recent years, BluesFest has added a creative twist: Each artist is asked to come up with an original song or arrangement they’ve never played to a live audience before. According to Terry, nobody has rolled their eyes at this request yet.

“They like the challenge,” he said. “Being creative is in our roots and our DNA in Old Town, and this is a way to encourage that. If you come to the festival and stay the entire time, you’ll hear all these great songs for the first time. And it looks like we’re dialing in some great weather.”