The Brad Phillips Band is Live at Stony Lake Brewing on Saturday

Local concert promoter Acoustic Routes is celebrating its sixth anniversary and 93rd concert in Saline on Saturday with a show at Stony Lake Brewing featuring The Brad Phillips Band who will mine the vast spectrum of bluegrass and acoustic roots music.

Band leader and Saline native Brad Phillips is one of the state’s most in-demand session players. As a fiddler, mandolinist, guitarist, vocalist, composer and arranger, he has worked with artists including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Iggy Pop, Pat Metheny and Jeff Daniels. His band mates are virtuoso players themselves: Jacob Warren on double bass, and Grant Flick on violin, tenor guitar and mandolin.

Acoustic Routes Concerts are intimate affairs like house concerts with the added benefits of professional sound equipment and award-winning craft beer on tap. Concert goers are welcome to bring in their own food from local restaurants or from home.     

Here are some other fast facts about the series:

• From April 2013 to February 2017, Acoustic Routes was hosted by Pete and Laurie Toarmina at Mangiamo Italian Grill until they sold the business.  Since March 2017, Jerry and Heidi Tubbs have hosted the series at Stony Lake Brewing.
• As the name implies, the focus is on acoustic music, with the blues, bluegrass, Irish and Scottish trad, folk, Americana, country and singer-songwriters all represented over the years
• Two Grammy winners have performed on stage in Saline: guitar virtuoso Al Petteway and blues harp legend Peter Madcat Ruth
• Several Acoustic Routes artists have performed on national television, including Olivia Millerschin (America’s Got Talent), David Luning (American Idol) and Dakota Dave Hull (A Prairie Home Companion)
• Acoustic Routes has hosted artists from as far away as Scotland (North Sea Gas), Sweden (Sofia Talvik) and Canada (Steel City Rovers)
• 100 percent of the cover charge has always gone to the artists

Acoustic Routes is also branching into larger venues.  On March 16, it hosted five-time Grammy winner Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives at The Ark in Ann Arbor for a sold-out show that raised more than $11,300 to feed the homeless.

Next month, on Saturday, May 25, Acoustic Routes is hosting 15-time Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder at The Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor for a show that will also feature The Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic.  Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. All profits from this event benefit The Fiddlers.  

The cover charge for The Brad Phillips show is $15 cover at the door and the music starts at 8 p.m.

More News from Saline

• Saline Hosts Forum on Downtown Green Space The City of Saline will host a public forum on downtown Green Space at 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 6
• Strict and Demanding, Clem Corona Helped Set the Saline Standard Clem Corona, longtime AD and assistant principal, was the dominant personality in Saline Area Schools and helped shape the district we know today.