Eric Pokoyoway

Music Eric Pokoyoway Ben Hursh never really had an interest in playing the guitar, but when he found himself on the wrong end of a bad break-up, he felt inspired.
“I think I only knew four chords at the time, but I was with this girl for five years and she ripped me up and down,” Hursh said.
Hursh, 28, met his former sweetheart at 16. When they separated, he borrowed his uncle’s vintage Gibson and began teaching himself to play, sing, and write music.
“We were the perfect couple; we were even talking about marriage. Then she started her first semester at Western Michigan University and decided she wanted to study abroad.”
That’s when they went their separate ways and he needed a way to get his problems out. “Instead of just sitting around thinking about how much it sucked, I decided to play the guitar. I just didn’t have anything better to do except drink and play guitar.”

Music Eric Pokoyoway Few bands can stay together for more than a decade and still keep creating something different and new.
One of them, however, is Guster. They will be performing at the Interlochen Music Festival, on Tuesday, July 25 along with Ray LaMontagne.
“I just love how our band feels unpredictable right now,” said percussionist Brian Rosenworcel.
Guster has been together for 13 years and released its fifth album June 20, called “Ganging Up On the Sun.” “Ganging Up On the Sun” debuted at number 25 on the Billboard Top 200 charts.
“We have had some very good responses with the new album,” said Joe Pisapia, multi-instrumentalist. “We were in Milwaukee for a show and the crowd was already singing along with the new stuff.”
Pisapia plays several insturments on the new album, including banjo, dulcimer, trumpet and lap steel guitar. He also served has a producer for half of the songs on the album.
Guster is an alternative band that was originally formed by Ryan Miller, (guitar and vocals), Adam Gardner (guitar and vocals) and Rosenworcel. Pisapia joined the band six years ago after he and his brother toured with Guster for a few months.

Features Eric Pokoyoway Sleeping Bear Dunes could not offer a starker contrast to the bleak view of Guatemala City where a large landfill consumes much of the city. Some of the poorest people in Guatemala live near or on the dump.
“It was like standing on the dunes of Lake Michigan and instead of
seeing an endless amount of water, there was just this sea of garbage,” said Sharon Workman, vice president of the Great Lakes Friends of Safe Passage, who lives in Traverse City.
In the last year, 20 volunteers from Northern Michigan visited a non-profit organization called Safe Passage in Guatemala that gives the children living in the Guatemala City dump a chance to become educated and established citizens. Great Lakes Friends is a chapter of Safe Passage. The group is sponsoring a benefit for the kids on Wednesday, July 19, at the Hagerty Conference Center on the Northwestern Michigan College Great Lakes Campus.
The fiesta benefit from 5:30-8 p.m. will include music by 3-Hour Tour, the original 3rd Coast band, Adair Correll, Les Dalgliesh and Norm Wheeler. Hanley Denning, the founding director of Safe Passage, will also be on hand.

Music Eric Pokoyoway Something different is playing at Lil Bo’s in Traverse City on Wednesday nights.
Sol de Luna, formerly Bo Bossa, is a Latin inspired swing band that features six young multi-talented artists. Sol de Luna has only been together for four months, but has already turned one of Lil Bo’s slowest nights into one of their busiest, according to Sal Capone general manager at the night club.
“Now on Wednesday nights the customers just come in to listen to them,” Capone said. “I just like their style -- they are always up there laughing having a good time -- they just are a good group of young kids,” Capone said.
And Sol de Luna takes their music very seriously.