The Starlight Six come back to ring in the New Year

The Starlight Six welcomes the new year with their return to the Wealthy Theatre for their second annual New Year's Eve show. The talented group of Michiganians will also give a special performance of Tom Petty's classic album Wildflowers the night before the new year's show.

The Starlight Six is a collection of musicians turned friends from Earthwork Music that get together intermittently to play some of their more interesting collaborative works. The underlying idea to their shows: quality over quantity.

Having already played and even recorded together on separate occasions, the accomplished set of vocalists decided to combine their expressions into one large creative effort.

Singer/songwriters and instrumentalists Rachael Davis, Joshua Davis, May Erlewine, and Seth Bernard showcase their diverse and overlapping styles that create a warm and inviting blend of rock with gospel, soul with country, and folk with blues. Dominic Davis and Mike Shimmin also lend their voices, while creating an integral rhythm section ranging from driving rock and blues jams to whispering folk and country tunes.

The group transforms the challenge of having several competing voices into one of their most captivating features--their use of harmony.

"Everybody sings in the band," says Joshua Davis. "There’s something really powerful about a lot of singers singing, and we do a lot of interesting vocal arrangements on the tunes."

Songs like Foghorn Lakin' and Good Man from Earthwork's new 7" showcase a well-balanced and finely-tuned emphasis for the song as a whole by weaving together different melodies and harmonies in a way that turns a simple groove into a rich and complex singular voice. The multi-instrumentalists also use a fiddle and often the keys to add further layers and sophistication.

The group performed at the Wealthy Theater to a sold-out show last year on New Year's Eve. The event followed with such positive feedback that it prompted them to repeat the performance again. But the group wanted to give the audience a little more this year, so they decided to perform a tribute to Tom Petty's album Wildflowers in its entirety the night before New Year's Eve.

Joshua Davis says, "we came up with the idea do two shows because last year was such a success. So we wanted to come up with something a little different to do for the night before, and Wildflowers came up so we all jumped on it. Its a real landmark record for all of us."

The Starlight Six is full of genuine passion and Michigan soul. The music is open enough for all ages and yet concrete enough for mature listeners, so all audiences are welcome to this New Year's Eve event that only happens once a year.