Popular in the Motor City region for more than four decades, Franks always draws adoring crowds. Duante BeddingfieldDetroit Free Press Hear this story

AI-assisted summary- Jazz musician Michael Franks will perform at Detroit’s Music Hall Center on Aug. 16.

• Franks, 80, has been popular in Detroit for over four decades and consistently sells out shows.
• He is currently working on a new album expected in 2026 and a podcast with Veronica Nunn.
• Franks has played numerous Detroit venues over the years and considers the city to have his best fans.

One of Detroit’s favorite international jazz musicians, singer-songwriter Michael Franks, will return to Detroit on Saturday, Aug. 16, at Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, presented by Hollywood Casino at Greektown.

Popular in the Motor City region for more than four decades, Franks always draws adoring crowds to savor his sophisticated melodies and witty, sometimes risqué lyrics. And with nearly 20 albums to his credit stretching from the 1970s into the current century, there’s a lot of material to draw from onstage.

Year after year, Detroit audiences routinely sell out Franks’ performances, and sing along rapturously to each classic hit, roaring with adoration after each song. While the artist, at age 80, has slowed to just a few tour dates each year, he faithfully keeps Detroit on his docket. His soft tenor completely unchanged by the decades – close your eyes during his concerts and feel the years melt away – he delivers as consistently as ever.

“When I first started touring,” he told the Free Press, “I was playing clubs as an opening act. ‘The Art of Tea’ (1976) was out, and I was getting airplay. I saw on the itinerary that we were going to play Detroit, and we were playing the Ford Auditorium down on the river, a big, modern building; I think it’s been torn down. We used to be an opening act at clubs, and all of a sudden, we get to Detroit and go to this beautiful venue, and there are people waiting to get in – like, it was jammed.

“Detroit has always been my best city, and the fans have always been so great to me. People are still so appreciative of all those ancient tunes.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.More: Massive cultural festival AfroFuture to take Detroit by storm for a weekWhile touring less, Franks is keeping quite busy: With his glorious, longtime singing companion, Veronica Nunn, he’s been recording a podcast called “The End of One,” expected to bow this fall, and working on his memoirs. It’s been seven years since his last record, “The Music in My Head,” but he is currently in the studio, working on a new album he expects will be released in early 2026, with four tracks currently near completion.

“The pandemic was strange for everyone,” he said, “but for me, I felt very creative. But I never finished anything – I never wrote any lyrics, just collected a lot of musical ideas. I made demos and things, and I went back and started to review that stuff, because there were some things that I thought were kind of good, and a few things I really like are actually going to be on this next project.

“There are so many great players that live in a little town called Catskill, New York, which is only about 15 miles from where I live, sort of in between woods. I live six miles from Woodstock, and I work at this recording studio in the Catskill environs. So many great players have moved up there – jazz players, and people that commute to Berklee and teach a couple of days a week. There’s a great Brazilian percussionist I worked with before, Mino Cinélu, who lives up there. It’s been great for me to work with locals, rather than just schlep people up from the city, and be totally relaxed. It’s been great.”

More: Legendary Count Basie Orchestra to play Detroit’s Aretha Franklin AmphitheatreAlmost one year to the day after his last date in the Motor City, Franks is looking forward to returning.

“We played what is now called the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, so many times,” he said. “We played Meadow Brook. I’ve got a fan who sent me some footage taken on their phone from the last time we played Aretha Franklin, and I could not believe it – there was a pouring thunderstorm. I could not believe how everyone stayed. Detroit is the greatest.”

Michael Franks

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit

8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 16

Tickets start at $79.60

musichall.org

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit

8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 16

Tickets start at $79.60

musichall.org

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