Acoustic Cafe featuring Stephen Clark

Additional Information

Acoustic Café is an annual music series held at the historic Howell Opera House that features outstanding Michigan performers, now celebrating its 12th year!

This year’s series begins with Stephen Clark, familiar to local audiences as the former longtime anchor of WXYZ Detroit’s evening news. Stephen began his media career in 1977 as a DJ on country station KYOU in Colorado, and although he soon moved to television news, he maintained his love for the story-telling of country music and began writing his own (as he says) “largely forgettable” songs by learning to play the guitar to the records spinning on the turntables. His broadcasting career has been his professional focus throughout the years, but he started getting serious about songwriting while working in San Diego around 1990, where he also began performing in coffee houses and eventually on bigger stages—opening for Willie Nelson, Tracy Byrd, and many others. Following his retirement after 16 years as a news anchor at WXYZ Detroit, Stephen became one half of 104.3 WOMC’s morning radio show with co-host JoAnne Purtan while still pursuing his musical career. In his words, “Songwriting is just another kind of journalism, where the goal is to tell a compelling story in an interesting way.”

Admission for all Acoustic Café performances is $12 at the door for the general public, $10 for Livingston Arts Council members. Doors will open at 7:00 pm and the show will begin at 7:30 pm.

The Acoustic Café series runs every Friday night from January 3rd – March 6th.