Michelle Held Solo Performance

Dine with us on September 11 and enjoy a special performance by Michelle Held.

Michelle Held is a contemporary folk musician with a distinctive voice and style of songwriting that explores life's mysteries and reveals a startling wisdom hidden below the surface.

Held’s self-written and -produced debut single The World Moves On, featuring strings by Sav Madigan and Katie Larson of The Accidentals and horns by CJ Camerieri, is an evocative and hopeful folk song that realizes the fragility of life. The subject is personal; Held’s childhood was marked by great tragedy with the unexpected loss of her father. This is a reflective piece about that moment when everything unalterably changes forever and yet, somehow the world keeps spinning as if nothing has changed at all. “Processing the magnitude of loss over the past few years, I took comfort in writing this song. I hope it brings the same to others, especially as grief hits hard around the holidays,” says Held.

During her earlier years as a stage actress performing in small professional theaters throughout the Midwest, Held was gifted an old Fender acoustic guitar and found herself investigating the music of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone. This opened a world she’d never known existed: one in which poetry and melody collide and songs have strong intention.

These discoveries sparked a change in trajectory. Now, after more than a decade of writing, performing and dedication to her new art form of choice, Held has received three Telluride Troubadour Honorable Mentions, and has been welcomed onto renowned stages, such as Kansas City Folk Festival, Wheatland Music Festival and The Ark. Detroit Metro Times writes, “Held plays gentle folk with oft-scathing lyrics. It’s her voice that adds the X-Factor; that little bit of welcome strange.” And Tom Paxton says, "Two years ago I told Michelle that I thought she had the gift. I am changing 'thought' to 'know.'"

For more information, please visit the Facebook Event!