Join us in welcoming Canadian singer/songwriter Michelle Willis to perform her BOP STOP debut! A regular collaborator with members of Snarky Puppy and other artists on the GroundUP Music label, Michelle will perform a solo show of her music and promote her most recent release, Just One Voice. Tickets to attend this show are $20 each.

-----------

Michelle Willis is a Canadian singer, songwriter and keyboard player based in New York City.

As a kid growing up, singing and playing was a pathway to self expression. “In the 90s, the hits on the radio were largely by women like Shawn Colvin, Lauryn Hill, Amanda Marshall, Jann Arden, Whitney Houston, Alanis Morissette, Janet Jackson and Sarah McLachlan. They said how they felt, and to me their songs felt deep, clever, honest. It was a sound where all my teenage emotion could live and be perfectly expressed. Around the same time, I was singing Brahms, Bach and the blue hymnbook in a choir - all that melodramatic music was circling around.”

She later grew to learn the vocabulary of the 60s and 70s singer-songwriter era, a sound she has grown quite close to given her fixed position in two bands led by rock and roll hall of famer David Crosby. After studying jazz piano at Toronto’s Humber College, she set sights on folk and pop songwriting, taking inspiration from heavyweights Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Donny Hathaway, CSNY, Ray Charles, Jimmy Webb, Rufus Wainwright and The Beatles.

Since moving to New York, Willis has cemented her place as an in-demand keyboard player and singer, touring and recording with a diverse array of artists such as David Crosby, Becca Stevens, Zac Brown Band, Iggy Pop, Laura Mvula and Michael McDonald. She is also an artist on GroundUP Music, a record label started by Snarky Puppy leader and founder Michael League, with whom she has regularly collaborated and toured with for over a decade.

Willis’ sophomore release, Just One Voice (2022), follows her full length debut, See Us Through (2016). The new album, out now on GroundUp Music, is an ambitious studio record plus a live and filmed concert. It showcases guest performances by Crosby, Michael McDonald, Grégoire Maret, Becca Stevens, and Taylor Ashton.

"…entirely current while harking back to the very best singer-songwriter traditions.” - Songwriting Magazine

"…beautifully therapeutic…a record of reckoning and rejuvenation that is as musically radiant and soothing as it is emotionally turbulent and raw.” - Atwood Magazine

www.michellewillis.ca