MARQUETTE, Mich.—Singer/songwriters Jerry Mills and Shannon Wyatt will present a Beaumier Coffee House Series concert as part of the Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival at Northern Michigan University. The concert begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 10, in the Peter White Lounge of the University Center. It is sponsored by the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at NMU and funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

For 20 years, Mills has inspired audiences worldwide—from Monaco to Sydney and Liverpool to Singapore—with his original songs, stories and vocal stylings. He will showcase songs from his newest CD, Lifeline. “The U.P. has been my home and my artistic inspiration for 30 years,” said Mills.
“This will be a great opportunity to share some of my most personal and poignant songs right here in Marquette on NMU's campus, so I’m really looking forward to this show.”

Wyatt grew up in Cleveland playing folk guitar and classical piano. She played the coffee house circuit while attending college in Ohio and Montana. With her Gibson Hummingbird in tow, she left academia in 1980 and returned to Cleveland, digging her heels into the music scene and releasing her first single. Wyatt traveled primarily as a solo acoustic act for the next 20 years. Her independently produced CD Been Too Long won the best local recording in Wilmington, N.C. in 1996. She weaves carefully crafted lyrics with a musical style that has echoes of Rickie Lee Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon and Nancy Griffith.

For more information, call the Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at 227-1219.