This week, I was joined in studio by two local indie-folk singer-songwriters who both treated WDET listeners to a live performance during the show.

For Detroit-based artist Michelle Held, it was a return to MI Local, (she was here last fall and recorded a song, live), and hopefully she’s becoming more and more familiar to WDET listeners, since she was among the four Michigan-based NPR Tiny Desk Submissions to be selected to perform at our annual Sounds Like Detroit Showcase, happening on Aug. 13 at Batch Brewing! Find more info AND get your tickets, here!

Our second guest was the Ypsilanti-based folk singer Ananda Murari, who blends his soulful voice with profoundly ruminative lyrics over his dynamic finger-style guitar playing.

Murari talked about moving to Michigan five years ago, which corresponded with the start of his significant creative output, with a flurry of singles and his debut album, “Ripen Off The Vine.”

Murari is performing at the Ark in Ann Arbor on Aug. 9, with a jazz-folk ensemble known as the North Ingalls Band, led by Corazon Szell (who, notably, performed at last year’s Sounds Like Detroit Showcase). Murari played a new song about his newfound love for his current hometown, Ypsilanti.

Held, meanwhile, performed a song called “I Like Words,” inspired by Ann Arbor poet Dick Siegel. We also listened back to the beautiful recording of Held’s performance at WDET back in the fall of 2025, where she performed the song “Unresolved.” The video that Held submitted to the Tiny Desk Contest, that WDET listeners voted on, also featured her performing “Unresolved.”

Also on the show, we spun new tracks from local artists like Stef Chura, Kelsey, Bluhm, and Ohly. Chura has a new album out in October, while Kelsey has an album release party coming up on August 21 at the Arboretum Music Venue in Saline. Ohly, otherwise known as Christian Ohly, has a new album that’s album coming out closer to the fall, and we were able to give listeners a sneak preview of his single, “On The Map,” which is officially out this Friday.

Thanks for listening! And hope to see you at Sounds Like Detroit on Aug. 13!

I’m a sucker for a sweet sentiment wrapped up in a flannel-toned, 90’s alternative rock song that sounds like it could be the intro music for a family-friendly teen drama from 1995. 

If that sounds hyper-specific, know that it’s a subset of music that’s very popular right now, thanks to Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Kurt Vile , Courtney Barnett and others. It’s rooted in bands chasing that sound of Big Star and Lemonheads; of big guitars with a bit of fuzz and layers of jangle on top. It’s full but non-threatening. 

It’s music for soft, emotional lumberjacks. Or if you want to be boring about it, a contemporary take on college radio from 30 years ago.

No one is doing it better in my book than Widowspeak, the husband-and-wife duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas. They’re now based in Brooklyn but originally from Washington. (You can hear that geography in their music.) They released their seventh album “Roses” on Captured Tracks on June 5.

Their excellent new single “If You Change” is everything I just described and more; a lovely little piece of dream pop with just a splash of alt-country. And the sentiment! Listen to these lyrics:

If you change, don’t change too much
‘Cause I really loved this one

It goes deeper than what I first suspected — a sweet little love song about liking someone as they are, even as they grow old together. According to vocalist-songwriter Molly Hamilton, it’s more than that, writing that she “thought about the fear of change, and when things (situations, objects) feel stuck in time because of a fear of ruining them. You always hear “mint condition” as though it is as an asset, but it also means that thing hasn’t been used, lived with, loved. It never gets to fulfill its destiny.”

Even without that lyrical depth, the song is an absolute banger that’s been stuck in my head for days.

Listen to In The Groove with host Ryan Patrick Hooper weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET on 101.9 WDET or stream on-demand at wdet.org. 

This article was originally posted on Midbrow.