08/13/2025
It was two concerts for the price of none as Ashes & Arrows played a long-awaited Caledonia Concert Series show Tuesday.
The band’s trio of vocalists and guitar players, Claran McMeeken, Jonathan Calhoun and Justin Roelant, performed an acoustic set underneath the pavilion at the Caledonia Community Green to get the evening started. Close to 100 spectators gathered under the rooftop with more folks, many holding umbrellas overhead, lining the perimeter.
When it became clear the worst of the summer thunderstorms would be rolling across Michigan just south of Caledonia, a full-band set with the addition of drummer Ted Marks and bass player Trevor Stoyer kicked off on the amphitheater stage. Ashes & Arrows shared its stylistic mix of rock, country and whatever else it couldwork in.
McMeeken, Calhoun and Roelant had the crowd singing along with hearty “Yo Ho!”s on “Pirate Song,” performed a cover of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up,” and played what they claimed to be an unfinished, unrecorded, unnamed and mostly unrehearsed tune that the band is working on that felt fitting for the evening.
“Roll on my brother like lightning and thunder.
Take on the high road, don’t you ever sink low,
Cause 10,00 lifetimes may not be enough.
So roll on my brother until the stormin’ is done,” sang Calhoun.
Calhoun also promised during the acoustic set that, “if we do have good weather, we’re going to move down to that stage and some of these songs, you’re gonna hear them twice.”
It took an encore spurred on by the crowd and the evening’s emcee, Josh Rose, to get that repeat. The crowd was treated to an acoustic version of the band’s hit “Wild Horses” at the pavilion and then the full-band version at the amphitheater.
“It's in our blood
We are, we are wild horses
Chasing dreams
No one, no one could ever stop us
Try and stop us
You can't tame wild horses,” they sang.
The rain certainly didn’t stop them. The band was unable to perform a scheduled show at the Caledonia Concert Series during the 2024 summer season. Event organizer Adam Stauffer was thrilled to have the opportunity to bring the band to Caledonia for the 2025 season.
Ashes & Arrows gained world-wide acclaim last summer as a part of the television show “America’s Got Talent.” The band released the full-length album “Chapter One (The Long Road North)” in October 2024. McMeeken, Calhoun and then bandmate Benjamin Voigt performed “Wild Horses” during the “America’s Got Talent” quarterfinal round earning a spot in the show’s semifinals with their performance.
The event Tuesday was sponsored by Frontier Heating and Cooling, the last of a long list of sponsors that made the summer concert series possible along with a handful of dedicated volunteers …
Read more in this weekend’s edition of the Sun and News …
