Ben Traverse (they/them) has been a gentle steward of tradition for over a decade, their voice rising like mist from Michigan’s northern woods, carrying with it the echoes of working-class ballads long etched into the soil.

As a folksinger, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and archivist of sound, Traverse doesn’t just perform music—they embody it, threading the past into the present like a homespun cloth. They lead raucous sea shanty singalongs and breathe new life into bluegrass, old-time, and Celtic traditions— musical lineages rich with beauty, but also bound up in histories of colonization, marginalization, labor, and resistance. Seth Bernard, a central figure in Michigan music, describes their work as “rooted in the past, forward-thinking, and fully present.” Nationally-renowned band The Accidentals calls them the “modern-day Pete Seeger… who writes songs that sound like they’re from a hundred years ago.”

A proud member of the Earthwork Music Collective, Ben is part of a vibrant community of culture creators devoted to community healing through collective musicianship. With Earthwork, their music goes beyond performance—it becomes a tool for growth, teaching, and building resilience. Whether facilitating intergenerational presentations or performing at festivals with support from the Little River Stringband, Ben offers their voice and instruments in service to something far greater than the self: a collective memory, kept alive through oral tradition.

Ben’s passion for music education and cultural preservation is as boundless as the Great Lakes sky. They’ve made it their mission to collect, teach, and breathe new life into traditional song, making sure these cultural heirlooms don’t gather dust. Through community outreach, rollicking performances and intimate house concerts, Ben brings people closer to their roots—reminding us that we all come from songs, that stories live in our bones, and that music is a language older than words.

Photo by Liz Tiffany