Fur Peace Productions Presents Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

Stuart’s Opera House is thrilled to continue our partnership with Fur Peace Productions as they welcome Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble to Nelsonville, Ohio. Doors at 6 pm. Music Starts at 7 pm. | The Stuart’s Opera House Lobby entrance is at sidewalk level and wheelchair accessible. Advanced Ticket Prices: Reserved Seats: $45.00+ Box Seats: $65.00 Prices do not include additional service fees. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 14 at 10 am. About Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble You could fill both a record store and a hat store with the albums DON WAS have touched and the lids he’s donned on the way to six Grammys, an Emmy, a BAFTA, and the respect of musicians and fans of all ages worldwide. In nearly 50 years in the music business the Was (Not Was) bandleader has collaborated with an astonishing list of top- flight artists in pursuit of making a truthful, transcendent, healing and joyful noise. As a producer, songwriter, recording artist, music supervisor, documentarian, musical director, radio host, multi-instrumentalist, and President of Blue Note Records, Was has been enthusiastically and fearlessly genre fluid, moving freely across rock, pop, jazz, country, reggae, R&B, and world music. Those sessions and shows have taken him all over the globe to work with everyone from Gregg Allman to John Mayer to Zucchero and every letter in between, bringing out the best in Hall of Fame names like the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, and scores more. His newest album, Groove in the Face of Adversity under his own name came out in October 2025 and recorded with his latest group The Pan-Detroit Ensemble, the album’s six tracks — some recorded live — encompass so much of what has marked Was’s many musical contributions over the years, combining impeccable musicianship with gleeful abandon. It features thoughtful sonic cross-pollination as songs seep from steamy juke joint blues to mercurial flights of jazz fantasy to loose-limbed funk. All of it tied together, crucially, with a palpably beating heart. By turns joyful and poignant, it is a fitting way to introduce himself to this moment: Was (As He Is). While the album was released in 2025, this renewed blossoming of Was marks the culmination of a tough creative period going back 30 years. “I had a moment in the early ’90s where I’d gotten to work with all my heroes—Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Mick and Keith, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson —all the best writers that I can think of,” he says. “I had writer’s block for about five or six years because I’d sit down, play a few chords and say, ‘Well, what’s the fucking point of this? Brian Wilson’s just up the street. What does the world need me for?’” It was a bleak five years until he had an epiphany while working with Nelson. “I was just so filled with admiration for him,” he says of the legendary singer-songwriter. “But I realized that Willie never dropped acid and went to see the MC5 at the Grande Ballroom at 16 years old. He’s one of the greatest writers ever but growing up in 1968 Detroit is not part of his makeup. There are very few people making records right now who have that as part of their makeup. I thought ‘The thing that makes you different becomes your superpower – just be the best version of yourself that you can be.’” Groove in the Face of Adversity finds Was finally unleashing that power with the help of a group of like-minded souls. The Pan-Detroit Ensemble includes long-time collaborators like Blue Note Records artist Dave McMurray on sax and Eminem’s Oscar-winning collaborator, keyboardist Luis Resto. Additional musicians include trombonist Vincent Chandler, trumpeter John Douglas, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi Masai, guitarist Wayne Gerard, and powerhouse vocalist Steffanie Christi’an.