Courtesy photo

Songwriters David Stoddard and Karen Mal will be bringing their unique music to the U.P. for two public performances on Thursday, July 13. They will be playing at the Escanaba Library’s Live on the Lawn series at 11:45 a.m. and later that evening at Jack’s Restaurant in Rapid River (7897 S Main St) from 5 to 7 p.m. Karen Mal is a fixture on the Austin, Texas music scene, and has played with such notable performers as Cherish the Ladies, Ronny Cox, and Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul, and Mary), and Stoddard is a composer and songwriter from Minnesota who’s played with such notables as Juice Newton, Leon Russell, and Dan Hicks. Both writers have garnered writing honors at the legendary Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival, the Tucson Folk Festival, the South Florida Folk Festival in recent years. Their brand of intimate writing and performance fits perfectly in living rooms, so it is a rarity for them to play any public performances.