ESCANABA — U.P. singer/songwriter, Michael Waite, will celebrate the release of his new album “We’ve Always Been at Home” with a concert at the Besse Center at Bay College in Escanaba on Friday, October 7 at 7 p.m.

This new album was recorded in the house Waite built for his family in the Huron Mountains north of Marquette in Michigan’s U.P., two miles back from the electrical grid. The songs feature sage and playful observations about human nature and speak of the natural surroundings of their wilderness home, sometimes allusively and sometimes directly, such as in the Song of the River Thrush, an expression of the personal meaning of the sublime call of the hermit thrush. The sense of place on the album is enhanced by field recordings Michael made from the forest and shore near their home, as a fitting background to songs written within this same soundscape.

The album features collaborations with many of the region’s finest musicians, including string arrangements written by Waite and performed by students in Marquette, Negaunee and Escanaba high schools and their teachers. Michael’s own high school orchestra teacher, Janis Peterson, is featured on fiddle on two of the songs.

The October 7 concert will feature Michael’s Band Adam Sawfox and a string quintet including these teachers, among them Negaunee’s Harry South, Marquette’s Eric Marta, and the new director of orchestras for Escanaba Area Public Schools Eli Bender and his wife, cellist Rachel Capon. Completing the group is Escanaba’s rising star Ben Campbell, currently studying violin performance at Lawrence University.

Ticket are on sale now at www.baycollege.tix.com, the Box Office, or call 906-217-4045 for tickets.

“The new CD is an illumination, music that rises out of the woods and lakes and streams of the U.P. Sincere and wry lyrics backed by fine instrumental arrangements, which blend downhome, classical, and quirky. Michael has a unique vocal range (you can’t help but think of birds and waterfowl while listening to these tunes), employing inflections and phrasings that remind me of The Band’s Richard Manuel. Anyone who thinks there’s a unique music to this land on Lake Superior would appreciate Mike’s new collection of songs.”