PETOSKEY — What began decades ago as The Atwood Green Band has grown into something larger: a collection of musical acts that reflects both the group’s history and the individual creative paths its musicians have followed over time.
Known today as The Atwood Green Project, the long-running Northern Michigan favorite has evolved from its original band format into four distinct groups, each shaped by the same core musicians and the same enduring commitment to live performance.
The roots of the project stretch back to the early 1970s, when brothers Mark and Matt Manker joined a circle of friends from their Petoskey high school years, including Andrew Ellison, to make music together. The group drew its name from a familiar local place — the Manker family’s cottage on Grand Traverse Bay near Atwood — and over the years became a recognizable part of Northern Michigan’s music scene.
As time passed, the musicians’ interests expanded, and so did the structure of the group. Rather than remaining a single band with one signature sound, The Atwood Green Band gradually developed into what is now known as The Atwood Green Project — an umbrella for four separate musical groups that allow its members to explore different styles and performance formats.
Those four groups include Atwood Green Classic Rock with a Twist, which carries forward the band’s longstanding connection to classic rock while adding its own creative spin; AT3 Classic Rock Unplugged, a more stripped-down format that highlights acoustic-style performance and musical intimacy; Overthere Music, a smooth jazz duo that reflects a more relaxed and refined sound; and Code Blue, a multi-instrumentalist solo performance project that showcases yet another dimension of the musicians’ range and creativity.
Together, those groups represent the natural evolution of a band that never stood still. While the original Atwood Green identity remains at the heart of the project, the newer format gives its members room to branch out artistically while staying connected through their shared roots.
That evolution also helps explain the project’s staying power. In a live music landscape that has changed dramatically over the decades, The Atwood Green Project has adapted without losing the authenticity that first drew audiences in. The musicians have continued to perform not by simply repeating the past, but by building on it.
Today, original members Mark, Matt and Andrew remain central to the project, joined by Kathy on vocals and David on wind instruments, synthesizers and vocals. Together, they bring more than four decades of performance experience to audiences across Northern Michigan, while also shaping the separate acts that now make up the broader Atwood Green identity.
The result is more than a band with a long history. It is a musical family of related acts, each offering its own style and audience experience, yet all tied to the same local foundation.
For Northern Michigan audiences, that local connection continues to matter. The Atwood Green Project is rooted not only in decades of music-making, but in friendship, place and community. Its musicians have remained active contributors to the region’s cultural life, sharing their talents on stage while also helping sustain the local music scene more broadly.
That may be the clearest way to understand what The Atwood Green Project has become. It is the next chapter of a band that started with friends in Petoskey and grew, over time, into a broader creative project — one that still carries the sound, spirit and sense of place that made Atwood Green a favorite in the first place.
