Folk Machine

Ott & Hunter’s intimate cabaret room provides the perfect, close‑knit setting to experience Folk Machine, Seattle’s vibrant new folk‑roots trio. In this cozy space, their music unfolds like a living conversation—raw political folk and gritty soul numbers sit comfortably beside haunting acappella pieces and tender ballads, all delivered with spine‑tingling harmonies and fierce emotional honesty. 

Michael Laslett has a beautiful voice and guitar style equally suited to love songs, sing-a-longs and social justice anthems. He has performed around the country at music festivals and countless union meetings, picket lines and social justice gatherings. As a founding member of the Seattle Labor Chorus, Michael has shared the stage with folk luminaries such as Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, John McCutcheon, Charlie King, Si Kahn, Rebel Voices and Linda Allen. 

Miriam Anderson started studying voice and percussion at the age of 10. She studied choral and orchestral conducting at UC Berkeley and completed a master’s of music in choral conducting at the University of Washington. She sings with Choral Arts Northwest, and is the Artistic/Music Director at Puget Soundworks and the Seattle Labor Chorus.

Leif Utne is a globe-trotting multi-instrumentalist and singer who never leaves home without his flute and ukulele in hand. His musical adventures include playing flute with youth orchestras in Boston, Budapest and Beijing, jamming at jazz clubs in Cuba and Chile, serenading orcas from a rowboat in British Columbia, and pounding a bass drum with a 100-piece samba band in Brazil. Leif has been a member of local avant-rock septet PAUNDY (with Chad Channing, Nirvana's original drummer), as well as Bainbridge Island-based cover bands Sockeye and Psycho Sushi.