'The Love Hangover,' an antidote to Valentine's Day, at Ghost Light

Valentine's Day is great if you're in love, but what if you've just had your heart crushed? 

"The Love Hangover," a Feb. 15 concert series that considers the down side of romance, might just be your ticket.

Now celebrating its 20th anniversary in seven cities across the continent, this antidote to the holiday's mandatory happy-happy comes to the Detroit area for the first time with performances at Hamtramck's Ghost Light Friday. Doors open at 8 p.m. 

"I like to think of 'The Love Hangover' as a day for true believers and world-weary cynics alike," said New Yorker Richard Alwyn, who first launched the concept in Raleigh, North Carolina, 20 years ago. "Neither of them are really serviced by this month and a half of candy bears and weird, red-filigreed pressure."

The name, of course, comes from Diana Ross' 1976 hit "Love Hangover." But why Feb. 15? Alwyn tried to get Valentine's Day in 1999, he said, "but the place I wanted was booked. So the owner said, 'You could have the day after.'"

And thus a tradition was born.

The premise is simple: all songs performed have to be duets about love, whether they deal with the good, the bad or the ugly.

"They don’t have to be love songs per se," Alwyn noted, "just about love."

The Ghost Light event is sponsored by Planet Ant, and will feature special guest Betsy Ross, from Columbus, Ohio. Also on the roster are Alison Lewis, Jeff St. John, Kennedy Greenrod, Mike Galbraith, Audra Kubat, Ian Lee Lamb and Maggie Schultz. 

'The Love Hangover' 

8 p.m., Friday 

Ghost Light, 2314 Caniff, Hamtramck

Tickets: $7.50 in advance, $10 at the door 

 (313) 402-4418