WSLS

Will Overman & John Baumann join forces to bring an awesome songwriter night you don't want to miss!

***Tickets will become available on Friday, December 1st @ 12PM EST!***

Will Overman:

Making a living in music isn’t easy, especially when it seems like listeners' tastes change with the wind and algorithms are updated constantly, teasing artists with catching the elusive dollar. Central VA based singer-songwriter Will Overman however; has found a way to thrive in a seemingly constant state of transition.

Will Overman’s music can be best described as Country-Americana, but it's not your typical Country-Americana sound. Sonically it is restless by nature, always searching for something new, and with Will’s heart-worn lyrics and dynamic vocal delivery, it makes for a memorable mixture that is hard to place but easy to love.

Born and raised in Virginia Beach, Will began writing songs after picking up the guitar in high school. He quickly built a regional following, and despite taking time to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail and move to Vermont for a semester of college, he capitalized on his move back to Virginia the following spring by forming the Will Overman Band. The Southern Rock ‘n Roll influenced Americana project released two EPs and an LP, playing bar gigs and festival slots (Merlefest, Appaloosa Music Festival, Rooster Walk) up and down the East Coast until in the spring of 2017, when Will graduated from UVA and the band decided to go their separate ways.

Although he was unsure what to do next, Will began working on his first solo release - 2017’s Crossroads EP with a studio band of some nationally known musicians (Johnny Stubblefield - Parachute, Sam Wilson - Sons of Bill) and good friends from the central VA music scene. Though proud of the final product, following its release, Will took a step back from music for over a year as he re-evaluated whether he could build a sustainable career as a writer and touring musician. Even while putting distance between himself and music, Will couldn’t keep himselffrom writing new songs, and following a return to Virginia in mid-2019, Will went back into the studio to record the songs that would form his debut LP The Winemaker’s Daughter.

Following the successful and well-received release of the debut single “Something to Hold” from The Winemaker’s Daughter on February 14, 2020, Will hit the road on his first major solo tour two weeks later - just as the pandemic started shutting down the world. Canceled and indefinitely postponed gigs quickly piled up, but rather than stop making or releasing music Will continued on, dropping singles from the album while garnering international media attention and radio play. Since breaking the ice on his own return to live shows in April 2021 to celebrate the release of The Winemaker’s Daughter in February 2021 (almost a year to the day after the release of the initial single), Will has put tens of thousands of miles on his van while traveling from shows anywhere from Savannah to Minneapolis to Boston and everywhere in between. The miles and days away have been hard, but good for Will, as he gained inspiration and experience that led to the recording and release of three brand new singles in 2022 called “Spend it All” “Heart Pine” and “Dotted Line.”

Whereas Will’s older work was extremely personal and reflective, Will’s new singles tell his own story, while also incorporating other perspectives and experiences, all with a similar thread or vein running through them. The ballad-like first single and namesake of his Heart Pine EP (released Nov. 10, 2022), “Heart Pine” focuses on Will’s personal story of struggle with mental health. The dark and moody “Spend it All” is written from the perspective of someone returning from war and fighting the effects of PTSD, chipping away at the idea that everyone’s fight is the same. Lastly, the energetic and powerful “Dotted Line” encapsulates fighting to get past whatever has been dragging you down.

Armed with a powerful voice and powerful convictions, Will Overman is slowly but surely building a name for himself performing throughout the east coast at venues and festivals such as (The Jefferson Theater, Fall for Greenville, The Basement) and supporting artists like (Joe Pug, Christian Lopez, Dead Horses, Grady Spencer & the Work, etc.). Regardless of whether you get a first listen of Will at the next show or song on shuffle, you can be sure that it won’t be long before you know his songs by heart.

John Baumann

There is a place on Interstate 10, somewhere east of El Paso, where the road dips so far south

that America starts to fade. In the hours past midnight, the radio dial is mostly static, sliding in

and out of signal. What gets through is haunting, like the sound of an old Victrola playing songs

about broken hearts in broken Spanish. In the autumn, the winds toss 18-wheelers from

shoulder to median and it’s still 100 degrees in the dark. There’s heat lightning in the distance,

maybe from a storm 200 miles away at the next exit. The light at the end of the tunnel is an old

town called San Antonio, offering salvation in the sweetness of its pan de muerto and the cool

of its slow, shallow river. If that road – in all of its chaos and its quiet – had a soundtrack, it

would be John Baumann’s Border Radio.

Baumann takes a cue from storytelling greats like Townes Van Zant, Guy Clark and Lyle

Lovett, Adam Carroll, John Prine, Jackson Browne, James McMurtry, Nanci Griffith, leaning

more into observation than experience in his writing, preferring to inhabit stories that are not

his own. And on Border Radio, his sixth album out October 6, the stories range from a man’s

love for his “Gold El Camino” to falling in love in the red light glow of “Boy’s Town.” On each

track, it’s clear the Austin-based Baumann is at the top of his songwriting game. “Saturday

Night Comes Once a Week” could easily be a country radio hit, while the lyrical deftness and

timelessness of “The Night Before the Day of the Dead” and “Turning Gold” rival the best of his

heroes’ work.

Those great storytelling songwriters were the ones that brought Texas to Nashville, and it’s a

path that Baumann finds himself increasingly taking – with a nudge from Kenny Chesney, who

recently recorded a version of Baumann’s song “Gulf Moon”. But, as a fifth generation Texan

and a self-proclaimed geographical songwriter, Baumann will always see the Lone Star State as

the ideal canvas for his writing. In fact, he says Border Radio is simply a collection of “colors and

vignettes from San Antonio and Hill Country down to the border. Like Steinbeck said, Texas is

‘rich, poor, panhandle, gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study’.

“My pleasure as a songwriter is to be somebody else for three and a half minutes,” he

continued. “I’m not the hunting and fishing guy in ‘South Texas Tradition’ and I’m not falling in

love on the border. The record is a journey of someone’s experiences through a certain place in

the world – south Texas. And discreetly it’s a love story. It’s all the highs and lows of love. And

there’s real character in the border region, there’s some controversy to it, but I wanted to get

away from the news about the border walls and instead focus on it as a beautiful, interesting

and mysterious part of the state.”

The album rolls from dance hall tempos to lonely ballad and back again, honoring both place

and love as the two ultimate experiences. It’s a journey through those border ghost lands to a

neon-lit bar and back again. It’s a quest for love and a life well-lived.

“I hope the listener can transport themselves out of their lives and go somewhere else in a

cinematic way,” he said. “I hope listening to this album is like going

https://www.johnbaumannmusic.com/

Friday, January 26th 2024
Doors 7:30PM | Starts 8:00PM
$15 Advance | $20 Day of Show

Tickets

Laurel Hells Ramblers, Red Hands, and Doc McClintock

Saturday, Jan 27, 2024 at 8:00 PM

Saturday, Jan 27, 2024

The Spot on Kirk, Roanoke, VA

More Details

Tickets

Water Culture, Object Grey, Slothh, and Regen Tate

Saturday, Feb 3, 2024 at 8:00 PM

Saturday, Feb 3, 2024

The Spot on Kirk, Roanoke, VA

More Details

Tickets

That 1 Guy at The Spot on Kirk

Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024 at 7:30 PM

Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024

The Spot on Kirk, Roanoke, VA

More Details

With an extensive and amazing track record of unique and imaginative performances featuring his curious instrument and copious amounts of originality, Mike Silverman, a/k/a That1Guy, has set himself apart as a true one-of-a-kind talent that rivals any other artist currently in the entertainment industry. Averaging 150 - 200 shows a year all over North America and Canada, he has been a consistent favorite at such festivals as: Wakarusa, Electric Forest, Big Day out, All Good Music Festival, Bella, High Sierra Music Festival, Summer Meltdown, Montreal Jazz Festival, and many more. He was also the ʻTap Water Award’ winner at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for best musical act. His legendary collaboration and multiple tours with Buckethead performing as The Frankenstein Brothers has further cemented his virtuoso story as a creative visionary.

His innovation continues to soar with his latest tour, That1Guy & The Magic Pipe Present: An Evening of Musical Magical Wonder... The Likes of Which Ye Haven't Yet Seen, which kicked off in 2014. Along with his pioneering main instrument, The Magic Pipe, a monstrosity of metal, strings, and electronics, he facilitates the dynamic live creation of music and magic in ways only That1Guy can conjure. You can also expect to see magic seamlessly integrated into the already clever performance. With the addition of magic in his live shows, he has legitimately achieved an all-inclusive audio/visual performance unlike anything experienced before. “So much of my music has miraculous qualities to it because it’s hard to tell what’s going on. There are lots of slights of hand and sonic misdirection. It feels like I was meant to do magic”.

Silverman’s back-story is similar to many musicians that have come before him. He grew up a self-proclaimed music geek, soaked in the influence of his jazz musician father, and enrolled in San Francisco Conservatory of Music before joining the local jazz scene himself as a sought-after percussive bassist. This is where the similarities end though and where That1Guy truly began. “In my case, being a bass player, I just felt very restricted by the instrument itself,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to sound different and have my own sound. I was headed that way on the bass, but for me to fully realize what I was hearing in my head sonically I was going to have to do it my way”. His influential and innovative double bass style eventually evolved into what we see today as That1Guy and The Magic Pipe.

As his story continues to develop, Billboard has famously noted, “In the case of Mike Silverman’s slamming, futuristic funk act... the normal rules of biology just don’t apply.” In addition, Silverman also has new music and videos in the works for 2015 that will further validate his status as an industry trailblazer. “I like being my own person”, he says. “I didn’t set out to be a weirdo, but I’m starting to embrace it”. Ultimately, his motivation can be encapsulated as this: “Human beings do our best work when we’re challenged and pushed up against the wall”. That1Guy goes on to further explain, “By nature, we’re hunters and gatherers, spending each day looking for their next meal. It’s easy to be lazy when you don’t have to come up with something creative right away.

Wednesday, February 7th 2024

Doors 7:00 pm | Show 7:30 pm

$15 Advance | $20 Day of Show

Tickets

Ramona & the Holy Smokes with Jack Marion & the Pearl Snap Prophets

Saturday, Feb 10, 2024 at 8:00 PM

Saturday, Feb 10, 2024

The Spot on Kirk, Roanoke, VA

More Details

Tickets

Pierre Bensusan at The Spot on Kirk

Wednesday, Feb 28, 2024 at 7:30 PM

Wednesday, Feb 28, 2024

The Spot on Kirk, Roanoke, VA

More Details

French-Algerian acoustic guitar virtuoso, vocalist and composer Pierre Bensusan, surnamed "Mister DADGAD", has taken his unique sound to all corners of the globe.

Winner of the Independent Music Award for his triple live album "Encore", voted Best World Music Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine reader's Poll, winner of the Rose d'Or at the Montreux Festival for his debut album, Pierre is recognized as one of the greatest guitar players of the 21st century.

When Michael Hedges titles one of his compositions “Bensusan”, you know that the inspiration behind it must be special and Pierre Bensusan certainly is. Guitarists from Leo Kottke to Larry Corryel, to Tuck Andress, Tommy Emmanuel, Mark Knopfler, Andrew York, Andy Timmons, to Steve Lukather… have sung his praises, and Steve Vai released three Bensusan albums on his label Favored Nations. And it's not just guitarists who are so inspired by Pierre's music, as a recent studio collaboration with him on Donny Osmond’s latest album “Start Again” goes to show.

If World Music means the fusion of traditional, contemporary, jazz, classical and pop music, then Bensusan is one of the most eloquent World Music musicians of our time. A pianist in his beginnings then self-taught on the guitar, the originality of his style makes him one of today’s greatest guitarists and composers for the instrument. Also called “The Prince of DADGAD”, his story is far from trivial and it is on stage that this artist has earned his stripes: among others, the Rose d'Or of the Montreux Festival, and being elected Best Guitarist of World Music by the readers of Guitar Player Magazine! His triple album "Encore" won the Grand Prix of the Independent Music Awards in the category Best Live Album... Since his first performances in 1974 in France, the guitarist has sold half a million albums and given thousands of concerts around the globe, both solo and through numerous collaborations.

Born in French Algeria, Pierre Bensusan is an adventurer of unusual lands. His almost “sacred” music is an intimate and orchestral hymn, a solo crossing on a multi-shell Lowden guitar subjected to the natural elements with sound molecules and finger pulp on an ebony fingerboard for open tuning - an unique and transparent technique, under the fingers of an adventurous pilgrim. Big emotion guaranteed.

“For me, Pierre can only justly be compared to someone of the stature of Keith Jarrett; so total is his mastery of the solo instrument, his dazzling harmony, his many innovations, and his deft command of counterpoint, the jazz idiom, folk expression, and all genres between and beyond. An entire history unfolds as he plays. But really, like Jarrett, the emotional depth – and this is where true artistry often likes to live – of many of his songs and compositions is all, well, breathtaking. With only his steel-string-acoustic guitar – and sometimes his rich, affecting voice – Mr Bensusan can disassemble your heart and hand it back to you restored and renewed. As he did to mine tonight. A true giant.”
-James Volpe Rotondi (editor at Guitar Player Magazine)

Wednesday, February 28th 2024
Doors 7:00PM | Starts 7:30PM
$25 General Admission

Tickets