Doors + bar @ 6:30pm - Music at 7 - $15 in advance - $20 at the door
A special Wednesday night evening of songwriters in the round featuring four different solo artists telling their stories and sharing their songs from The Alluvion stage. Each one of these talented, Michigan based artists has a style of their own. Come hear them in a listening room setting.
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About the artists:
Spencer LaJoye makes queer indie folk music for everyone. With a coy smile, a wink to the back row, and carefree expertise, they spin their crystalline vocals through a loop pedal while strumming the weathered acoustic guitar they acquired for leading worship in high school. “I don’t believe in much anymore,” they announce to teary-eyed audiences, “except a little bit of everything. And you. And me. And that art can change the world simply by making us feel something.” LaJoye is an East Coast singer/songwriter with Midwest roots, a classically-trained violinist with a proclivity for Broadway vocals, and a student of Americana music with a theology degree hanging in their studio.
Sammie Hershock: I grew up writing songs as early as I can remember as a way to process and experience the world around me. Starting with piano lessons at age six, and choir shortly after, by age twelve I was singing lead in Church and composing full three-movement piano sonatas for my piano recitals. At seventeen, I began teaching music lessons through our community music school and fell in love with the joy of sharing and passing on music to others. I continued with my classical music education through high school, co-founded a bluegrass ensemble, and majored in Sacred Music with an emphasis on the pipe organ- where I deepened my knowledge and love for chant and traditional hymns. When I was 18, I left my close-knit church community to explore other thoughts and ideas. It was an intense time, and leaving the church brought an interesting turn of events that led me away from church music, and towards my career as a singer-songwriter. The songs that come from that experience are full of depth and meaning. In fact, my connection to both classical and sacred music continues to be the foundation that my folk-style original music is built upon.
Nicholas James Thomasma: Traveling around in a bright orange 1973 Volkswagen Bus, singer songwriter and Earthwork Music artist Nicholas James Thomasma combines stories and songs with humor and wit for a show that can be enjoyed by all ages. Whether he’s performing with his backing band Nicholas James and the Bandwagon or as a solo acoustic act, Nicholas charms the audience with his playful sense of humor and real life stories. An award winning songwriter, Nicholas is also the curator of a monthly songwriter in-the-round concert series called the Songtellers at the Midtown in Grand Rapids, MI and is the Secretary for the Michigan Music Alliance. "Singer-songwriter Nicholas James Thomasma is a Grand Rapids native and a Michigander to the core. He even has the Great Lakes tattooed on his arm and professes real love for the region in earthy, country-imbued songs drenched in honesty and authenticity. Thomasma also happens to be a supremely talented singer"
Kyle Rasche: Very few people pronounce Kyle Rasche’s last name correctly. It rhymes with “Kashi”, but with an R. Try it. Now put more emphasis on the RAH than the SHEE. RAH-shee. Rasche. Kyle Rasche. There. See? You nailed it. At risk of missing out on the always enjoyable experience of being called “Rash” on live radio, Kyle Rasche named his moniker Chain of Lakes, after the swimming holes surrounding the family cabin in northern Michigan. Now 12 years, seven records, and countless collaborations in, his Chain of Lakes have aged well; supplying the Midwest with earnest, atmospheric, and soulful songs that can evoke both tears and laughter from verse to chorus. Simply put, Kyle Rasche has carved his place as one of West Michigan’s most dependable songsmiths of the poetic, soul-bearing sort. 2021/22 saw his foray back into the solo-songwriter world, with a pile of new songs, and an updated list of accolades - including being named a winner in Kerrville Folk Festival’s prestigious NewFolk Songwriting Competition in 2022 (also a finalist in 2021), and a runner-up badge from Great River Folk’s 2021 Songwriter Contest. 2022 was also a prolific year for Rasche who recorded a collection of children's songs, work on two new original musicals, and released two full-length LPs: May's The Catch Album, and November's Songs That Didn't Make The Record