Konrad Wert named his project Possessed by Paul James to channel the spirits of his grandfather Paul and his father James, and that name has been on stages and setlists since 2005 — carrying its particular charge into rooms where the strings and the voice can do exactly what they were built for.
About the Show
Wert plays Funk ‘n Waffles in Syracuse on Sunday, December 13 with support from Coleman Williams. A multi-instrumentalist working across banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and organ, he builds from what admirers have called a “punked-up hillbilly sensibility”: folk, blues, country, and old-time music played with rawness and commitment. He approaches the songwriting side of the work with what he once described as the commitment of “deciding to have a child — only moving forward if it can be assured a nurturing, loving environment and 100% commitment.” Critics at Saving Country Music and Americana Highways have independently reached for Townes Van Zandt when trying to place the work: the music and the poetry function together as equally necessary parts of the same whole, neither serving as backdrop to the other.
His sixth album, Fighting For Our Own Survival, was released June 2023 and written during the pandemic as he absorbed the deaths of his father, father-in-law, godmother, and close friends. Those 12 studio tracks reflect what he has long said about why the music exists at all: “Music for us has always been a functional outlet. Be it paying for groceries or lifting the spirit, music serves purpose.” Two of his albums have topped Bluegrass Billboard charts; There Will Be Nights When I’m Lonely reached Billboard #12 in Country/Bluegrass. Saving Country Music once called him “possibly the best male singer that exists under the big music tent,” and pointed to “an effortless vibrato that is spellbinding and tauntingly unfair.”
Wert grew up in a Mennonite community and currently works more than 50 hours a week as a special education teacher in Kerrville, Texas. He tours in the hours between. There is something in that commitment, to the students and to the music both, that comes through in the work. The event is 18+.
Venue & Logistics
Funk ‘n Waffles, a bar and music venue on South Clinton Street in central New York, holds 200 people. For an artist whose music depends on proximity, on being close enough to watch the hands and feel the room shift between verses, 200 is the right size. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; the show starts at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets start at $23.63. They went on sale September 17. Buy tickets.