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Local musician Weyrauch goes on the record with new album

By Craig Horleman
Posted 4/16/21

As a high school history teacher and a musician, Mike Weyrauch jokes that he doesn’t know which side of his life has had a crazier year.

Both professions have had to lean on working …

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Best Bets

Local musician Weyrauch goes on the record with new album

Posted

As a high school history teacher and a musician, Mike Weyrauch jokes that he doesn’t know which side of his life has had a crazier year.

Both professions have had to lean on working virtually, with Zoom classes and streaming concerts.

But the performing part of his world changes at 6 tonight, as he will play at Governor’s Cafe in Dover. It will be his first live gig of 2021.

“I don’t want to say that I’m nervous about it, but at the same time, I really just don’t know what to expect. So it’s a little invigorating, to be honest with you, because it’s one of those things where I don’t know what I’m going to sound like,” he said.

“Obviously, I’ve been practicing and whatnot, but I’ve got to run through it and make sure all my equipment is up to snuff and all the bugs are worked out before I perform.”

It’s a busy time for Mr. Weyrauch, who lives in Frederica, as not only is he balancing his teaching career with performing, he’s also readying a new album that should be out in the coming weeks, studying for a second master’s degree and, oh yeah, helping to raise two children under age 2 with his wife, Kasey.

He thinks his full-time position of teaching history at Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown balances well with his music side.

“I think it meshes well with performing, because in order for me to get kids to have an interest in history, I kind of have to put on a show — to be an entertainer. It’s all about vocal inflection. It’s all about drawing people in, and I think that translates very well to live performances, and I think that it kind of comes a little bit natural to me,” he said.

Before the pandemic, he said he performed probably six to 10 times a month at various venues. That all dried up obviously after last March. So he took his music career in a different direction.

“I had the opportunity to invest in my own music and not necessarily just doing cover stuff and those kinds of gigs. That’s where the third album is coming from. Because I wasn’t able to play out last year, I decided to invest in a very small studio, and that’s been a lot of fun,” he said.

“The last time I recorded an album was in 2013, so it’s been a while. I’ve had a lot of things in my personal life happen. I moved to Florida for a bit. I moved back, got married and that kind of stuff. And so the album has kind of been in the works really since 2013. So it was great to be able to really kind of spend the last year recording and experimenting and just having all those ideas and having that kind of creativity.”

The album is called “One Became Four” with the idea that when he started writing some of the songs in 2013, he was single, and now, he is part of a family of four.

Mr. Weyrauch was born in Mountaintop, near the Poconos, in northeast Pennsylvania. He studied at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where he started to perform live. He moved to Delaware in 2009, first teaching in the Caesar Rodney School District, before moving down to Sussex Tech in 2019.

The music bug bit him in high school, when his brother started playing bass and Mr. Weyrauch’s father gave him his guitar.

“It was a coveted thing for me. But I went to, like, two guitar lessons, and then, I realized that everybody I knew was taking guitar lessons from the same gentleman, and they all sounded exactly the same. So I sat down with the tablature book from the Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds’ ‘Live at Luther College’ album, and I learned the whole thing. And that’s kind of how I got into guitar,” he said.

“I didn’t actually start singing until my buddies and my brother did a garage band, and one of the members decided to be the lead singer, and he just wasn’t very good. I was home alone one day during high school, and I just decided to start singing, and I was like, ‘All right, well, let’s try this out.’ And then, in college, I would just play in the dorm rooms, and then, in my senior year, I got a weekly gig at The Trappe Tavern near Collegeville.

“And that’s what made me want to start gigging and start playing live. I’ve, over the years, run into some people that saw me in college, and then, they see me more recently. They’re like, ‘Dude, you were terrible. Like, you were so loud. We all liked your music, but you just needed to turn it down’. So it’s those little things that you don’t have any idea about.”

Performing then took him to disparate places such as the Poconos; Washington; Nashville, Tennessee; Burlington, Vermont; and Fairfax County, Virginia.

Settling down now in Delaware, he said he feels comfortable with his music career.

The songs on the upcoming album tell a tale of his life’s journey over the better part of the last decade.

“I don’t want to call it a concept album because I’m not Coheed and Cambria, or I’m not Rush, but it does have a concept to it. I do kind of want to tell a story from around 2012 or 2013 to today. It’s kind of a progression from who I was to where I am right now,” he said.

Mr. Weyrauch said that four or five songs on the album are ones that have been written in the last year or so.

“One of the cool things about doing this all by myself is I can use a drum track for the first time, so it’s not just singer-songwriter stuff. I’m able to do more things. I love funk rock. I love early Incubus,” he said.

“So even though I kind of have labeled myself as a singer-songwriter over the years, that’s not really the whole picture of what I like to do. So it’s been really, really exciting.

“I’ve picked up a new (Stratocaster) and a new jazz bass — well, new to me anyway. I’m able to do things like using (synthesizers) and using MIDI keyboards, and it’s really just absolutely incredible what you can do with very, very little investment.”

The album will be available at various online retailers, and more information can be found here.

Tonight’s show will run from 6-8 at Governor’s Cafe, 144 Kings Highway Southwest, Dover.

Milton Arts Guild reopening

More than a year after closing its doors to the public in compliance with COVID-19 precautions, the Milton Arts Guild is poised to host a grand reopening of its Walnut Street gallery with the “Celebration” art exhibit and Spring Fling Market.

The gallery’s reopening kicks off April 30 at 3 p.m., followed at 5 by an opening reception, to be attended by local dignitaries, MAG artists and the public. The festivities will continue at the gallery May 1 and 2 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Spring Fling Market will feature arts and crafts from more than 15 MAG artist-vendors. The exhibit will present artwork created by the guild’s members while they sheltered at home during the past year.

The gallery has been closed since March 2020, with the exception of the guild’s Holiday Market for three weekends after Thanksgiving. Following strict COVID-19 precautions, the market hosted more than 350 people eager to get out and enjoy some holiday spirit and seasonal gifts.

Throughout the pandemic, the Milton Arts Guild has reached 170 students through more than 30 virtual classes in watercolor, drawing, acrylic, oil, pastel, mandala, jewelry, paper beads and paper flowers.

Following the grand reopening, the guild will be open Thursdays-Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is at 310 Walnut St.

For more information on the Spring Fling Market and “Celebration” art exhibit, as well as MAG’s ongoing classes, visit online.

Short-story contest

The Rehoboth Beach Reads Short Story Contest invites writers to submit stories of 500 to 3,500 words that feature Rehoboth Beach and fit the year’s theme, which for 2021 is “Beach Secrets.”

The first-place winner will receive $500, second-place $250, and third-place $100. The top 20-25 stories will appear in the anthology, “Beach Secrets,” to be published by Cat & Mouse Press in November. The contest, now in its ninth year, is sponsored by Browseabout Books.

“There are many kinds of secrets at the beach,” said Nancy Sakaduski, owner of Cat & Mouse Press.

“There are family secrets, romantic secrets and secret spots for fishing or beachcombing. There might even be government secrets now,” she said, with a laugh. “And then there are financial secrets, childhood secrets, criminal secrets and otherworldly secrets.”

She suggests authors be creative and open their minds to all possibilities. “As in the past,” she says, “writers will put their own spin on the theme. Stories that stand out to the judges definitely have an advantage.”

The deadline for entries to the Rehoboth Beach Reads Short Story Contest is July 1. The fee is $10 per entry, and each writer can submit up to three stories. Entries will be evaluated by a panel of judges and chosen based on creativity, quality of writing, suitability as a beach read and fit with the theme. Contest information and guidelines are posted on the Cat & Mouse Press website (catandmousepress.com).

Potential entrants are encouraged to read “How to Write Winning Short Stories” and its companion workbook (available at local bookstores and online) and look at the previous books in the Rehoboth Beach Reads series to see the kinds of stories that were selected in prior years.

Now showing

New this weekend in theaters is the Oscar-nominated film, “Minari.”

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