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By Sam Zavada [email protected]
Marcus Welliver is an up-and-coming country music artist from the Shickshinny area.
Submitted Photo
On Sunday, Clubhouse315 will be hosting the first-ever Boots & Brews Music Fest. On the bill are national musicians Kylie Morgan and Noah Thomson, as well as local artists like Lost at the Rodeo and Gracie Jane Sinclair and The Band.
Between the national and local country music played on Sunday will be the sound of up-and-coming songwriter Marcus Welliver, who is making waves near and far.
Welliver, a 2015 graduate of Northwest Area High School, grew up in Hunlock Township and currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is starting to make a name for himself in country music circles. His story begins humbly at the end of his high school football career.
“My senior year of high school, after football was ending, I had to find something to replace that,” Welliver said. “A song by Eric Church — ‘Talladega’ — came out, and I got a guitar and I was playing it in study hall my whole senior year.”
Six months after getting that guitar, he scored his first gig at Village Tavern in Hunlock Township.
Growing up, Welliver’s musical intake was largely informed by his parents, and the country music that was played on the radio. Among his immediate influences are Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, and even classic rock artists like the Band.
“We didn’t have Spotify or something, so whatever was on the local stations was what we were listening to,” said Welliver.
Since that first local gig, Welliver has traveled around the country with his original songs in tow. In addition to Texas and Pennsylvania, Welliver said he recently played in Colorado. Wherever he goes, Welliver likes to make a connection with his audience before and after the show.
Those connections can sometimes be easier said than done, as Welliver has played for some massive audiences in his career. For instance, he’s played the infield at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama and for thousands of people at the Bloomsburg Fair.
Other nights, he’ll find himself playing at a more intimate bar or restaurant.
“It’s the highest highs and the lowest lows,” Welliver said of his packed schedule. “Sometimes you’re playing for three people. The next day, it’s a thousand.”
Still, it’s exciting, from Welliver’s perspective, to play an ultra local show like the inaugural Boots & Brews. He’s seen the passion from organizer Lorenzo Medico, and can perceive a bright future for the new music festival.
“It’s only going to get bigger from the way he’s running it, I can tell,” said Welliver. “It’s going to be awesome to be a part of the first one.”
For those looking to get a feel for Welliver’s music before the big show on Sunday, he suggested they start with his first EP from 2022, “Uphill Both Ways.” The title track on that EP has been streamed over 15,000 times on Spotify, a rather high number for an artist from Luzerne County. His most streamed song on that platform is “Barstool Side of Me,” which has been digitally spun over 70,000 times.
Welliver is back to recording, a process which he said is getting more efficient each time he gets in the studio.
“More and more, it gets easier as the process goes with what you want to do and how you do it,” said Welliver. “The easier you make it, the cheaper it gets, because you’re not spending that much time in the studio.”
Listening to Welliver’s music is to learn a lot about him. He said that his songs are biographical in nature. Writing any other way, Weliver said, would be a challenge.
“I have a hard time writing anything that isn’t from personal experience, so almost everything that I’ve written or will write comes from something that’s on my mind or something I want to write about,” Welliver noted. “Otherwise, I can’t really get it on paper.”
Marcus Welliver making a name for himself in country music – Times Leader
