Wesley Stace Live in Concert

English singer/songwriter and author, 6–7:30 p.m. May 3, Van Deusen Room, Kalamazoo Public Library, 315 S. Rose St.; registration required.

KPL welcomes back critically acclaimed author and musician, Wesley Stace for a special live concert in support of his newest album, Late Style. With Late Style, Wesley Stace, the artist formerly known as John Wesley Harding, has done things differently. Having begun to put some new lyrics to music, in his usual way, singing to an acoustic guitar, he realized he was coming up with old solutions, reinventing a wheel he had already made, with chord progressions and melodies that worked as folk and pop songs but were not satisfying his desire for something fresh, something he’d be excited to listen to in 2021. As to the title, Late Style, Wes says, “It’s true of course that I’m older, and that I have more behind me than in front of me, and that in these lyrics I am considering the world during the rather bleak time we’ve all shared, and thinking of ways to brighten it up, but it also just seemed the perfect mood for a jazzier album. And I do fully feel that the world requires a little beauty and finesse from artists at this moment, particularly as we emerge from a time of scruffy zoom concerts. We all need a little elegance.”