Missouri born and Nashville bred, Matt Wertz is starting to make a pretty big noise in the world. His latest album Everything In Between has been described as sounding like a combination of Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz, though it very much has its own flavor. The album hit stores on February 27th of this year, and Wertz has been touring like crazy in support of it, getting the message out to uninitiated ears across the United States.

    Tonight, the crowd at the recently-refurbished Rochester nightspot High Fidelity is largely along to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, and they're not going to be disappointed... but most of them hadn't counted on two great opening acts.

    Recent Island Records contractee Jon McLaughlin opens the show, playing a few tracks from his forthcoming album "Indiana". After this, Wertz takes the stage. He opens with "Marianne," then plows through Like The Last Time and Over You before fully introducing himself and his band to the audience, who have already been very much won over to the intense, mellow, guitar-rootsy, keyboard-rocking contradiction that makes Wertz' style so distinctive.

    "Heartbreaker," a personal favorite, comes up next in the setlist, and gives Wertz a chance to show off a little bit - he's got a great voice and knows how to use it. By this time fellow opener Jon McLaughlin is also back on stage, backing up Wertz' band with some impressive keyboard work. Stephen Kellogg couldn't have asked for a better act to warm up their audience, since the openers are putting on a show worthy of top billing themselves, continuing the setlist with "Counting to 100" and "With You Tonight."

    Further favorites follow - the poignant, lamentative "5:19" and the uptempo "Carolina" chief among them. Wertz then displays his knack for playing a crowd, literally dividing the audience in two to have them sing some of the backing parts to "The Way I Feel".

     "Everything's Right" and "Red Meets Blue" close out the set, with Wertz' first performance in this town having been a great success.

     (A recording of the song "5:19" from this show is available at our Listen Up page - check it out!)