Bob Lewis and Megan Palmer got together like a lot of Nashville musicians do.
“I just came here on a trip, played some gigs and was thrilled to even be talking to the people in town that I got to be friends with,” says Lewis, who moved to Music City about four years ago from the Wilkes-Barre area. “We started sitting in on each other’s gigs. I would see Megan play around town accompanying other songwriters and said, ‘Man, if you ever need someone to play guitar,’ or vice versa.”
The collaborators are on a spring tour that will bring them to Karl Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, April 27, and Superfine in Brooklyn and Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan, both on April 28.
Lewis, who in Wilkes-Barre played in the hardcore band Bedford in the mid-’90s through the early ’00s, as well as various original and cover projects, is excited to return to his hometown — and to do it on his own terms.
“I’m really excited to come back home and do my thing and not have to maybe fit some preconceived mold or have to do some sort of cover show to get people to come out,” he says. “Just to be myself and not have to go represent something I don’t do anymore.”
Adding more local flair to the Karl Hall show, Lewis and Palmer will be joined by area musicians Dylan Skursky on bass and Angelo Miraglia on keyboards.
Last year, Lewis released “End of an Error,” an EP he recorded in Nashville that received notice from Rolling Stone.
“Man, that was an interesting time,” Lewis says. “It probably started to come together about two years ago. I was jamming in a 3-piece rock group and had by brain adjusted to focus on that, and one of the members had passed away. It was a confusing thing. I just continued to use music as therapy and write the songs and do something with music.
“It was pretty quick. I didn’t necessarily have [the songs] all finished. It was more in the moment, more of like a whim to not be afraid to artistically expose myself with those sorts of tunes, maybe. It’s uncomfortable to not be sure if something is finished.”
“I’m really excited to come back home and do my thing and not have to maybe fit some preconceived mold or have to do some sort of cover show to get people to come out,” he says. “Just to be myself and not have to go represent something I don’t do anymore.”
Palmer, who in addition to singing plays violin and piano, is working on a split EP she says will probably be released in July or August. Originally from Cleveland, Palmer lived in New York from 2008 to 2013, when she moved to Nashville.
“I had a really good time playing in music in New York and in the Brooklyn country music scene,” says Palmer, who played with The Maybelles there. “But it’s really spread out. It’s pretty hard to find a tight musical community.” That’s not a problem for her in Nashville, which she says is “more music-centric with less distractions.”
As for the shows Lewis and Palmer are playing together, “We’ve been focusing on merging our set together in a duo sort of way,” she says. “I play guitar and violin and piano, and Bob will back me up if I’m playing violin or guitar, or a lot of time I’ll playing violin or piano backing him up. We’re working really hard on getting our harmonies tight.”
Lewis, who works at The 5 Spot club in Nashville, and Palmer, a breast cancer survivor who is a registered nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said they tailor their setlists to where they’re playing; in Wilkes-Barre, they’ll play more Lewis songs that Palmer songs.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been home in general,” Lewis says. “At least a year and a half. What I’m looking forward to is playing a music venue. Going back to my roots, a music venue, not a bar, not a coffee shop, but a music venue where people go to listen to music and are there to share the experience. I’m thrilled about it and I’m really glad that Wilkes-Barre has a place to go for that, for shows or all-ages. I’m really thankful to play a place like that.”
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