About the Artist

Will Phalen is a songwriter, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist born and raised in Wisconsin and currently living in Chicago.

Over the last decade, Will’s work has been focused on the intersection of past, present and future in music and finding unique and innovative ways of wedding together the old and the new, the acoustic and the electronic, the fret board and the mother board — exploring folk modalities as they collide with contemporary and progressive frameworks.

Will has examined this polemic on all four of his full-length albums, and he continues to do so on his latest project, entitled La Luz, due out in late 2019. The new album draws inspiration from the psychedelic rock and pop music of the mid-1960s as well as surf rock, Middle Eastern trance, and American finger-style guitar, to name just a few. But these diverse sounds are tied together using contemporary recording technologies and modern production techniques resulting in an album that sounds fresh and new while also maintaining deep roots in the musical traditions of the last half-century and beyond.

Donnie Biggins, of Chicago’s The Shams Band and owner/promoter of Tonic Room, Harmonica Dunn and the annual Dunn Dunn Fest, released his solo debut, “Profiles,” in November 2016 and the album was named “Under The Radar Best of 2016” by Glide Magazine. Blending folk and rock, many have said that Biggins’ style is reminiscent of Harry Nilsson in his prime.

This is a killer singer-songwriter co-bill, and Donnie and Will represent the very best of the young generation of songwriting talent in Chicago!