When reached recently for a phone interview, Matt Watroba was headed south on US-23. “I’m doing my new favorite activity, which is driving back and forth to Ohio,” former Ann Arbor/Detroit area folksinger-songwriter Watroba explained.

Former? Ohio? Yep. Longtime Michigander Watroba recently relocated to Kent, where he’s landed his dream job at WKSU, the public radio station at Kent State University.

“Yeah, I know,” Watroba laughed, after some gentle ribbing about the move. “It’s a good thing I don’t follow anything but the Tigers — I don’t have to worry about the sports competition. They do take it seriously down there.

“It’s a cool little campus and it’s nice to work there. It’s also a great radio station, with an amazing commitment to folk music,” he added.

Watroba will team up with two other acoustic music pals, Wisconsin-based Lou and Peter Berryman, for a show Friday night at First United Methodist Church Green Wood, part of the ongoing Green Wood Coffee House Series. None of the three are strangers to Ann Arbor, with many shows at The Ark under their belts.

Watroba is the former co-host of the now-defunct “Folks Like Us” program on Detroit public radio station WDET, which makes him ideally suited to his new position. Besides his on-air work at WKSU, Watroba will also be involved with Kent State’s folk music streaming Web site FolkAlley.com.

Watroba said he still can’t believe his good fortune.

“I have never in my life seen a job posting with skills that matched mine almost verbatim, right down to going to festivals and meeting people. We actually own this huge RV for Folk Alley that goes around (to the) major festivals and does PR. ... Everything about it is perfect. This is a full-fledged job, full time, with benefits ... It was really hard to say no to that,” he added.

Job news aside, Watroba said he is also excited about the upcoming Green Wood show with the Berrymans.

“In all my years of doing ‘Folks Like Us,’ I’ve gotten to be really good friends with just a handful of people — Lou and Peter Berryman are certainly two of those. We have an absolute blast when we’re together, so we decided it would be fun to do a shared evening of music.”

The Berrymans were both raised in Appleton, Wisc., and began playing music together in high school during the 1960s. Their brief marriage in the early ’70s resolved into a lifelong friendship, and soon they were honing their skills playing regular weekly concerts at a music club in Madison, becoming full-time musicians and songwriters in 1979. Two of their best-known songs are “Your State’s Name Here” and “Chat With Your Mother.”

“Peter writes all the lyrics and Lou matches melodies perfectly,” said Watroba. “What I love about them is they are almost like the old-style, Tin Pan Alley, Lerner and Lowe and all those guys who wrote together. You don’t see that so often anymore, where one writes the music and the other writes the lyrics. Their songs are so well written and clever, and they take a unique look at the world.”


As far as the show goes, don’t expect Watroba merely to open up for the Berrymans. Rather, they will share the stage, offering the chance for shared musical improvisation and plenty of banter.

“I think I’m looking more forward to this concert than any I’ve had in a long time, only because I think those guys are absolutely brilliant songwriters. When we get together we always laugh, so I have a feeling it’s going to be a pretty unique night,” said Watroba. “All kinds of hijinks will ensue.”

Meanwhile, area fans shouldn’t worry that his move means less Watroba around these parts.

“I still plan to do as many shows in our area as before the move,” he said. “I’m going to venture a guess most people won’t know the difference. I’m constantly coming up to see my folks, and I’ll always have a huge base here as a musician and none of that will go away.

“It’s just a three-hour drive — to some people that’s scary but to a musician it’s like going around the block.”

Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.