Scott Cook and Wes Collins

On Wednesday, April 23rd, Scott Cook and Wes Collins will showcase their earnest, sympathetic folk songs and haunting melodies and witty lyrics at an intimate show in the Tap Room at Waldo Pizza. Doors open at 5:30pm and the show starts at 7:00pm.

In 2007, Albertan songwriter Scott Cook quit his job teaching kindergarten in Taiwan and moved into a minivan. He’s made his living as a troubadour ever since, touring almost incessantly across Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, averaging 150 shows and a dozen summer festivals a year, and releasing seven albums of plainspoken, keenly observant verse along the way. His latest collection Tangle of Souls comes packaged in a cloth-bound, 240-page hardcover book of road stories and ruminations, equal parts introspection and insurrection. The album spent two weeks at #1 on Alberta's province-wide community radio network CKUA and earned Scott his third Canadian Folk Music Award nomination, for English Songwriter of the Year. Its second single "Say Can You See" was the second most-played song of 2020 on Folk Alliance International's folk radio charts, and took top honors for the folk category in both the 2020 UK Songwriting Competition and the 2020 Great American Song Contest. Scott has been on the faculty teaching songwriting and stagecraft at Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, Sisters Folk Festival in Oregon, Lamb's Retreat in Michigan, and many more long-form and shorter formats in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. He’s been back on the road full-time since January of 2022, living in a campervan named Roadetta with his sweetheart Pamela Mae on upright bass and vocals, visiting 43 states and 8 Canadian provinces, and broadcasting solar-powered livestreams from the back of the van. In 2025 they're releasing Scott's eighth album Troubadourly Yours with tours of North America, Europe, and Australia to follow.

At age 44, Wes Collins and his wife Anita made a pact to become writers: she started writing fiction and Wes penned his first song. A few years later, they were both multi-award-winners in their fields. Collins more than makes up for lost time with songs that dig deep and go to uncertain, sometimes scary places. Come for a haunting melody and some intricate fingerpicking and stay for the wit and deep literary intelligence. There is always more to find in a Wes Collins song. Wes has played shows from coast to coast including The Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville, TN; The Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, TX; the Cary Theater in Cary, NC (opening for Dave Olney); and many more. He is a winner of the prestigious Grassy Hills New Folk Competition and a North Carolina Arts Council Songwriting Fellowship, and has been featured as a finalist in The Telluride Troubadour Contest in Telluride, CO; The Songwriter's Serenade Competition in Moravia, TX; and The Wildflower Performing Songwriter Contest in Dallas, TX. Wes's recorded his third album Jabberwockies at Chris Rosser's Hollow Reed Arts Studio in Asheville, North Carolina, with special contributions by Ordinary Elephant and Jaimee Harris. Advance reviews for Jabberwockies are very positive and the album looks poised to surpass the success of his popular second album Welcome to the Ether.

Scott Cook and Wes Collins are incredible and we are thrilled to have them at Waldo Folk!

The two-hour show will start at 7:00 PM and doors will open at 5:30 PM on Wednesday, April 23rd in the Tap Room at Waldo Pizza.

Food and drink from Waldo Pizza will be available for purchase throughout the show.

Seating is first come first serve at shared tables. Please arrive early to select your seat.

Tickets are required for entry.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Waldo Pizza, Broadway Street, Kansas City, MO, USA, United States