WVU musician takes tour to New York and beyond

During this year’s West Virginia University commencement ceremonies, the world welcomed future doctors, lawyers and professionals of many varieties. Among them was future musical sensation Logan Venderlic.

Venderlic is a recent graduate of the WVU School of Journalism. The West Virginia native is currently touring the country for what he hopes will be his big break.

This week, Venderlic made a huge transition from his small hometown of St. Mary’s, W.Va., playing shows in big cities such as Philadelphia and New York.

He made his first summer appearances in New York at The Way Station in Brooklyn on Thursday and The Living Room in the lower east side of Manhattan Saturday.

"New York is one of my favorite places to play. The city has an immense amount of energy, and I really feed off of that during my performances there," Venderlic said.

At his Saturday performance, Venderlic jokingly mentioned his hometown to his New York audience.

"I come from a town that has more churches than people," he said.

The quirky, music-loving-crowd quickly took to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed West Virginian.

"People were incredibly friendly and generous at both venues. I definitely made some new friends and fans, which is the point of the tour," Venderlic said.

New York native and musician Charlie Valentine was no exception.

"It’s actually refreshing to hear a young kid like this keeping the ‘singer-songwriter’ alive in an age where everything is digitally enhanced and holographic," Valentine said.

Although all of his original songs were well received by the audience, there was a clear favorite.

The last song of his Saturday show, "Travelin’ Tooth Operators," was obviously the crowd-pleaser.

"It’s about two crazy dentists in Appalachia pulling the teeth of people addicted to pills," Venderlic said.

Stomping and singing along to the unique tune, it was clear the audience appreciated the one-man band.

"It’s easy to get really self-conscious and nervous on stage, but I could tell people were getting into my stuff. It helped me turn my nerves into excitement. I was a sweaty mess afterwards, and I ran around and gave high fives to the folks who came out for the show," Venderlic said.

Since the start of his tour just a few weeks ago, Venderlic has been making quite a name for himself. He recently performed and interviewed with The Huffington Post and had a Wanderer Session with Pollifax Saturday morning.

Pollifax is a collective of videographers and bloggers based in Brooklyn who collaborate with musicians. The Huffington Post and Wanderer Session will both be available relatively soon. Both will be posted to his Facebook page.

"This is the most extensive tour I’ve ever taken, and it’s still early on, but it’s been a great adventure already. I’m looking forward to rambling around to a bunch of other places and stomping and howling and surprising people," Venderlic said.