First Thursdays Songwriters Round, featuring Aspen Black, John Hildreth, and Woody McKenzie

Name: First Thursdays Songwriters Round, featuring Aspen Black, John Hildreth, and Woody McKenzie
Start: 2026-03-05T19:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-05T21:00:00-05:00
Location: 3rd Street Coffeehouse

Schedule

Thu Mar 05 2026 at 07:30 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

3rd Street Coffeehouse | Roanoke, VA

3rd Street Coffeehouse presents the second installment of our new Nashville-style songwriters round hosted by Mona Raza. Come out to hear some phenomenal original music and the stories behind the songs. Meet our March featured performers:
Aspen Black is a touring singer-songwriter whose work showcases rural America, from the American West to her Appalachian mountain home, honoring stewardship of the land, hard-earned resilience, life's struggles and joys, and the memories carried through generations. Her songs are rooted in lived experience and shaped by a deep respect for rural culture and heritage.
With more than 30 years on stage, Aspen has earned national recognition for her songwriting, including the 2025 IWMA Working Cowboy Song of the Year, 2025 IWMA Top-Five Songwriter of the Year, 2024 WWA Spur Finalist for Best Western Song, 2024 AWA Western Country Single and Female Vocalist of the Year and 2024 & 2025 ISSA Finalist for Songwriter of the Year and Female Performer of the Year. She also gained mainstream country radio airplay in 2025. Lyrical and authentic, her music stands at the intersection of tradition and contemporary storytelling.

John Hildreth's music is all at once intimate and expansive, sophisticated and simple, inspiring and unique. Hailing from Virginia's New River Valley, the songwriter is equally at home on multiple instruments as he weaves stories about wild places, sentient creatures, faraway worlds, ghosts and the liminal spaces of the heart. His deep-tissue guitar work evokes the shimmering harmonies and percussive grooves of the late, great Michael Hedges, while his piano pop brings to mind the rich harmonies of Bruce Hornsby and the storytelling finesse of Joni Mitchell. John can be seen throughout the region as a soloist as well as with Talk2Me, Hildreth-Mills and Taco Cat. He has performed with, opened for, produced and collaborated with renowned artists including Rhiannon Giddens, Kat Mills, Man Made Random, Dot Dot Dash, Shana Tucker, Rachel Baiman, Larry Unger and Scott Perry. He has appeared at music festivals over the years including FloydFest, Appalachian Trail Days, Clevetoberfest, Summer Solstice Festival and Jonesborough Days.
Woody McKenzie is a multi-instrumentalist and luthier who has been playing music for over 50 years. You might have seen Woody playing with his duo partner and wife, Marcia at various square and contra-dances in the region. Woody is no stranger to the 3rd Street Coffeehouse stage playing old time traditional and folk tunes, but we are excited to hear his work as a songwriter!
You won't want to miss this line-up!
If you are a songwriter who would like to be featured in a future round, email [email protected]