MANSFIELD — You can almost feel the hangover coming when Luke Watson sears into “Smoke and Drink,” a powerful vocal with a banging, guitar-driven riff reminiscent of the fact Luke Combs never found a beer that broke his heart.
Emily Raff has been dubbed the “rock-and-roll cowgirl,” a true Americana songstress who can’t decide between the rock guitar vibes of Heart’s Nancy Wilson and the country-is-cool-again stylings of Lainey Wilson.
Jody Odom is an old-soul musician seemingly born too late, a musical force who would be comfortable sitting in with groups ranging from Booker T. and the MGs in Memphis, Luther Vandross in New York City and the Jackson 5 in Motown.
And you can hear all three of them perform Friday night at the second Richland Source Newsroom After Hours show of 2024.
The free night of local, original music entertainment features free food from Doc’s Deli and free beer from the Phoenix Brewing Co. while supplies last (for those 21 and older.)
The show will be in the Richland Source basement at 40 W. 4th St. in downtown Mansfield, via the West Temple Court alley between North Mulberry and North Walnut streets. The alley will be blocked off with orange cones.
Bring a lawn or camping chair if you want for a night that includes lighting & visuals via Potent Studios. Ohio Social Sports will be located outside in the alley with cornhole and other games.
Doors open at 6:30 and music starts at 7 p.m.
Below is more on the musicians performing Friday night:
Luke Watson
Watson comes by music naturally. He grew up in it.
His father who played the drums, He had an aunt who played piano and a great uncle who once played fiddle for the legendary country duo of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs.
The 27-year-old Clear Fork High School graduate seeks divine guidance, however, when asked to identify his biggest musical influences.
“Oh, my God, I couldn’t tell you. I’m all over the place,” he said with a laugh. “I play anything from Alicia Keys to Johnny Cash.”
Watson said he has been gigging locally and around Ohio since he graduated from high school in 2016. A couple of years ago, he ventured down to Nashville, the capital of country music.
“I did that for six months. I did the whole (music) circuit, but decided to move back home in my own best interests.
“There were a lot different resources for making music, gear, people of interest to talk, ways to get through to where you needed to go,” he said.
“But I also found it was quite expensive. I really didn’t like the fact I was living off of bologna sandwiches every day. I’m not trying to starve myself,” he said.
Watson, who works as an HVAC specialist during the day, found he could meet his goals back in Ohio as well as he could in Nashville.
“My goal is to be happy. I want to make music … make music that people like. I don’t really have a goal. I make enough money doing what I have to do to just have fun with music and play guitar. That’s what it’s about,” he said.
“I work Monday through Friday. It keeps my head grounded,” Watson said.
He said attendees on Friday will hear he and his friend, Nate Rosich, will play a set of original material.
“It will be a little bit of everything. We do a pretty darn good job of doing what we do.”
Emily Raff
The 23-year-old Raff wants to pursue her passion — making people happy.
A graduate of Ontario High School and Pioneer Career & Technology Center, Raff looks for ways to do that every day, including during her day job as a hair stylist and also in her music.
“I like to say music is a hobby that I get to call my career,” she said. “If you love what you do, then you never work a day in your life.”
“A lot of people hear me sing and they say my passion must be music. I do hair and they say that must be my passion. I
“I just like to make people feel good,” Raff said.
“I struggled a lot in middle school and high school, some mental health issues. I really felt (bad) about myself. I noticed that music was really the one constant thing that made me feel like I matter,” she said.
“I was like, ‘Well, if music can do this for me, I want to do it other people,'” Raff said. “I just picked up the guitar and learned how to play it and I started singing.”
Raff, who said she first sang in the backseat of the car to annoy her mom, was classically trained as an opera singer at age 10 or 11, performing with the Renaissance Youth Opera Theatre.
She also performed vocally as Miss Cuyahoga Valley in the 2021 Miss Ohio Scholarship Program.
Raff loves the music of people like Nancy Wilson and Lainey Wilson.
“Nancy plays guitar and you don’t see a lot of female acoustic guitar plays. She just rocks. I freaking love her.
“(Lainey Wilson) just stays so authentically herself. I really look up to that because in a world where social media and society kind of dictates who you are supposed to be and tries to make you feel a certain type of way …. she is always like, ‘No, this is who I am. Take it or leave it.'”
Raff declines to define her musical genre.
“I don’t want to put a cap on my music. I call myself a rock-and-roll cowgirl. I guess it’s Americana. Americana kind of encompasses a lot of things. I just kind of write songs and let it be whatever it wants to be,” she said.
Jody Odom
The 28-year-old Mansfield Senior graduate was born long after the days of 70s and 80s legendary R&B era when artists like Luther Vandross, Chaka Kahn, Rick James, The Isley Brothers and Teddy Pendergrass ushered in a new genre that incorporated elements of soul, funk and disco.
But the “old soul” Odom knows how that music makes him feel. He knows how it it makes him move.
And he wants to put his own modern touch on it for today’s audiences.
“I am going to sound like a fossil, but they were playing live instruments. The way they made music … it’s just different. They had no choice but to be in the moment.
“Back then, the music was based off feeling and emotion, not based on something you have already seen and tried to make your own. That’s the basis of making your own art, period.
“It felt a little more organic then. Now, a lot of it sounds copy-and-paste today. I want to make music that has more of that organic feel,” Odom said.
Odom moved to Mansfield from Youngstown when he was in high school.
Armed with a keyboard and theatrical stylings, he quickly emerged onto the local music scene with his unique voice, dance, mannerisms and a work ethic that has made him one of the busiest gig performers in the area, both solo and with other musicians.
His set Friday night will include a full band behind him, including trumpet, sax, drummer, lead guitar and bass. Odom said he will also feature local performers Kid Culture and Najee Rawls on two of his songs.
Odom said he relishes the opportunity to play his own music in more of a concert venue after spending time gigging in clubs, bars and restaurants and covering performers like Prince, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire and more.
“This is kind of a breakthrough for me, honestly,” he said.
“It brings out a different type of performance. I have played plenty of restaurants and bars where you are sometimes just the background music and people are asking for “Freebird” or calling for Michael (Jackson).
“It’s very liberating feeling that this set is committed to originals,” Odom said. “I have been working on my own music for some time. And to be seen now in the artists’ conversation, it’s an honor for sure.”