You could call Juan Wauters a “lonely guy,” and you wouldn’t be wrong. The Uruguay-born songwriter’s last two albums La Onda de Juan Pablo and Introducing Juan Pablo, don’t just plomb his cultural identity, but paint a picture of a man looking to figure out his place in a world that gets increasingly more complicated with each passing year he spends in the U.S. (his family immigrated here in 2002). It’s probably why he’s doubled down on an effort to be his truest self onstage.
“I have no alias,” Wauters told Nashville Scene. “I make music as myself, which means I’m carrying on my tradition, my legacy, my parents’ name and my neighborhood.”
He brings his worldly, and essential, brand of indie-folk and rock to Hooch and Hive where a killer one-two support bill featuring Brother Cephus and Acho Brother gets things started.
Juan Wauters w/Brother Cephus/Acho Brother. Thurs. Oct. 17, 7 p.m. $8-$11. Hooch and Hive, Tampa. aestheticized.com.
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This article appears in Oct 10-17, 2019.