The Ready Set
Photo: Jared Thomas

A 20-something singer-songwriter from the Midwest readies to play a few tunes Thursday night from his ever-growing repertoire of chart-topping singles, acoustic endeavors and previews from his upcoming third full-length album.

As The Ready Set, Indiana native Jordan Witzigreuter has charmed national audiences — particularly the teen, female demographic — after landing a record deal in 2009. Since then, pop-music fandom has sent him to Billboard heights with his debut single, 2010’s “Love Like Woe,” and now sends him along the Great Plains with four other bands, including headliners We the Kings, as a part of the Summer Fest 2013 tour.

“I just love being out on the road as much as possible and being able to connect with fans,” Witzigreuter said. “It’s amazing.”

As the sole author of his songs, he said, touring provides a different dynamic as band members are added for the live shows.

“If I’m not on tour, I’m pretty much constantly writing,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting it out.”

The Ready Set’s most recent work, I’ll Be Waiting EP, digitally
launched July 24 to a positive response, he said. The three-song
release explores an acoustic sound that Witzigreuter hasn’t indulged in
since his 2009 piano-based EP, Cascades.

“This
acoustic EP is sort of like a lead-in to the full album because the
full album leans more toward that kind of stuff anyway, which I’m
excited about,” he said. “Hopefully my fans will be, too.”

Undergoing
the final mixing and mastering, The Ready Set’s new album is expected
to drop this fall, featuring “fun collaborations” with other artists,
Witzigreuter said. In the past, he has collaborated with such acts as
Never Shout Never and New Boyz.

Earlier this summer, he released an entire EP of remixes of the single “Give Me Your Hand (Best Song Ever).”

“When
things take off [on the] radio, everything changes really, really
quickly,” he said. “Some people who have never heard you before are all
of a sudden super into it. It’s a really cool thing.”

Witzigreuter,
who has played for Oklahoma audiences nearly 10 times between gigs in
the 918 and 405, said he has nothing but positive experiences, whether
he performed in a smaller, indoor venue such as Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom
or for large, outdoor crowds at T-Town’s Big Splash Water Park.

“I
just want to keep it growing and keep getting new fans playing more
shows and keep doing the whole thing,” he said. “I just look at
everything as a step in the growing process.”

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