Brothers Wil and Gary Nance are coming home.
The Nashville musicians, who grew up in House Springs and graduated from Northwest High School, will put on a concert Oct. 26 at their alma mater, and the proceeds will provide college scholarships for Northwest students.
Doors will open at 6:15 p.m., and the show begins at 7 p.m.
Tickets cost $20 each. Tickets will be available at the school, 6005 Cedar Hill Road, in Cedar Hill, prior to the concert, and at the door the night of the event.
Wil is a songwriter with No. 1 hits recorded by country stars George Strait and Brad Paisley. He wrote Strait’s “Round About Way” and Paisley’s “She’s Everything,” as well as Joe Nichol’s “Cool to be a Fool” and Mo Pitney’s “Clean up on Aisle Five.”
Northwest High receptionist Julie Bobbitt, who went to school with the brothers, said she asked if they’d perform at the school.
“I just sent Wil a text message and said, ‘Hey will you do this,’ and he said, ‘yes,’ without any hesitation,” Bobbitt said. “They were always a big deal with the kids who went to school with them. Now they are coming back to do something for the kids where they came from.”
Wil said he will bring a little Nashville with him when he returns to Northwest High.
“I will be doing songs I had success with, and telling the history of them and how they came about. It will be like bringing the Bluebird Cafe to Missouri,” he said. “My brother will be playing bass. My wife (Holly Hefner Nance) will sing. I think I will bring my son along to play acoustic guitar.”
Wil graduated from Northwest High in 1975, and Gary was a 1976 graduate, Bobbitt said.
Years ago, the brothers formed a band called Zane Grey that played in the St. Louis area, Wil said.
“It was southern rock– like Charlie Daniels, Marshall Tucker. We played Spanky’s in (south St. Louis County) and Mississippi Nights,” he said.
Wil said the Oct. 26 concert may feature some songs from those days.
“These will mostly be songs I had success with, some you’ve heard, some you haven’t, but we’re going to mix it up,” he said.
Gary, a Nashville live and session bassist, has played with Colt Ford, Johnny Rodriquez and Woody Lee.
“Holly is an amazing entertainer in her own right,” Bobbitt added.
Holly has played in shows featuring Charlie Daniels, Shania Twain and The Willies.
After his early stint in the Zane Grey band, Wil said he was “fronting a band in Cincinnati, Ohio,” writing songs and approaching 30 years old and decided to take a chance and head to Nashville.
“I thought if I’m going to stay in music, I’m going to have to see where this songwriting takes me, so in November of ’87, I moved to Nashville,” Wil said. “I waited tables for 10 years.”
But he kept writing songs and he got his first real break with “Round About Way.”
“I knew I had a knack for writing songs and believed that perseverance pays off,” he said. “Looking back, I always believed in myself.”
In addition to showcasing the Nance brothers’ talent, Bobbitt said she thought the concert would be a great way to show off the school’s spruced up auditorium.
“Our Lecture Hall was remodeled this summer, and I would love for the public to come see what the (money from the $14.5 million bond issue approved in April 2018) has done,” she said. “It looks awesome and they changed the seating. We now have assigned seating. There’s a new curtain and it looks absolutely beautiful.”
Bobbitt said there are 467 tickets available and if the show sells out they will raise $9,500 in scholarships for Northwest students, Bobbitt said.
And to get the ball rolling, the school’s 2009 graduating class donated $270 that will be used to purchase tickets for students.
Wil said he’s looking forward to giving back to his old high school.
“I want to encourage younger people to believe in themselves, and to go do what they want to do,” he said. “We will raise money for people who maybe need the money and give them hope. If I can encourage people to believe in themselves, that’s what I want to do.”
Wil was inducted into the Northwest Hall of Fame in 2017.