Acoustic solo artist Griffin Housev is set to play a show at 9 p.m., Saturday March 8^th at Maintenance Shop with singer-songwriter Max Jury set to open.

Born in Springfield, Ohio, Griffin House grew up adept in athletics, but ultimately chose to pursue a career in music, all before he even knew how to play the guitar.

“My songs all sound different,” House said. “I’m a white guy with an acoustic guitar, a singer-songwriter; but I try to make my stuff sound different. I’m kind of all over the map. My biggest influences are the band The Clash, Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley, Jackson Brown, and Tom Petty; so I’m a blend of all that stuff maybe.”

House was so skilled a golfer that he earned a scholarship to Ohio University, but to the surprise of his family and friends, he turned his back on the sport. Having just bought a guitar from an acquaintance for $100, he left to take up music at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

“I was really burnt out on playing golf, so [the decision] was really easy,” House said. “I didn’t really choose music over golf, I just kind of chose not to play golf anymore. Music kind of came later. I couldn’t even play guitar when I chose not to play golf, so I just didn’t want to do that. I decided to go to Miami instead of going with a scholarship to OU.”

Griffin House had to overcome some difficulty in learning to play guitar, all while remaining dedicated to become a songwriter.

“[Learning to play guitar] was hard,” House said. “It was hard to get over that initial hump of learning how to change chords, play bar chords, and a G-chord, (that was a hard one). After I practiced enough and got going, it became easier. It took a lot of time to get over that one initial hump, and then after that it was a little easier.”

One of House’s first independent releases, “Upland” was picked up by CBS Sunday Morning journalist Bill Flanagan. House was invited on the show as Flanagan raved about the album, exuding praises like “I was knocked out.”

House’s latest album, “Balls” came out last year. 

“[Balls] is kind of like all my records,” House said. “There’s a song called ‘Fenway’ that I wrote in Fenway Park, and the Red Sox won the World Series after that. I don’t know what happened there, but I thought that was kind of interesting. There’s a song called ‘Go Through It’ which is probably my favorite song on the record, and the song called ‘Real Love Can’t Pretend’ is played on Sirius XM Coffee House a lot.” 

“Balls” was released independently through online crowd-funding platform, Kickstarter, a website that allows fans to directly fund and give input on projects. 

“We did the record through Kickstarter,” House said. “My fans helped me fund the record. I recorded it in Nashville, Tennessee with a guy from England. We did the record there just the two of us. We did the overdubbing, most of the record was me laying the songs down on my acoustic guitar, and then us putting stuff on top of it.”

Making a return to Ames after three years, Griffin House welcomes any new listeners to a show that should be simple and involving.

“It’ll just be me, and the speakers, and some guitars telling some stories, and playing my songs in a stripped down manner,” House said.

You can give Griffin House as well as opener Max Jury a listen at 9 p.m. (doors open at 8:30 p.m.) this Saturday, March 8^th in Maintenance Shop. Tickets are available at the M-Shop box office or midwestix.com at $12 for students, and $18 for the public, with a $2 increase the day of the show.