They're back. And this time the trio of singer/songwriters individually known as Mark Paffrath, Jeff Ward and Zachary Scot Johnson will present an all-new show at the Racine Theatre Guild, 2519 Northwestern Ave., on Saturday night, May 2.

It was about two years ago that Paffrath, Ward and Johnson did their first collaborative show and the success of that evening inspired them to continue working together. All three had so much fun sharing their music with each other, as well as the audience, that they decided to do it again and again.

"Originally, we went into it not planning to do more than one," said Ward, who has been performing his Celtic-based music in this area since the early 1980s.

"Then, we almost sold out the first show and people kept asking us when we were going to do it again," said Paffrath, a fixture of Racine's pop/folk/rock music scene for more than 25 years.

Their second go-round was a yuletide-themed concert that took place the following December (2007). It featured a variety of holiday tunes, as well as a few favorites from their previous show.

On Saturday, however, the audience won't hear anything that was performed at either of the trio's previous outings.

"We decided that if we were going to do it again, we should do a completely different show," Paffrath said.

Brand spanking new

Included in their agreement was a challenge that the singer/songwriters put out to each other to come up with at least two newly written songs for this year's performance. All have met that goal and are excited to be able to share their latest work with fans here this weekend.

"Some of these songs are so new they haven't even been recorded in any form yet," said Johnson, who was the original instigator of the trio's collaboration.

Saturday night will also offer locals a rare opportunity (in recent months) to hear Johnson perform live. The Racine native moved to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in August, after having worked and played here following his graduation from Appleton's Lawrence University in 2006. An actor, as well as musician, Johnson took a job with a theater in the Twin Cities last year and relocated with hopes of finding more opportunities to play his music in a bigger city atmosphere, he said.

"It was going to be either here (Minneapolis) or Austin, Texas and Minneapolis seemed to make more sense for me," he said in a recent phone interview.

Johnson's new locale made it more difficult for the trio to carve out rehearsal time for this year's show. But all three felt it would be worth the extra effort to be able to offer the collaboration again.

"There's a lot of work that goes into putting on a show like this," said Paffrath. "But when we were thinking about the time commitment involved, we also considered how much fun we had doing the previous two shows."

"We decided we were not ready to leave it behind," said Johnson. "This is actually my favorite gig of the entire year."

Surround soundOne of the reasons these three musicians enjoy their time together on stage so much is the special chemistry they share, not only with the audience, but with each other. Their performances feature a round-robin style format in which each takes turns doing some of their own songs, with the others sometimes joining in. In doing so, they have found that while each of their musical styles is very different, they blend well together as performers and

as friends.

"We discovered when we got together that we all share the same astrological sign - Cancer," Ward said. "There has never been a conflict or an angry word between us. And we feel very comfortable challenging each other and suggesting new ways to do arrange-ments."

The result is an interesting mix of musical material and styles, accompanied by the humor that such camaraderie can bring.

"You never know how this kind of thing is going to work until you try it," said Paffrath.

"It has been a really neat fit," said Ward.

The Theatre Guild venue, with its intimate atmosphere and great acoustics, also adds to the success of the evening, Paffrath said.

"The wrap-around seating is so conducive to what we do," Ward said. "We try to involve the audience in what we do and the theater really fits with our round robin concept."

If You Go

WHAT: Third Singer/Songwriter Evening

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2

WHERE: Racine Theatre Guild, 2519 Northwestern Ave. Smoke-free and wheelchair-accessible.

COST: All tickets are $10. Seating is reserved.

INFO: For tickets call (262) 633-4218. For more about each of the artists go to :

http://www.markpaffrath.com

http://www.jeff-ward.net

http://www.zacharyscotjohnson.com