Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Range Da Messenga participates in an open-mike night earlier this month at 202 Market in Roanoke. He opted not to move to California.

Range Da Messenga prepares for open-mike night at 202 Market earlier this month. The singer, whose real name is Wayne Hancock, said he plans to give vocal lessons and pursue opportunities in Roanoke.

It is the feeling some say they get, hanging around town too long.

The "Roanoke rut," some say, when a stale routine sets in. Others just call it "living life."

Either way, Range Da Messenga -- singer, single father and dread-locked philosopher, whose real name is Wayne Hancock -- was itching to leave.

He had been in Roanoke almost all his life. As summer ended, he was pricing plane tickets for the West Coast. He wanted to perform for bigger crowds on higher stages.

"I don't think I'm better than Roanoke," Range, 32, said this July. "It's hard to grow unless you leave."

But he never left. There was an off-key phone call with his girlfriend, he said, the one he was moving to San Diego to live with. California began to look like "tumultuous waters." Range scratched California from his plans.

Now old friends come up to him on the street or at the supermarket: When are you leaving? Did you go and come back?

"Nah, I'm still here, man," he said in December. "I'm trying to make it work here."

But you have to keep moving to keep out of the rut, Range said.

So his plans include getting a business license in the new year so he can give singing lessons. He is chasing recording opportunities and better gigs for his band, Duality. He still works part time at the after-school program at Hurt Park Elementary.

And for now, he has put a collection of songs about his departure -- working title "VA to CA" -- on hold.

On a recent Sunday night, Range and the band gathered at a bar downtown, 202 Market, for some publicity photos before an open mike. The lights dimmed and Range took the stage.

"Welcome to the open mike," he sang. Two more band members joined in for a rolling R&B chorus. "Welcome to the open mike."

He is a natural talent, said Angel Dudley, who has sung with Range for seven years. He can rhyme off the cuff, and he has a sharp ear for arranging a harmony -- the skill that led to the "Range" handle. But you have to be ready for the big city, she said.

"To go on the other side of the United States?" Dudley asked, talking of Range's plans this summer. "I didn't think it was going to happen. But he's going somewhere."

Just as Dudley has made her own plans to leave Roanoke, she said, to sing in Italy perhaps.