SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
See what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
Eelgrass is an important coastal seagrass that helps store carbon, reduce erosion, and provide shelter and spawning areas for a host of marine wildlife in bays and estuaries across the globe, including right here in the pacific northwest.
Eelgrass is also the name of a longtime musical collaboration between Lara Pacheco and Dan Swenson, along with new friends Bobby Hayden and Todd Summers. They play folky-tonk with psychedelic vibes and call Portland, Oregon home.
https://soundcloud.com/eelgrass
Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. Her deeply original work applies elements of minimalism, electronic music, drone and 20th century classical music to compositions based on blues, jazz and gospel and country music, re-imagining the landscape of American music. Onstage, she is a master storyteller, bringing warmth, wit and insight to her virtuosic compositions and arrangements.
In 2017 Mississippi Records is re-issuing Anderson’s 2013 record, ‘Traditional and Public Domain Songs’. Anderson spent a year researching hymns, blues, murder ballads and American patriotic songs. The resulting record is an exploration of the relationship between evangelical Christianity and state sanctioned violence. Her next record, ‘Cloud Corner’ will be released June 15 on Thrill Jockey Records.
Originally from Northern California, Anderson dropped out of college at age nineteen to walk across the US and eventually landed in Portland, Oregon, where she currently lives. Classically trained, she honed her skills playing in country, jazz and circus bands. In 2011 she released her first solo guitar record, ‘The Golden Hour’ followed by ‘Mercury’ (2013) and ‘Into The Light’ (2016). She is in demand as a collaborator and composer, contributing to recent recordings by Beth Ditto, Sharon Van Etten and Circuit Des Yeux among others, as well as creating music for short films and soundtracks.
Anderson tours extensively throughout Europe and North America. Her work has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone, NPR, SPIN, Pitchfork and The Wire. Billboard magazine named ‘Into the Light’ one of the best records of 2016 and Pitchfork named Anderson’s 2015 split LP with Tashi Dorji one of the top experimental records of the year. Recent festival appearances include Le Guess Who, Moog Fest, Copenhagen Jazz Festival and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
www.marisaandersonmusic.com
There is always a hint of menace and reservoirs of force haunting the corners of Eliza Rickman’s voice, whatever register it occupies. Her presence on stage: whether she wears flowers in her hair, or stuffed birds; whether she plays a toy piano or a grand piano; is an enveloping, soft darkness, impossible to ignore.
It has been three years between Rickman’s first album, O, You Sinners, and her newest effort, Footnotes for the Spring. In those intervening three years, Rickman added the autoharp to her repertoire, fought illness and heartbreak (and won), and turned 30. But mostly, she toured. She is a frequent featured musical act for the live rendition of the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale, a regular opening act for cello rock band Rasputina, and has organized her own successful solo tours in the U.S. and abroad.
Rickman’s voice has the power to hold the smallest grain of sadness, an intimation that the longed-for innocence depicted in her lyrics has slipped just below the glow of the orchestra and out of sight.
www.elizarickman.com
Photo by Stevie Mada
Come celebrate Zia’s 43 Jamboree with Brush Prairie, Lindsie Feathers and special guests Rachael Rice and Thomas Mudrick on Friday, June 1st from 8pm-10pm. There will be a mixture of country, blues, and songwriters in the round. Gonna be a good’n! This event is Free, All ages, and Open to the Public!
Brush Prairie : https://m.facebook.com/brush
Lindsie Feathers:
This show is a benefit for Sou’Wester Arts, a non-profit 501c3 organization that helps fund our art, music and wellness programming. Our mission is to be of service to the artist community at large by providing a space for folks to create, connect, restore and renew in order to experience transformation within themselves and their work.
Brooklyn based songwriter Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has been creating incorruptible independent pop music since the late 1990’s. She has released over a dozen solo and collaborative recordings on K Records, Kill Rock Stars and various domestic and foreign independent labels.
She has performed with The Oregon Symphony, Contemporaneous Orchestra and The Portland Cello Project and has toured solo and with countless iterations of her own band in concert halls, music clubs and punk basements all across North America, Japan and Europe.
Mirah has always sought the creative company of unique collaborators, from multi-media artists and orchestral composers to dj’s, Baltic music enthusiasts, and entomologists. A partial list of some of her collaborators includes Phil Elverum (The Microphones/Mount Eerie), Susie Ibarra, Jherek Bischoff, Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs), Thao Nguyen, Tara Jane O’Neil, Lori Goldston, Britta Johnson and Ginger Brooks Takahashi.
Mirah lived in the Pacific Northwest for 16 very formative years throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s and she LOVES coming back to visit.
www.mirahmusic.com
BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT plus Floating Room & Gillian Frances
MOTHER OF MY CHILDREN
“Having this identity—radical indigenous queer feminist—keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman.”
Katherine Paul is Black Belt Eagle Scout, and after releasing an EP in 2014 Paul has wrapped up the band’s first full-length. Recorded in the middle of winter near her hometown in Northwest Washington, the landscape’s eerie beauty and Paul’s
connection to it are palpable on Mother of My Children. Stemming from this place, the album traces the full spectrum of confronting buried feelings and the loss of what life was supposed to look like.
Growing up on a small Indian reservation, Paul’s family was focused on native drumming, singing, and arts. “Native American music is the foundation for all of my music,” Paul explains. With the support of her family and a handful of bootleg Hole and Nirvana VHS tapes, Paul taught herself how to play guitar. In 2007, Paul moved to Portland, OR, to attend school and get involved with the Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for
Girls. Paul has switched between guitar and drums in an assortment of projects over the last decade, citing Forest Park as a particularly strong influence on how her songwriting has grown. “It was my introduction to post-rock,” Paul recalls, “From
there, I was able to develop my own sound and style more.”
On Mother of My Children, Black Belt Eagle Scout tenderly blends post-rock with Paul’s earlier grunge influences and later, more confessional Pacific Northwest artists like Ô Paon and Mirah. The album begins with the singles “Soft Stud” and
“Indians Never Die”, and on the latter, Paul’s message is clear: “It’s a call out to colonizers and those who don’t respect the Earth; they don’t care about the water, they don’t care about how they are destroying what is around them. Indigenous
people are the protectors of this land, and others need to wake up and get on the same page.” The songs weave together to capture both the enduring and fleeting experiences of loss, frustration, and dreaming. The structures are traditional, but the
lyrics don’t adhere to any format other than what feels right in the moment. “I don’t play music to write songs,” Paul explains, “I play music to process feelings, and sometimes what comes out of that is a song.” Paired with Paul’s clear and measured
voice, each song leaves the listener feeling as if they were there when the song was written, the immediate, candid emotion tangible. Mother of My Children is a life chapter gently preserved, and the access listeners have to such vulnerability feels special and generous. We are left wanting more, and
all signs point to Black Belt Eagle Scout just getting started. The album is out on Good Cheer Records in August 2017.
—Alex Hebler
https://blackbelteaglescout.bandcamp.co
Lindsay Clark finds balance between traditional folk, english folk, country, and her own version of experimental folk that seems to emanate from the depths of her soul. Exquisite and pitch perfect, her music speaks of quiet revelation, with a background of her own multi-tracked vocal arrangements. With influences ranging from the Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Elizabeth Cotton, appalachian folk, her classical upbringing, and her father’s record collection, she blends many worlds into a uniquely warm sound with lyrics indicative of a deep and thoughtful soul. She has carved out a unique and vibrant place as an artist with a penchant for rich harmony and a style of self-taught fingerpicking influenced by Nick Drake, John Fahey, and others.
Originally from the small gold rush town of Nevada City, CA, she now resides in Portland, OR. Her sound has been described as “folk with angelic vocals washing over smooth edges” (1859 Magazine). She has shared the stage with musicians such as Casey Dienel (White Hinterland), Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), Ryan Francesconi (Joanna Newsom), Laura Gibson, Alela Diane, and The Lumineers. Her most recent record “Begin” was self-released in 2014; her forthcoming full length record “Crystalline” was engineered and co-produced this year with San Francisco’s Jeremy Harris (guitar/vocals – Vetiver), with plans to be released in September 2018 via Oscarson.
photo by Myles Katherine
LDYCP is a six piece melodic rock/avant chamber pop project, highlighted by “angelic-yet-angular” three part vocal arrangements. Referenced as sirens of the sea on more than one occasion, LDYCP propels through melodized inner dialogues and external discoveries like a cosmic river of sound, holding a construed sense of where the ideas begin and end and begin again.
Based in Bloomington IN, as well as Portland OR.
“Stunningly angelic yet angular triple vocal arrangements dominate this chamber folk / post-rock hybrid. But piano sneaks in as a surprisingly weighty rhythmic friend to avant-garde guitar textures. This is a young band in their most protean and creative time- and we are stoked about it!” -Marmoset Music
“Sherman’s vocals float over a stunning bed of instrumentation that brings the piece to life. Her haunting lyricism echoes throughout as it swirls around the keys that are gently, but prominently placed.” – Paste Magazine
“Ethereal vocals, replete with reverb to make you feel like you’re floating on a cloud amidst the direct – and welcome – contrast of heavy electric guitar. It’s upbeat, and there are certain aspects that really drive home for several different genres.” – Impose Magazine
West Valley Shakers’ broad appeal lies in the refreshing, relatable, and exquisitely crafted songs that touch the vulnerable truth in each of us, and yet somehow, don’t take themselves too seriously.Combining the animalistic passion of Jimi Hendrix, the simplistic purity of The White Stripes, and the truth and timelessness of the old folk singers, West Valley Shakers create a live show that gets folks up and dancing. While catchy melodic and musical hooks combined with Delta blues-style repetition and the occasional blistering guitar work surprises and delights fans from all backgrounds.
Guitarist/songwriter, Brent McLain met drummer/
West Valley Shakers are currently recording their new full length album in their home studio (nicknamed Electric Babyland). They will be hitting the road promoting their album all over the Northwest in the Spring and Summer of 2018 in festivals and venues and homes near you!
Dreamspook’s colorful and groovy first album ‘King In The Folly Keep’ was released then quickly lost beneath a sea of failed expectations and existential grief in the summer of 2017. So, tired of attempting to ‘make it’, the goal now is to subvert the expectations of himself and of the industry that is. Reinvigorated by the ever unfolding mystery of creation, and intending to mirror it, the project will continue on, concerning itself with exploration and beauty. ‘There’s only to become’, he sings in a song that may never be released, and what would it matter? If one person hears and finds themselves in the wonder of becoming, fractal reasoning would have us believe that real growth and change spirals out from the tiniest things.