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!

Jan
7
Sat
Sam Pinkerton: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Jan 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Sam Pinkerton: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
 
Portland-based singer/songwriter Sam Pinkerton, from Venice Beach, Florida, began her career as an artist in 2012, after moving to Nashville, TN to study Songwriting at Belmont University, and releasing her first record titled An Introduction. In 2016, she moved to Portland, OR, and formed and fronted the blue-eye r&b band, Prolly Knot, touring on one EP and multiple singles. Over the past few years, Sam has worked on writing for other artists, releasing new music, and forming a songwriting group in Portland, where she organizes and hosts writers’ rounds, workshops, and events. She’s put out four songs this year and is currently working on an album.
Jan
14
Sat
Jonah Sissoyev and Anna Hoone: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Jan 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Jonah Sissoyev and Anna Hoone: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Anna Hoone and Jonah Sissoyev are both Portland-based songwriters who recently tied the knot.
 
Anna’s upcoming release “You’re the Only One Here,” was written during a period of chronic illness. The songs capture the tenderness, loneliness, and vulnerability of that time.
 
After taking a 2 year break, Jonah Sissoyev is releasing his fifth studio album, “Me, Myself, God.” This album is a collection of contemplative songs recorded in a historic lodge in the Waloowa mountains of eastern Oregon.
Jan
21
Sat
This is Me: Mixed Media Collaging about Identity with Angie Ebba @ Sou'wester Lodge
Jan 21 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

In this workshop we’ll explore the idea of personal identity through mixed media. Learn how to do packing tape image transfers, create your own collage papers, and then make a grungy mixed media piece of artwork.

Angie Ebba is a queer disabled writer, artist, educator, activist, and performer. She is a published poet and essayist, who teaches and performs across the US. She believes strongly in the power of words and art to help better understand ourselves, build connections and community, and make personal and social change. 

Register

Andrew Victor: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Jan 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Andrew Victor: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Throughout his career Andrew Victor has shared bills in the U.S. and Europe with Sharon Van Etten, Alela Diane, Marissa Nadler, Tomo Nakayama, and Damien Jurado. He has been a core part of local scenes in Brooklyn, Seattle, Joshua Tree, and Rhode Island. His new studio album Recovery arrives 11/4/22. 

Jan
28
Sat
Not-Knowing: Experiments in Writing with Quinn Gancedo and Katie Savastano @ Sou'wester Lodge
Jan 28 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

 

 

 

 

 

 


We often think of the poem, essay, or story as a device that delivers great knowledge, wisdom, or emotional insight, and the writer as an expert craftsman, who, with great skill and complete intention, willfully inscribes those messages onto the page. In contrast, the late (great) author Donald Barthelme defines the writer as “one who, embarking on a task, does not know what to do”.  This workshop takes Barthelme’s definition as its starting point, and is designed to give students hands-on experience in writing without any predetermined outcome in mind–in writing with an eye towards uncertainty, chance, experiment, play, and discovery.  This will be a playful, exercise based workshop and seasoned writers as well as students with little to no experience are equally welcome to participate.

Quinn Gancedo is a writer and educator based in Portland, Oregon.  He is the author of The Nouns (The Cupboard Pamphlet, 2022) and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fence, Diagram, Tammy, New Delta Review, and elsewhere.  He has taught creative writing, literature, and DIY bookmaking at the California Institute of the Arts and in various community and youth education settings.  He is a co-founder of Elbow Room, a non-profit arts organization focused on providing material support, mentorship, representation, and space to work, collaborate, and experiment for artists experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities in Portland.  

Katie Savastano is an artist, educator, and designer out of Portland, Oregon.  From 2011 to 2015 she booked and promoted countless DIY shows in Portland and Eugene under the moniker Small Howl.  Since then she has done design work making merch, album art, and promotional materials for Rock and Roll Camp for Girls, Mississippi Studios, Revolution Hall, Antiquated Future, Black Belt Eagle Scout, and others.  In 2020, she co-founded Elbow Room, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing material resources, mentorship, representation, and space to work, collaborate, and experiment for artists experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities in Portland.

Register

Zoe Winter: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Jan 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Zoe Winter: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

After years of playing alongside bands like The California Honeydrops, Rainbow Girls and Handmade Moments, Zoe Winter is recording her first full length studio album.

 
A bay-area local who’s been compared to Laura Marling and called the Joni Mitchell of Sonoma County, Zoe discovered her perfect pitch and ability to play music by ear at the age of 7. Her career began playing keys in the graffitied classrooms of SF’s School of Rock and performing as a vocalist in her father’s band. As her influences shifted from rock and roll and R&B to jazz pianists like Bill Evans and Robert Glasper and vocalists like Eryka Badu and Thom Yorke, she moved to acoustic guitar and removed all unnecessary sounds. “To stand on a stage alone and sing clearly through a microphone with no effects, playing a guitar with no effects, is the most punk rock thing to me.”
 
Then her relationship with a folk singer abruptly ended.  
 
“I had to drive from New Mexico back home to Sonoma County and that 3 day drive was the most excruciating but empowering time of my life. One day I just pulled over, walked out into the side of the desert, and laid down. I went back to grab my guitar and that was when I started writing my own songs.”
 
Attending a Zoe Winter concert feels a bit like lying down beside her in the desert after that breakup. Whether she’s alone on a dark stage with her guitar or singing with a full band, her voice gives you an excuse to crack open and confront whatever it is you’ve been running from. That said, she likes adding comic relief between songs so you have plenty of laughter to go with your tears.  
 
Unlike her stripped-back solo EP, New Mexico, her upcoming album will act like a Best-of-the-Bay featuring the many musicians she’s played with over the years. “One of my favorite parts about music is having all your best friends be your biggest inspirations.”
 
You can catch her playing at Lost Church, Freight and Salvage, the Oregon Country Fair, Bodega Day, Lucidity Festival, and on the side your local highway.
Feb
4
Sat
Arran Fagan: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Feb 4 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Arran Fagan: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Praised for his introspective lyrics and vivid storytelling, Portland-based folk artist Arran Fagan has garnered a following in his native Oregon with his uncanny ability to weave the personal and universal. After getting his start in the grassroots music scene of Southern Oregon, Arran has spent the greater part of his life pursuing music, creating wistful and evocative songs that explore themes that connect us all—loss, addiction, change, and the endless passage of time.

With heartfelt lyrics and rich instrumentation that has garnered comparisons to Josh Ritter and Nathaniel Rateliff, Arran has spent years in the NW folk music scene, getting his start playing coffee shops and house shows for college classmates and eventually going on to open for Northwest favorites like Leif Vollebekk, HorseFeathers, Kris Orlowski, Matthew Fowler, and Jeffrey Martin.

In 2015, Arran recruited fellow University of Portland students Jack Pfeffer and Jonathan Wiley, and the three worked to perfect a sparse, melodic sound influenced by their individual backgrounds. Arran’s 2018 album “Weight of Time” debuted to a sold-out release show and was followed by a West Coast tour. Praised by outlets like half&half and Elsewhere for its powerful stories, cathartic songwriting, and ability to “[weave] concrete images and abstract feelings,” “Weight of Time” saw Arran establish himself as a surefooted and exciting fixture in the Portland folk scene.

After releasing an EP titled “Warmth / Death,” Arran took a year-long hiatus while pursuing a Fulbright Grant working as a secondary English teacher in Sarawak, Malaysia. During the pandemic, Arran began recording a new record, “There is More Light,” which was released on November 4th, 2022. 
Feb
11
Sat
Sama Dams: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Feb 11 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Sama Dams: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Few bands command the unexpectedly fine line that divides tension and release like Sama Dams does. And it’s no wonder: songwriters Sam and Lisa Adams have been playing music together for over a decade – as long as they have been married – developing a creative forthrightness that sometimes feels voyeuristic. Taking cues from jazz, R&B, new wave, indie-rock, and classical art song, the alt-rock trio weaves a sensuous musical fabric that is distinctly theirs.

 

Much like the Dirty Projectors or Thom Yorke, Sama Dams’s high art sensibilities are wrapped around a subversive knotty core of uncompromised radicalism – like if Leonard Bernstein was signed to K Records. In that way, the DIY ethos of the Pacific Northwest has shaped much of the band’s path forward since graduating music school in 2008 and relocating to Portland in 2012.

 

Sama Dams’s fourth and most recent full-length album, ‘Say It’, surprises you with its gritty yet precise instrumentation, striking a keen balance between reserve and power, from wiley “Neil-Young-riding-a-rocket-sled” electric guitar riffs and mutant waves of organ to distorted ukulele and cut-up-on-the-spot breakbeats. The Portland Mercury said “‘Say It’ is an endlessly fascinating sonic concoction, and a confident step forward for Sama Dams.” What should be a series of stylistic contradictions results in each song firmly standing its ground as an interwoven compositional masterpiece, bending and twisting with eclectic abandon.

 

The band’s sprawling sonic footprint is held together by their dynamic vocal power – an alternate-reality vocal pairing of Kate Bush and Jeff Buckley. Sam and Lisa’s combined proficiencies and unique approaches to songwriting merge with the brilliant percussive work of drummer Micah Hummel, creating a matchless sound in live settings as well as in the studio.

 

Sama Dams can regularly be found gracing stages, music festivals, and living rooms across the United States and Central Europe, their music finding a place in the hearts of both music enthusiasts and general audiences alike with their intelligent arrangements, catchy melodies, and playful musicality.

 

The band’s support of their latest release Not Gonna Lie EP in February of 2020 was interrupted But they are happy to be back on stage, and preparing to record a full length record.

 

Feb
14
Tue
Austin Leonard Jones: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Feb 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Feb
18
Sat
Faith & Majesty: Presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Feb 18 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Faith & Majesty: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Faith & Majesty are an indie folk/alt sister duo/band from Gainesville, Florida. Their contemplative writing melded with hard-hitting harmonies make their music feel like a heartbreaking lullaby. Having started making music together in 2016, the duo are excited to release their first EP in 2023 following their string of single releases.