SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

News from Martha:

“Hey Folks!
The last week of February, I will be doing a writing residency at the Sou’wester Lodge in Seaview, WA. It’s an amazing place and they gave me the opportunity to organize an event my last night there.

Kela Parker will be playing and Lizzy Acker, Hajara Quinn and Martha Grover will be reading.
Also performing: The Morals!
(Casey Jarman and Ben Hubbird)

If you haven’t been to the Sou’wester, you should really come! It’s a one of a kind experience. If you mention the show when you call to make a reservation, you get a twenty percent discount!”

“Adam Boehmer croons with heart-swollen vigor…”

–Jonathan Zwickel, CityArts Magazine

photo by Rachael Conley

Tenderfoot is the art folk project of singer-songwriter Adam Boehmer. With an unabashedly romantic, lyrics-driven approach to songwriting, Adam excavates past relationships, growing up queer in the South, and living in the constant tension between city life and a natural spiritualism. Surrounding these themes with the lush dynamics of a full band, Tenderfoot becomes a potent emotional landscape.

Shelley Short, a frequent and always visiting artist, returns to the Sou’wester.

Paste Magazine describes her “pairing minimal instrumentation with Short’s soft, sweet voice, and hinting at an atmosphere both delicate and haunting. She ‘sounds more at home wafting through barn rafters than through iPod earbuds. An appreciation for the old-fashioned, according to Short, was simply the way of life for her family. -Paste Magazine – Gary Chapman 11/09

A native of Portland, Oregon, songwriter and singer Shelley Short grew up among characters and artists in a wood-heated home full of books, records, and well-cooked meals. As Short recounts: “It was like growing up in a time machine; in some ways we lived like in 1876, chopping wood, growing our own food, wearing old clothes in a Victorian home and singing our own songs. Other times it seemed like we were living in 1955, driving around Cadillacs and Studebakers and listening to Jonny Ray and The Flamingos. And yet it all felt like growing up in a blurring movie made in 1963, full of these big personalities. As a kid I grew up so accustomed to falling asleep to the sound of talk and laughter that when I moved out, the silence got to me.”

Danielle Hunt will be opening for Shelley. He currently plays with Ages and Ages and has played with Neko Case

The songs immerse the singers as their voices entwine with one another and then expand. Sparse arrangements create an open bed for two, three, and four part vocal harmony, while instrumentation that ranges from a guitar to an upright piano to a Theremin and a marching drum, allow Alialujah Choir to sing their stories in ethereal allure.

Alialujah Choir came about when three well-known members of Portland, Oregon’s notable music scene took time away from the comforts and constraints of their primary bands (Weinland, Norfolk & Western, M.Ward) to focus on the natural beauty they found when singing songs from their more personal artistic quivers.

        Photo © Tarina Westlund Photography

With the enlistment of a few local luminaries from Blind Pilot, Hook & Anchor and Neko Case’s band, Alialujah Choir now boasts an extended lineup that reflects the majestic sounds of the new album while preserving the intimate sensibilities the band was founded upon.

Special Hot Off The Press Note: Alialujah Choir members Adam and Alia joined M. Ward on stage and screen of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Feb 2nd 2016!

Briana Marela, is from Seattle and Olympia, and her music is kind of dreamy and ambient pop. Lilac is from Seattle and her music is a bit more beat driven but still ethereal and beautiful.

Briana’s lyrics are forceful, and throughout her second album, ‘All Around Us’, traditional song structure gives way to plainspoken declarations that pull back the record’s shroud. Her first single,”Surrender” is musically delicate at first, with flickering blips and chords that float into earshot like fireflies. “Take Care of Me” is the album’s brightest and most immediate song, a buoyant celebration of friendship with a skittering beat and a warm, sweet melody. And title track “All Around Us” is a stark but inspiring beauty, built on the memory of a family member of Briana’s who passed away, and the sadness of not being able to say “goodbye” or “I love you” one last time. It is the balance of the abstract and the intimate that makes Briana Marela and ‘All Around Us’ so special.

Lilac aka Madeline Franks is a dreamy electronic solo musician who currently resides in Seattle, WA. Born in the Midwest, she grew up playing piano and singing before adding electronic instruments as a young adult. Her first solo EP Dream Journal was released in early 2015 and she is currently working on a second album.

Three For Silver represents a curious hybrid of acoustic music.  The twin melodies of Willo Sertain’s vocals and Greg Allison’s violin glide atop of chugging polyrhythms of Lucas Warford’s homemade bass instruments and the idiosyncratic style in which they are played.

Described by Baby Gramps as “The acid baby of Tom Waits ad Vicgtor Wooten”. Three For Silver combines a gritty aesthetic, world folk traditions, and virtuosic technique with a modern songwriting sense.