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!
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.
Join us in welcoming this interdisciplinary night at the Sou’wester! Spoken Word with Author Matt Love and then the alt-country/phychedelic sounds of Portland band Drugstore Cowboy!
Drugstore Cowboy “Melancholy and saddness on a dirt road, when you refuse to look back, when you realize you’re nothing in the scheme of things, haunted and lonely, small, left with the resonance that you have screwed it all up again. She isn’t waiting anymore, she yells at you “Go ahead follow another dead country singer, Waylon or Hank will have to hold your hand.” No warmth left on that broken tour bus, only brittle bones bleached in the high western sun. You get high and forget how lonesome you feel, go ahead, take another pull from the bottle, psychedelic countryboy dreams…” L.K.L. 09
Matt Love “I will present from my latest project, a spoken word CD/download called ORegon Tavern Age. The guitar player in the band is the producer and we’ll actually be recording some of these tracks live in the lodge.”
Monika will be starting these shows off with a 30-45 minute female-lead music experience, followed by seasoned musician, and all around-charmer Misè.
A little about Misè
Original music in the psych rock/folk vain. This project, lead by Cooper Trail, just released sophomore album “Arts & Crafts” and is already in the midst of working on the next album.
“Mature, worldly folk…brimming with wise and soft-spoken lyrics.” Portals Blog
“…has a shoegaze vibe to it, but also holds a 90s grittiness. Halfway through, you may be tricked into thinking you’re listening to a Nico track.” Urban Outfitters Blog
A little about Monika
Monika is an asymmetrical experimental pop band that uses guitar-heavy, lo-fi tones to father fractured, dreamlike compositions. Monika is made up of two regular members, Caitlyn Faircloth and Kai Dakers, sometimes accompanied by Cooper Trail and Nevada Sowle.
“Kingsbery’s guitar and Sherman’s piano roll languidly along like a tumbleweed passing through town as the pair takes turns singing lead and duetting. Their voices shine on their own, but together there’s added soul to the rich tales they tell.” -Seattle Weekly
“Evening Bell is Ballard honky-tonker Davidson Hart Kingsbery’s twangy new venture with pianist Caitlin Sherman. Together with drummer Jason Merculief, the group perform classic country duets that sound something like Tammy and George dubbed over the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone spaghetti western.”
– AMERICAN STANDARD TIME
Evening Bell’s dark and haunting songs have all of the passion and tragedy of a broken howl under the high desert moonrise. Part western psychedelia, part northwest rock ‘n roll, Evening Bell is the new collaboration between Ballard-songwriters Hart Kingsbery (Davidson Hart Kingsbery) and Caitlin Sherman (Slow Skate). The duo quickly became a full band with Jason Merculief (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Sera Cahoone, J. Tillman) on drums, followed shortly by Aaron Harmonson on bass, and newest addition Olie Eshleman (Corespondents) on pedal steel. They have recently shared the stage with established roots acts such as Ha Ha Tonka, La Luz, Barna Howard, Banditos, Howe Gelb, Jessica Lea Mayfield, The Moondoggies and Alela Dianne.
This Round Robin Showcases:
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Ike Fonseca has been engulfed in the Pacific Northwest music scene for almost 2 decades. With his own brand of americana mixed with folk and rock Ike has been described as “good time’n whiskey drinking music for all ages”. An upcoming 5 state tour is scheduled starting in April in support of the new album. The self titled record will be featured on vinyl with digital download.
“[SHOEGAZIN’ COUNTRY] The term “shoegazer country” is hardly the first thing that comes to mind when talking niche music genres, but it remains an apt description of the warped soundscapes and distorted tremblings underlying Hearts of Oaks’ latest LP, New England. Though much of the record teems with the countrified familiarity introduced in quaint opener “Used to It Now”—from the gentle fingerpicking and delectable pedal steel to frontman Nate Wallace’s Dylan-like delivery and apparent relationship struggles—later tracks bludgeon you with heavier elements.” – Brandon Widder-Willamette Week
The band Denver: Paste praised their 2012 self-titled debut’s “perfect tunes,” while KEXP hosted a live session and proclaimed, “sweet harmonies and tight arrangements abound.” Statements like these become all the more relevant with their upcoming release, Rowdy Love, as Denver teamed up with Earley and Adam Selzer (M. Ward, Norfolk & Western) for their first trip to a proper studio. Recorded live in just two days at Selzer’s Type Foundry Studio, Rowdy Love certainly showcases all the endless chops at Denver’s disposal.