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!
Come celebrate with us! Creativity! Community! Solstice! The ‘Eternal Return’ of the Sun!
Green Hills Alone is the songwriting vehicle for Portland-homed, Northern California-born Chris Miller. Five years ago, Miller released a “Self-Titled” LP that explored metaphysical themes of death and transformation. This year Miller released a followup album called ‘Eternal Return.’ Miller is joined by Mark Robertson, Weezy Ford and Joseph Anderson.
Read all about the new album and hear the songs in this Vortex Magazine “Artist to Watch” Feature:
https://www.vrtxmag.com/articles/artist-to-watch-the-truth-seeking-mantra-of-green-hills-alone/
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!!
Portland-based folk rock band, The Builders and the Butchers, announce their forthcoming album, The Spark, due out May 19th. The band’s fifth LP will be released on Badman Recordings Co, which will be their third release with the label.
Their last album was hailed by Consequence of Sound, who said, “The Builders and the Butchers make records the way the bards used to pass on stories. They’re poetic and captivating, and do to songwriting what Clint Eastwood does to movies,” and this new record follows the same, narrative-driven path.
With glowing album and show reviews coming from Pitchfork and The Wall Street Journal, among others, their brand of folk-rock is best served live. Audiences can look forward to lively performances, where fourth wall is broken and the audience is able to participate in call and response sing-a-longs. Sometimes the band will hand out instruments for fans to play, and they’ll even get down off stage to perform right on the floor.
The Builders and The Butchers formed in 2005. Ryan Sollee fronts the band, sings and plays guitar, joined by Willy Kunkle (bass, guitar, vocals, percussion), Justin Baeir (drums, backup vocals, percussion) and Harvey Tumbleson (mandolin, banjo, guitar, vocals, percussion). The Portland-based band gained a strong following after years of playing anywhere and everywhere across the city. They quickly grew to become one of the most exciting live bands in Portland and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The band toured throughout the US and Europe from 2007-2012, playing music festivals, such as Sasquatch and Lollapalooza, and acting as support for Portugal. The Man, Heartless Bastards, Amanda Palmer and Murder By Death. To support their forthcoming release, The Spark, the band will be playing their first US and European tour in multiple years.
This new album features a wider array of sounds and shorter, hard hitting songs, while remaining a Builders’ record at heart. The process of creating The Spark was the longest of any Builders’ record to date. They spent the last five years writing the music and a year mixing. With several band members living out of state (Justin in Colorado, Willy in Malta, Harvey in Washington and Ryan and Ray in Portland), many parts were recorded remotely. Drums and much of the electric guitar were recorded at Revolver Studios and the rest was laid down piece-by-piece and mixed by Edgar McCrae at his home studio. Influences for the record range from Tom Waits to The White Stripes.
www.thebuildersandthebutchers.com
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
New Year’s Eve Dance Party All Night Long!
DJ Cuica – playing international dance hits!
Sahel Sounds- International dance jams * primarily from West Africa!
Coldyron- electronic & interstellar dance music! Bring in the New Year with the grooves and moves!
Dance party begins at 10pm, there will be a toast to the New Year at midnight in the lodge, and the dancer with the best moves wins a gift certificate for a free weekend stay at The Sou’wester!
Please call the front desk 360-642-2542 (9am-9pm) to book a spot if you want to stay at the Sou’wester during this dance.
Jay Manzanita can easily be described as Portland’s best kept secret. As the front man and vocalist of power trio Bitches of the Sun this singer-songwriter has a knack for melding lyrics with wit and sorrow. With his musical roots stemming from the Chicago jazz scene this saxophonist gone guitar hero produces a refreshing and timeless sound sure to keep you coming back for more.
www.bitchesofthesun.com
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
The International Konsortium of Harmony & Tonality specialists who make up The Plastic Harmony Band have undergone years of rigorous training in the higher, lower & middle paths of enlightenment. The sensory deprivation of years of aestheticism; the sensual overload of multi-dimensional libidinous ecstacies; the ability to vault over the hurdles of Nihilism with effortless grace; the guile & wit necessary for survival in the ever-present, ever-shifting NOW.
All of this is at their disposal, and now it is at yours.
https://plasticharmonyband.bandcamp.com
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The Shelby Foundation Video Presentation
A series of short original films by Portland OR, filmmaker Shelby Menzel ranging from cultural documentary to stop motion adventures.
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Susannah Weaver, or Little Sue, as she has been affectionately known since she was a teenager, grew up in West Virginia and moved to Portland in 1992. She has been a fixture in the local folk and alt-country scene in Portland for over 25 years and a big part of the Laurelthirst scene. Her quirky lyrical style, solid guitar playing, and bee-stung voice have won over music lovers of every age and stripe. Sue has released 7 CDs including the 2019 20th anniversary re-release of her 1999 album Crow, and her new CD titled Gold. Sue also has sung harmony on over 50 Oregon releases, including Jerry Joseph, The Minus 5, Fernando, Casey Neill, Lynn Conover, and kindie artist Mo Phillips. She has opened with her own music for Roger McGuinn, Loudon Wainwright III, and most memorably for folk hero Bob Dylan. Sue was recently honored as a 2019 inductee to the Oregon Music Hall Of Fame.
www.littlesue.bandcamp.com
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Walk down any street in Portland, Oregon and you are sure to encounter a mustachioed Brazilian spaghetti western rock and roll troubadour named Johnny Franco. Recently moving from Sao Paulo, Johnny has developed a cult following in Portland for his high energy street performances and stylish music. Signed by music producer Sterling Fox (Lana Del Rey, Elle King) on his label Blanket Fort, Johnny has put together a debut EP that feels instantly timeless. The debut single “Treated Like Grass” combines Dylanesque vocal stylings with a unique jangly Brazilian influenced beat. The EP Experience Report #1 is due out in early 2020.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4JrSPyzLVPKQlEHHpqt4c3
Photo by Sean May
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
The Blank Tapes is the moniker of Los Angeles & Joshua Tree based multi-instrumentalist, Matt Adams, who has produced over a dozen albums of 1960’s inspired folk-rock-surf-psych-soul-pop on Volcom, Burger Records, Antenna Farm, and others. Their latest ’Super Bloom’ EP features Avid Dancer & Will Halsey (Sugar Candy Mountain) on drums, as well as Jason Cirimele (Guantanamo Baywatch, The Donkeys) on bass and was co-mixed by Nathan Sabatino (Dr. Dog, Jim James). The band has toured throughout the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Brazil, Japan & even Costa Rica. Matt also sometimes plays & records with Sugar Candy Mountain & has produced and/or performed on numerous projects by other artists including The Regrettes, The Pesos & Kath Bloom. Matt is also the artist behind his band’s posters & album covers as well as art for the Grateful Dead, CRB, FolkYeah & more!
“Alternating between dreamy and driving, dappled with delirious solos and seductive harmonies. The Blank Tapes radiated Ultraviolet Californian chords” – Backmatter blog
Photo by Cristian Sigler
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
This show is a part of a Sou’wester Arts Week Benefit Series! Suggested Donation is $5-10, no one turned away for lack of funds, and all proceeds go towards sponsoring an artist in residence at our first annual Arts Week.
BARNA HOWARD was born and raised in a quintessential Midwest town. His youth in Eureka, Missouri was pure Americana – the sort of childhood that inspired E.T.-era Spielberg – baseball cards in his bicycle spokes, flying freely down Main Street and through neighbors’ backyards.
However, much of Barna’s story is not unique to his hometown, and, like most of small town America, Eureka has lost some of that charm over time. Main Street has changed, kids don’t run around quite so carelessly, and in an almost laughably cruel twist, his childhood home was knocked down in favor of a Walmart parking lot.
After high school, Howard moved north to study animation in one cold and windy city and then east for love in another. Years later, he blindly followed two friends to the Northwest, crossing the Rockies for the first time, in search of inspiration, opportunity and a fresh start.
Barna’s self-titled debut chronicled these moves as he struggled with the contrast between his small town upbringing and these big city wanderings. The album was met with critical acclaim and underground success, partly thanks to an opportunely placed song in the hit indie film, Drinking Buddies. One critic even likened him to some “lost genius of the 60s.”
The songs on Barna Howard’s second album, Quite a Feelin’, ruminate on his relationship with home. Now entrenched in Portland, Oregon, many of the album’s tracks immortalize and reflect on the Eureka he once knew, while others focus on the relationships that define his new home out west. Small town life has long been celebrated in country and folk music, but Barna’s knack for capturing his own deeply personal nostalgia resonates in a rarely universal way.
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
This show is a part of a Sou’wester Arts Week Benefit Series! Suggested Donation is $5-10, no one turned away for lack of funds, and all proceeds go towards sponsoring an artist in residence at our first annual Arts Week!
Hot July is a vintage jazz project fronted by Joseph Appel and Kylie LaCour. With a rotating cast of musicians, the band plays mostly standards—from the classics to the more obscure—with a focus on the 1930s and Billie Holiday.
photo by Megan Eleanor Clark
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!