SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

Discover what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!

Mar
8
Sun
Sou’wester ARTS WEEK: An Artist Residency Take-Over
Mar 8 @ 3:00 pm – Mar 16 @ 12:00 pm

SOU’WESTER ARTS WEEK: the Sou’wester will be given over to artists and art collectives for a week of residency work and a weekend of open houses and public performances.

The goal of this event is to highlight the creative process and the experiential nature of the Sou’wester Residency Program. Walking into an active creative process reveals valuable intersections among artists as well as with the public. Experience these living artifacts at the open studios and weekend performances. Visit HERE for more information.

 

 

Aug
12
Wed
Stelth Ulvang: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Aug 12 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
 
(Live Stream) Stelth Ulvang at The Sou’wester
Stelth Ulvang is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the touring member of the folk rock band The Lumineers. He is also the co-founder of the Front Range-based band The Dovekins. In February 2015, Ulvang released his debut album And, as Always; the Infinite Cosmos.
** Currently, this is scheduled to not a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *
Aug
15
Sat
Sallie Ford & Kathy Foster: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Aug 15 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
(Live Stream) Sallie Ford, Kathy Foster at The Sou’wester
Sallie Ford grew up in Asheville, North Carolina before moving to Oregon.According to singer Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers, Ford’s songs have that “rare quality of somehow combining fun with emotional and artistic integrity” and she “fills the room with it” and reminds him of the “energy of early rock ‘n’ roll.”
 
Kathy Foster is an American musician best known as the bassist for the indie rock band The Thermals and drummer for the All Girl Summer Fun Band.Foster was raised in Sunnyvale, California and moved to Portland, Oregon in 1998. With Thermals bandmate Hutch Harris, she was in Haelah, Hutch and Kathy, and Urban Legends. With Foster on bass guitar, the Thermals became a mainstay of the Portland indie rock scene beginning in 2003. They have continued to tour and record since then. They are known for exploring new styles while remaining within the general confines of punk/indie rock. She also performs under the name Butterfly Transformation Service. She is the owner of the T-shirt company Daydream Factory.
** Currently, this is scheduled to not a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *
Aug
29
Sat
Barna Howard: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Aug 29 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

ARTIST WEBSITE

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.

 

** Currently, this is scheduled to not a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *

Sep
5
Sat
Alexis Mahler & Hanna Haas: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Sep 5 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

(Live Stream) Alexis Mahler, Hanna Haas at The Sou’wester
 
Alexis Mahler explores her softness through the dark and earthy colors of the cello, a somber strum comforted by delicate lyrics and playful melodies. Her debut EP, Low Moon, innocently reaches for the most tender and heartful listener, while following intricate, moving layers of cello, violin, and distant vocal harmonies that seem to fall exactly where they should.
Hanna Haas is a songwriter drawn to the dance of light and dark. Currently based in Portland Oregon, she has come to call the entire West Coast her home. Hanna describes her music as “contemplative folk,” identifying with artists Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, and Feist for their alternate tunings and mesmerizing melodies. Inspired by environments in which she has inhabited, Hanna sings of the dramatic landscape of Big Sur, the California sun, and the vast and open Pacific Northwest sky. Hanna loves to engage her audiences in sweet story telling and laughter, leaving her audience in a state of heart-felt introspection.
Hanna has played countless shows in Portland, OR and has become a part of the close knit community of West Coast artists. Hanna recently returned from touring overseas with the music agency Blue House Music which manages artists such as The Shook Twins John Craigie, Marty O’Reilly, Jeffrey Martin, Anna Tivel, and several others. She plans to record an album this Autumn.
 
** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *
Sep
12
Sat
Ezza Rose: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Sep 12 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

(Live Stream) Ezza Rose at The Sou’wester
 
About 10 years ago, singer/songwriter Ezza Rose hitchhiked to the Pacific Northwest from Los Angeles, riding with semi-truck drivers the whole journey north. After graduating, Rose decided to make Portland her permanent home.“It seemed like a really accessible town for a creative person to live in,” Rose says.She’s currently getting ready to release her fourth LP, No Means No, which draws inspiration from the disconnect between language and intention. Growing up, Rose says her mother would use contradictory expressions like “no means no” and “sorry isn’t good enough” (which is also the title of a song on the record). These phrases were confusing to her, since one reinforces the power of words while the other implies that sometimes, they aren’t enough to merit forgiveness.In her own life, Rose feels like her words haven’t always been taken seriously. “When we disconnect the meaning from a word, it holds no value anymore and communication is gone,” she explains.No Means No is moodier than Rose’s earlier albums, like 2014’s Poolside and 2015’s When the Water’s Hot, which pull from her bluegrass influences. The driving force of Rose’s music, though, is still her voice, which sounds fit for a smoky jazz lounge.
 
** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *
Sep
19
Sat
POSTPONED ** Esmé Patterson: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Sep 19 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

(POSTPONED) Esmé Patterson at The Sou’wester

Esmé Patterson is songwriter, gambler, singer, lover, thinker and explorer. She began as a member of the Denver Folk Pop septet, Paper Bird, and has written two records as a solo act including All Princes, I and her second and most recent release, Woman to Woman, which is a concept album of responses from female characters in a broad range of well known love songs. The Guardian called it “defiant and witty”, the New York Times found her voice “wiry and candid” with songs that “hint at mystery and mortality”. Audiotree touts “By putting herself in the minds of characters like Jolene, Eleanor Rigby, and Billie Jean, Patterson has crafted a witty, dark, and intimate twist on the popular tracks.” Esmé performs in multiple incarnations. She adds members to raise the volume and cadence of her tunes but remains powerful alone. Patterson is a magnetic performer and has appeared on the Leno, Conan and Letterman programs. Her co-writing with Shakey Graves led to sold out shows nationwide and millions of downloads of their collaborations. Esmé lives in Portland, Oregon, happily small under tall trees.

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *

 
Sep
26
Sat
Left Coast Country: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Sep 26 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 
(Live Stream) Left Coast Country at The Sou’wester
 
Left Coast Country has been performing their own brand of high energy bluegrass across this country since 2010. Mixing a passion for songwriting with soaring three part harmonies and strong instrumental arrangements.
 
** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *
Oct
3
Sat
Jeffrey Martin: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Oct 3 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

(Live Stream) Jeffrey Martin at The Sou’wester

Jeffrey Martin:
As a babe Jeffrey Martin sought out solitude as often as he could find it. He’s always been that way, and he has never understood the whole phenomenon of smiling in pictures, although he is a very happy guy. One night in middle school he stayed up under the covers with a flashlight and a DiscMan, listening to Reba McEntire’s ‘That’s the Night that the Lights Went Out in Georgia’ on repeat until the DiscMan ran out of batteries. That night he became a songwriter, although he didn’t actually write a song until years later. After high school he spent a few years distracting himself from having to gather up the courage to do what he knew he had to do.

Eventually he found his way to a writing degree, and then a teaching degree. He wrote most days like his life depended on it, all sorts of things, not just songs, but songs too. He fell in love with teaching high school English, which was fantastic because he never thought he’d actually come to truly love it. His students were fierce and unstoppable forces of noise and curiosity, and for all that they took from him in sleep and sense, they gave him a hundred times back in sparks and humility.

All the while he was also playing truckloads of music. There was one weekend where he flew to LA while grading essays on the plane, played two shows, and then flew back home, still grading essays, and woke up to teach at 5 am on Monday morning. It was around this time he started wondering if such a life was sustainable.

Alas, music, the tour life, was a constant raccoon scratching at the back door. Jeffrey spent nights on end sitting up in bed, and then sitting on the front porch, staring off into the dark, wondering if he could bear to leave teaching to go on tour full time. Eventually his brain caught up with what his guts had known for months. With tears in his eyes he announced to his students that he wouldn’t be back the following year, and that he didn’t feel right hollering at them to chase their dreams at all cost if he wasn’t going to do the same.

Jeffrey Martin tours full time now. He is always making music, and he is always coming through your town. He misses teaching like you might miss a good old friend who you know you’ll meet again.

Jeffrey has put out bunches of music since 2009, but he’s most proud of the more recent stuff. He’s fortunate to be a part of the great and loving family that is Fluff and Gravy Records in Portland, OR. “One Go Around,” which released in October 2017, is his 3rd full length album. At his luckiest, he’s shared shows with the likes of Sean Hayes, Gregory Alan Isakov, Courtney Marie Andrews, Jeffrey Foucault, Joe Pug, Peter Mulvey, Amanda Shires, Sean Rowe, Tracy Grammer, David Wilcox, and others.

He currently lives in Portland, OR but feels lately that it has become a secret that someone figured out how to monetize. And since he has no money of any kind, everything beautiful about the city is marred by the quiet ticking of a countdown toward the day that he’ll have to find somewhere to live that doesn’t require a steady bleeding fortune.

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *

Oct
10
Sat
Music: Mike Coykendall @ The Sou'wester
Oct 10 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Mike Coykendall: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

(Live Stream) Mike Coykendall at The Sou’wester

Veteran songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Coykendall has been amazingly prolific over the last three decades or so. Currently most well known for his duties as a sideman, producer, and recordist via his work with M Ward, Blitzen Trapper, She & Him, Annalisa Tornfelt, & Tin Hat Trio, to name a few, Coykendall has been making his own unique outsider records since the mid ’80s.

Coykendall (pronounced “Kirk-in-doll) was raised near the dead center of the contiguous 48 states of America in rural Norwich, Kansas. In early high school he began playing drums and guitar and went on to perform in mid-western regional cover bands during the early 80’s. In the mid 80’s he started writing and recording his own songs on cassette 4-track and soon formed Wichita, Kansas based prarie-psych popsters Klyde Konnor. Klyde was a prolific and daring band that self-released approximately nine cassette albums between ’86 and ’91.

In ’91, he moved to San Francisco where he and wife Jill formed The Old Joe Clarks. The Old Joes worked hard and made three nuanced, highly acclaimed Americana-esque records. 1996’s Town of Ten, 1999’s Metal Shed Blues, & 2003’s November.

In ’99 after relocating to Portland, Oregon, Coykendall was able to expand his home studio and begin working other artists. One of those artists was M Ward. Their first collaboration was Ward’s 2003 masterpiece Transfiguration of Vincent. Soon after, Coykendall became a member of Ward’s touring band (also with She & Him).

In 2012 Coykendall released his third solo record titled Chasing Away the Dots via Portland’s Fluff & Gravy Records. Dots is a widely varied, moody yet playful record with a lived-in feel and is the perfect vehicle for Coykendall’s unfurnished vocals.  This tidy little diamond in the rough also contained guest appearances by some of Coykendall’s musical friends including M Ward, Zooey Deschanel, Eric Earley, & Ben Gibbard.

Translating Dots to a live setting was an undertaking, as the record itself was filled with guest performances and layers of studio psychedelia. Coykendall met that challenge by essentially turning the record inside-out and stripping it down to it’s basic elements. He took to rocking these songs out with an oversized Kay electric guitar while stomping a tin can kick drum and swishing away on a huge set of high-hat cymbals. He began calling it the “rig”, and it stuck. These spontaneous performances are often a thick mix of Coykendall’s own compositions and reinterpretations of other writer’s famous or not-so-famous gems. Not working from a set list and seemingly testing each situation to see what boundaries can be pushed.

In late 2015 Coykendall released Half Past, Present Pending, partnering again with Fluff & Gravy Records. On this record, Coykendall takes the listener closer to the live “rig” performances by mixing excellent new compositions (check out “Hard Landing”) with compositions from his back catalogue (check out “East of Cheney” or “Spacebaker Blues”) in with fresh interpretations of other writers songs (he covers Roger Miller, Syd Barrett, etc) to great effect. 

He continues to write, perform, produce, engineer, and wander SE Portland.

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *