Ollella Live at the Sou’wester

Ollella’s (pronounced oh-lel-uh) career as a musician started early, when she sang before she could talk. Trained as a classical cellist since the age of nine, the Seattle indie-folk musician merges her technical string background with authoritative vocals and live-looping. Described as “really outstanding” by NPR Music’s Bob Boilen and “so tastefully done” by Michelle Zauner (AKA Japanese Breakfast), Ollella blends the acoustic with the contemporary, folk with pop, and tenacity with softness, pulling on influences such as Feist, Cat Power, and Sylvan Esso. She was a finalist in the 2022 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, has had music featured in film festivals and on TV, and is a frequent collaborator with others. She finds herself drawn to music because it unlocks a particularly organic flavor of humanity – one that fits the type of world she believes in.

Nevada Sowle Live at the Sou’wester

You’d expect most musicians from Northern Idaho to be immovably rooted in folk, country, and Americana stylings, but Nevada Sowle doesn’t let that landlocked positioning define his sound. Constantly seeking to find new tones both acoustic & electronic, unique yet familiar, Sowle’s catalogue fits most snuggly into the category of Pop – but don’t let that word deter you if you’re a stickler for quality lyrical content and well-thought-out composition. Having spent the past few years recording and touring the west coast with acts like Bart Budwig, Desolation Horse, MAITA, Joseph Hein, and An American Forrest, Sowle has found time in between green rooms and sound booths to develop a style that will help define the sound and style of the Pacific Northwest.

Tomo Nakayama Live at the Sou’wester

“When music journalists say things like ‘this artist is a fixture in Seattle music,’ there’s probably no one right now who fits that title better than Nakayama.” – KEXP

Born in Japan and raised in Seattle, Washington, Tomo Nakayama is an artist whose melodic, complex and emotionally compelling music has been praised by NPR, New York Times, and The Stranger. Beginning as frontman of the indie rock bands Asahi and Grand Hallway and a successful solo career spanning two decades as a singer, songwriter, composer, producer, actor, and curator, Nakayama has become one of the most active and recognizable figures in Seattle music.

After the critically acclaimed indie-folk albums “Fog on the Lens” and “Pieces of Sky” (named “Best Folk Act” by Seattle Weekly), Nakayama surprised his fans by releasing his latest album “Melonday” (on Porchlight Records), a collection of instantly memorable and undeniably danceable synthpop songs. Co-produced by Yuuki Matthews (The Shins, Sufjan Stevens) and mastered by Dave Cooley (M83, Paramore, Tame Impala), “Melonday” was named one of the Top Albums of the year by Seattle Times, KEXP, and Seattle Met Magazine, and debuted at #1 on KEXP’s NW Charts. The following year he composed the music for Megan Griffith’s feature film “I’ll Show You Mine” and the KUOW podcast “Ten Thousand Things” hosted by Shin Yu Pai, and collaborated on a song with Dave Matthews for SMASH (Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare).

Nakayama has toured across the US and Japan, sharing the stage with Built to Spill, Thao, Cornelius, Daði Freyr, Fleet Foxes, Michael Hurley, Sons of Kemet, Ben Gibbard, Fruit Bats, Damien Jurado, Buffalo Daughter, Wye Oak, and Shugo Tokumaru. He has performed and collaborated with Sera Cahoone, Jherek Bischoff, Jeremy Enigk (of Sunny Day Real Estate), and experimental dance company Malacarne. He also composed music and appeared as an actor in the Lynn Shelton film “Touchy Feely” with Elliot Page and Rosemarie DeWitt. A former Artist in Residence at Seattle’s Town Hall, his sound installations and compositions have also been featured at the Museum of Northwest Art and Wing Luke Museum.

Tispur live at The Sou’wester

Sat, Dec 2nd 7p presented by Sou’wester Arts

Tispur is a chamber-folk project fronted by Samwise Carlson from Boise, ID, now located in Portland, OR. Known for their intricate guitar-work, dream-like vocals, and ornate lyricism that excite evocative imagery of imaginary worlds; Samwise creates gently hypnotic, moving performances akin to the spirits of Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan, and Joanna Newsom.

Reb & the Good News Live at the Sou’wester

11/25/2023 8p FREE

Reb Conner is the singer, guitarist, songwriter and band leader of Portland based Reb & the Good News. Her full band plays funk, world, and soul and brings optimism and cathartic release to the dance floor. Catchy horn lines and sultry vocals soar over grooves that you can’t help but move to. Led by vocalist and guitarist Reb Conner, Reb’s love of rhythms from around the world bring the dance floor on a journey that’s full of surprises. Formed in 2021 in the middle of the pandemic, these songs reach for hope in a world under pressure. Reb believes that through feeling deeply and dancing together, we can face all that we’re up against in this life. Her striped down solo set is where Reb gets to express the heart of her music and lean into her more intimate sultry side. 

Reb & the Good News released their debut album “Wings” on May 11th 2021. This album is a culmination of a lifetime searching for Reb’s own voice in music. At 19, her love affair with music began by playing songs around a beach fire in her coastal hometown of Lincoln City. During a subsequent trip to Europe with a guitar, jazz was the music that most spoke to her, and she returned to the States to pursue an education. Reb went to music school at the age of 21 not yet knowing a major scale. With a lot of catching up to do, her education lasted all of 7 years, starting at LCC and finishing at the University of Oregon where she focused on Jazz guitar. Reb left her last collaborative project, High Step society in 2018, and moved from Eugene to Portland ready to tell her own story and bring her own aesthetic to life.

Maria DeHart

Live at The Sou’wester

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Since her early days of musical performance, Maria DeHart has been on a continuous journey of building her sound. Starting in 2018, the Portland, Oregon-based artist has traveled through a few distinct phases, going from acoustic songwriter to loop-pedal expert to full band frontperson. Her newest release, an EP called “Win Some, Lose Everyone” on the east coast-based indie label Self Aware Records, is a brief yet strong run of filled-out songs that signals a development in DeHart’s self-actualization. While prepping for its release, DeHart came to the realization that this would be the perfect time to adopt an official name for her project, Myriads, which nowadays includes much collaboration and feels significantly bigger than just herself.

Recorded mostly in her bedroom and a backyard practice space belonging to her bandmate and partner Sean Cooper, the four tracks that make up the EP build off of her acoustic beginnings and introduce a heavier and fuller sound to DeHart’s musical repertoire. She enlisted emo legend Peter Helmis, a good friend and musical collaborator, to mix the tracks and Chris Baglivo, a Philly-based audio engineer, musician, and producer, to master them. Her production choices are no coincidence; DeHart’s music has a place in the universe of today’s emo and shoegaze revival. In the sharp, overdriven guitar riffs and verbed-out vocals, you can hear her influences– there are distinct nods to bands like Tigers Jaw, Pity Sex, and Turnover. Above all, in her authentically vulnerable lyrics and thoughtful storytelling, she pays homage to the work of today’s influential femme artists, including Snail Mail, Waxahatchee, Phoebe Bridgers, and Wednesday. 

DeHart is proud to be a part of the world of non-male musicians writing thoughtful and heartfelt music that communicates strength and badassery. At the same time, she writes about the struggle of living with a marginalized identity; in the EP’s concluding track, “Whore,” she explores the reality of navigating relationships as a sex worker. Her lyrics hit like a truck; during the musical and emotional climax of the track, she laments, “Thought that nobody would want me / worn out body, I’m a whore.” DeHart’s intentional emotional transparency, sometimes painfully honest and always woven together with meticulously layered instrumentation, compels listeners to enter a dreamy, introspective space that encourages them to open up, explore, and just rock out.

Noah Kite

Live at The Sou’wester

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

The son of an acting coach and a therapist, Kite seems to have it in his DNA to blend the dramatic and analytic. Each musical wave crest and fall mirrors a turn in the story. Instruments rest for minutes before suddenly emerging. Emotions and motifs sustain and then drop into oblivion. The tone switches suddenly from accusation to epiphany. It is the sound of someone going through it.
Alongside the musical tumult, the steady voice of Kite never loses his cool despite the searing intimacy of the song’s content. He thoughtfully guides us through the story of his relationship, in as well as struggles with friends, substances, sex and codependency. He has been clearly affected by the proceedings, but is determined to stare into them without blinking.

J. Graves

Live at The Sou’wester

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Tense relationship rock, sanguine lyricism, chord changes like a secret longing, a rhythm section that thuds, skitters, and melts over the determined voice of Jessa Graves. The heat of the cataclysm gives off a vapor known to galvanize meatspace
into writhing, dancing heaps, creating rabid, loyal fans. Joined by Kelly Clifton, perhaps one of the best bassists, and the
unassuming Aaron MacDonald, who would be a watchmaker were he not a drummer, J. Graves is back with a crushing new LP FORTRESS OF FUN, a first of it’s kind choose your own adventure record.

Jess Clemons

Live at The Sou’wester

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Jess Clemons’ experience as a traveler, former island dweller, and small town girl have influenced her folksy homegrown musical style. Raised in Vermont, she attended music school in Nova Scotia where she was a side and front woman for various bands, touring around Canada in the summers. A big leap took her to Nantucket, working as a gardener & musician, rowing to and from a houseboat she called home for several years. After finding Baja in 2010 and subsequently the wind-loving community of Hood River, Jess now calls the Gorge home. Playing guitar & piano on stages around the Northwest and in Baja in the winters, she has become known for her powerhouse vocals, intimate originals and tasteful covers of folks like Patty Griffin, Brandi Carlile and Lori Mckenna, all of whom she has been compared to. Coming out of the woodwork after a couple of years of limited shows, Jess is excited to be back on the road this year.

Chibia

Live at The Sou’wester

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Isabeau Waia’u Walker

LIVE at The Sou’wester

Presented by Sou’wester Arts

The vision for her music is clear and thought provoking, often expressed through her master storytelling. The authenticity of her presentation as a performer and storyteller taps into human emotions and bonds her with the listeners and audiences in front of her. Grabbing hold of the space with never having to command the attention of the room. Soothing and soft while powerful, accessible while complex, melancholic in celebration, serious while playful, sweet but aching. Songs of love, care, community, fight, self. Vulnerable while her humility guards her impressive force. The tensions of the stretches and contractions nested in her core, reverberate through the layers of her product: storytelling, collaboration, presentation, music. Her craft is seemingly effortless, but a closer attention reveals meticulous engineering and caring intentionality in process and product.