SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

“Lenore., a project that skirts the edges of folk and pop to create a sound that is earthy and melodic, toned and precise.”

— paste

“a band deeply committed to strong and timeless songwriting, calling upon the husky vibes of Fleetwood Mac, the intimate wonders of Simon & Garfunkel or the ethereal bliss of Enya, all wrapped around the majestic scenery of the Pacific Northwest.”

— tidal

“When they sing you’re transported to a different dimension, an unearthly realm. Here, you’ll find safety and security. Here, you’ll be able to rest, to find peace. And here, you’ll discover the courage you need to start living the life you want.”

— NPR

The coming together of Joy Pearson and Rebecca Marie Miller as Portland’s newest folk outfit, Lenore, is serendipitous, to say the least. After individually hitting rock bottom — Pearson following her divorce and Miller after a period of destitution in LA — the pair separately turned to songwriting in the search for a still point in their turning worlds.

After several years of lending their abilities to other projects, including Saddle Creek’s The Mynabirds, and Portland’s own The High Water Jazz Band, they finally found themselves spinning on the same axis when a chance meeting through a mutual friend, Pokey LaFarge, sparked an immediate connection. A drunken night ensued, and before they’d even scoped each other’s material, they had committed.

Now, just under two years since that fateful night, and Lenore can boast having performed at legendary Pacific Northwest venues including Mississippi Studios, Aladdin Theater, and Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, as well as the Sunset Tavern, Triple Door, and Tractor Tavern in Seattle. They’ve opened for the likes of Eric Bachmann, Laura Gibson, Esmé Patterson, and ex-collaborators, The Mynabirds, and have shared the stage with Peter Buck (R.E.M.), as well as Chris Funk and Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists).

Since Lenore’s formation, Miller and Pearson have gained full-time collaborators in seasoned Portland musicians Edward Cameron (classical guitar) and Jessie Dettwiler (cello), who have contributed significantly to the evolution of Lenore’s sound — a melancholic blend of harmony-driven folk with an ever present silver lining.

Harlowe is the moniker for the songs of Mark Robertson, often with collaborators from the artist collective Sleepy Volcano in Portland, Oregon USA. The second full length recording titled “Curses” is a lo-fi collection of songs intermixed with eclectic instrumental soundscapes, released October 2017.

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“It’s easy to see why Planes on Paper is starting to attract serious attention on the neo- folkie scene.”
— Paul de Barros, The Seattle Times
“There has been no shortage of bands that sound like Planes on Paper in the last 10 years of Seattle music, which makes it simultaneously delightful and frustrating when one of them is clearly a full head taller than the others.
— Sean Nelson, The Stranger
“This is folk music at the highest level.” — Greg Jones, Ear to the Ground Music
“Planes on Paper expertly maneuvers dual vocals to produce this eerie, serene, beautiful aesthetic […] simultaneously mellow and powerful.”
— Fallon Schlossman, WNYC New York
As a one year-old project, Planes on Paper was already receiving high praise from a nearly endless list of media outlets across the country: The Seattle Times, American Songwriter Magazine, KEXP Seattle, WNYU New York, The Revue, Ear To The Ground, and The Stranger, to name just a few. Now 2.5 years into relentless touring, the praise continues, and the songwriting duo finds itself at home on both coasts of the US, and playing some noteworthy festivals… all without yet releasing an album; that unconventional path speaks volumes about the strength of Planes on Paper’s live show.

Eelgrass is an important coastal seagrass that helps store carbon, reduce erosion, and provide shelter and spawning areas for a host of marine wildlife in bays and estuaries across the globe, including right here in the pacific northwest. 
Eelgrass is also the name of a longtime musical collaboration between Lara Pacheco and Dan Swenson, along with new friends Bobby Hayden and Todd Summers. They play folky-tonk with psychedelic vibes and call Portland, Oregon home. 
https://soundcloud.com/eelgrass

Marisa Anderson channels the history of the guitar and stretches the boundaries of tradition. Her deeply original work applies elements of minimalism, electronic music, drone and 20th century classical music to compositions based on blues, jazz and gospel and country music, re-imagining the landscape of American music. Onstage, she is a master storyteller, bringing warmth, wit and insight to her virtuosic compositions and arrangements.

In 2017 Mississippi Records is re-issuing Anderson’s 2013 record, ‘Traditional and Public Domain Songs’. Anderson spent a year researching hymns, blues, murder ballads and American patriotic songs. The resulting record is an exploration of the relationship between evangelical Christianity and state sanctioned violence. Her next record, ‘Cloud Corner’ will be released June 15 on Thrill Jockey Records. 

Originally from Northern California, Anderson dropped out of college at age nineteen to walk across the US and eventually landed in Portland, Oregon, where she currently lives. Classically trained, she honed her skills playing in country, jazz and circus bands. In 2011 she released her first solo guitar record, ‘The Golden Hour’ followed by ‘Mercury’ (2013) and ‘Into The Light’ (2016). She is in demand as a collaborator and composer, contributing to recent recordings by Beth Ditto, Sharon Van Etten and Circuit Des Yeux among others, as well as creating music for short films and soundtracks.

Anderson tours extensively throughout Europe and North America. Her work has been featured in Billboard, Rolling Stone, NPR, SPIN, Pitchfork and The Wire. Billboard magazine named ‘Into the Light’ one of the best records of 2016 and Pitchfork named Anderson’s 2015 split LP with Tashi Dorji one of the top experimental records of the year. Recent festival appearances include Le Guess Who, Moog Fest, Copenhagen Jazz Festival and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
www.marisaandersonmusic.com

There is always a hint of menace and reservoirs of force haunting the corners of Eliza Rickman’s voice, whatever register it occupies. Her presence on stage: whether she wears flowers in her hair, or stuffed birds; whether she plays a toy piano or a grand piano; is an enveloping, soft darkness, impossible to ignore. 

It has been three years between Rickman’s first album, O, You Sinners, and her newest effort, Footnotes for the Spring. In those intervening three years, Rickman added the autoharp to her repertoire, fought illness and heartbreak (and won), and turned 30. But mostly, she toured. She is a frequent featured musical act for the live rendition of the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale, a regular opening act for cello rock band Rasputina, and has organized her own successful solo tours in the U.S. and abroad.

Rickman’s voice has the power to hold the smallest grain of sadness, an intimation that the longed-for innocence depicted in her lyrics has slipped just below the glow of the orchestra and out of sight.
www.elizarickman.com
Photo by Stevie Mada

Come celebrate Zia’s 43 Jamboree with Brush Prairie, Lindsie Feathers and special guests Rachael Rice and Thomas Mudrick on Friday, June 1st from 8pm-10pm. There will be a mixture of country, blues, and songwriters in the round. Gonna be a good’n! This event is Free, All ages, and Open to the Public!

Brush Prairie : https://m.facebook.com/brushprairie/

Lindsie Feathers: 

https://www.neonrenaissance.com/

This show is a benefit for Sou’Wester Arts, a non-profit 501c3 organization that helps fund our art, music and wellness programming. Our mission is to be of service to the artist community at large by providing a space for folks to create, connect, restore and renew in order to experience transformation within themselves and their work.

Brooklyn based songwriter Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has been creating incorruptible independent pop music since the late 1990’s. She has released over a dozen solo and collaborative recordings on K Records, Kill Rock Stars and various domestic and foreign independent labels.

She has performed with The Oregon Symphony, Contemporaneous Orchestra and The Portland Cello Project and has toured solo and with countless iterations of her own band in concert halls, music clubs and punk basements all across North America, Japan and Europe.

Mirah has always sought the creative company of unique collaborators, from multi-media artists and orchestral composers to dj’s, Baltic music enthusiasts, and entomologists. A partial list of some of her collaborators includes Phil Elverum (The Microphones/Mount Eerie), Susie Ibarra, Jherek Bischoff, Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs), Thao Nguyen, Tara Jane O’Neil, Lori Goldston, Britta Johnson and Ginger Brooks Takahashi.

Mirah lived in the Pacific Northwest for 16 very formative years throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s and she LOVES coming back to visit.
www.mirahmusic.com

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT plus Floating Room & Gillian Frances

MOTHER OF MY CHILDREN
“Having this identity—radical indigenous queer feminist—keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman.”

Katherine Paul is Black Belt Eagle Scout, and after releasing an EP in 2014 Paul has wrapped up the band’s first full-length. Recorded in the middle of winter near her hometown in Northwest Washington, the landscape’s eerie beauty and Paul’s
connection to it are palpable on Mother of My Children. Stemming from this place, the album traces the full spectrum of confronting buried feelings and the loss of what life was supposed to look like.
Growing up on a small Indian reservation, Paul’s family was focused on native drumming, singing, and arts. “Native American music is the foundation for all of my music,” Paul explains. With the support of her family and a handful of bootleg Hole and Nirvana VHS tapes, Paul taught herself how to play guitar. In 2007, Paul moved to Portland, OR, to attend school and get involved with the Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for
Girls. Paul has switched between guitar and drums in an assortment of projects over the last decade, citing Forest Park as a particularly strong influence on how her songwriting has grown. “It was my introduction to post-rock,” Paul recalls, “From
there, I was able to develop my own sound and style more.”
On Mother of My Children, Black Belt Eagle Scout tenderly blends post-rock with Paul’s earlier grunge influences and later, more confessional Pacific Northwest artists like Ô Paon and Mirah. The album begins with the singles “Soft Stud” and
“Indians Never Die”, and on the latter, Paul’s message is clear: “It’s a call out to colonizers and those who don’t respect the Earth; they don’t care about the water, they don’t care about how they are destroying what is around them. Indigenous
people are the protectors of this land, and others need to wake up and get on the same page.” The songs weave together to capture both the enduring and fleeting experiences of loss, frustration, and dreaming. The structures are traditional, but the
lyrics don’t adhere to any format other than what feels right in the moment. “I don’t play music to write songs,” Paul explains, “I play music to process feelings, and sometimes what comes out of that is a song.” Paired with Paul’s clear and measured
voice, each song leaves the listener feeling as if they were there when the song was written, the immediate, candid emotion tangible. Mother of My Children is a life chapter gently preserved, and the access listeners have to such vulnerability feels special and generous. We are left wanting more, and
all signs point to Black Belt Eagle Scout just getting started. The album is out on Good Cheer Records in August 2017.
—Alex Hebler
https://blackbelteaglescout.bandcamp.co