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!
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!
ROBIN BACIOR is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. Her work has received praise from NPR’s All Songs Considered, Vh1, MTV, NYLON, L Magazine, CBS, Mother Jones Magazine, among other media platforms.
“Robin’s honeyed but vibrant voice hits gentle, bestowing the listener with comfort and calm.” NPR’s All Songs Considered
“Her brand of folk is straightforward at its core, but then nicely fancied up, with piano and strings allowing the intricacies and peculiarities of her massively affecting vocals to shine through.” The L Magazine
“A guitar. A voice. Sometimes that’s all a musician needs to lift the listener to a higher place. Smart lyrics help, too, and Robin Bacior has them.” – Dave Riedel, CBS News
“Carefully woven folk sound and tender vocals, showing that sometimes a quiet power is all you really need.” – Nylon
She is the recipient of a Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant, a nominee for the Independent Music Awards, and a member of the Recording Academy.
Bacior is also an arts & culture writer and has contributed to magazines such as Spin, Under The Radar, Portland Mercury, among others. She is the creator and columnist for “New Eyes”, a series on photographers within music for Berlin-based Majestic Journal, and currently a senior staff writer for Consequence of Sound.
She lives with her husband in Portland, OR.
Photo by Kim Smith
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LORAIN plays woozy American music. Singer Erik Emanuelson’s expressive tenor, which recalls ghosts of Nashville Skyline era Dylan and the late Jason Molina, floats over lush textures and an understated groove.
https://lorainmusic.bandcamp.com/album/through-frames
This show is all ages and open to the public!
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.
Owen Ashworth’s albums have always been about the human condition, and his latest is no exception. That may sound strange, given that it’s called Animal Companionship, but it’s as human as anything he’s done before.
After hearing problems forced the end of his electronic pop project Casiotone for the Painfully Alone in 2010, Ashworth started making quieter music as Advance Base, releasing A Shut-In’s Prayer in 2012, Nephew In The Wild in 2015 and a slew of tapes and 7” EPs in between. After releasing a 2016 live album, In Bloomington, the prodigious songwriter shifted his focus to his label, Orindal Records, and put his efforts into helping other artists release their music.
This break from songwriting gave him time to explore not just how he makes music, but why he’s driven to do so. “I spent a lot of time thinking about why I write songs and what I get out of writing songs,” he said. “It took a while to get back to writing for myself, unselfconsciously.
“The reason I’ve always made music is because it’s therapeutic for me,” he said. “It’s a way of processing my feelings and understanding my subconscious. I love the ritual of writing a song and performing it over and over again until its meaning reveals itself. It’s the closest I get to meditation.”
The meditative nature of Ashworth’s new songwriting process can be heard in Animal Companionship’s spacious arrangements. Blissful drones and lush synthesizer textures envelop soft electric piano arpeggiations and spare drum programming, creating an almost hypnotic backdrop for Ashworth’s lyrical narratives. And the lyrics themselves have found a new focus: dogs.
“There was a while last year when a bunch of different friends of mine were having problems with their dogs,” said Ashworth, “and even though I don’t have a dog, suddenly I was giving all of this dog advice. I was just thinking and worrying about these friends and their dogs all of the time, and dogs just started showing up in my songs.
“When you explain the relationship you have with a pet, it can sound crazy. We all tend to anthropomorphize the animals we love, talking about them as if they’re children, siblings, even spouses,” said Ashworth. “I wrote these songs to help myself understand what pets mean to their owners, how those animal relationships affect our human relationships, and vice versa.”
Unlike the previous Advance Base albums, which were made at home on Ashworth’s trusty 4-track tape machine, Animal Companionship was mostly recorded at Palmetto Studios in Los Angeles with Ashworth’s old friend and former Casiotone for the Painfully Alone collaborator Jason Quever. Animal Companionship still sounds like Ashworth, but Quever’s production adds more depth and clarity than you’ve ever heard from an Advance Base or Casiotone album. The album opener, “True Love Death Dream,” is full of warm synthesizer textures and lush drum machine tones, the kind that sink deep into your soul and take root there. It shows how much time and consideration Ashworth put into Animal Companionship, and how Quever knew exactly how to capture it. From the pedal steel atmospherics of “Dolores & Kimberly” to the densely layered oscillations of “Rabbits,” every movement beautifully frames each song’s narrative. Animal Companionship’s production is expansive but always deliberate, allowing Ashworth to speak volumes through subtle, emotional gestures.
Taken as a whole, Animal Companionship is not just a step forward for Advance Base—it’s the culmination of everything Ashworth has been building for the past two decades. It’s a record that’s gentle in approach and endearing in practice, the kind of thing that only Ashworth could create.
Animal Companionship was co-released by Run For Cover Records & Orindal Records on September 21, 2018
Advance Base: http://www.advancebasemusic.com
Claire Cronin: http://www.overandthrough.com/
Ruth Garbus: https://ruthgarbus.bandcamp.com/
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
“It’s not as if Tommy disrespects genre lines. It’s as if he doesn’t know (or care) that they exist. They’re not pertinent to his survival. He’s a cross between poet, arena rocker, and dive bar star. His voice plunges deeply, then rises high, and the band follows him faithfully through tempo changes, and wall of sound string movements, adding electric guitar and in-pocket backbeat to his work. The songs cruise through switchbacks from earnest folk to early new-age-rock histrionics.
– Sean Jewell at American Standard Time
Photo by by Boramie Sao
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!!
Tickets now available for this special show!!!
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4520384
Sonny & the Sunsets are a beautiful west coast thing. Birthed from the sand, the surf, and twilight campfires down in Ocean Beach, Sonny & the Sunsets busted beach-pop songs spark recollections of doo wop’s otherworldly despair, a dose of goofball humor from the Michael Hurley school, and positive possibilities exuded by Jonathan Richman.
https://sonnyandthesunsets.bandcamp.com/
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The Gonks is an indie rock band made up of Sami of The Shes and Sonny & Ava of Sonny & The Sunsets. As Smith says, In the shortest description it has a kind of Shangri Las meets Tronics thing. Voila, and were sold. Im A Lonely Night Driver is a sweet showcase of Lynchs vocals and track My Glamorous Mother has a solid Kinks feel were digging on pretty hard.
https://rockshead.bandcamp.com/album/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-gonks
Photo by Arvel Hernandez
This event is an all ages show!
Drinks are served in our Library Bar, open every Saturday night for shows.
J. Graves is Portland’s most passionate post-punk trio. For fans of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney, and Joy Division, this highly charged and agonizing garage rock lures listeners towards angular guitar work, skittering disco beats, and thudding bass. Front woman Jessa Graves, who takes her cues from Karen O, Corin Tucker, and Kathleen Hanna, is joined by Aaron MacDonald on the drums and Kelly Clifton on the bass. Their debut LP, Marathon, is out in the world for all to hear as a new fall release fast approaches.
Photo by Sleeper Studios
https://www.jgraves.xyz/
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Jason McCue is an alternative folk musician based out of Seattle.
“He had filled up the entirety of the Sky Church with a banquet of characters and emotions and, I believe, the soft buzz that emanates from a group of people trying to hold onto a moment.” – Seattle Weekly
His intricate finger-picking and soaring hypnotizing vocals were undeniable, reverberating throughout the hushed room.” – KEXP Blog
https://jasonmccue1.bandcamp.com
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are served in our Library Bar, open every Saturday night for shows.
Spring 2020 Wellness Retreat Series
CANCELLED
INNER SPACE:
Shamanic Hypnosis / Gathering Resources for Inner Healing
with Mali Drexelius
This retreat will explore tools that can help us to navigate the subconscious mind and our innate ability to self-heal. We will be learning practices from shamanic, hypnotherapy, and sound healing modalities to allow us to move into different states of consciousness. In these altered states, we can make beneficial changes, get in touch with our highest wisdom, and clear old belief systems and patterns that are no longer serving us. During the workshop, we will meet with some of your healing guides, as well as be learning practices for deepening our connection with spirit and our inner knowing. Breakfast will be provided Thursday and Friday, as well as dinner Thursday evening.
Mali Drexelius stumbled into the mysterious world of shamanism in 2010, when she was seeking help for anxiety and depression that had plagued her for years. She was surprised to find that it helped immensely, and so embarked on a long journey to train and study under many gifted healers, offering perspectives and techniques from many traditions. A later search led to a different, yet similarly framed processes found in Western culture — Clinical Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Repatterning. The synthesis of these different schools of thought have allowed for a reconcile between the profound metaphysical experiences with her inclination towards science, reason, and the biology of brain and body.
At current, Mali has been blessed with the opportunity to teach and see clients both privately and in groups, with the understanding that she is always a student. It is her hope to pass along the knowledge and resources she’s collected along the way so others may also find access to their own innate healing and self-care. It is her intention to always have a beginners mind, to follow an inner guidance, and to honor and adapt these ancient techniques to deepen our understanding of consciousness for ourselves and our planet.
WEDNESDAY
4-6pm
- Check in/get settled
6-7pm
- Meet and Greet with snacks
7-9pm
- KAVA Ceremony and Calling in the Spirits & Introduction to working with allies and self-hypnosis
THURSDAY
9-10am
- Spirit Plate, Simple Breakfast provided
10:30am-1:30pm
- Learning to Journey
- Guided Meditations/ breath work
- Meeting your allies Ritual for Intention
1:30-5pm BREAK TIME
Feel free to grab lunch nearby, or bring something for yourself to snack on. Also free time to sauna, go to the beach, rest, or request private shamanic session, etc.
5:30 Prayer ties and flower mandala ceremony
7:00-8:30pm DINNER
- Dinner will be provided and will be created to ensure that everyone can partake! (Please send us a list of allergies and food preferences!)
- If you feel called to bring a dish, salad, or donation for food, it will be graciously accepted.
8:30pm
- Burning our prayer ties and calling in ceremony on the beach nearby!
FRIDAY
9-11am Simple Breakfast
- Including tea, closing ceremony and goodbyes
12:00pm Check out
COST: $165 / Lodging separate
BRING: A journal, comfortable clothes for the weekend, and any instruments, rattles, drums, chimes, etc that may call to you if you wish to make sound with. You may also choose to bring extra blankets for the beach and/or to be cozy during our sessions. Please bring anything else that may help you be more comfortable in the Pavilion space…pillows, meditation cushions, layers for clothing etc.
We will be outside on the last evening, so be sure to bring coastal weather gear. We will have some meals, but please bring some snacks if you feel called to satiate you during the weekend. Please let us know ahead of time any food allergies or food preferences so we can plan our meals accordingly.
BOOK ONLINE by clicking BOOK NOW, enter the date range and the access code
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/wellness/retreats to see the full schedule of retreats.
The Cowtown Serenaders create collage-like performances blending song, story, and performance art, using puppets, props, accordion, musical saw, and more. The current show, called “A Trip to Cowtown,” features their Incredible Collapsible Magical Marionette Music Box, and was first performed as part of the Eureka Fringe Festival in 2019. It tells the story of Peggy Pilgrim and Toe-Tapping Tommy, two wandering spirits who become friends in a world where all travel and spontaneity has been banned by the Good Government.
Daniel Nickerson and Tayloranne Finch create work as the Cowtown Serenaders to combine their interests in music, art, storytelling and performance. Their recordings and shows are characterized by acoustic sounds, natural materials, and fable-like stories, woven together to create a living tapestry of alternative Americana. Based in Arcata, CA, the group produces their work at the Sanctuary, a community art studio and residency.
https://www.thecowtownserenaders.com/
http://thesanctuaryarcata.org/
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are available during the show in our Library Bar.
Join us at the Sou’wester for a special multi-media release show for Nick Jaina’s first-ever novel, Hitomi.
Nick Jaina was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award for his memoir Get It While You Can.
Now he has returned with a disarming work of fiction exploring the world of music and love and failure.
His live show mixes looped electric guitar and melodic solos using these as a backdrop for his captivating readings. It’s like if Thom Yorke and Jonathan Safran Foer were to compose a podcast right in front of you. The shows are hilarious, thrilling, and emotionally honest. Hitomi is a novel about a band touring the country while trying to understand what the point of it all is, and if they are ever going to find the elusive whale, or if there even is a whale.
Can you grieve someone without confirmation of loss? Can you love someone without possessing them?
All will be explored in this one-of-a-kind show on Easter Sunday.
Nick will be joined by drummer Daniel Charles Hunt who will play an opening set of improvised percussion before accompanying Nick on his songs.
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are available during the show in our Library Bar.
Portland OR based cosmic-americana-folk duo Dead Lee formed in 2017 when Brian Adrian Koch (current and founding member of Portland indie-rock band Blitzen Trapper) and partner, singer-songwriter Kara Harris, first started singing together for each other in their apartment. They soon branched to playing for friends at parties, special events and tribute nights before deciding to take their love of singing and playing together more seriously. For the last year and a half they’ve been playing all over the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana), Ireland and recently returned from a month long tour of Europe.
www.facebook.com/deadleeduo
www.instagram.com/dead_lee_duo
www.deadlee.bandcamp.com
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are available during the show in our Library Bar, open every Saturday night.