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!
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.
Workshop Series Winter 2020
Green Woodworking Basics: A 2-day Woodcarving Immersion with instructor Leslie Andrew Wolf Walters
11am-4pm class each day: Mon, Tues March 30, 31
canceled – Green Woodworking (noun): the process of carving and shaping wood before it has cured. Greenwood is easy to carve and offers a wide range of possibilities that cured wood does not.
Green woodworking is an immensely satisfying and inexpensive hobby. This two days workshop will teach you how to get started in this popular craft. The class blends demo time and work time in order to maximize learning. We take regular breaks for snacks and show-and-tell. You’ll leave the class with a head full of knowledge and a unique wooden spoon. All materials and tools are included with the material fee, with the option to purchase tools to take home at the end of class.
Day 1: Carving basics. Students will learn the basics of the green woodworking process: from log to finished product, while learning how to safely use a saw, hook knife and straight knife. We will discuss technique, tools and history, and why spoon carving? We will start by making chopsticks (a deceptively challenging project) and as time allows small stirring spoons.
Day 2: Hatchet skills and finishing projects. We will finish projects from yesterday, axe demo and eating spoons, we will discuss finishing techniques and decoration. We will also cover important topics such as where to source tools and wood.
Leslie Andrew Wolf Walters lives in Portland, Oregon and is a hand tool woodworker specializing in greenwood spoon carving. “I am inspired by Scandinavian folk art and the tools and skills used by people who once and still live in northern forests around the world. I have been obsessively carving for 7+ years, traveling around the country studying, learning and teaching spoon carving and traditional hand tool skills. I am also a founding member of the Portland Spoon Club a monthly get together giving spoon carvers and green woodworkers access to community and resources.”
COST: $100 plus $20 materials fee (Please pay material fee directly to instructor)
BRING: notebook and writing utensil, water bottle and snacks, work gloves (optional), whatever tools that you have that you want to talk about (optional). Please bring a sack lunch. Coffee provided.
This class is for students age 14 and up. 16 students max.
RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542 between 9am-9pm
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
This class is part of the Winter 2020 Workshop Series at The Sou’wester. All classes are open to the public and all skill levels welcome. Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/art/workshops to see the full schedule of artist-led workshops.
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.
Spring 2020 Workshop Series
Traditional Rug Hooking Workshop: Basics plus Embellishments with Heidi Grevstad
Join Heidi to get started on a stylized sunflower pattern. In traditional rug hooking (it’s different that the latch hooking you might remember from the 70’s), strips of wool fabric are “hooked” into cloth such as loosely woven linen or cotton. It’s a wildly creative craft. You don’t have to follow a complex written pattern, mistakes are easily fixed, there are no knots, and you can up-cycle woolen clothing into art.
While this workshop is suitable for beginners, those with experience will enjoy our exploration of color planning, how to hook letters effectively, use of creative stitches and embellishments, and how to turn a yardstick into a frame! If you already have a hook, small scissors and a hoop or frame, bring them to class. If you don’t have them, no worries! Heidi will have supplies for you to use in class. You’ll leave the class with the skills you need to complete this project at home.
Heidi has been creating hand-hooked rugs since 2004. Her work has been published in Rug Hooking Magazine’s Celebrations editions, and WoolWorks Magazine. She enjoys teaching new rug hookers. Her website is: www.portlandcottagewool.com
COST: $35 plus a $40 materials fee (Please pay material fee directly to instructor.)
BRING: All supplies provided. If students have a rug hook and/or frame, they should bring them to class. Small scissors are also helpful. If students do have hooks or frames, Heidi will have them available to use in the class. Students may also purchase a hook and/or frame if they would like to. Please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Coffee provided.
12 students max.
The class is very suitable for beginning students, but those who have taken a prior class will have an opportunity to learn some embellishment stitching techniques.
RSVP: souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542 between 9am-9pm
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
This class is part of the Spring 2020 Workshop Series. All classes are open to the public and all skill levels welcome. Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/art/workshops to see the full schedule of artist-led workshops.
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.
Spring 2020 Workshop Series
Accessing Ancestral Medicine: A Silent Writing Retreat with instructor Melissa Bennett
In today’s hectic world of information overload it can be challenging to find time for silence, contemplation, and reflection. In this silent writing retreat we will access the quiet of Seaview’s natural landscape to listen for and remember the stories of our ancestors. We will be guided by a series of writing prompts and will meet a few times throughout the day to share our writing and build community.
Melissa Bennett (Umatilla/Nez Perce/Sac & Fox/Anishinaabe), M.Div. is a writer, storyteller, story listener, educator, and spiritual care provider. She was a 2015 recipient of the Evergreen State College Longhouse Native Creative Development Grant, has previously published with The 3rd Thing Press, Yellow Medicine Review, and Indigenous Goddess Gang, and is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop – an association of socially engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity, and serve community.
COST: $45
BRING: Fast moving writing pens, a notebook you can get messy in, the willingness to share what you create, and an item or photo that connects you to an ancestor or ancestors. Dress weather appropriate. Please bring a sack lunch for yourself and optional snacks to share. Water and coffee provided.
This workshop is for students age 18 and over. 8 students max.
RSVP: souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542 between 9am-9pm
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
This class is part of the Spring 2020 Workshop Series. All classes are open to the public and all skill levels welcome. Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/art/workshops to see the full schedule of artist-led workshops.
Hailing from the Sierra town of Placerville, CA, Ms. Nelson wound her way down the hills and through the valley to land in San Francisco, spending the mid-2000s finding that the middle ground between electric folk and California pop is in fact a windswept urban hilltop with her five-piece ensemble Prairiedog, who released two albums in their time together.
Since moving on under her own name in 2014, Ms. Nelson has released two full-length albums on Burger Records, Fast-Moving Clouds (2015) and Oh, Evolution (2017). She has also earned a MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, and subsequently published Illuminate The Ruins in late 2018, a collection of poetry written throughout the previous year.
Her third with Burger, Weird Glow, released June 28, 2019. It’s a new approach for Ms. Nelson, foregoing the full band of the previous two records, and approaching this body of work with just one longtime-collaborator and an engineer/producer.
The result is a record that is more sprawling sonically and lyrically. The dreams are desert dreams, the longing almost tangible, but gone are the feelings of being trapped and the need to escape that we heard in 2015’s Fast-Moving Clouds. The riffs are heavier, the fuzz is thicker, the push/pull of a deep groove against a lilting lyric, more salient. There’s a hard-won comfort in the new record, a discovery of something that was maybe there all along but couldn’t be seen. Bright light, in Weird Glow, has burned through the fog.
—Christopher Wind
There is a pulsing radiance resonating from Sarah Bethe Nelson’s aptly titled third studio album, Weird Glow. You can hear it right from the first cut. “Desert Song” opens with instantly catchy electric guitar riffs – the ragged old amp distortion almost seems to be growling alongside her gauzy vocals in a beauty-and-beast contrast. There are other passages where her breathy singing recalls moments of bygone 1990s indie rock. The transcendent and catchy “Too Rich” invokes memories of the British C86 sound crosspollinated with the ethereal dream-pop of the same era. But Weird Glow is hardly an Anglophile’s affair.
Throughout this alluring album, Sarah Bethe’s native California roots vine upward and out toward the sunshine. With its subtle guitar jangle, delicately descending melodies, and romantic lyrics, the title-track taps into veins of yesteryear’s West Coast canyon-rock sound. “Sunspots” is a gorgeous and haunting standout with slowly building layers of sonic textures – it’s a bewitching and romantic dirge that begs to be placed in the love scene of a soundtrack to a cool independent film or new streaming series. If the plot of Stranger Things ever moves into the early ‘90s, this one would feel right at home.
Throughout Weird Glow, Sarah Bethe never succumbs to full blown retrospection, but manages to invite musical ghosts into her recordings for a sublime, spectral sound of warm familiarity. Van Morrison’s “Everyone” haunts “To Be Continued,” while traces of Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone” can be heard wafting from “Paralyzed Waltz.”
Where her former recordings involved a larger ensemble, Weird Glow takes a different approach with the sole accompaniment of multi-instrumentalist and longtime bandmate Rusty Miller, making for a more cohesive listen that dodges predictability. There’s an uncanny chemistry between them. In a live setting, they play together with an extra sensory perception in their communication that sounds like they’re reading each other’s musical minds. Miller’s parts garnish Sarah Bethe’s thoughtfully crafted songs with an extra dimension not heard in the tunes of her contemporaries. With this natural confluence, the slow burning groove of “Natural Disaster” somehow manages to balance naked vulnerability with armored confidence, all the while being catchy enough to put on a make-out playlist. She bookends Weird Glow with a smoldering epic – “8th and Hooper” plays for nearly nine minutes, taking the listener on a journey that stretches and winds through the sonic topographies of her musical soul. Vestiges of her former band Prairiedog surface here, laced with lovely guitar leads that dare to braid Ennio Morricone’s classic spaghetti western soundtracks with Galaxie 500’s hypnotic mantras of timeless guitar tones.
— Eric Shea
Photo by Jennifer Lewis
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This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!
Drinks are served in our Library Bar, open every Saturday night for shows.
Outdoor Concert with J Graves presented by Sou’wester Arts
J. Graves is passionate dance-punk. Tense relationship rock, sanguine lyricism, guitar music, chord changes that sound like 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.
Recently J. Graves has been featured in NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest who said of their song “Eleven”, “Pairs well with: dancing away from your mistakes…”, Vortex Music Magazine celebrated J. Graves as an “Artist To Watch”, and the band celebrated the end of a successful 2019 at the vaunted Portland venue Mississippi Studios. Against all odds, J. Graves is back in 2020, with a crushing new EP Deathbed, and a record label Illumin, that seeks to leverage community and technology to advocate for womxn and gender non-conforming artists.
This event is free, all ages, and open to the public.
photo by Sleeper Studios