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!
Twin Bridges: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Twin Bridges is the solo work of Zach Gerzon, a Portland, Oregon based cellist. Twin Bridges is a blend of singer songwriter, cello driven songs, and live looped instrumentals.
Matthew Zeltzer: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Matthew Zeltzer is a Portland based songwriter, guitarist and producer. He is best known for his work with MAITA (guitar, production), and has toured the US and Europe both as a solo artist and sideman. His work has been featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered, Spin, and KEXP.
The Fourth Wall: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
The Fourth Wall was formed in 2011 on the island of Oahu. After releasing their first record (Motion & Rest), they quickly gained local notoriety, opening for visiting national acts like Andrew Bird, The Shins, and Menomena. In 2012, The band relocated to Portland, Oregon. Since their move, they’ve released two highly acclaimed records through Portland label, Bug Hunt. The Portland Mercury called their 2015 album (Lovely Violence) “something of a wonder: an engrossing, fully realized and vitalized record with no easy musical touchstone.” The band went on a few tours following the release of Lovely Violence and landed an opening spot with Band of Horses.
4th Annual ARTS WEEK!
During Arts Week The Sou’wester hosts 30-35 artists and art collectives for a week of residency work culminating in a weekend (Friday and Saturday) of music, studio tours, performances and installations.
Over the past 9 years we have held an event around this time of year to highlight the creative process and the experiential nature of the Sou’wester Residency Program. Each year this event brings amazing artists to this neck of the woods and shines creative light into the darkest heart of winter.
The focus of Arts Week 2023 is SHIFTING CYCLES:
“Our reliance on a known occurrence has been disrupted. This shift is replacing existing patterns and problems. Collective action and individual insight paving our path forward.”
On the weekend, Friday and Saturday March 17th and 18th, 2023 the public will be invited, free and open to all, to tour the grounds and surrounding areas for a weekend full of installations, music, performances and open studios.
(The Sou’wester has regular residencies offered year-round in addition to residency events such as the annual ARTS WEEK. Applications for the Sou’wester Standard Residency are separate from ARTS WEEK and accepted on a rolling basis.)
Thank you to our Arts Week 2023 Sponsors!
Henry Chadwick: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Henry Chadwick is a Portland, OR-based singer-songwriter, musician & recording producer/engineer from Santa Cruz, CA. Chadwick’s music dances between genres – landing somewhere between rock, indie, psychedelia, and shimmery, sunshine-tinged power-pop. After spending years drumming in roots rock band, The Coffis Brothers, Chadwick struck out on his own in 2016. Since then, he’s gone on to tour, release multiple albums & EPs, & garner attention from audiences as well as prominent blogs and outlets such as Rolling Stone, Time, Huffington Post, Indie Shuffle and more. Chadwick recorded his debut LP, Marlin Fisher, in 2018 with legendary record producer, Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Kurt Vile, Beck etc.). The album has met with a nice response from critics and listeners alike. Chadwick’s sophomore LP, We All Start Again was released on October 29th 2021, & is his most ambitious, mature and evolved sounding record to date.
Palm Sunday is a genre bending Portland based band spearheaded by songwriter Merle Law. They started this project in Atlanta GA in 2018 where they recorded the lofi debut EP “Wishful Thinking” later released in New Orleans LA. They are currently cooking up their first full length album recorded entirely to tape in Portland, OR. The counter jazz rhythms overlap with timeless ethereal songwriting. The effect of being elevated by something familiar. The melancholy, unconventional rhythm and tropical elements carry one another.
Jonny G and the Music Factory is a Hard Rock and Roll (some times soft) music group from
the PNW.
she began writing her first songs, influenced by indie & soul scene, mostly outside of Israel.
She listened to bands such as Radiohead and Modest Mouse amongst others, slowly developing her musical taste and honing her own style.
Since the release of her EP Keren’s songs were played in the famous radio show in London ‘Get In Her Ears’ and a lot of writers all over wrote about her music.
Sou’Wester Arts is delighted to welcome artists Lindsay Costello & Erika Callihan whose exhibition What Else is Here? will be featured in our Gallery Trailer & Red Bus Microcinema April 14 – July 6. We hope you will join the artists for an opening reception with coffee and galettes on Friday, April 14 from 11:11 a.m. – 1:11 p.m.
What Else is Here? will be the culminating body of site-responsive work created by artist-friends Lindsay Costello and Erika Callihan during a week-long residency at the Sou’Wester. They’re thinking about rest, play, trust, the writing of Annie Dillard, and nature as a resource in healing C-PTSD. The exhibition will include a textile piece, soundscapes, paintings, and process drawings, plus a separate activation of the Red Bus Microcinema with Lindsay‘s diaristic 8mm nature films. Visitors will be invited to engage with the exhibition and the surrounding landscape through various creative and somatic prompts.
Starting as a solo musician from late 2017 to 2021, Darla Rae (front person of Craetorus) has been making moves to push for inclusivity and diversity in the music scene since. Their lyrics are described as contemplative, with tinges of catchiness, but enough to leave you with catharsis and a yearning for self reflection. Musically sounding in the likes of jazz, r&b, psychedelia, prog rock and avant garde indie, they’ve somehow made a conglomeration of it all to make Craetorus’ sound distinct of others. Releasing their first single, “Ivy” in April of 2019, they’ve been on the path to musical discovery since with the recent support in May of 2022 from Jon Garber, Lychen Gipaya, Ryan Anthony Brooks, Nico Mitchell and Danilo Martinez. Catch them soon with an EP release in 2023 titled, “Odes”.
Eelgrass is a marine flowering plant 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 Willapa Bay. Eelgrass is also the name of a longtime musical collaboration between Lara Pacheco, Dan Swenson, Bobby Hayden and Todd Summers. They play folky-tonk-pop with psychedelic vibes and call Portland, Oregon home.
Kendall Lujan: Presented by Sou’wester
The striking talents of rising Portland talent Kendall Lujan will be impossible to miss in the coming year. Her indie-operatic voice stratifies songs through octave runs, making moody, melodic folk rock. Early 2023 we’ll have her first EP. To rise out of Portland’s flush music scene is no easy feat, Lujan has been making herself heard by singing harmonies in AC Sapphire’s backing band The Shoulderpads and now with a new duo with AC called “Caliko”.
In her latest project Lujan steps out in front of the band. Many folks introduction to Lujan will be “Another”, a song of lingering desire that floats Lujan’s vocal range over a small symphony of archtop guitar and strings. Her strengthy voice –which ranges from mountain holler to bird-like warble, seems to hang in the air. She sings a song about retracing steps to the point where love was lost, and resolves to regain that trail in another life.
Lujan opens the moody “Dot My I’s” solo, fingerpicking guitar, giving us a chance to hear her commanding voice. Layered vocals and gentle driven drums join Lujan in a pocket groove. Enjoy her lyricism as she asks “how can these memories be so sweet, and other times only sting?”Lujan comes to Portland from the upper-left-most corner of rural Washington. She’s had bands before but the time of the pandemic created an opportunity for Lujan to do things differently. She moved to Portland, and saw the isolation of relocation and lockdown as a chance to really dig into her own songs. The trained piano player picked up a guitar.
Lujan’s song’s concentrate on growing up, and figuring it out, and she turns experience into a story to make the point. The natural singer and songwriter put together a band with Micah Hummel (drums) Sam Arnold (bass) and recorded at the Map Room in Portland with Dominik Schmidt producing.
Lujan is peaking on “Forget Me Knots” , a crossover capable song incorporating elements of country, indie, folk, and pop. Crooning clearly over vibrato, reverb, pedal steel asking, romantically, “how long will it take for you to be sitting next to me?” with a release date of February 10th.
Lujan’s first self titled, EP Kendall Lujan is out march 2023.
~ Sean Jewell
American Standard Time Records