Each March The Sou’wester is given over to 30+ artists and art collectives for a week of residency work culminating in a public exhibition of performances, installations & studio tours. Arts Week highlights the creative process and experiential nature of the Sou’wester Artist Residency Program. Arts week 2024 hopes to create communal movement from the confluence of individual flow states. Through each of our visions, we come together to share in making something bigger. How does this energized space wash back on us? How does it inspire us, heal us, move us towards a sense of belonging? What do we take back from this exchange to seed  our own revisioning?

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC MARCH 15-17

FRI, 6-10p @ ILWACO ARTWORKS
SAT, 10a-12p @ WAVE PRESCHOOL
SAT, 12-10p @ THE SOU’WESTER
SUN, 11-1p @ ILWACO ARTWORKS

Schedule and itinerary TBA

Lili St. Anne: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Elizabeth Margit-Anne is the frontwoman of Lili St Anne, a Santa Fe-based art-folk trio that combines the excitement of psychedelic rock with the groundedness of Elizabeth’s folk songwriting. When performing solo, Elizabeth shares the intimacy of her songwriting with grit and grace, exploring themes of love, loss, and grief with a heart-swelling verve. For fans of Laura Gibson, Big Thief, and Sharon Van Etten. Elizabeth grew up coming to Seaview many times a year, and the Sou’Wester holds a very special place in her heart. She is thrilled to be performing here again. Follow Lili St Anne on social media for shows and news of upcoming dual-single release, Water Songs, in Spring of 2024.

Eugenia Riot Live at the Sou’wester

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Portland, Oregon based songwriter Leigh Jones makes a dazzling turn with her latest folk creation: Eugenia Riot. The name was taken from her eldest-known female ancestor, who was born in the year 1205 in Yorkshire, England. An internationally touring musician with a background in theater, Jones delights audiences with her irresistible stage presence and enrapturing voice. She has spoken at the US Embassy in Ethiopia on Women in Music, was selected with her former band Crow and the Canyon for the American Music Abroad program, and has toured the US from coast to coast since 2010.  

She grew up in North Carolina and went on to earn a drama degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her time immersed in the diversity of NYC’s music scene sparked a passion for songwriting, and she was eventually lured to the magic of the Pacific Northwest, where continued to maximize her versatility as a musician. With her former bands, bluegrass outfit Crow and the Canyon, and harmony-driven folk trio Five Letter Word, Jones moved easily from strings to percussion, occasionally throwing on tap shoes to round out a performance. 

Her pandemic-born solo project, Eugenia Riot, explores the crescendos of love, heartache, and the human condition through infectious melodies and a self-examining pen. Featuring Abby Gundersen (Phoebe Bridgers, Noah Gundersen) on strings, Eugenia Riot’s debut album, Can’t Wait To Miss You, is both gentle and fierce, playful and romantic – an engaging blend of folk, rock, and pop.

Drew Martin Live at the Sou’wester

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Drew Martin is a songwriter from Maui, Hawaii. Multi-instrumentalist playing a variety of 12 string guitars, harmonicas, and ukulele. Songs inspired by nature.

Andrew Jones: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Since arriving in Portland in 2009 the multifarious bassist, composer and songwriter has been hard to pin down, working with an incredibly diverse roster of artists. His unique sense of musicality has found a home playing and making records with songwriters, rock bands, jazz composers, avante-improvisers, and hip-hop and live electronic acts. Jones has also collaborated with dancers and visual artists as well as visiting experimentalists and theater productions via the Improvisation Summit of Portland and Time Based Arts Festivals. Outside of the NW, Andrew has had recurring work with artists from New York and Los Angeles, most recently an international touring stint with acclaimed songwriter/composer Julia Holter. The two connected when Jones’ opened for her with his own project, The Crenshaw, with drummer Chris Johnedis. That duo’s full length album features Jones singing darkly comic and cathartic lyrics in counterpoint to upright bass ostinatos, off-kilter beats and psychedelic synth samples. For his forthcoming record, Andrew has been working under the name ‘and/or you’ with Mike Lockwood on drums. 

Kendall Lujan: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Portland, Oregon based artist, Kendall Lujan embarks on her first full length album “Lucky Penny’ it is set to be released Fall 2024. After releasing her Debut self titled EP last Spring, featured on official playlist for Spotify and Apple Music. Lujan also gaining attention from NPR’s Tiny Desk, MTV and winning the John Lennon Songwriting contest. Sharing the stage with Amos Lee, Frazey Ford (of The Be Good Tanyas), Allie Crow Buckley, Early James, and The Magnetic Fields.

‘Lucky Penny’ features many genres Including Jazz, Folk, Bosa Nova and Indie-Rock. The natural singer and songwriter put together a studio band with Micah Hummel (drums), Colin Schmidt (bass) and Alex Milsted (piano) and recorded at the Map Room Studio in Portland, Oregon with Dominik Schmidt producing.

Her writing is real, introspective and reflective. After touring the songs in Europe twice this past Fall Lujan is ready to show her versatility and growth as an artist. The first single to be released late March 2024 titled ‘Goodbyes’. The song explores mourning and loss of important people in your world. In the sense of ending romantic relationships it explores the process of knowing when someone isn’t suited for your life or growth any longer. Lujan writes “I wrote this song to remind myself that even though things are hard you will meet those people who stick around eventually.” Even though people come and go in your world, remembering that there will be lots of cries and laughs on your journey to finding those people who see you for who you are. The main hook stating: ‘it takes a lot of goodbyes to get to forever. Lujan is set to tour Germany, Austria, and Switzerland again fall 2024.

LIVE AT THE SOU’WESTER LODGE

Bird & Willow

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Bird & Willow: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Born into a large musical family at the intersection of Bird Avenue and Willow Street, Shiloh and Jared started to write songs in their teens in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Inspired by 90s soft rock as well as folk duo acts like The Weepies and the Oh Hellos, the songs took shape around Jared’s multi-instrumental arranging abilities and Shiloh’s penchant for melodic storytelling and wordsmithing.

Bird and Willow cut their teeth on the indie circuit in San Jose, CA, playing everywhere from unplugged house shows to local street festivals which attracted thousands. Before long they were opening up for touring stops in San Francisco, supporting some of their favorite songwriters like Zach Winters, Tyson Motsenbocker, and Mike Edel, as well as bands such as Sherwood and The Collection.

Shiloh and Jared have now each made a home in the Pacific Northwest, and have been caught up in the thriving Portland music scene. On their most recent release, More Awake Now, the core threads of story-songs drenched in larger meaning have been joined with dreamy guitars, orchestral strings, and the lush production of Justin Kawashima.

Girlgoyle: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Girlgoyle is a band based in Portland, Oregon. Their sound and songs are inspired by longing for and loving the desert, softness and the opposite, and Land of Talk. 

Saroon: Presented by Sou’wester Arts

Saroon is the genre-fluid creative outlet for the prolific multi-instrumentalist producer/composer ayal.  The project is founded on the idea that genuine self expression can act as a beacon for others to relate, and actualize themselves.  Over the last year Saroon has released diverse albums such as Gilgul, a piano based instrumental album that describes the process of reincarnation starting at the moment of death and ending at conception; ODDDITTIES VOL.1, an electro-pop album comprised of a collection of songs written for his songwriting podcast Honest Jams; and Dive 1, a collaborative ambient album in which ayal collaborated with members of Bathysphere records who made improvised beds of synths on which ayal recorded clarinet arrangements.  Through the music, ayal attempts to express the breadth of experience, from existential grief, to the silliest relief, to the hearts of the vulnerable, and the first cat in space, and what it means to live the lives, and the deepest connection, and waffles.