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!

Aug
12
Sat
Matthew Zeltzer plus Lucy Barna
Aug 12 @ 8:00 pm

Portland songwriter, Matthew Zeltzer (of The American West), emerged from a year of exile- living on an organic farm in Half Moon Bay, Ca raising chickens, writing songs about the apocalypse as a relationship slowly fell apart. He then puttered around Half Moon Bay, finishing the songs, before returning to Portland and forming his new project, The American West. It is these songs that fill his new release, “The Soot Will Bring Us Back Again,” which Frank Gutch Jr. (No Depression), calls, “Words to the wise. A warning. Beautifully done.” The Soot Will Bring Us Back Again is flecked with pedal steel and longing harmonies as the album drifts between finger-picked folk songs and raucous country-rockers, all while the focus remains on Zeltzer’s ragged poetry. 

 
Matthew Zeltzer has had the distinct privilege of sharing the stage with acts including The Milk Carton Kids, Jim Lauderdale, The Brothers Comatose, The T Sisters, Crow and the Canyon, Jaime Wyatt, and he is the former guitarist of Grammy Award winning Fantastic Negrito. photo by Caitlin Webb
 
***
 
Recently relocated to Astoria, OR from Santa Fe, NM, songwriter Lucy Barna finds roots in lyric, storytelling, and tales from the road.  
Best known for her airy vocals and poignant lyrics, Lucy has earned regional and national attention for her solo work as well as performance with award winning Hot Honey, a band she formed in 2012.  Hot Honey was named Best New Band, Best Alt/Country Band, and Best Rock Band in Santa Fe 2013, and will return for a short summer tour in 2017 bringing their well-loved Appalachian-Sass sounds to the Southwest..  Lucy’s solo work features self-taught guitar and banjo paired with subtle lyrical sense in songs about the heart and the emotions less spoken of .  Photo by Madeline Moore
 
this event is free and open to the public
Aug
15
Tue
Writing Through the Cracks: Self-Forgiveness & Compassion in Memoir Writing with Cooper Lee Bombardier & Gina Senarighi
Aug 15 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Workshop Series at The Sou’wester

Writing Through the Cracks: Self-Forgiveness & Compassion in Memoir Writing with Cooper Lee Bombardier & Gina Senarighi

 

‘Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”

– Leonard Cohen

To write about pivotal events from our own lives requires a reckoning with our pasts. How do we interrogate ourselves to get at the truth of our stories when the details do not always shine a glamourous light upon us? Writing Through the Cracks will give you tools to get vulnerable in your writing, scrutinize the past from a place of compassion, and help you to discover the story beneath your stories. Join educator, coach, consultant, and professional shame slayer Gina Senarighi and nonfiction writer and educator Cooper Lee Bombardier for an engaging, accessible, and intensive day-long writing workshop at the beautiful and historic Sou’wester Lodge. Writers of all levels are welcome!


Cooper Lee Bombardier is a writer and visual artist based in Portland, Oregon. His work appears in many publications and anthologies, most recently in The Kenyon Review, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, Original Plumbing, as well as the anthology The RemedyEssays on Queer Health Issues, (ed. Zena Sharman) from Arsenal Pulp Press. Cooper’s visual art was recently curated in an exhibition called “Intersectionality” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. He teaches writing at the University of Portland, Clark College, Portland State University, and at various Portland-area high schools as a writer-in-residence through Literary Art’s program Writers in The Schools. 

Gina Senarighi, MS, MA, CPC is a communication consultant, sexuality counselor and certified relationship coach specializing in queer love polyamory, open relationships, jealousy, and infidelity.  She’s been leading retreats to build courage and slay shame in LGBTQ community across Washington and Oregon since 2003.


COST: $30 ($50 for both classes)

(This workshop will run on Tuesday August 15th and also on Wednesday August 16th. The cost for each workshop is $30, but if students wish to take both classes, the returning students on Wednesday would receive guided writing time. and both classes together would cost only $50.)

BRING: an open mind, a couple of pens and a notebook or paper to write in/on. A legal pad with a cardboard back is ideal! Please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Hot tea and coffee provided.

 

All workshops are open to the public.

Workshop for students age 18 and older.

All Skill Levels Welcome.

RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542

 

Aug
16
Wed
Writing Through the Cracks: Self-Forgiveness & Compassion in Memoir Writing with Cooper Lee Bombardier & Gina Senarighi
Aug 16 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Workshop Series at The Sou’wester

Writing Through the Cracks: Self-Forgiveness & Compassion in Memoir Writing with Cooper Lee Bombardier & Gina Senarighi

 

‘Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”

– Leonard Cohen

To write about pivotal events from our own lives requires a reckoning with our pasts. How do we interrogate ourselves to get at the truth of our stories when the details do not always shine a glamourous light upon us? Writing Through the Cracks will give you tools to get vulnerable in your writing, scrutinize the past from a place of compassion, and help you to discover the story beneath your stories. Join educator, coach, consultant, and professional shame slayer Gina Senarighi and nonfiction writer and educator Cooper Lee Bombardier for an engaging, accessible, and intensive day-long writing workshop at the beautiful and historic Sou’wester Lodge. Writers of all levels are welcome!


Cooper Lee Bombardier is a writer and visual artist based in Portland, Oregon. His work appears in many publications and anthologies, most recently in The Kenyon Review, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, Original Plumbing, as well as the anthology The RemedyEssays on Queer Health Issues, (ed. Zena Sharman) from Arsenal Pulp Press. Cooper’s visual art was recently curated in an exhibition called “Intersectionality” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. He teaches writing at the University of Portland, Clark College, Portland State University, and at various Portland-area high schools as a writer-in-residence through Literary Art’s program Writers in The Schools. 

Gina Senarighi, MS, MA, CPC is a communication consultant, sexuality counselor and certified relationship coach specializing in queer love polyamory, open relationships, jealousy, and infidelity.  She’s been leading retreats to build courage and slay shame in LGBTQ community across Washington and Oregon since 2003.


COST: $30 ($50 for both classes)

(This workshop will run on Tuesday August 15th and also on Wednesday August 16th. The cost for each workshop is $30, but if students wish to take both classes, the returning students on Wednesday would receive guided writing time. and both classes together would cost only $50.)

BRING: an open mind, a couple of pens and a notebook or paper to write in/on. A legal pad with a cardboard back is ideal! Please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Hot tea and coffee provided.

 

All workshops are open to the public.

Workshop for students age 18 and older.

All Skill Levels Welcome.

RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542

 

Aug
17
Thu
Lindsie Feathers
Aug 17 @ 8:00 pm


“Sweetheart of The Rodeo” – Willamette Week

Lindsie Feathers is a rabble rousing honky-tonk woman that’s spreading her wings and trusting in the flight.  Her latest album, Neon Renaissance, was engineered and mixed by Adam Selzer at Type Foundry (Sallie Ford, Laura Gibson, Scout Niblet).  Her songs are about love, the life journey, our planet and it’s dwindling resources, connecting to our ancestors, and honoring our heroes.  

In the words of the Neon Renaissance creed, written to define the album: “Let us follow our dream, teach the earth, serve humanity.  We seek to love; not hate.  To heal; not hurt.  Let love prevail.”

Aug
24
Thu
Three For Silver
Aug 24 @ 8:00 pm

Three For Silver is post-collapse, post-apocalyptic, post-rock, post-everything. A freewheeling collective in which the only rule is to survive and perform, an elastic conglomeration of musical freaks as likely to be found in a grand theater performing for foreign dignitaries as busking on your street corner for spare change.  

Lucas Warford (vocals, basses) is the thumping heart of the band, a chugging diesel engine of bass and growl. “The acid baby of Tom Waits and Les Claypool,” as NW legend Baby Gramps once called him. His one-of-a-kind basses are the platform upon which he yowls and raps his end-time visions of the world. Willo Sertain (vocals, accordion) hails from the woods of North Carolina, her distinctively pure tones and haunting melodies act as a natural foil to the madness of Warford.  Greg Allison (strings, mandolin, arrangement) is the master of pure sound, beating the ungainly ideas of Warford and Sertain into something resembling songs. He writes string quartet arrangements like he’s writing his own name, and generally classes up the joint.

Three For Silver has hit the road since 2013, unleashing their idiosyncratic sound on over 200 audiences a year, blind to anything but the next stage, the next audience, the next night. With nary a manager or booker in sight, their monomaniacal devotion has already led them all over the country and the world, performing in clubs, bars, theaters, boats, festivals, farmer’s markets, living rooms, and most recently partnering with the US State Department for ongoing cultural exchange tours to other countries thirsty for truly original American music.

Whether live or on their new record, Three For Silver is a band for this moment, when it is hard to imagine the future and all too easy to focus on the past, when the rules no longer seem to apply, and when what you never thought possible is the only choice you’ve got.

 
Aug
26
Sat
Fermented Vegetables 101 with Sash Sunday
Aug 26 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Workshop Series at The Sou’wester

Fermented Vegetables 101 with Sash Sunday

OlyKraut owner, Sash Sunday, will present the basics of vegetable ferments. You will each make a batch of sauerkraut and a batch of brined pickles before the day is done. We will go through the basic sauerkraut and pickle making process, take a little dive into the science of fermentation, and discuss why probiotics are so awesome. Sash will also answer questions and go over some troubleshooting for your home ferments. Come with some jars and lots of questions! Sash will bring the veggies and some know-how.


Sash Sunday grew up in the PNW and, in 2008, founded OlyKraut to put her fermentation fanaticism to work building a food system that supports healthy people and farms.  OlyKraut makes delicious, raw fermented vegetables with mountains of local produce while sharing the wonders of probiotic foods with the community.  She has a BA from The Evergreen State College, and an MBA in Sustainable Systems and Certificate in Sustainable Food and Agriculture from Pinchot University.


COST: $30 plus $10 material fee (Please pay material fee directly to the instructor.)

BRING: 2 Quart Jars – Wide mouth. If you have a nice sharp chopping knife please bring one. Please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Hot tea and coffee provided.

All workshops are open to the public.

Workshop geared for adults.

All Skill Levels Welcome.

RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542

 
Matty Charles & Katie Rose
Aug 26 @ 8:00 pm

Matty Charles songs are often called “instant classics”. They take the stark simplicity of Johnny Cash, mix in Townes Van Zandt’s poetic sensibility and hold you to your seat with vocal harmonies worthy of the Louvin Brothers.

 

The Matty Charles & Katie Rose sound is deeply rooted in American country and folk traditions, evidenced by their close singing and Matty’s “church-lick-boom-chuck” guitar playing. Their songs speak of love and loss in such a timeless way that it’s hard not to relate if you have ever experienced either.

 

Their debut album, Catching Arrows combines the duo with an all-star band of americana/roots music luminaries and has been called, “a sublime listening experience.” and “a must have album.” (bealestreet.be) as well as, “the kind of album that can break out and surprise even the most jaded music critics.”

(kithfolk.com)

 

The admiration of fellow musicians and fans caused this duo to tour Europe in 2016 where they played to full houses and received glowing reviews for their performances.

this event is free and open to the public

 

Catch them live and hear how, “Charles and Rose prove that they may be among the best duos in the genre.” (Lambert Smits, keysandchords.com)

 

They also sing about Time Machines, birds and helicopters.

 

Aug
27
Sun
Run On Sentence
Aug 27 @ 8:00 pm

Formed in Portland, Oregon in 2007 and based on the songs of Dustin Hamman, Run On Sentence involves a rotating cast of musicians but most frequently is the core duo of Dustin (Guitar/Vocals) and Drummer Dan Galucki. Though the lineup shifts frequently, Dustin is always front and center, sharing his unique blend of intimate lyrics and dynamic musical amalgamations, often consisting of elements of Soul, Folk, Psych, Rock and Country. Over the years, Run On Sentence has shared members and stages with amazing Portland bands like Loch Lomond, The Builders and The Butchers, Laura Gibson and Wooden Indian Burial Ground. They’ve also been blessed to share the stage with some of their favorite national artists like, Rodriguez and Vic Chesnutt. The duo version of Run On Sentence will be performing at the Sou’wester on Sunday, August 27th.

This event is free and open to the public.

Sep
2
Sat
Cedar and Willow Tray with Donna Crispin
Sep 2 @ 9:30 am – 4:00 pm

Workshop Series at The Sou’wester

Cedar and Willow Tray with Donna Crispin

We will use locally grown willow and red cedar bark. Learn twining and plaiting while creating a tray, about 9”x12”. Beginners will do an over/under weave, while more advanced students can pick a twill pattern.   We’ll finish it with a lashed border around willow sticks from my garden.


“Eugene weaver and basketmaker Donna Sakamoto Crispin isn’t one to expound on the depth of meaning in each piece of her vastly diverse body of work. Rather, she is one of those rare, refreshing artists who allows a work of art to speak for itself–and, often, for her. Ms. Crispin’s art form utilizes traditional Japanese and Native American techniques passed down from generation to generation for hundreds, even thousands of years. She believes her work as artist and teacher is fundamental to preserving this craft which, outside of the realm of art, is largely obsolete.

But beyond these considerations–and we should hope every artist regards the heritage of their craft with such reverence–Ms. Crispin doesn’t get overly concerned with the details. “I’m just doing what I want to do,” she says. “I like to see what I can do with different materials. Often, I’m just responding to the environment.” This usually means she works with materials gathered sustainably, from leaves and pine needles gathered from the forest floor to painstakingly harvested strips of cedar bark.

But sometimes, Ms. Crispin creates a piece that seems to be in direct conversation with the world around her. As complex, intricate, and varied as all her work is, it is these landscape-inspired pieces that are arguably the best examples of Ms. Crispin’s artistry. While artist-in-residence at Playa Home in Summer Lake, Oregon, Ms. Crispin created Willow Pod, seen above, a living willow and red osier dogwood basket. The juxtaposition of basket and landscape reminds her, she says, of the Japanese concept of wabi, “a lonely sense of impermanence.” It is perhaps appropriate that all she need say in explanation of the piece is a single word, all others failing. Isn’t that, after all, why we create visual art in the first place: because explanations, summaries, generalizations–words–simply aren’t enough.” ~Luke Fannin


COST:  $50 plus $25 material fee (Please pay material fee directly to the instructor.)

BRING: scissors, awl, water bottle, old towel, and please bring a sack lunch and/or snack. Hot tea and coffee provided.


All workshops are open to the public.

All Skill Levels Welcome. Open to students age 16 and up.

RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542

Espacio Flamenco
Sep 2 @ 8:00 pm
 
Espacio Flamenco brings an all star cast to the Sou’wester for an intimate flamenco performance. Get ready to participate in the fun with shouts of approval (olé!), clapping, and even dancing for those who feel inspired. At the heart of the Espacio Flamenco’s experience are the soulful vocals of Moroccan born singer Randa BenAziz. Randa began her performance career at the age of ten and incorporates arabic and jazz influences into her flamenco interpretation. Espacio Flamenco musical director Brenna McDonald provides guitar accompaniment for the group. An accomplished soloist in her own right, Brenna has devoted her life to the study of flamenco music and dance and is one of the few female flamenco guitarists (“tocaoras”) in the world qualified to play for singers and dancers. Nick Hutch and Christina Lorentz bring the groove with top notch percussion and palmas (hand clapping) essential to Flamenco. Dancers or “bailaoras” Lillie Last, Montserrat Andreys, Kelley Dodd, and Christina Lorentz will charm and inspire, making for an unforgettable evening of flamenco!
 

Flamenco is an improvisational art form that combines song, dance, instruments (mainly guitar), hand clapping, and other percussion elements. Declared a World Heritage Treasure by UNESCO in 2016, Flamenco developed as an amalgamation of centuries of cross pollination between the many cultural presences within Spain and along Spanish trade routes. While it’s precise history is unknown, it is thought to be greatly influenced by the Roma people, called Gitanos, who migrated from Rajasthan to Spain between the 9th and 14th centuries, bringing with them tambourines, bells, castanets and a variety of songs and dances. The arm and hand movements of Flamenco closely resemble those of classical Indian dance. These traditions combined with the cultures of the Sephardic Jews and Moors make up the Flamenco we see today.

This event is free and open to the public