SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

Tommy Alexander is the Portland mystic who may have made the best album of 2020. WAVES has become an essential part of our quarantine kit for it’s easy pace, Tommy’s calming baritone, and it’s shockingly prescient lyrics. For the past few years Tommy has been putting sweat equity into his independent booking agency Pilot Light, amassing an incredible roster of live acts, and helping them get out on tour. Booking at venues all over the northwest Tommy is one of those industry lynchpins who rarely get to stand in the spotlight, as they are busy helping others. In his enlarged, kind heart, though, Tommy Alexander is also a folk singer who deserves some shine.

Life is a trudge through a world we did not create, or ask to be born into. Humans are freaky arrangements of stardust shot out from the big bang, commingling as chance collections of atoms, nurtured by conditions impossible anywhere else in this ever expanding, empty universe; we are flesh bags animated by electricity that flows in such excess from our brains that the leftover electrons buzz around our skulls, swarming into a steady stream of stray signals known as the mind. For all our scientific advances, psychology tells us that the mind is completely separate from the brain, and it’s exact purpose is still not known. For most people the mind attempts to catalog and organize and impose some will on the passing of time, a sort of app for accessing the filing system of the brain. Because of it’s indeterminable nature, and it’s internal existence, though, most people simply compartmentalize or internalize what happens in their mind. But what if everything you go through personally is meant to be shared?

WAVES opens on the line “I been sittin’ alone with a troubled mind, thinkin’ bout better times / I’m pretty sure it’s too late to start this over…” loping along on backfire snare and an amplified acoustic riff, bemoaning stagnation. In early December 2019Tommy traveled to Enterprise, Oregon with various other Portland luminaries (TK & The Holy Know Nothings, to be exact) to record at OK Theater with Bart Budwig. He couldn’t have possibly known when he cut this, or the jam “End Of The World” that it, or something close to it — was right around the bend. That particular country-folk song is a presentiment to several points of view for what to do when…well, what seems like the end of the world nears.

But back to the mind: What if the refuse of failed relationships, decaying social contracts, and our own, crumbling, corporeal, carapaces are the compost fuel for the continuum –or betterment–of human life? What if lashing waves of guilt, anxiety, and depression are normal human experiences like happiness, togetherness, and success? What if we mistakenly imposed a value on success? What if failure holds the same secrets, and the same weight? What if you could offload it, organize it, source it, exchange it, craft it –all of it– into meaningful works of art? What the value of lived experience was the fact that it came and went in waves at all?

It seems like Tommy’s own hard working nature, musical contributions, and constant crafting have done just that. “Stone Fox” and “Whatever You Say” “WAVES” sit right in the middle of his album like the thesis statement I’ve been trying to write about his work. A brawler, a bawler, and a ballad about different levels of relationships — admiration and rock’n’roll, lived-in love and country-folk, and the title track: a woozy folk ballad for the worn. Where most artists catch a snag on trying to achieve a sound, Tommy lets the sound represent the song. Helped along here by Taylor Kingman (backup vocals, guitar), Adam Witowski (guitar, piano), Mike Coykendall (synth, bass, drums) Ian Wade (bass), Buddy Weeks (drums), Bart Budwig  (trumpet, engineering), and Jon Neufeld (mastering), the album shapes up as the work of other talented, if unheralded, utility players from the Northwest.

So much of WAVES will continue to accompany you after just one listen. “Tears” plays like a jukebox jingle, ready to spring on you when –inevitably– things get worse, and you find new ways to cry. “I Blame Myself” will be there when you lie down, and when you wake, encouraging you to take responsibility for what comes with the new day. As Tommy Alexander ends WAVES, it’s mystifying how he could’ve presaged the current collective mood with the short “Doing Things Together”, singing “Doing things together sure beats doing things away from you,  yes it’s true I’m missin you tonight…”

I’m not much for prophecy, but my mind surely wants to categorize this as an album to help us through hard times. Lately it seems everyone is experiencing loneliness, and despair, but they’re also finding ways to create opportunities for their community. Tommy Alexander’s WAVES comes from the few important things we’re left with when illusions crumble: a chance at self reflection, the opportunity to be of service to others, and lived experiences that make good art.

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. **

Portland’s Yaara Valey (formerly Indira Valey). No Me Tengas Miedo is an EP of textural surprises and casual wizardry. Four soundscape pieces that exist in the realm of artists like Julianna Barwick, Juana Molina, and Grouper.

Released on Antiquated Future Records and Spirit House. Limited edition second printing. Listen on Bandcamp.

“No Me Tengas Miedo feels in many ways like an exercise in surrender. It lulls us into an uncertain serenity, not tranquilized but clear-headed, before pulling us into a strange world with unfamiliar boundaries. It’s a transportive work, and one that you’ll find calling you back when you least expect it.” – Thrdcoast

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. **

Nina Yates: Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

Nina Yates is a Portland, Oregon based singer songwriter who pulls you into her stories with thoughtful and distinctive songs. A slow, tender and delicate drag, yet fierce with lived emotion, the wisdom of a mother, the comfort of a sister and the heartbreak of a daughter.

It didn’t occur to Yates to start writing songs until the day she first met her mother, when she was twenty-three years old. Since then she has been using songwriting to redeem hard times by turning them into beautiful artifacts.

Mama’s Heart, Yates debut LP, features ten beautifully crafted folk songs, of which eight were written for a weekly open mic song prompt hosted by Taylor Kingman (of TK & The Holy Know-Nothings) at the Laurelthirst Public House in Portland. 

As someone who has always been drawn to the sound of something older, folky and rural, Nina feels that songwriting is about connection and community.

The two remaining songs on ‘Mama’s Heart’ were collaborations with legendary Portland based producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Coykendall. Last year Coykendall generously offered his old songwriting notebooks and tapes to members of his songwriting community to salvage and recycle aspects and parts of songs to build new, finished songs. A project called Coykendall called ‘Seeds and Stems’.  

For lovers of songcraft, Nina Yates delivers a dose of much needed medicine on her debut record. Heartfelt and true, Nina’s voice and songs are genuine and unique, yet evocative of important songwriting heroes like Joni Mitchell and Gillian Welch.   

Faustina Masigat : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

Frustrated by academia and emotionally raw from a breakup, Faustina Masigat stepped away from her peers in her mid-twenties. She had come to realize that her personal and artistic maturation had been stifled by her relationships and her overly angular traditional musical schooling. She knew she needed to spend more time alone, committed to a process of unlearning, before she could move forward. As she peeled back the rigid layers of her youth, she began to write the songs that, a few years later, would make up her debut record. Seeking honesty over perfection, her approach to composition became much more intuitive; seated in the natural expression of not only her emotional life, but also that of a spiritual life, an expression of her own femininity, and a means of self improvement through self reflection. She became obsessed with the old, forgotten, second-hand guitars she would find in the “As Is” section of local music shops, believing that magic and songs still lived in the beat-up wood. One album track, “Willie Nelson”, manifested, fully formed, from one of these guitars – an ancient, labeless individual that she called “Red”. 

The songwriting on her self-titled debut is all at once heartbreaking, intelligent, meditative and elegant – centered around a voice that is difficult to attach genre to. There is a quiet intensity running through the world that Faustina creates: sweet and heavy, a touch of angst, brutally honest, smoldering. The album is understated, arranged as to allow Faustina’s effortless rapport with pedal steel player Tucker Jackson (The Minus 5, The Delines) to shine clearest. It’s a spacious and lush debut, with all of her vulnerabilities laid bare in songs hemmed together with fragile intimacy. 

Faustina Masigat is out now on Mama Bird Recording Co. It was recorded by Rian Lewis, mixed by Ben Nugent and mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk, all in Portland, Oregon.

Tommy Alexander : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

“Tommy Alexander’s WAVES comes from the few important things we’re left with when illusions crumble: a chance at self reflection, the opportunity to be of service to others, and lived experiences that make good art.” – Sean Jewell at American Standard Time

** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). 

Jason McCue is an indie-folk artist based out of Seattle, Washington. After moving to the city for college, Jason gained musical notoriety for competing and placing first in the MoPOP Sound Off! Competition for Pacific Northwest artists who are 21 and under. He went on to perform his set at distinguished festivals such as Bumbershoot, Timber Outdoor, and Doe Bay Festivals, and put out two records PANGAEA and WASTELAND off Portland’s treasured Fluff and Gravy Records. 

** Currently, this is scheduled to not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *

Jeffrey Silverstein is a songwriter living in Portland, Oregon. He has been making music for over a decade. Prior to relocating to Portland, Silverstein released music with Brooklyn-based duo Nassau and Baltimore’s Secret Mountains, projects who received praise from NPR, Stereogum and the New York Times. How On Earth (2019), his debut solo EP for Driftless Recordings, was developed as an artist-in-residence at the Sou’wester Lodge on the coast of Washington where Silverstein lived, wrote and demoed material inside a vintage Ford motorhome turned recording studio. 

In between solo tours, weekend runs and local performances, Silverstein laid groundwork for You Become The Mountain, his first LP for Arrowhawk Records (Spring 2020). Recorded and produced by Ryan Oxford (Y La Bamba, Matt Dorrien, Jacob Miller) at Color Therapy Recording, the nine songs that comprise YBTM are heavily inspired by the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, meditation, long-distance running and Silverstein’s work as a special education teacher. Expanding on the minimalist approach (guitar/vocals/drum machine) heard on How on Earth, Silverstein invited pedal-steelist Barry Walker Jr. (Mouth Painter, Roselit Bone) and bassist Alex Chapman (Parson Redheads, Evan Thomas Way) to round-out anincreasingly meditative sound. Led by the spirit of late Detroit musician Ted Lucas, Silverstein was moved to create an album featuring both instrumental and lyric-based compositions. Silverstein casts a wide net in 40 minutes, offering fans of both traditional and experimental folk entry points into his universe. Primarily tracked live and void of heavily processed sounds, the LP serves as a proper introduction to a songwriter who celebrates patience and restraint in the highest regard. 

** Currently, this is scheduled to not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting). If you are a guest staying with us, the show may be audible. *