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!

Dec
12
Sat
Music: Saroon & Isabeau Waia’u Walker @ The Sou'wester
Dec 12 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
 
 
Saroon & Isabeau Waia’u Walker : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts
 
Ayal Alves was born in a settlement 10 families large in the middle east to parents from the northern and southern halves of the other side of the world. His family immigrated to southern Oregon at the age of 5 and he quickly found music as the only grounding force in an alienated, if optimistic worldview. After 13 years of formal training on various instruments, a feeling of emptiness permeated his musical experience and he sought to discover whether music was merely something he did, or really who he was. After six months of silence, a song came out. What has followed is a spiritual quest to channel truth through sound around the globe. A belief that genuine expression of vulnerability and truth has the power to resonate in others, to bring them to healing so that they may express their own deep sense of self.
 
Ayal’s latest offering is a record made during the global pandemic. This Is Not The End Times I Was Promised is a record of songs that all had their origin at the vibrant community of the Laurelthirst Public House Open Mic, a weekly open mic that encourages its members to be actively creating by giving a new songwriting prompt each week. With each song conceived in such specific moments, this record viscerally captures the tenor of the time between Fall 2019 and the Summer of 2020, reflecting the chaotic events of history and cycles of the inner and outer worlds. It begins free spirited, with a traveling song (In A Prism) written after arriving home from tour, which includes a sort of life thesis: “You’re never too old to live a life you guided, never too young to try. You’re never so strong that you can rely on only the strength inside, we need other people sometimes”. The songs go inward, exploring the nature of the self (The Jungle), the blissful/relentless flow of existence (Black Hole), the projection of the self onto others in intimacy (Pebble and Lyle) and a call for all individuals to work on themselves to create a life and culture they truly value and want to exist in (Show Me Who You Are). Then a pandemic hit the globe and all expectations for how life was to move forward were shattered (Mundane, This Is Not The End Times I Was Promised) as systems burst open and a social revolution took hold (Seeds Scattered In The Spring). So here we are. See the seam between your future and the dream. Feel the feeling, connected and alone. The muse is always watching.
 
Isabeau Waia’u Walker
Remembering the name Isabeau Waia’u Walker won’t be as hard as you think. Her sound is the sweet collision of breathtaking honesty, soulful journeying, and spiritual seeking. The groove of her rhythms and the swell of her poetic expression come like the waves on her native isle of Maui. On the parts of that island that no tourist ever sees, Isabeau grew up finding solace and freedom in playing her guitar and putting to words to the beauty and chaos of a hapa haole adolescence, then early adulthood, and right on into the sweet and wild unknown of now. There’s heartache and longing, passion and love, tension and peace in her lyrics and her melodies cross the lines of culture and delve into dirt and treasure of human experience, emotion, and dreams. She’s different and you’ll feel it.
Although her name may be new to most, she is well seasoned and rich in experience as she has been sharing her music in person and online for the last 15 years. A once teacher moonlighting as an indie musician, after a decade in education, this last year she took the mighty leap into full time music and joined the eclectic indie folk band Y La Bamba on tour. Now Isabeau has ventured out to record a solo album with the help of her band mate and sound engineer, Ryan Oxford.
 
Isabeau found The Center for Sound, Light and Color Therapy an ideal space to give her songs their proper treatment and the added dimensions she was looking for. Collaborating with Nick Dewitt and Andrew Jones and their instruments, she is bringing her heart and the weight of all she carries with her right to your listening ears, so get ready to be honored and delighted.
 
 
** 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. *
Dec
19
Sat
Music: Nina Yates @ The Sou'wester
Dec 19 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

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.   

Dec
26
Sat
Music: Faustina Masigat @ The Sou'wester
Dec 26 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

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.

** 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. *
Jan
2
Sat
Music: Tommy Alexander @ The Sou'wester
Jan 2 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

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). 

Jan
9
Sat
Music: Jason McCue @ The Sou'wester
Jan 9 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

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. *

 

Jan
16
Sat
Music: Jeffrey Silverstein @ The Sou'wester
Jan 16 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

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. *

 

Jan
23
Sat
Music: Joshua Thomas @ The Sou'wester
Jan 23 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Joshua Thomas : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

Joshua Thomas (born Joshua Thomas Schurr ; January 22, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter based in Portland, OR. He has independently released 2 EPs and a full-length album, Sleep Like The World (2010), Halfway (2012), and The Harboring (2014). The first EP and the full-length (Halfway) were released under his given name, Josh Schurr, before he decided to produce all future projects under Joshua Thomas. His first work under that name is a 6-song EP, The Harboring. Thomas has released five singles over the last two years and is at work on a new EP.
** Currently, this is scheduled not as a public event, but a live stream from the outdoor stage at The Sou’wester (weather permitting).
Jan
30
Sat
Long Gone John : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Jan 30 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 

Long Gone John : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts

A hard travellin’, folk singin’, blue feelin’, fingerpickin’, tall tale teller currently based in Portland Oregon. Inspired by aimless travels and the never-ending argument between the head and the heart; Long Gone John has found his voice in the humor of it’s troubles and recklessness of their beauty.

Once steeped heavily in the lush music scene of the Green Mountains; John was the creative force behind local favorite Tallgrass Getdown. Drawing from influences such as The Wood Brothers, The Devil Makes Three, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, The Band, Little Feat and many others, John wrote songs that were edgy, honest, soulful, and deep with a timeless element that somehow meshed seamlessly with carefully chosen covers and adaptations of traditional songs.

In 2015, he decided it was time to hit the road indefinitely. Trading rambunctious crowds at local dives, venues, and festivals for a fresh perspective on himself and his music. The long rambling prairies in the Midwest, the rocky mountains of the great divide, the deep borderlands of Arizona, and the unforgivingly beautiful pacific coast became his audience. After years of travelling, picking, contemplating, and working odd jobs all along the way he’s landed in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

“Creating absolute beauty in each piece of music that he touches.” – No Depression

“{LGJ} Coasts effortlessly upon a wave of rhythm and warmth, skillfully weaving notes into precious tapestries of sentiment that comfort the soul as much as they get one’s toes tapping.” – Music Connection Magazine

“A man who becomes transformed in song, swept away to another land.”- Ryan Oxford(Producer, Songwriter, Musician, Y La Bamba)

 

** 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. *

Feb
6
Sat
Jacob Miller : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Feb 6 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

 
Wisconsin native Jacob Miller left his hometown for Portland, OR the summer of 2009 via Amtrak, bringing with him only a suitcase and an electric guitar. After one year in the city he left to travel North America, both to study and perform music while working on various farms and ranches between travels. Time spent as a farm hand in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina shaped his devotion to the finger-picking style of the region. Spending countless hours playing alongside vintage recordings and with local old-timers in the surrounding areas of Appalachia, Miller delved into the inner workings of the music’s style and history.
 
After 7 years leading a jazz sextet and performing both internationally and throughout North America, Miller now focuses his efforts on a different kind of songwriting and storytelling. Whether it be playing for thousands at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall or for 5 people in a Midwest living room, Jacob’s passion, voice and laid-back demeanor create an intimate connection with audiences far and wide.
 
With an affinity for minimalist pop and firm roots planted in American traditional music, Jacob Miller crafts a timeless sound unique to his voice, style and abilities.
In 2019, Jacob released and toured his debut record, ‘This New Home,’ across America and Europe to much acclaim. In 2020, Miller was also a featured performer on NBC’s The Voice; working with Nick Jonas and James Taylor.
 
In May 2020, Jacob released two singles to follow up his debut album. “Quarantine,” out now, is a collaborative project accomplished through isolation during the period of COVID-19 and shelter-in-place. It features 2 new singles, an accompanying music video, and a cast of PNW artists.
 
** 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. *
Feb
20
Sat
Sallie Ford : Live Stream presented by Sou’wester Arts @ The Sou'wester
Feb 20 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

(Live Stream) Sallie Ford at The Sou’wester

Sallie Ford grew up in Asheville, North Carolina before moving to Oregon.According to singer Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers, Ford’s songs have that “rare quality of somehow combining fun with emotional and artistic integrity” and she “fills the room with it” and reminds him of the “energy of early rock ‘n’ roll.

** 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. *