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!
Live Music: Lindsay Clark and Half Shadow
7/20. 8p. Free
Lindsay Clark finds balance between traditional folk, English folk, country and her own version of experimental folk that seems to come from within. With influences ranging from the Beach Boys, Elizabeth Cotton, Joni Mitchell, Appalachian folk, her classical upbringing and her father’s record collection, she blends many worlds into a uniquely warm sound. She has carved out a unique and vibrant place as an artist with her penchant for poetry, rich harmony and a style of self-taught fingerpicking influenced by Nick Drake, John Fahey, and others.
Originally from the small gold rush town of Nevada City, CA, she now resides in Portland, OR. She has shared the stage with musicians such as Alela Diane, Adam Torres, Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), Ryan Francesconi (Joanna Newsom), Jolie Holland, and Michael Hurley. Her sound has been described as “folk with angelic vocals washing over smooth edges” (1859 Magazine), with her recent album Carpe Noctem called “stunning” by NPR Music. The album features William Tyler, Alela Diane, Sage Fisher (Dolphin Midwives), & Andy Rayborn (Paper Gates) and was engineered, co-produced, co-arranged with Jeremy Harris (Fruit Bats / Hand Habits). She has also recently contributed to Michael Hurley’s latest release, Time of the Foxgloves.
For the past decade Half Shadow, the midnight-blue songwriting moniker of Portland’s Jesse Carsten, has been unfurling an enigmatic, windswept music: equal parts earthen folk and cosmic rock and roll, with a primal pop experimentalism seeping from the edges. Wedding an expansive, transcendent poetics to a fiercely home-spun aesthetic, Carsten creates joyful, eclectic song-collages that embrace the experimental singer-songwriter tradition of the Pacific Northwest while enfolding an array of canonical art-voicings; songs range from abstract finger-picked poems to heart-tugged acapella treaties and repetitive art-rock incantations. Half Shadow’s performances are recognized as deep feeling, immersive events. The Portland Mercury has praised Carsten’s shows as “invariably powerful, full of wonder, and unlike anything else.”
Following a steady string of homemade cassettes, CD-Rs, and digital one-off releases, Carsten birthed the first fully formed Half Shadow LP in 2019, Dream Weather Its Electric Song, which was hailed by Antiquated Future as “a carefully thought-out work…of poetic devotionals to the natural world, the subconscious, other realms.” The record was celebrated for its ability to work tangible magic. As Queen City Sounds put it, Dream Weather deconstructs “familiar songwriting styles, bringing the logical mind into alternate pathways of operating.” Following Dream Weather, on which Half Shadow toured in late 2019, and which after followed the world-crashing pandemic, Carsten released At Home With My Candles (Bud Tapes/Dove Cove Records), an album of mythopoetic paeans to the domestic uncanny, the mysterious and unseen worlds experienced at home. Expanding the project’s intimate poetics into something more sonically encompassing, Carsten conjured intimate folk song epics, lo-fi dirges, and primal pop experiments that effectively connect the domestic and the cosmic, the ordinary and the surreal. The album displays, according to Various Small Flames, “an uncanny marriage between personal insight and a wider mystical experience” and was celebrated by a small but fervent cadre of international listeners in the know.
Carsten’s non-linear and environmental dream-lyrics place him in the company of like-minded contemporaries such as Mega Bog’s Erin Birgy, Yves Jarvis, and Ruth Garbus, for whom songwriting is an attempt at surreal levels of poetic feeling. Having been called “one of Portland’s best kept secrets,” it is paradoxically Half Shadow’s mystery-inspired, DIY ethos that spirits Carsten’s ever-evolving project out of the home-recordist’s cave and onto more illuminated stages. When it does, Half Shadow is ready to wrap listeners in the dark, sparkling hues and mossy undergrowth that have become the poetic trademark of this singular undertaking.
Kinsey Lee Presented by Sou’wester Arts!
Kinsey Lee is a member of the American indie folk band, The Wild Reeds. The Wild Reeds are known for their beautiful harmonies, poignant lyrics, and captivating performances. Kinsey Lee’s vocals are a central part of The Wild Reeds’ sound. She contributes her distinct voice and songwriting abilities to the band’s repertoire. With 10 years of writing, touring, and performing on her resume she has begun to find her voice as a solo artist. Kinsey recently debuted her first solo track “Lover’s song” recorded by Duff Thompson and Steph Green of Mashed Potato Records. She is currently working on a record as a follow up. Kinsey hopes to be like Bonnie Raitt, Carole King, Brandi Carlile, and Lucinda Williams when she grows up. Musicians with strong lyrics, true grit, and a heartfelt story to tell.
Live Music: Ezza Rose
8/17/2024 FREE AND OPEN TO ALL at The Sou’wester Lodge
Sunbathe and Strange Pilgrim
live at The Sou’wester Lodge 9/7/24
Free and open to the public
Sunbathe and Strange Pilgrim, two indie rock projects exploring themes of displacement and longing, are joining forces for a stripped-down duo show. Maggie Morris, the driving force behind Sunbathe, is known for her raw, soaring vocals and dynamic songwriting, spanning dreamy pop to garage rock. Josh Barnhart, the multi-instrumentalist behind Strange Pilgrim, creates psychedelic-infused soundscapes and introspective lyrics that evoke both the natural world and the anxieties of modern life. Together, they promise a unique and intimate performance, blending their distinctive styles for a memorable evening.
Olivia Awbrey Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
9/21/2024
Free & open to the public
Olivia Awbrey is an Oregon-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose work blends traditional folk with modern indie-rock and fingerpicking blues. She has released two EPs, one full-length album, and is the recipient of arts grants from RACC, the Grammy Foundation, and Oregon Arts Commission. Her debut album, Dishonorable Harvest (Quick Pickle Records), showcased at festivals and venues across the Pacific Northwest and the UK. She lives in Willamina, Oregon.
E. Ellison Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
10/5/2024
Free & open to the public
Previously under the moniker Cardioid and former Radiation City member, this new project from Lizzy Ellison is wrought with self discovery (not unlike previous works), but prodding deeper into the connection we have between the creation of music and ourselves. Her new record, Pillars, evokes a semblance of control, when in fact during the creation of it, her life felt contrary to this. The process was long as she allowed the songs to take shape in their own way, attempting to decode her methods in song-writing and creating new recording practices. Staying true to the autobiographical form Ellison typically shares, these songs ebb and flow through different terrains of darkness and light, hope and despair, discomfort and peace, while describing the details of her life, and more specifically the struggles. Textural is an understatement; almost bizarrely architectural in form. At times predictable, alluring the listener, but often with questions unanswered. The palette of instrumentation is voluptuous and colorfully rich, using a classical acoustic guitar as the main inspiration and augmenting this with synths, layers of choral vocals, piano, fuzzed-out electric guitars, and raw lead vocals using as little effect as possible. Pillars will be out this fall via Doe Records, Ellison’s Portland based record label.
Amos Heart Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
10/19/2024 | 8pm
Free & open to the public!
https://amosheart.bandcamp.com/album/the-house-on-the-hill
Amos Heart is a songwriter from Portland, OR now based in the city of Eugene, OR. Collaborating with modular synth artist Ann Annie, Heart and Annie created The House on the Hill, a personal look at the life of Heart.
Forest Veil Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
11/2/2024 | 8pm
Free & open to the public!
https://forestveil.bandcamp.com/album/caldera
Caldera (EP) is Forest Veil’s most recent release with Spirit House Records, the label she co-founded with Johanna Warren in 2016. Caldera was born during an Artist-in-Residency at Caldera Arts– an arts and environmental immersion program in the mountains of Sisters, Oregon.
Forest Veil’s music has been synched in ads, movies, and TV shows such as NBC’s The Black List. An avid guitarist for over 25 years, Metzler also plays piano, synths, flutes, and percussion. She currently plays drums in the all femme band, Pool Boys.
A BEAT HAPPENING Presents LUVJONEZ x CANDID RAMBLINGS Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
11/9/2024 | 8pm
Free and open to the public!
A BEAT HAPPENING: A Beat Happening is a free, monthly, all ages, all genres, all identity inclusive music producer and DJ showcase based in Portland, Oregon.
LUVJONEZ: Luvjonez is a Puerto Rican instrumental hip hop music producer based in Portland, Oregon. He weaves a nostalgic and downtempo blend of musical influences from his cultural roots, extensive travels, and multimedia visual art practices. His instrumental tracks combine Down South, East Coast, Pacific Northwest elements and ancestral Caribbean vibes, creating a genre-defying mix of lofi, jazzy, downtempo, and boom bap styles.
CANDID RAMBLINGS: Candid Ramblings represents a mix of the “dirty south” and the dusty southwest. Hailing from Lake City, Florida and El Paso, Texas, she’s a former college basketball player chasing her music and poetry dreams through deeply personal lyrics, and a blend of fun upbeat songs and insightful, chill vibes.
Helen Gillet Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
11/16/2024 | 8pm
Free & open to the public
Helen Gillet is a musician, composer, cellist, singer (Belgian French & English), improviser and
looping artist. Her prolific career has won her awards of Offbeat Best of the Beat, Gambit Big
Easy Awards, featured artist at the New Orleans Jazz Museum and has been nominated three
times, most recently in 2023, as a rising star in Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll. She has
played, recorded with many musicians over the past 20 years, including members of the Sun Ra
Arkestra, AACM (Chicago), ICP (Holland), Members of Morphine, Kidd Jordan, Marianne
Faithful, Cassandra Wilson, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, Steve Earle, Iron & Wine (North
America Tour 2018), Zachary Richard, opened up as a solo artist for Les Claypool at the
Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans in 2003 and Jeff Tweedy at Lincoln Center in 2019. She has
performed at a variety of festivals and venues worldwide including the Copenhagen Jazz
Festival, Dark MOFO Festival in Tasmania, Darwin World Music Festival, New Orleans Jazz
Festival, New Direction Cello Society Festival at Berkeley College of Music, Kennedy Center
and at The Big Ears Music Festival in 2024 and many more.
Helen Gillet is a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds,
texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello. For someone with her varied background, New
Orleans, with its mix of cultures and musics, seemed like a natural place to call home.