SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

Cynthia O’Brien is an artist of many facets — spiritual, musical and intellectual. She is soulful, passionate and easy to connect with, and the songs she shares range from whimsical originals to re-interpretations of ancient folk songs, 70s pop and smoky jazz standards. Her performances include songs about real life, love, regret, inspiration, midlife crises, parenting and contentment.

Cynthia started performing as a child in church, building skills on piano, guitar, ukulele and harp. Following her passion for music, she graduated from USC with degrees in choral conducting and journalism, leading her to be a music critic for Copley Newspapers, covering Los Angeles’ most prestigious operas, orchestras and choral performances. She directed a Spanish-speaking choir, Voces de Amor, in uplifting concerts for nonprofits serving Latino communities. Cynthia and her husband, Michael, relocated to the Northwest in 1996 to lead a spiritual community. She has since become an influential member of Portland’s music scene, helping build the new nonprofit Youth Music Project in West Linn, where she taught vocal performance, guitar and piano. From being a Copa Girl at Tony Starlight’s Supperclub and Lounge, to singing at weddings and open mics, Cynthia’s mission is to surprise and delight her listeners, mentor young musicians, and build friendships through music.

Chris Frimoth is a multi-instrumentalist and original singer/songwriter who grew up in the Portland area as the son of a minister/clown/radio host, and a writer/clown/wife. Chris is equally at home on keyboard, guitar, ukulele and melodica. Known to many as Chris Taylor, he has been a radio personality in the Portland broadcasting scene, and a DJ and professional emcee for countless weddings and events. Chris is the keyboardist/acoustic guitarist/vocalist for the Portland band HomeBrew; he also played for 13 years in a church worship band and has performed as a soloist throughout the Northwest. Under his Chris Taylor name, he released a solo album in 2012, “In Those Days.” He and his wife, Barb, are busy voiceover artists whose work is regularly heard on radio and television stations and many other multimedia presentations. And to keep things real, Chris is involved in his community as a part-time cashier for New Seasons Market.

As musical collaborators, Cynthia and Chris are collectors and re-imaginers of songs familiar and strange.  Their songs aim to cheer you up and calm you down. Having played in a variety of settings from wine bars to street fairs, they most enjoy the intimacy of small venues for the connection they can share with their listeners, creating space to reminisce, imagine, and enjoy a night of calm under the stars.

This event is free and open to the public

With songs as vivid as feature films, Seattle indie-folk duo, The Winterlings take listeners on
unexpected journeys soaring with astronauts above a warming planet, hitchhiking from Alaska with a
fisherman, fighting beside a female Civil War soldier, and walking deeper into the forest of human
existence. PASTE called their January 2016 release, You Are Acres, “a gorgeous follow-up to their
stunning debut,” and No Depression called their November 2016 album, Poems That Live As People,
“absolutely spellbinding.” Featuring male and female lead vocal and harmonies, guitar, violin, banjitar
and drums, The Winterlings build bonfires of sound to dance and dream beside.

Peterson’s solo work reflects the diverse nature of his musical interests; in one set listeners may hear hints of jazz, folk, country, pop, and classic blues mixed together in a way that listeners of any genre can appreciate. www.resolectrics.com
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Portland indie-folk songstress MAITA’s “focused, American realist psalm…sets her far apart from her indie contemporaries (American Standard Time).” Her debut EP, Waterbearer, is a rallying cry for the quiet warrior, the inquisitive seeker and the fierce lover. Produced by Matthew Zeltzer, mixed by John Askew (Neko Case), and featuring some of Portland’s finest musicians—Dave Depper (Death Cab for Cutie, Loch Lomond), Skip VonKuske (Portland Cello Project), Tucker Jackson (The Minus 5, The Delines), and Matthew Berger (Laura Gibson)—the arrangements on Waterbearer are minimalist yet rich, featuring hypnotic finger-picked guitar patterns flecked with washes of cello and guitar, with MAITA’s haunting melodies and beguiling poetry front and center.

Waterbearer stands as a testament to the beautiful mess that we call life. MAITA is an artist who understands the perilous act of creation and authorship, and we witness her lyrical negotiations of this on Waterbearer—the tenuous line between reverence and doubt, between worship and desecration. Her haunting voice and lush, off-center melodies guide the listener through her musings, at once deliberate and confessional. After years of writing and honing her abilities in private, MAITA has been sharpening her songs on the road, playing over 200 shows—including two month-long European tours—in 2016 and 2017.
MAITA is currently hard at work on her debut full length, which is slated to be released in 2018.
www.maitamusic.com
This event is free and open to the public

A night of readings, music, and discussions relating to or inspired by sorrow and miserableness.

This event is free and open to the public

Ora Cogan combines the intricate guitar picking of Americana with Psychedelic dreamscapes, drawing comparisons to 70’s folk legend Karen Dalton. She has shared the stage with the likes of Grouper & Hope Sandoval while touring extensively in North America, Europe and the UK.

Cogan’s new offering Crickets comes out November 2017. Co-produced with Tom Deis (Uni Ika Ai) in Philadelphia, Crickets inhabits a place between psychedelic folk, dark wave ambient and experimental dream pop. The album features percussionist Dani Markham (TuneYards, Childish Gambino), violinist Russel Kotcher (Chamber Orchestra of NY), and background vocalist Maia Friedman (Uni Ika Ai).

Cogan became a part of Vancouver’s eclectic music scene as a teen. She has collaborated with a multitude of artists including Frazey Ford, Indigenous performance artist Skeena Reece and Austrian Electro-Acoustic artist Daniel Lercher and has performed at Internationally acclaimed festivals such as Treefort, Sled Island, Serralves Festival in Portugal and Torstraßen Festival in Berlin.

“Multi-instrumentalist Ora Cogan makes gorgeous experimental folk compositions laced with hints of psychedelia, chamber pop, and rock.” – She Shreds

“Last month Cogan debuted “The Light,” the first single from her forthcoming release Crickets. It’s notably more up-tempo than her previous work, with heavy synth and multi-layered percussion weaving complex melodies like a spider tending to its web.” – Portland Mercury

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Tispur

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Bullets & Belles is Neo Doo Wop Folk. Think Amy Winehouse and Dion & The Belmonts, but also Simon & Garfunkel and Taj Mahal. Their performance effortlessly glides from hard hitting blues, to soulful doo-wop, to traces of country folk. Their sublime three-part vocal harmonies and deeply-felt poetic lyrics, paired with solid rhythms and well thought out vocal arrangements seamlessly bend through the rules of genre while always leaving the audience wanting (and often whistling…)

This event is free and open to the public.

The Sons Of Rainier are a recent collaboration of four musicians, Devin Champlin (Gallus Brothers, Crow Quill Night Owls), Dean Johnson (Lowman Palace), Sam Gelband, and Charlie Meyer (both of Honcho Poncho). They formed in a supernatural occurrence at the coziest of dimly lit bars in Seattle and bonded over a shared interest of singing together. The music rests on the foundation of Devin’s songwriting, and is brought forth with warm tube amps, Dean’s unpredictable, weeping guitar lines, a loosely tuned snare, upright bass, and close three part harmonies. It is 45 rpm folk music that is sweet and haunting. It’s a polaroid of a stolen slow dance.

This event is free and open to the public.