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!
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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This event is free and open to the public
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.
3rd Annual Handmade Bazaar at The Sou’wester
ANDREA MAZZARELLA (Astoria, OR)
Matt Dorrien is a songwriter currently living in Portland, Oregon. Having self-released two albums under the moniker Snowblind Traveler, he now looks forward to the premiere of his most personal album to date, which will be released under his own name early next year on the Portland-based label Mama Bird Recording Co. His music has been described as timeless and heartbreaking, and his songs reminiscent of the work of artists like Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and Carole King: A tribute to the golden age of songwriting.
This event is free and open to the public
Lorain (formerly Grand Lake Islands) is a recording, performing, and head-clearing project of songwriter Erik Emanuelson and instrumentalists Bob Reynolds, Joseph Anderson, and Robin Bacior.
They play woozy American music. Emanuelson’s expressive tenor, recalling ghosts of Nashville Skyline era Dylan and the late Jason Molina, floats over lush textures and the band’s understated groove.
Having played and toured for years—in New York City, Portland, and throughout the west coast—under the name Grand Lake Islands, Emanuelson, along with current collaborators, Reynolds and Anderson decided to step away and reassess. The band had cultivated a creative chemistry and sound that had drifted significantly from Grand Lake Islands’ ramshackle-folk beginnings. With the addition of Portland musician, Robin Bacior, the change was imminent.
Lorain was conceived around a batch of new songs and the desire to build a project, collectively, from the ground up. These new songs emphasize restraint, relying more on subtlety, texture, and structure than crescendo to hit their mark. Despite this, Emanuelson’s ability to emote has remains intact, if not refined.
This event is free and open to the public.
New Year’s Eve Dance Party All Night Long! Bring in the New Year with dance grooves and moves!
Last person on the dance floor wins a gift certificate for a free weekend stay at The Sou’wester!
