SOU’WESTER EVENTS!

Sage Elaine Fisher is an American composer, performer and sound artist based in Portland, OR. She is best known for her performance project, Dolphin Midwives, which abstracts harp, voice and percussion using electronics, extended techniques and ritual processes. She explores themes of empathy, sustainability, vulnerability, transformation and technology through social experiment, meditation, psycho-acoustics and ritual.

Dolphin Midwives has brought experimental harp to contemporary art centers and venues on the west coast, Pacific Northwest and Canada, including Disjecta, S1, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Coaxial, Zebulon LA, Red Gate Arts, and Columbia City Theatre, and shared her work at TBA Fest, Debacle Fest, PDX POP NOW, Olympia Experimental Music Festival, Treefort Music Festival, Subharmonic, The Wayward Music Series, Quiet City and the Improv Summit of Portland. In 2016, she released Orchid Milk, her first recording under the Dolphin Midwives moniker. Her installation, Naturaphones, was shown in 2017 at The Bison Building, as a culmination of a six month residency for PNCA+OCAC, and featured four large-scale acoustic sculptures, ambient performance, and several sculptural prototypes. She founded and directed Dröna Choir to perform her new choral work, invisibility ritual; performed on the new moon in total darkness, to explore the vast space between silence and sound. In 2018 she composed a new score for Night of the Living Dead, commissioned by the PJCE and supported by a RACC grant. Her sound art performance/installation, Break: preparations for the apocalypse, was shown at Variform Gallery in Dec 2018. Liminal Garden, Dolphin Midwives’ debut studio album, was released internationally on Jan 18, 2019 by Beacon Sound/Sounds et al. In June 2019 she placed in Portland’s Best New Band list in the Willamette Week.

https://www.dolphinmidwives.us/

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C R Y S T A L C O R T E Z is a composer and multimedia artist based in Portland, Oregon. Her sonic work is focused around the use of field recordings, sounds produced and electronically processed live from objects, and multi-channel sound spatialization. Her practice has recently involved the development of interactive sculptural interfaces and wearable technology that use movement and other corporeal methods to drive audio and visuals. Crystal blends sound, tech and performance art to produce ceremonial happenings. Her work has been shown at PNCA, PICA, Navel (LA) and more.

Photo by Amber Case
https://www.crystalcortez.com/

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!

DRECKIG
“Longtime husband and wife duo Papi Fimbres and Shana Lindbeck filter Latin dance rhythms through a portal of krautrock and electronic club music. Layering drum machines, synthesizers, percussion and vocals in Spanish, English and German, they create energetic, dance space music that is equal parts trippy and deeply groovy.” -Willamette Week
Picture credit: Heather Hanson
https://dreckig.bandcamp.com/

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MONDEGREEN
are a dream pop / moon-rock band that formed in Portland, Oregon in 2015. The band consists of Ash Dybvig (Theda) on vocals, guitar, and flute with partner Dustin Dybvig (Brass Clouds, Horse Feathers) on drums, keys, and bass. After years of emailed tracks were exchanged across the states from Oregon to Buffalo, New York, the duo met and married in Oregon; forming the project under the initial name Hypnagogic, and then later Mondegreen (meaning: a misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near-homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning).

Their debut ‘Returnity’ is an exploration of space, lucidity, peace, mother nature, fractals, and modern-day consciousness. Throughout their futuristic artifact, Ash’s falsetto leads you into a melodic array of cosmic discussions. Accompanying celestial flute lines and bright, warped guitar comes a backbone of Dustin’s lyrical percussion and trip-hop influenced rhythm. Lush strings, deep, bouncy pianos, and mellotron jams are placed cleverly inside this collective psychedelic operetta.

https://mondegreenband.com/

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!!

~Mike Coykendall~
Veteran songwriter and producer brings an entertaining mix of wildly varied influences in a one-man-band style performance. Amazing original compositions interspersed with interpretations of classics.
www.mikecoykendall.com

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~Tyler Berd~
Tyler Berd sings seasick folk songs across a miniature nylon string guitar. His music is surreal and conversational, direct and rambling. He first scared up regional noise around Boston with the frenetic live performances of his band Bellwire, whom Dig Boston called “quick-witted, wordy, power pop akin to Elvis Costello or early-day Pavement.” He’ll be touring in support of two upcoming singles off his first full-length album out this fall, Tyler Berd and his Deputies.

“Crafty inventive songs infused with humor, wit and absurdity” – La Crosse Tribune

“Troubadour folk meets introspective bedroom pop in a collision of styles and expectations.” – Independent Clauses

https://tylerberd.com/

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!

Goth-folk musical duo Charming Disaster, based in Brooklyn, NY, performs original storytelling songs inspired by love, death, true crime, ancient mythology, and the occult. Channeling the gothic humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the noir storytelling of Raymond Chandler, the murder ballads of the Americana tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret, they explore dark narratives and characters with a playful sensibility, combining vocal harmonies and clever lyrics with ukulele, guitar, and virtuosic foot percussion. Their song “Ghost Story” was featured on the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale, and the duo has toured around the United States, playing bars, clubs, museums, bookstores, and the occasional historic cemetery. Their third album, SPELLS + RITUALS, was released in June 2019 to critical acclaim.

“Charming Disaster has an affinity for monsters, mortality, paranormal activity and unearthly shenanigans…The songs on Spells + Rituals create a dark, compelling mood, sparked by flashes of wry humor… The band’s literary lyrics, and melodies that reference music from all over the world, are designed to give listeners an emotionally and musically expansive evening.” – Rock & Roll Globe

http://charmingdisaster.com
Photo by Shervin Laines

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!

All guests staying at the Sou’wester (and community members too) are invited to a Thanksgiving Feast Potluck at the Sou’wester in the Pavilion! (All guests bring your own plates and utensils.) Dinner starts at 5:30pm.

Please RSVP via souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542 with number of people and what dish/drink/food you are bringing to the potluck.

Desserts after dinner at 7pm in the Main Lodge Living Room. Talent Show and Sing-a-along with Ivy Ross Ricci and Louis Ledford in the lodge in the evening around the fireplace as the kickoff for the 3rd Annual GRATITUNES Festival, a 3-day music fest, free and open to the public.

An evening of readings and music featuring Sophia Shalmiyev, Leni Zumas, and Ivy Ross Ricci plus new works by special guests!

Leni Zumas won the 2019 Oregon Book Award for her national bestselling novel RED CLOCKS, which was also shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Neukom Prize for Speculative Fiction. Red Clocks was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and was named a Best Book of 2018 by The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Entropy, and the New York Public Library. Vulture called it one of the 100 Most Important Books of the 21st Century So Far.

Zumas is also the author of FAREWELL NAVIGATOR: STORIES and the novel THE LISTENERS. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Granta, The Times Literary Supplement, Guernica, BOMB, The Cut, Portland Monthly, Tin House, and elsewhere. Her work has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She lives in Portland, Oregon, and directs the creative writing program at Portland State University.
www.lenizumas.com

Sophia Shalmiyev tells us on the first page of her striking, lyrical memoir, Mother Winter. To understand the end of her story we must go back to her beginning.

Born to a Russian mother and an Azerbaijani father, Shalmiyev was raised in the stark oppressiveness of 1980s Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). An imbalance of power and the prevalence of antisemitism in her homeland led her father to steal Shalmiyev away, emigrating to America, abandoning her estranged mother, Elena. At age eleven, Shalmiyev found herself on a plane headed west, motherless and terrified of the new world unfolding before her.

Now a mother herself, in Mother Winter Shalmiyev recounts her emotional journeys as an immigrant, an artist, and a woman raised without her mother. Depicted in urgent vignettes that trace her flight from the Soviet Union and back again to find the mother she never knew, Shalmiyev’s story is an arresting, impassioned account that is equal parts refugee-coming-of-age tale, feminist manifesto, and a meditation on motherhood, displacement, gender politics, and art. Her years of travel, searching, and forging meaningful connection with the worlds she occupies culminates in a searing observation of the human heart and psyche’s many shades across time and culture.
www.sophiashalmiyev.com

Ivy Ross Ricci is a nationally recognized, musician, writer, educator, and activist who incorporates philosophy, poetry, humor, storytelling, and a radical understanding of human potential into accessible songs and social service. She believes in the power of everyday life lessons to draw us all into the heart of Creativity, Empathy, and Awareness. Her work with youth and adults aims to dismantle discrimination based on gender stereotypes. She has been recognized for her contributions and leadership in the fields of girls’ empowerment, literacy, public art, women’s health, juvenile justice & youth advocacy, music, teen peer leadership training, implementation of anti-bias curricula, and creative after-school programming.

Most recently, Ivy has been touring a music video for a song that she wrote entitled ‘Girls Sit Screaming’ in schools nationally and facilitating conversations with students, teachers and parents about how we can create a world in which mainstream constructs of gender don’t limit any of our amazing youth as they come of age.
It is an honest song of defiance and freedom that exposes the many double standards that girls and women experience in the classroom, in the workplace, and in our society in general. It is an anthem for the cultural shift we are experiencing in which women’s voices are heard, believed, and valued.

While her work focuses on the experiences of girls and women, Ivy is dedicated to establishing an inclusive environment that pays attention to the needs of all gender identities.
Photo by Eve White

www.ivyarts.org

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!

Members of Sun City Girls, Pendejo, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Sad Horse, Sea Donkeys, and the Evolutionary Jass Band perform The Beatles’ classic studio LP from 1969: Abbey Road in its entirety!

Photo by Marc Sullo

Come celebrate with us! Creativity! Community! Solstice! The ‘Eternal Return’ of the Sun!

Green Hills Alone is the songwriting vehicle for Portland-homed, Northern California-born Chris Miller. Five years ago, Miller released a “Self-Titled” LP that explored metaphysical themes of death and transformation. This year Miller released a followup album called ‘Eternal Return.’ Miller is joined by Mark Robertson, Weezy Ford and Joseph Anderson.

Read all about the new album and hear the songs in this Vortex Magazine “Artist to Watch” Feature:

https://www.vrtxmag.com/articles/artist-to-watch-the-truth-seeking-mantra-of-green-hills-alone/

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!!

Portland-based folk rock band, The Builders and the Butchers, announce their forthcoming album, The Spark, due out May 19th. The band’s fifth LP will be released on Badman Recordings Co, which will be their third release with the label.

Their last album was hailed by Consequence of Sound, who said, “The Builders and the Butchers make records the way the bards used to pass on stories. They’re poetic and captivating, and do to songwriting what Clint Eastwood does to movies,” and this new record follows the same, narrative-driven path.

With glowing album and show reviews coming from Pitchfork and The Wall Street Journal, among others, their brand of folk-rock is best served live. Audiences can look forward to lively performances, where fourth wall is broken and the audience is able to participate in call and response sing-a-longs. Sometimes the band will hand out instruments for fans to play, and they’ll even get down off stage to perform right on the floor.

The Builders and The Butchers formed in 2005. Ryan Sollee fronts the band, sings and plays guitar, joined by Willy Kunkle (bass, guitar, vocals, percussion), Justin Baeir (drums, backup vocals, percussion) and Harvey Tumbleson (mandolin, banjo, guitar, vocals, percussion). The Portland-based band gained a strong following after years of playing anywhere and everywhere across the city. They quickly grew to become one of the most exciting live bands in Portland and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The band toured throughout the US and Europe from 2007-2012, playing music festivals, such as Sasquatch and Lollapalooza, and acting as support for Portugal. The Man, Heartless Bastards, Amanda Palmer and Murder By Death. To support their forthcoming release, The Spark, the band will be playing their first US and European tour in multiple years.

This new album features a wider array of sounds and shorter, hard hitting songs, while remaining a Builders’ record at heart. The process of creating The Spark was the longest of any Builders’ record to date. They spent the last five years writing the music and a year mixing. With several band members living out of state (Justin in Colorado, Willy in Malta, Harvey in Washington and Ryan and Ray in Portland), many parts were recorded remotely. Drums and much of the electric guitar were recorded at Revolver Studios and the rest was laid down piece-by-piece and mixed by Edgar McCrae at his home studio. Influences for the record range from Tom Waits to The White Stripes.
www.thebuildersandthebutchers.com

This event is free, all ages, and open to the public!