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!
https://www.pilotlightbooking.com/#/bob-sumner/
“I’m kind of a junkie for sad songs and ballads,” says Bob Sumner, the younger half of Vancouver-based Americana outfit The Sumner Brothers. “As a teenager most of my friends were into hip-hop, but I felt pretty out of place rolling around suburban White Rock, British Columbia, pumping gangster rap.” Sitting in his room with his headphones on, Sumner compiled downhearted mixtapes pulling together the more introspective songs of CCR, The Band, Led Zeppelin, Emmylou Harris. As he began writing his own songs, this innate attentiveness to songcraft and emotional understanding became a hallmark of Sumner’s songwriting and aesthetic. In the years since, he’s released five albums with The Sumner Brothers, blending sounds as disparate as Neil Young and The Dead Kennedys, but Bob Sumner’s Wasted Love Songs (out January 25) presents Sumner back in the bedroom, attentive to the quieter recordings of his formative years. Helmed by the gentle intentionality of Sumner’s voice and lyricism, this rare debut from a songwriting veteran expresses the timeless quality found in the melancholy of Townes Van Zandt, the atmospheric momentum of Tom Petty, and the prophetic restlessness of Bruce Springsteen.
The culmination of Sumner’s creative intention and sensitivity, Wasted Love Songs is born out of an entwining of musical influences spanning decades. With his brother Brian, he’s written and played finely tuned songs erected at the borders of country and rock and roll for nearly 15 years, making the Sumner family name synonymous with the alternative folk and country music scenes throughout the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. In the midst of The Sumner Brothers’ growing orientation toward rock and roll in recent years, Bob Sumner felt the draw toward his balladic roots. “I had all these ballads and folk songs that worked really well together,” he says. “I wanted to make an album someone could just put on and unfold into.”
Mike Coykendall: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Johnny Franco: Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Johnny Franco is a Brazilian rock n’ roll marauder who now resides in Portland, and who crafts inventive spaghetti western/folk-rock stompers. Armed with propulsive, spindly guitars, Dylanesque vocals, and adventurous vibes, Franco recently signed to label Blanket Fort.
“A sly blender of old-school country & western and modern Americana, “Treated Like Grass” thrives on its rollicking rhythms and catchy, twangy melodies” – Impose Magazine
Eleanor Elektra : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Eleanor Elektra fuses elements of folk, jazz and classical music within the songwriter idiom to create unique cinematic songs. Largely a self taught guitarist, her playing is both technical and idiosyncratic, skillfully supporting songs that are rich in both composition and execution. Her latest project, Exquisite Corpse explores topics of declining social and environmental systems and evokes artists such as Joni Mitchell, Aoife O’Donovan and Jesca Hoop.
Eleanor has toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada. She is based in Boston, MA and is a mainstay of the local music scene, performing at such venues as the House of Blues, the Lilypad, and Club Passim and holding residencies at Bow Market, Grendle’s Den, and Union Street Restaurant & Bar.
“Exquisite Corpse is grander than Elektra’s debut full-length, “The Lumberjack,” a dynamic record that extracted maximum catharsis from just a pair of guitars and Elektra’s voice. On “Exquisite Corpse,” the complexity of her compositions, their sinuous melodies and unexpected cadences, deepens. A group of sensitive young musicians — drummer Ivanna Cuesta Gonzales, fiddler Zosha Warpeha, bassist Tyrone Allen, pianist Jacob Hiser and trumpet player Milena Casado — fill out the sound, merging with effortless liquidity.”
— Wbur The ARTery (Boston’s Local NPR)
!mindparade is a psychedelic/experimental project that formed in Bloomington, Indiana. Originally the solo bedroom project of Alex Arnold, the live show and recordings are fleshed out by a revolving cast of musicians utilizing electronics and orchestration. !mindparade’s beautiful cacophony of bombast is pleasantly bewildering. Wild flourishes of dreamy psychedelic instrumentation zoom past you in all directions like standing in the middle of a busy intersection.
Currently based in Portland, Oregon, USA.
terrehaunt (of Death Parade): Presented by Sou’wester Arts
Joe Vann’s new record is a literal and spiritual homecoming. The singer-songwriter’s debut solo LP, Found In The Smoke, is an intimate rummage through his past: it weds the freewheeling experimental aesthetics of his beloved indie band, From Indian Lakes, with the music traditions on which he was reared while growing up in a trailer on an acreage in rural northern California. The result is an emo-meets-outlaw Americana love letter—like Justin Vernon and Townes Van Zandt locked in a cabin in the Sierra Nevada for months—with phosphorescent synths, hushed vocals, and hardy guitar work.
Support from Mikayla McVey
http://mikaylamcvey.com/
The Sou’wester Lodge is hosting a full weekend of in-person performances, music and installations, free and open to the public*, on Friday 5-10pm and Saturday 12-10pm April 1st and 2nd as part of the 3rd Annual Sou’wester ARTS WEEK.
Over the past 9 years we have held an event around this time of year to highlight the creative process and the experiential nature of the Sou’wester Residency Program. Each year this event brings amazing artists to this neck of the woods and shines creative light into the darkest heart of winter.
Performances, Installations and Events
Free and Open to the Public*
Friday April 1st
5:00pm – 10:00pm
and
Saturday April 2nd
12:00pm – 10:00pm
All are invited to pick up map and schedule at The Sou’wester and tour the grounds, experiencing in-person what 33+ artists and artist collectives have created after their week-long Sou’wester Artist Residency.
*The entirety of this event will be held in a manner that meets all state mandates and Covid-19 precautions. This event is free and open to the public within safety guidelines.
book a stay at The Adrift or Salt Hotel using promo code “artsweek”
Arts Week 2022 Artists and Art Collectives
Anthony Alvarado & Jason Walker
Kaitlyn Nelson / The Gyer V Project
Bobbie Robinson & Jordan Badger
Fox Whitney / The Gender Tender Experiment
Olivia Awbrey is a songwriter based out of Portland and the rural Oregon Coast Range. A first-generation musician, Olivia has been performing since 2012 and releasing music since 2014. In 2017, Olivia founded Quick Pickle Records and released her first EP Fight or Fight. Her debut album, Dishonorable Harvest, was an overseas collaboration with My Bloody Valentine’s touring guitarist, Jen Macro, as well as a cohort of London and Portland-based friends. An old-soul folk songwriter with a modern indie edge, Olivia has played hundreds of shows in the last half decade opening for Japanese Breakfast, The Beths, Mal Blum, Fink, Jonathan Richman, and many others. Her music has been recognized in NPR, Flood Magazine, and Refinery29. As a recipient of grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the GRAMMY Foundation, Olivia tours regularly throughout the Pacific Northwest and the UK. She is fascinated with the musical process, from the beginnings of a melody through to vinyl production, so in true DIY fashion, she is currently casting vinyl by hand. Her sophomore album is forthcoming.