Posts from — June 2009

Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller have announced they will again join forces for a series of collaborative shows in 2009. Portland gets a stop on the tour tonight @ Oaks Park in Sellwood. The “Three Girls and Their Buddy” shows feature all four artists performing onstage together, sharing the songs and stories that have defined their venerated careers. All four artists performing onstage together, sharing the songs and stories that have defined their venerated careers.

The four have a long-established history of musical associations, having been in each other’s bands, produced and played on each other’s albums, covered each other’s songs, and guested on each other’s shows many times over the years. Buddy Miller was Emmylou’s band leader in the outfit Spyboy and produced her live album by that name. Patty Griffin’s song “One Big Love” was recorded by Emmylou, who has made appearances on Patty’s last two studio albums. Emmylou, Patty and Buddy – with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – toured together as Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue, a special run of collaborative shows. Buddy has performed many times over the years with Shawn Colvin, beginning with her inclusion in The Buddy Miller Band in the 80s in New York City and leading up to the These Four Walls tour in the fall of 2006. The group was recently reunited in October for a spirited performance at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

URLS:

http://www.emmylouharris.com/
http://www.pattygriffin.net/
http://www.shawncolvin.com/
http://www.buddyandjulie.com/

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Three Girls and Their Buddy
featuring Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, & Buddy Miller
Oaks Amusement Park – 7805 SE Oaks Park Way, Portland OR 97202
Ticket Price: $39.50 adv / $43.00 dos
Doors at 5:30 PM, Show at 7:00 PM
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Rx6DcEly0]

Willamette Week’s MusicFestNW returns to metro area venues on September 16-19th and promises another year of great performances from local and national acts.

URL > http://musicfestnw.com

More Act to be announced soon! Stay tuned for an extensive artist preview leading up to the Festival over the course of the summer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VP2BQnjL0I]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUdpA-MgyZI]

A Weather is an indie band from Portland, Oregon, fronted by Aaron Gerber and Sarah Winchester. In 2007, they toured and opened for Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes and gained some national attention and lots of momentum! In 2008, they signed with the New York based label Team Love Records who also represent Jenny Lewis and The Felice Brothers and recorded their debut album, Cove.

BIO: From deep within the confines of the storied Portland mist comes indie-folk outfit A Weather and their debut album, Cove, was released in March on Team Love. A postcard from the green and gray environs of Portland, Cove is moody and warm, rife with odes of looming loss, hopeful notes to self and hushed revelations that speak directly to the yearning heart. Produced by the one & only Adam Selzer (M. Ward, The Decemberists, Norfolk and Western), the songs on Cove are marked with an intimacy so striking that it feels like you’re eavesdropping on the pillow talk of two forlorn lovers. Indeed, this is music to curl up with.

At the core of A Weather’s warm, soft-spoken sounds are the comely vocals of frontman/singer/songwriter Aaron Gerber and singer/drummer Sarah Winchester. With remarkable restraint and understated delivery, their harmonies trace each other, cross paths, diverge and intertwine, undercutting the gravity of A Weather ’s material. “In one way Cove is a catalogue of closely observed moments and particulars,” says Gerber. “In another it is an oddly inspirational document of transience and entropy and trying to keep yourself together when things are falling apart.”

It’s been a relatively short journey from A Weather’s first house show to their current status as the new kids on the Team Love block – though a journey crammed with hard work, dedication, empty bottles of Gatorade, Fleetwood Mac-style love affairs, tears, laughter and a great deal of excitement. The band came into its current line-up – Gerber, Winchester, Boyle, guitarist Aaron Krenkel and bassist Louis Thomas – over the holiday season of 2006.

In a year’s time, A Weather has received generous media buzz for its “lush folk,” “bedroom bards,” “quiet folk-pop,” “darkly fuzzy, warm and tender acoustic folk-pop” and “hush-pop.” They’ve shared the stage with the likes of Bright Eyes as well as Portland’s The Builders and the Butchers, Gregory Miles Harris, Laura Gibson and Bark, Hide and Horn. And A Weather was signed to Team Love, who released the group’s first seven-inch record, “The Feather Test” w/ “One More One Night Stand,” in the spring of 2007.

As for Cove, there’s a great amount of wit and subtle humor accompanying all of the sad stuff, while there is always a sense of self-consciousness woven throughout. “Spiders, Snakes” opens the record with an immediately catchy drum riff, joined by a plodding, mournful Fender Rhodes. It’s good to know that A Weather – and Cove – have arrived.

LINK: http://www.aweathermusic.com

PRESS: Oregonian / NPR

MP3/Download: A Weather – Pinky Toe
MP3/Download: A Weather – Screw Up Your Courage

Doug Fir
A WEATHER
plus SUPER XX MAN and OLD BELIEVERS and HELLO DEMASCUS
Time: 9M / Tix: $8 advance, $8 day of show
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVPtMpJaIgo]

The BEST Bluegrass Festival on the west coast ~ Hardly Strictly Bluegrass ~ is returning to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA this fall. Even better, the festival is FREE!!!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
When: October 2, 3, 4, 2009
Where: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Initial Artist List:

Booker T. & the DBTs
World Party
Neko Case
Old 97’s
The Chieftains
Okkervil River
Doc Watson
Mavis Staples
Aimee Mann
The Del McCoury Band
Earl Scruggs
Dr. Dog
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
Little Feat
Old Crow Medicine Show
Marianne Faithfull
Richie Havens
Steve Martin with the Steep Canyon Rangers
Hazel Dickens
The Wronglers
John Prine
Allen Toussaint
Gillian Welch
Billy Bragg

MANY MANY MORE SOON TO BE ANNOUNCED!

URL > http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5c1k949Zn4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qclxx4uO0ac]

Inde-hipsters Here We Go Magic were HUGE HIT in Austin at SXSW this year & I would expect Portland to fall in love at first sight! Developed over a two-month period of stream-of-consciousness recording in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Luke Temple’s self-titled debut under his new moniker Here We Go Magic is a remarkable departure from his signature singer-songwriter material. Luke recorded the album at home using analog synths, a cassette 4-track, and his trusty SM-57 mic, coloring the sound with warmth and creating textures you want to wrap yourself in.

The album opens with the trance-inducing polyrhythms and gorgeous multi-layered vocals of “Only Pieces. “ What follows is an album oozing with sounds maternal and subconscious…like floating in amniotic fluid, ripe, hiccup-y and desperate to emerge. Many of the songs pulse with infectious afro-beat and kraut-rock influenced grooves, calling to mind classic albums like Remain in Light and Graceland. In contrast, the instrumental tracks conjure mystical introspective landscapes reminiscent of Popol Vuh’s unforgettable ambience.

Despite the album’s murky aquatic underpinnings it’s hard to resist shakin what you got to ebullient blissed-out tracks like “Fangala” and “Tunnelvision.” The album closes with “Everything’s Big”, a bleak commentary on weakness and fear birthed of opulence and gluttony. Luke’s fragile tenor delivers this absurd carnival waltz with the fervor and abandon of a teetotaler under the influence, never breaking the spell of the album’s mood of rejuvenation and release.

Luke is joined by fellow Brooklynites Baptiste Ibar (bass) and Peter Hale (drums) for Here We Go Magic’s psychoactive live incarnation. The self-titled album will be released on Feb 17th for digital and Feb 24th for physical on label, Western Vinyl.

LINK: http://www.herewegomagic.com

PRESS: DayTrotter / Steroegum / My Old KY Blog

MP3/Download: Here We Go Magic – Fangela
MP3/Download: Here We Go Magic – Tunnelvision
MP3/Download: Here We Go Magic – Only Pieces

Mississippi Studios
Wednesday, June 24
Here We Go Magic
w/ Throw Me Your Statue
w/ Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinso
Time: 8PM / Tix: $10
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65C-n5g_H10]