Posts from — July 2009

Joe Pug
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Dr. Dog
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV9QmCpcu2A]

Vetiver
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ct_4tNF80E]

Thao Nguyen
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEjD5mGmsVU]

Horse Feathers
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBPO9Kun_9A]

Dale Watson
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZHux82GB7U]

Hillstomp
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Here in the Basement, we are currently profiling 1 artist per day leading up to annual PICKATHON being held this weekend at Pendarvis Farm. In the past we have featured current Pickathon artists Justin Townes Earle as seen HERE & Alvin Youngblood Hart as seen HERE. Monday, we profiled the act I am most excited to see this year, Joe Doe & Sadies HERE. Last night I found out that John Doe is also doing a workshop on Friday afternoon @ 3pm. See you there! Tuesday we profiled Mike Compton & David Grier HERE and today, we are going local with the one & only Alela Diane. With a rapidly growing fanbase, Alela Diane may be one of the hottest acts coming out of Portland today!

With a gentle acoustic style and evocative lyrics, up-and-coming folksinger Alela Diane has developed a devoted following. The Nevada City native was raised on music; her parents frequently held sing-alongs around the dinner table. After wandering in Europe, waitressing tables and finishing a degree, Diane self-released The Pirate’s Gospel. Since that time, she’s been touring in Europe, performing with The Decemberists, Akron/Family and Vashti Bunyan.

Diane’s latest album, To Be Still, blends Americana and psychedelic folk with finger-picked guitar and clear, evocative vocals. Diane’s music has been called “campfire gospel” for its hushed meditation on the surrounding world. Her lyrics paint pictures of nature with a rural feel, as Diane draws inevitable comparisons to Joanna Newsom and Gillian Welch.

To Be Still was created throughout 2007 & 2008. “It began in Portland, OR and was finished in scatters between tours at my dad’s home studio in Nevada City, CA,” Alela says. “I wanted to record this collection of songs using arrangements which represent them in their finest form. These songs requested more instrumental filigree than those on The Pirate’s Gospel. It was challenging to delicately yet purposefully incorporate instrumentation into songs that I was so used to singing by myself. I was determined to make it work, because I wanted percussion! I wanted to hear the lonesome bow of the violin! I heard many harmonies in my head, and so I set out to capture them.”

In the past, Alela’s work has been associated with one or more musical movements, notably the alleged “freak-folk” genre of the early to middle Oughts. And while no music exists in a complete vacuum, the wholly original music on To Be Still was borne of contemplation and isolation. “Most were written in the cabin in Nevada City, and during my stint of domesticity in the Victorian flat further North; others were captured elsewhere, in moments of calm,” she says. The album shows Alela Diane to be a compelling and unique voice.

Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade Records, says “Alela Diane is a real American Songwriter. Both flinty and beautiful. She draws from a tradition that might include Sandy Denny and Karen Dalton and she suffers not a jot in comparison. Rough Trade is proud to be able to bring you this release.”

MP3/Download: Alela Diane – White As Diamonds
MP3/Download: Alela Diane – The Rifle

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Here at Basement we are FIRED UP for the annual PICKATHON being held this weekend out at Pendarvis Farm. We know PDX is the inde-rock capitol of the USA, but we also have a wide variety of musicians here and influences from across the map. The PICKATHON is hands down the best collection of acoustic & alt-country styles from around the country (as well as local artists galore). Each day this week leading up to the festival, we will spotlight an artist that is playing at the this weekend!

Here in the Basement, we have featured current Pickathon artists Justin Townes Earle as seen HERE & Alvin Youngblood Hart as seen HERE. Yesterday, we profiled the act I am most excited to see this year, Joe Doe & Sadies HERE. Today, we are going to dive DEEP into the bluegrass side of things with Mike Compton & David Grier.

Mike Compton & David Grier – These two artists are literally bluegrass royalty that have graced the same stages as Bill Monroe, John Hartford, Nashville Bluegrass Band & recently Mike played with Elvis Costello & Sugarcanes. In addition to all of the awards and albums these amazing two musicans have contributed too, they may be the finest two string players at the PICKATHON this year. Get there by 6PM on Friday to catch the full set by Mike Compton & David Grier.

John Hartford once said that Mike Compton knows more about Bill Monroe style mandolin than the Father of Bluegrass himself. Mike was born in 1956 in Jimmie Rodger’s hometown of Meridian Mississippi. His great grandfather was a fiddler. Mike was exposed to old-time music at an early age and received his first mandolin at the age of 15. He moved to Nashville in 1977 and worked for the next three and a half years with North Carolina legendary banjoist, Hubert Davis and the Season Travelers. He recorded on three of the group’s records. In 1985 he was recruited by Pat Enright for the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and during Compton’s initial stint in the group, 1985-1988, he appeared on the four albums that first brought the band to prominence. After a year working in the Catskill Mountains, Mike returned to Nashville and began working for John Hartford, which he did up until John’s death in 2001. He was involved in Hartford’s last half dozen recordings.

In 1991 Mike began working with the incomparable David Grier, touring the US and Japan. The two recorded a duet album shortly thereafter which was nominated for Album of the Year by the IBMA in 1992. In the fall of 2000, after a tour of the southwestern US with Grier, Mike was offered his mandolin slot with Nashville Bluegrass Band and he didn’t hesitate to rejoin. The Group has won two Grammy Awards, two Entertainer of the year honors from the International Bluegrass Music Association and four wins as IBMA’s Vocal Group of the Year. They have become the acoustic music group to watch in the new millennium.

Mike Compton received Grammy Award acknowledgement in 2001 for playing the mandolin on two award winning projects, “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?”, Album of the Year and Best Compilation Soundtrack Album, and “Down From the Mountain”, Best Traditional Folk Album.

The most award-winning guitarist in recent memory is David Grier. For the past several years, he has been voted by the members of the International Bluegrass Music Association as Best Guitar Player of the Year. He has also appeared on two Grammy- winning recordings: “True Life Blues-A Tribute to Bill Monroe” and “The Great Dobro Sessions.” David is also included in the book, “1,000 Great Guitarists.” His inspiration to learn guitar came from exposure to Bill Monroe while his father, Lamar Grier, played banjo for the Blue Grass Boys in the middle 1960s.

David’s first solo recording “Freewheeling” appeared on Rounder Records, as did his acclaimed 1991 duet project “Climbing the Walls” with mandolinist Mike Compton. David’s “Lone Soldier” project is listed in Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s “100 Essential Acoustic Guitar Recordings of All Time. ” His most recent solo release is “I’ve Got the House to Myself.” His work is also captured on a Homespun video called “Building Powerful Solos.” In addition to touring solo, David also appears as the guitarist for Psychograss, who are currently celebrating a critically acclaimed new album, “Now Hear This”.

MP3/Download: David Grier – The Old Hotel Rag
MP3/Download: David Grier – Wheeling
MP3/Download: David Grier – Gold Rush
MP3/Download: The Nashvi
lle Bluegrass Band – Little Maggie
MP3/Download: The Nashville Bluegrass Band – Doghouse Blues
MP3/Download: The Nashville Bluegrass Band – No One But My Darlin

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Here at Basement we are FIRED UP for the annual PICKATHON being held this weekend out at Pendarvis Farm. We know PDX is the inde-rock capitol of the USA, but we also have a wide variety of musicians here and influences from across the map. The PICKATHON is hands down the best collection of acoustic & alt-country styles from around the country (as well as local artists galore). Each day this week leading up to the festival, we will spotlight an artist that is playing at the this weekend!

Official Scoop >>> The PICKATHON is another one of Oregon’s festival gems. Once thought of as a strictly Americana/Bluegrass festival, its matured into a soulful Roots festival with a varied lineup including Portland indie sensation Blitzen Trapper and Philadelphia rockers Dr. Dog. Located for many years at Horning’s Hideout, Pickathon has settled into its new home on the 80 acre Pendarvis Farm located on the outskirts of the Portland city limits just east of Mt. Scott. With its 6 stages (including a late night barn stage), Pickathon continues to evolve and deliver great Roots music to the summer faithful.

Here in the Basement, we have featured current Pickathon artists Justin Townes Earle as seen HERE & Alvin Youngblood Hart as seen HERE. To kick off the week, we will profile the act I am most excited to see this year, Joe Doe & Sadies. This unique combo has created amazing album & are currently touring behind it. Here is the offical press release:

John Doe (X, The Knitters) and The Sadies join forces for Country Club, an album of classic country covers and originals due out April 14, 2009 on Yep Roc Records.

“Country Club is the result of a drunken promise or threat I made to Travis and Dallas [Good, of The Sadies] the first night we played together in Toronto. These happen all the time but it’s rare that anyone remembers them the morning after, let alone follows through and makes it a reality. I’m really glad we did,” says Doe.

By including varying yet equally beloved movements within the country music pantheon, Doe and The Sadies were able to cover their heroes while filtering the pop sensibilities of ’60s Nashville through the electric honky tonk of Bakersfield, CA.

“We’re not sure why it sounds like it’s from the sixties. Maybe that’s our favorite era of country music or maybe that’s what we listened to when we first learned how to play it,” remarks Doe. “But what was called ‘Countrypolitan’ always seemed one of the coolest hybrids of country music. But we agreed quickly and completely that there were going to be no string sections, horns or choirs. Bakersfield vs. Nashville was never a dispute . . . Bakersfield!” Dallas Good of The Sadies continues, “The songs chosen were very ambitious, and while we haven’t re-invented the wheel we have created a cohesiveness between several hit country & western singles and our own styles.”

Country Club also features guest turns from D.J. Bonebrake, Kathleen Edwards, Eric Heywood and more.

MP3/Download: John Doe & Sadies – Cole Hard Facts of Life
MP3/Download: John Doe & Sadies – Stop The World & Let Me Off

MP3/Download: John Doe & Sadies – Night Life

We are still catching our breath (and wiping the sweat) after an amazing weekend of music at PDX Pop Now! Festival, but ready to switch gears for yet another big show tomorrow night when U.K. rockers Gomez return to the Wonder Ballroom.

Yellow Dog Records recording artist WOODBRAIN is made up of a few Portland legends: founding member/songwriter Joe McMurrian on guitar, banjo and vocal / David Lipkind on harmonica / Jimi Bott on drums and Jason Honl on bass. Formerly entitled the Joe McMurrian Quartet, the rebirth of the band as WOODBRAIN signifies a unity of common focus to rethink a ridged old musical form and to present a whole new realm of sound for roots music.

WOODBRAIN has been rapidly gaining recognition across the Great Northwest and world with its intense, deeply progressive high-energy music. Gut wrenching emotion and energy transitioning to graceful melodies, complex harmonies and challenging meter changes make for some of the most powerful roots/blues music around. The sound is rooted in Delta blues and old American roots music, but it is weaved into a modern concept of improvisation and original story telling that owes as much to the old as to the new.

Recently signed to prominent roots label Yellow Dog Records, out of Memphis, Tennessee, WOODBRAIN has just finalized their first studio album- due out at the end of June. The new album, entitled “Swimming in Turpentine”, will feature 12 new songs that push the boundaries of Delta blues, rock and improvisational jam music into a whole new dimension.

“A new form of blues. A fusion of the Delta and their own haunted visions. In a way, when performing live they’re like a classic jam band that can take a song and its theme on for great lengths, never getting boring in the process. But what ever they are, they’re extremely innovative with a sound completely their own…This quartet should be viewed as sculptors, or painters. They’re creating a new dimension of the blues within our dreams…exhilarating and mind-enchanting…a very new and very exciting vision of the blues.” — Cascade Blues Association, Portland Oregon 2008

URL: http://www.woodbrainmusic.com

PRESS: Willammette Week / Oregonian

MP3/Download: Joe McMurrian Quartet – Broken Window Blues
MP3/Download: Joe McMurrian Quartet – Coo Coo (Live @ White Eagle)

Friday, July 24th
WOODBRAIN
Kelly’s Olympian
w/ Mike Dean Damron & Thee Loyal Bastards
Time: 10PM / Tix: $5

In 2004, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Bright Eyes Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, and M. Ward embarked on a tour that showcased their individual and collaborative songwriting which they soon dubbed The Monsters of Folk. Today they announced additional info about a new record and a tour behind it this fall under the same moniker.