Bend Archives - The Bluegrass Situation

Artist: Max McNown
Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Song: “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering”
Album: Wandering
Release Date: April 12, 2024
Label: Fugitive Recordings x The Orchard

In Their Words: “‘Worry ‘Bout My Wandering’ was probably the most difficult song for me to write as it’s so personal. It came from being far away from my family and thinking about my mom and wondering how she feels about my life and the direction it’s taken. Shooting the video in my beautiful home state of Oregon was very important to me… I just always want to make my family and hometown proud.” – Max McNown

Track Credits:

Produced by AJ Pruis.
Recorded by AJ Pruis at The Chambers, Thompson’s Station, TN.
Editing by AJ Pruis.
Programming & Arrangement by AJ Pruis.
Mixed by John Nathaniel.
Mastered by Sam Moses.

AJ Pruis – Bass
Drew Belk – Guitars, pedal steel, Dobro
Mike Walker – BGVs

Photo Credit: Benjamin Edwards

Video Credits: Directed by Benjamin Edwards

Produced by Hayden W. Larson

B Camera – Micah Reimer

Gaffer – Parker Edwards

Edit / Grade – Edwards Media Co

Set – Neon Toast

Guitar – Parker Edwards

Percussion – Emmanuel Kahn

Filmed on location in Oregon.

Artist: Alicia Viani
Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Song: “Tomten Farm”
Album: Alicia Viani
Release Date: April 3, 2020

In Their Words: “I was sitting in my living room on a cold winter morning in Bend with the barely-warm sunlight shining through the windows. It was a home I would soon lose following the breakup with a partner. I didn’t know it at the time but I had a strong intuitive despairing sense about our future as a couple. My partner, a close friend, and I were sitting there in the sunlight and it was a happy peaceful morning, which was becoming rarer.

“I was noodling in the background on my guitar and my friend was talking to my partner about memories from a summer on a farm in Telluride. Her descriptions and imagery were beautiful to me and I just started writing this song live based on the words coming out of her mouth about her time there. Threading the imagery together ‘North of Telluride,’ ‘sunflower mesa,’ ‘the well ran dry.’ I’ve never been to Tomten Farm. I’ve spent a lot of time in Telluride, so I already had a connection to the place. I think the song was sort of an escape fantasy during a difficult, dark time. I took artistic ownership over her story!

“When we did separate, losing him, the home, and my sense of family left me reeling from abrupt changes in day-to-day reality but also reeling from the gut punch of realizing my dreams we worked together on were gone too. What did I believe in building now? Navigating these losses put me at a crossroads. Do I let this devour me? Or do I attempt to stay open to changes and get rocked and hopefully find new solid ground and direction? This song came from my attempt to do the latter. I wrote it over time as I found my way again, found joy in a relationship again with a new lover, and pieced my dreams back together again based on my own desires and beliefs about how I wanted to live. — Alicia Viani

Photo credit: Laura Schneider

Tag: Bend

WATCH: Max McNown, “Worry ‘Bout My Wandering”

LISTEN: Alicia Viani, “Tomten Farm”