Tag: Oregon

LISTEN: Liz Vice, “This Land Is Your Land”

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Artist: Liz Vice
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “This Land Is Your Land”
Release Date: July 2, 2021

In Their Words: “Every time I sit to write a song, specifically on the themes of justice, maybe it’s a romantic idea, but I always think that the song will be outdated by the time it’s released, as if world peace is gonna show up before a battle cry is needed. ‘This Land Is Your Land’ was written with new lyrics with my friends Paul Zach, Orlando Palmer, and Isaac Wardell one day shy of the one-year anniversary of the white nationalist ‘unite the right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; that was nearly four years ago. We wanted to rewrite a popular “American” song to reflect what’s happening now in our nation and tell the story of how America became America: immigration and asylum seekers, the mass incarceration of black people, and the mass genocide of the indigenous people of this land. After much rest and reflection in 2020 and focusing on my mental health, I decided to give these new lyrics breath and now it’s time to release it out into the world.” — Liz Vice

Photo credit: Chimera Rene

LISTEN: DoomFolk StarterKit, “Look at Miss Ohio”

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Artist: DoomFolk StarterKit
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Look at Miss Ohio”
Album: Like You Mean It Records Sampler Vol. 1
Release Date: May 21, 2021
Label: Like You Mean It Records

In Their Words: “Recording any of Gillian Welch’s work is such an honor. ‘Look at Miss Ohio’ holds this fantastic tension between societal and familial pressures and a deep desire to find new ways of living. The line that pushes me over the edge is ‘I know all about it so you don’t have to shout it / I’m gonna straighten it out somehow.’ There’s so much there — it’s a line you might shout at a parent defensively, but it is also packed with utter humility and self-awareness. For me, this song depicts the story of someone choosing to embrace ambiguity while living with the hope that it’s going to shake out alright, somehow. Making peace with the fact of uncertainty is a theme that’s found its way into some of my own songs here and there. I’ve tried to represent that in this cover with a balance of lightness and melancholy in the arrangement.” — David Swick, DoomFolk StarterKit

Photo credit: Emily Barrett

WATCH: Last Year’s Man, “Still Be Here”

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Artist: Last Year’s Man
Hometown: Eugene, Oregon
Song: “Still Be Here”
Release Date: April 30, 2021

In Their Words: “I wrote this song after a conversation with Ben Allen. Ben is a really fantastic composer and musician who recently started a sync agency in Vancouver, Washington. We talked about me writing something for his company that walked the line between burdened and hopeful and this song is what came almost immediately. I think we’re all eager for life to get back to what it was in some way or another and this is a love song built out of the idea that it will.

“For the video, I spent hours on archive.org not really knowing what I was searching for. It was dumb luck stumbling on these public domain videos from the 1930s and 40s. I started with a clip just to see and the music happened to line up with the dancing for a moment and it felt really beautiful. I pieced it together from there and was surprised by the wide range of emotion I felt from watching people dance in these old movies along with my song. It’s one of those happy accidents.” — Tyler Fortier, Last Year’s Man

Photo credit: Tyler Fortier

BGS 5+5: Curtis Salgado

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Artist: Curtis Salgado
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Newest Album: Damage Control

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

In 2009 I was to perform two songs for the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tennessee. You’re only allowed 10 minute and the schedule is tight. After we finished our songs the MC, Bill Wax, ran up and said “Curtis, B.B. King wants to sit in with you. You’ve got to do something NOW!!” So I turned around and counted off a B.B. King shuffle. Next thing I know B.B.’s valet brings a chair AND B.B. KING comes up sits in the chair. He grabs the microphone and says, “I’m not playing until he gets a chair,” and he pointed to me. So his valet brings me a chair. I sit in it and I started singing a B.B. King song. B.B. smiled and started playing the guitar. Am I dreaming? I’m singing and B.B.’s playing guitar behind me. The crowd went nuts. I don’t think I felt my feet touch the ground for a week afterwards.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

#1: To witness performances by the best musicians in the world.

#2: To share my own music to as many people as I can.

#3: To pay my bills stress-free and to see as much of the world before I die.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

This is easy. A true story: In kindergarten my teacher pinned a note to my shirt. She said, “Give this to your mother and don’t lose it.” When I got home my mother saw the note took it off me and read it. She said, “It says here that Mrs. McGilvery says you have a nice voice, and they want you to sing two songs, ‘Jesus Loves Me Yes I Know’ and ‘I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.’” My mother was a good piano player, and we went right to work learning the songs.

When it came time to play, it was in a church auditorium and the auditorium was full of people — parents and relatives of the kids who went to this particular kindergarten. Another little boy and I were supposed to sing these two songs together. But he saw that audience and he just completely froze up. But I dived right into the song and every now and then I would elbow him in the side to encourage him to join me. He never did. He just stood there, stunned. The audience thought this was adorable and I sang those songs loud and clear. The applause and cheers from the audience was deafening. From then on, I was hooked. Nuff said.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I’ve been working on a new song for a while. I started it a couple years ago. I am attempting to write a Bolero — a Spanish Latin slow ballad. I have finished the music and I think It’s gorgeous. It could stand on its own without the lyrics I’ve never written a song like this before. But the lyrics are the toughest. It has to hold up to what the music is telling you…so wish me luck.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Clifton Chenier with a pot of gumbo, andouille, and shrimp. (Please and thank you.)

Photo credit: Jessica Keaveny

WATCH: The Horsenecks, “Six Foot Under”

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Artist: The Horsenecks
Hometown: Astoria, Oregon
Song: “Six Foot Under”
Album: Started Out in Town
Release Date: January 29, 2021
Label: Tiki Parlour Recordings

In Their Words: “We got this song from an early sixties recording of an obscure country singer named Bob Fryfogle. A man jilted at the altar, walking around the church graveyard wanting to bury his heart. The melody and lyrics are so lonesome, as soon as we heard it we knew we’d have to learn it. It’s a departure from the rest of the songs on the album in that it’s the only song with electric guitar and drums, while the rest of the album is acoustic. This song represents a broader scope of the music we love to play at live shows or sitting around kitchen tables.” — The Horsenecks

Photo credit: David Bragger

LISTEN: Ashleigh Flynn & the Riveters, “The Lion and the Lamb”

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Artist: Ashleigh Flynn & the Riveters
Hometown: Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles
Song: “The Lion and the Lamb”
Album: The Lion and the Lamb (Digital 45)
Release Date: October 20, 2020
Label: Home Perm Records

In Their Words: “‘The Lion and the Lamb’ draws from Bible stories as an overlay for the situation we find ourselves in today — enveloped in the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest/peaceful protests, the rise in domestic terrorist groups in the US, the devastating impacts of climate change/fires that are destroying our communities… things feel hopeless…. While I am not a religious person, I am a spiritual person, and believe the goodness in the hearts of Americans translating into benevolent action is what will heal us as a nation; that ‘savage and cruel beasts’ find their kind and gentle nature, and work to restore of the world to peace and ‘righteousness.’

“This song (with lyrics by Ashleigh Flynn and Virginia Cohen) and the Digital 45 were recorded remotely, with our guitar player Nancy Luca at the helm of arrangement and production from her home studio in LA. She says this about the song, ‘When Ashleigh sent me her song a few months ago, and as we are all locked down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked hard to bring life to this endeavor despite the distance. The Riveters recorded their parts safe at home on their iPhone or DAWs and I mixed it all in the sonic blender of my session. My hope is that you hear the musical emotion of this wonderful and poignant song. Ready world? It’s ready for you.'” — Ashleigh Flynn

https://soundcloud.com/smashedflynn-1/the-lion-and-the-lamb/s-bI67cGnOGMZ

Photo credit: Kate Flather

BGS 5+5: Blitzen Trapper

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Artist: Blitzen Trapper
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Latest album: Holy Smokes Future Jokes
Release Date: September 25, 2020

Answers provided by Eric Earley

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Michael Stipe was my favorite songwriter as a kid, his lyrics were so strange and uncanny. I’m thinking of Reckoning and Murmur, some of the most anachronistic lyrical content ever. There were no lyric sheets or online lookups back then so I was always trying to figure out what he was saying. His songs always had the feeling of a riddle or a magical text, the imagery was dreamlike and over the years I’ve tried to emulate that in certain ways. Tom Waits was a large influence later in my twenties, his bizarre comical lyrical storytelling and character voices were inspiring, I’m thinking of Rain Dogs in particular.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

There isn’t any favorite, lots of weird amazing ones for sure, playing “Heard It Thru the Grapevine” with Stephen Malkmus trading weird, collapsing solos with Stephen as he made up the words because we were too lazy to learn the lyrics. I think we were in Cleveland, but I could be wrong. Playing Big Star’s “Feel” with Jody Stephens on drums and Mike Mills on backing vocals in Austin, Texas, that was surreal.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Most of my favorite songs have literary origins, whether it’s a particular Cormac McCarthy novel like Blood Meridian (“Black River Killer”) or a general religious text like the Bardo Thodol (the new record is based largely on this book). Biblical imagery has made its way into countless songs I’ve written as a result of childhood influences and pervasive cultural resonances. I’ve also started writing a lot of songs from reading specific poets, using their wordplay to inspire different turns of phrase. Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, to name a couple, I’ve also used Finnegan’s Wake and Gravity’s Rainbow to generate wordplay and imagery.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I’ve been playing music since I was a child, so being a musician was never really a choice. I didn’t think of it as a career for a long time. I went to college for physics and math, studied painting, learned classical fingerstyle, became a sous chef. Finally in my late twenties I decided to drop everything and play music, mostly because all the songs I was writing were keeping me up at night, but I didn’t have any vision for the business part of it. Spent seven years playing unattended shows in Portland. Got a record deal off a random song on Myspace and suddenly was touring and making money.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Experimentation is the only way to realize the vision of reality you want to hear, so never grow static in style or voice, always move forward, never sit still sonically. Don’t write angry, only from a place of emptiness without sentimentality, nostalgia without regret. Don’t try to please anyone, only follow your instincts.

Photo credit: Jason Quigley

WATCH: Full Cord Bluegrass, “Downtown”

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Artist: Full Cord Bluegrass
Hometown: Grand Haven, Michigan
Song: “Downtown”

In Their Words: “Most bluegrass songs are written with bucolic images, mountain hollers, and a country living context. I wanted to write a song about that same-minded person visiting a city. While the lyrics portray this, so can the music with its unconventional chords and rhythms. The rhythmic mandolin chordal riff for ‘Downtown’ was born out of an inspiration from the mandolin rhythm giant, Sam Bush, while the chords in the bridge are inspired by Steely Dan. … a blend of bluegrass and the city type chord progression. Portland, Oregon, where I lived for 13 years, is the ‘Downtown’ subject and declares my love-hate relationship with the city. That feeling of energy, sights and sounds of a vibrant environment come in to play with this one. This is something we can all understand…” — Brian Oberlin, Full Cord Bluegrass

Photo credit: Chantal Roeske

LISTEN: Siren Songs, “Edelweiss”

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Artist: Siren Songs
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Edelweiss”
Album: Siren Songs
Release Date: May 15, 2020 (single); May 29, 2020 (album)

In Their Words: “On Patreon, I have a group of patrons that get to pick songs for me to cover. In particular there’s one family, the Pak family, consisting of four sisters, who are all patrons. One of the sisters asked me to do an arrangement of ‘Edelweiss’ to honor their father who had recently passed away — ‘Edelweiss’ was his favorite song. The arrangement is a tribute to him, to honor his memory; it’s an arrangement with his life in mind. I changed the chord progression and the time signature, making the song a bit more emotional.

“His daughter Suzy also told me that she believes the song may have resonated with him so deeply because when he was young his family was forced to flee what is now North Korea, and they never had the opportunity to return to their homeland — it no longer existed. And his first name was Song — so beautiful. Shortly after I finished the arrangement, Song’s wife Mary passed away as well. It just breaks my heart every time we perform this song, so much so that I can’t talk about it until after we’ve finished singing it. When we decided to make ‘Edelweiss’ a part of Siren Songs we added a beautiful vocal harmony and adjusted the guitar arrangement to support those harmonies.” — Jenn Grinels

“The song is from The Sound of Music, a musical which we both love. Deep down we are both musical theatre geeks! Fun fact: Jenn and I both made our stage debuts as Gretl, the youngest Von Trapp, when we were little kids. We both love the musical theatre canon and find so much inspiration in theatre music.” — Merideth Kaye Clark

Photo credit: Chelsea Donoho

WATCH: The Harmed Brothers, “All the Same”

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Artist: The Harmed Brothers
Hometown: Ludlow, Kentucky via Portland, Oregon
Song: “All the Same”
Album: Across the Waves
Release Date: June 5, 2020
Label: Fluff and Gravy Records

In Their Words: : “‘All the Same’ is a traveling song. It’s about life from inside the tour van. It’s about chasing a dream, even when you lose sight of it from being strung out on the road and missing home. It’s about our daily lives as an American touring band. Something I’m sure a lot of musicians can relate to.” — Ray Vietti, The Harmed Brothers

“The Ludlow-Bromley Swim Club in Ludlow, Kentucky is a cherished and beloved summer hangout spot, a classic American neighborhood pool — and our good friend and neighbor Matt ‘Catfish’ Williams presented us with the idea of shooting a video there. With his help, along with the pool owner and our fantastic community, we got to do something really fun and special. When initially presented with this opportunity, we felt ‘All the Same’ has this undeniably beachy, summertime vibe that perfectly fit that idea.” — Alex Salcido, The Harmed Brothers

Photo credit: Michael Wilson