Tag: Oregon

LISTEN: Alicia Viani, “Tomten Farm”

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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

LISTEN: The Hackles, “The Show Goes On”

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Artist: The Hackles
Hometown: Astoria, Oregon
Song: “The Show Goes On”
Album: A Dobritch Did as a Dobritch Should
Release Date: November 8, 2019
Label: Jealous Butcher Records

In Their Words: “‘The Show Goes On’ is an homage to and a reflection on the life of Bulgarian-born circus impresario Al Dobritch. The song arose from a circus-themed song challenge that sent me down a ‘Circus Circus’ research rabbit hole. Deep in that hole I discovered Al Dobritch, whose byzantine life got me thinking about the interaction between self-determination and outside, decisive forces in all our lives. It was recorded by us and Adam Selzer at The Rope Room studio in our hometown of Astoria, Oregon. Luke’s guitar & James Owen Greenan’s pedal steel converse, Cory Gray’s organ elevates, Gabrielle Macrae’s vocals elaborate, Olaf Ydstie’s drums are the train that goes off the cliff, and Adam Selzer’s percussion and mixing cause everything to make sense.” — Kati and Luke, The Hackles

Photo credit: Courtesy of HearthPR/Lauren Jacobsonᐧ

LISTEN: The Gossamer Strings, “Due to the Darkness”

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Artist: The Gossamer Strings
Hometown: Eugene, Oregon
Song: “Due to the Darkness”
Album: Due to the Darkness
Release Date: September 27, 2019

In Their Words: “Near the Black Hills of South Dakota lie the Badlands, a desolate and harsh landscape filled with steep canyons and towering spires of layered rock. The rain beats down and the wind howls, shaping and changing the land with each passing season. For ‘Due to the Darkness’ we took our inspiration from this stark place to craft a song about finding and appreciating the beauty in the dark and inhospitable places we find ourselves sometimes. Those places can remind us of our vulnerability and, hopefully, of our strength.” — Liat Lis and Kyle McGonegle, The Gossamer Strings

Photo credit: Bill Holderfield

LISTEN: Mary Flower, “Crooked Rag”

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Artist: Mary Flower
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Crooked Rag”
Album: Livin’ with the Blues Again
Release Date: August 17, 2019
Label: Little Village Foundation

In Their Words: “Most of my instrumentals start with finding a groove that piques my interest. ‘Crooked Rag’ was developed around a 12 bar form in G, but with a ragtime feel. It is basically variations in the key of G. While writing, I kept after it, working my way up the neck until I ran out of musical ideas! As is the case for many of my tunes, I don’t sit down to write something. I fool around with new ideas much like a puzzle that needs solving. I work on it until I feel it’s complete and decide if it’s worth saving!” — Mary Flower

LISTEN: Erisy Watt, “Treasure Maps”

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Artist: Erisy Watt
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Treasure Maps”
Album: Paints in the Sky
Release Date: July 26, 2019

In Their Words: “I wrote this song when I was attending school in Santa Barbara, California. Moving there when I was 18 after growing up in Nashville, Tennessee felt like a dream and a lot of my earlier songs were inspired by that change. I’ve since happily put down new roots in Portland, Oregon, but every time I sing this song, a golden-state nostalgia settles in and carries me back to those seemingly simpler times. While this song may be lighthearted, it archives an important coming-of-age chapter of my life and serves to remind me to hang on to my youth and curiosity and not take things too seriously.

“I love the way this song comes to life with a full band. I feel very fortunate to have such great players on it — Anna Tivel on violin, Jeremy Ferrara on guitar, Hanna Haas singing harmonies, Matt Fabi on bass, and Michael Mitchell on drums. ‘Treasure Maps’ is the second track on my debut full-length album, Paints in the Sky. I’m really looking forward to the full album release show at the Old Church Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, July 25, where I’ll be accompanied by seven other musicians to bring these songs to life. I’ll be taking off on tour for much of August and September around the western US and then to Europe later in the fall. Many of those shows will be with a full band as well. You can find more details at my website.” — Erisy Watt

Photo credit: Bradley Cox

LISTEN: Philippe Bronchtein, “Oregon Air”

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Artist: Philippe Bronchtein
Hometown: Portland, Oregon / Montclair, New Jersey (now based in Nashville, Tennessee)
Song: “Oregon Air”
Album: Oregon Air EP
Release Date: July 23, 2019

In Their Words: “I remember finishing the song ‘Oregon Air’ at my friend Martin’s kitchen table in Seattle. The song had sat half-finished for a few years as a patchwork of imagery about my hometown in New Jersey. Over the course of the afternoon it morphed into an introspective saga about what home means, contrasting landmarks of my adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon, with the childhood familiarity of New Jersey. The song asks more questions than it answers, but the immediacy of time and place within the track hopefully leaves the listener with a silhouette of what home means to them.” — Philippe Bronchtein

Photo Credit: Laura Partain

LISTEN: Liz Vice, “It Was Good”

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Artist: Liz Vice
Hometown: Portland, Oregon (currently Brooklyn, New York)
Song: “It Was Good”
Release Date: Single — May 31, 2019

In Their Words: “We are more alike than different. I like to erase the line between the stage and the audience by bringing some people on stage (when possible). When I perform ‘It Was Good,’ I always break the ice by saying this is my ‘Make America Great Again’ song. The crowd reaction is about 50/50 haha. My hope is to transport the audience back to a time, that I believe describes the creation of the world and humans in a poetic way; a short time of innocence before humans decided to play god and draw the line between good and evil/’us vs. them.’ If I only have 5 minutes to remind a group of people that they are made from love to love freely, then I hope ‘It Was Good’ does the job and in the process, through their faces, I, too, am reminded to love.” — Liz Vice

Photo credit: Chimera Rene

LISTEN: Greg Felden, “Better This Way”

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Artist: Greg Felden
Hometown: Los Angeles (originally from Eugene, Oregon)
Song: “Better This Way”
Album: Made of Strings
Release Date: May 24, 2019 (song); June 14, 2019 (album)

In Their Words: “‘Better This Way’ is one of my favorite tracks on the record. It’s a song about that strange state of mind you’re in when your heart is broken, sort of at a distance from the world, and how, even when you know it’s time to move on, the simplest words can sting…. It’s simple and soulful, and I like where it landed, sonically. It seems both old and new, which is really what we were going for. Producers Al Sgro and Will Golden did an amazing job giving it that vibe.” — Greg Felden

Photo credit: Tyler Graim

WATCH: Anna Tivel, “Minneapolis”

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Artist: Anna Tivel
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Song: “Minneapolis”
Album: The Question
Release Date: April 19, 2019
Label: Fluff & Gravy Records

In Their Words: “This is a song about that stuck feeling, that stagnant winter sadness that can take over everything until you have to physically move yourself to shake it loose. I started writing it after a long tour in the Midwest. I was thinking about how that feeling can seep into a relationship until it seems like the only sane thing to do is pack up and start over somewhere else.” — Anna Tivel

Photo credit: Matthew Kennelly

LISTEN: An American Forrest, “Dark to Dark”

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Artist: An American Forrest
Hometown: Powatke, Oregon
Song: “Dark to Dark”
Album: O Bronder, Donder Yonder?
Release Date: May 10, 2019
Label: OK Records

In Their Words: “When I apprenticed to the study of horsemanship, my wages were bed and board; my hours were dark to dark. This song comes from being just as ‘green,’ or uneducated, as the horse you’re riding, and a song about growing from that, maturing in ways you don’t expect, learning patience and discipline and sensitivity from the horse while teaching those things to the horse. What is a ‘horse as light as morning?’ Well, that horse could be light in color, or it could be finely trained and ‘light’ on the reins. A Barb-y Mustang would be a horse descended from feral North American horses showing characteristics of the old Spanish Barb breed.” — Forrest Van Tuyl, An American Forrest

Photo credit: Nicole Freshley