We attended the 2010 Portland Folk Festival a few weekends ago and came away with some great inspiration.

Friday, August 20: Alberta Rose Theater

Though I got down a bit late from Seattle (turns out trying to leave for Portland from Seattle at 3:30pm on Friday means quite a bit of traffic), still made it in time for Friday's Portland Folk Festival headliner, Celso Machado. I had no idea what to expect having only been told that he was a "virtuoso Brazilian guitarist, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer". Indeed, it seems pretty impossible to categorize his music, since music is not his primary aim as a performer. His goal, first and foremost is to transport the audience through sound manipulation. It sounds a little heady, but the reality is that he used a crazy amount of instruments, great and small, to communicate his love for Brazil and the music of the world. 

As a guitarist, he was dazzling, with fingertips dancing up and down the guitar neck effortlessly. It's always a joy to watch musicians of this caliber simply play the hell out of their instrument. Aside from his guitar playing, he also brought the audience along on strange and engaging sound journeys. This started off simply with Celso tapping on a water bottle (and tuning it by drinking the water), tapping on the microphone, tapping on his face, basically tapping on anything. These sound journeys culminated in an utterly virtuosic audience participation that recreated the sounds of a hot Brazilian night, complete with thunder and rain. The audience provided the rain with a sea of tongue clicks and knee patting, while Celso provided the thunder by blowing into the microphone. Sounds simple, and it was, but it transported us.  Little wonder that he got two standing ovations by the end of the night!

His encore was dazzling. Playing a guitar piece of his own composition, he progressively detuned the lowest guitar string while playing. When it was completely sack, he picked up a parade whistle and started the samba. He pulled the slack string across the other strings, strumming the dead strings with a convincing rattling samba beat, and pulled the loose string tight on the other side of the neck, loosing and slacking it to create basslines. I've never seen anything like this electrifying performance.
 

 Celso Machado's Virtuosic Encore:

 Saturday, August 21: Mississippi Studios and Wonder Ballroom

Following Friday night's concert, I made sure to hit up the afternoon music sets at Mississippi Studios. Turns out they were held outside under a small tent. Earl White gave a great performance with his wife, Adrienne. I love his stage presence and mellow performances. Watched a bit of Clampitt Family as well, which was a nice bit of alt-bluegrass. Check out our previous blog for exclusive audio of Earl White's music.

The real highlight of Saturday, though, was the Wonder Ballroom evening concert. We made it in time for the two headliners: Thomas Mapfumo and Kimya Dawson. Cost a pretty penny, but our "Splenda Daddy" Tim paid for us. Thomas Mapfumo was a big surprise for me. I'd seen him some years ago in Eugene, but the show then was a bit sketchy (like everything in Eugene!). He still had his trademark deadbeat performing style, and had passed this lack of expression on to the mbira player in his band, but the music was so bouncy and full of joy and hope that it was absolutely impossible not to dance. I know it's a cliche to say this about African music, but try as I might to resist, I simply had to take my hands out of my pockets to do the "white boy shuffle". The music had so much lift and power that I felt completely energized.

Following Mapfumo's dance music with Kimya Dawson's introspective one-woman show was an inspired bit of programming. I knew little about Dawson's music, other than having seen the movie Juno, which featured a number of her songs, and knowing she was part of K Records' eternally eclectic roster of artists. She took the stage as one woman with a guitar, sitting mildly, and kept my attention for what must have been several hours. The show was supposed to end at 10:45, and we got out around 1am, but her performance was so engaging that I barely noticed the time.

I've come to think of her as my generation's Pete Seeger. I don't know if that's entirely accurate, but she seems to have tapped into the same simple spirit of music that Seeger draws from. Her songs are stripped of all pretense, as is her performance. Though she has excellent stage presence, she portrays herself as an everywoman, just someone who has had the good fortune to be able to share her thoughts through music. Like Seeger, she puts her message first, and keeps her ego behind this message. Most importantly, her music makes more sense to me and fits better with my perspective and the perspective of my generation than Seeger's. She shares his earnesty, true, but I'm more willing to go along with her than I am with Seeger. When Seeger sings about a social issue, I flip off. With Dawson, I went right along.

Kimya Dawson singalong a la Seeger


But as much as I enjoyed Dawson's performance, I was really blown away by her traveling partner, Pablo Das. He's an eclectic activist, with causes ranging from the American Rebel Food Network (subverting the industrial food paradigm), Buddhist meditation practices, and volunteer work at a suicide hotline for Gay Youth. And it's this last cause that was the most powerful. He talked about his experiences growing up gay in a conservative community, and told stories of his life outside of this community.

It was enlightening to hear personal experiences from the front lines, and because he was relating what he lived, rather than what he believed, it was remarkably powerful. Dawson had the good sense to let him take the stage solo for a few songs and stories, and his song against California's bullshit Prop 8 completely blew us away. Because after all, gay marriage isn't a debate, it's HUMAN RIGHTS, for fuck's sake! Let's stop debating whether or not gays should marry and just make the decision that all human beings deserve equal fucking treatment! Regardless of what your religious or personal beliefs are. It's kind of a no-brainer, people.

Unfortunately, Pablo's amazingly powerful Prop 8 song is not available yet (he said it would be on an upcoming album), so here's an earlier song he wrote about Prop 8. Best believe we'll get his Prop 8 song up as soon as he releases it.

Prop 8: Fight Back California by Pablo Das

ROAD TRIP!!  We're heading down to Portland from sunny Seattle to enjoy the first ever Portland Folk Festival, and goddamn if we aren't totally impressed at the scope of this event!!  4 Days, 20 Venues, 60+ bands??  And the best part is that you can buy a pass for the whole event and simply skip from venue to venue as you please. Otherwise, how could you keep all those events straight?

We'll be blogging about the Portland Folk Festival while we're down this weekend, and we'll even be "tweettering" (oh how we hate twitter). So keep an eye to this blog and our Twitter page.

Big kudos to the festival organizers for having the guts to move beyond the NW's obsession with indie music, and to include folk and traditional artists who are deserving of new audiences and new venues.  This looks to be a great event and we're happy to welcome a new folk festival to the Northwest. (Speaking of which... Save the Date for the 2010 Seattle Folk Festival, December 12 @ Town Hall Seattle).

Here are some artists we're looking forward to at the Portland Folk Festival, August 19-22.

Thomas Mapfumo: The Lion of Zimbabwe. Outspoken African musician who fused traditional mbira music with electric guitars and hard-hitting lyrics that got him banned from his own country. His chimurenga music has brought him all over the world and we're lucky to have him so close to home (he lives in Eugene!). He used to come in to the Buy & Sell Center in Eugene, where I was working, and  haggle with the owner. His band were the nicest guys ever. He is a real Northwest musical treasure.


Strange and disturbing video from 1988: Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited

Saturday, August 21
Wonder Ballroom
128 Northeast Russell St., 503.284.8686
doors at 7:30pm, $14 advance / $16 day of show, all-ages
 

Caleb Klauder Country Band. Caleb blew us out of the water with his powerhouse set at KEXP in Seattle with Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege. Now he's released his brand new roots album, Western Country, which we are luck enough to be promoting this month! Which means we get first dibs on streaming music from the new album, so enjoy!  PS: Go to our Listening Lounge for more audio from Caleb and many others.

Worn Out Shoes: Caleb Klauder Country Band

Saturday, August 21
White Eagle
836 N. Russell St., 503.335.8900
doors at 9pm, $6, 21+
 

Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert w/Special Guests. This is an all-star guest lineup, including Dan Bern, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary), and indie-folk darling Laura Gibson. Since Portland basically gives birth to a new Woody Guthrie every day, we've no doubt that minds will be blown!
Thursday, August 19
Mission Theater
1624 Northwest Glisan St., 503.223.4527
doors at 7:30pm, $14 advance / $16 day of show, 21+
 

Earl White Band. Though Earl is one of the few African-Americans playing old-time music today, he's also a font of knowledge and stories about the music. We attended a house concert by Earl at Bruce Reid's house a while back and were ridiculously entertained by him and his band. Great stories, great tunes, so this should be lots of fun! Plus Mary Flower is a sweet country blues guitarist with a number of fun CDs under her belt. Don't miss this show!!

EXCLUSIVE Track from the Earl White Stringband
(Earl White (fiddle), Brendan Doyle (banjo), Dan Warrick (guitar), Martha Hawthorne (bass))


Killer old-time jam w/Earl White and Erynn Marshall at the 2010 PDX Old-Time Gathering
 
Saturday, August 21
Mississippi Studios' Bar Bar
3943 N. Mississippi Ave., 503.288.3895
doors at 3pm, FREE, 21+

Fast Rattler. We're excited about this band. Led by Utah Phillips son, Brendan, we're hoping that Fast Rattler will bring a new generation's perspective to Phillips' legacy and a fresh take on his music. Rather than going after Phillips' canon, young Brendan Phillips has worked off of obscure and lost lyrics that were never recorded or set to music by his father. This is going to be a very interesting concert and a must-attend for anyone connected to Utah Phillips music or looking to understand what his music means to a younger generation.
Thursday, August 19
Sisters of the Road Café
133 NW 6th Ave., 503.222.5694
doors at 5:30pm, FREE, all-ages

Alberta Rose Theatre. We're actually really excited just to check out this cool new venue in Portland! But luckily, our friends at the Portland Folk Festival have put together a sweet lineup for Friday night!  Don't know much about Celso Machado, but he comes really highly recommended. Bharatanatyan dance is always fun to watch, and Vagabond Opera represent some of the great neo-cabaret music and entertainment coming out of our region. I talked about them in a recent blog about the indie stringband Black Prairie.  

But supposedly the Alberta Rose Theater is just beautiful. 300-seats, great vintage building, I think after The Woods, this might become my new favorite Portland concert venue.
Friday August 20
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St., 503.719.6055
doors at 7:30 pm, $14 advance / $16 day of show, those under 21 must be accompanied by parent or guardian
individual tickets for this event available in advance here
8pm: Tragos Amargos feat. Luz Elena of Y La Bamba
8:45pm: Celso Machado
10pm: Natya Leela (Classical Indian Dance)
10:30pm: Vagabond Opera
 

So if you're already in Portland, plan on stopping by one or more of these showcases! You can buy the weekend pass or you can by tickets at the door or at the venues' website. Hope to see you there!


 

Whew, we had two great radio shows so far this month and are having a blast with our online radio show: Hearth Music Radio. Every WED 10am-NOON on Cascade Community Radio. Listen online: www.radio23.org/ccr

Next week (08/18) the theme will be NEW AFRICA. I dropped like $100 at Silver Platters, the local record store, so it's gonna be great fun! 

08/04 PLAYLIST
Theme = SWEAT

* = Brand New
# = Highly Recommended
-Artist: Song Title (Album)

Damon Albarn's Mali Music: Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia on River #
Damon Albarn's Mali Music: Sunset Coming On #
Yeasayer: Rome *
T Model Ford: To the Left, To the Right *
The Gregory Brothers: Double Rainbow Song *
Gary Numan & The Tubeway Army: Cars
Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys: Creole Stomp
Caleb Klauder: My Time is Gonna Come *#
Jace Everett: Bad Things
The Roots: Don't Say Nuthin
Scott H. Biram: Hard Time  *#
K'naan: America  #
Tinariwen: Cler Achel
Wu-Tang: Sound the Horns
The Builders and the Butchers: Bottom of the Lake
Orishas: 537 C.U.B.A.
Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley: It Was Written
Jedi Mind Tricks: Godflesh
Nas & Damian Marley: Nah Mean *#
Blackbird Raum: Turning Away
Balkan Beat Box: Sunday Arak
Somali Mustafa: Kemal Paşa Çiftetelli
Paquito la del Barrio: La Pistolita
Jim Byrnes: Didn't It Rain
Sassparilla: Devil *#
Majik Click: Kamarade
Tip Maraton: Motorcycle
Dengue Fever: Sui Bong
MIDIval PunditZ: Piya
Pink Martini feat. Chavela Vargas: Piensa en Mi *
Shankar-Jaiskishan: Title Music from Bombay Talkie

Whew, that was music ranging from Thai mo lam, to Cambodian-LA surf rock, Haitian and Cuban hip-hop, Mexican ranchera, Jamaican dancehall, Santa Cruz folk-punk, Somali rap, roots country, Cajun, and electric blues.

 
08/11 PLAYLIST
Theme = STRAIGHT UP FOLK
(lots of new music in this playlist!)

* = Brand New
# = Highly Recommended
-Artist: Song Title (Album)

Tim O'Brien: The Sun Jumped Up  *
Adam Hurt: Cumberland Gap #
Sean Hayes: Gunnin' *
Della Mae: Blues Have Got Me Down *
Ruthie Dornfeld: Billy in the Lowground *
Avatar Young Blaze: I Am King  *#
Sam Amidon: Relief  *#
The Great Republic of Rough and Ready: God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign  *#
Sassparilla: Ticket to Ride  *#
Gogol Bordello: Wonderlust King
Blackbird Raum: Catherine's Wheel  #
Jason and Pharis Romero feat. Sophie Vitells: Jimmy Shank *#
Yves Lambert & Florent Vallant: Sur la rivière
The Haints Old-Time Stringband: Lowe Bonnnie  #
Hot Club Sandwich: Dejah Vu  *
Chris Coole & Ivan Rosenberg: Willie Duncan  *
Water Tower Bucket Boys: Bread *#
Caleb Klauder: Joking Henry *#
The Stringband: Bob Douglas, John Berquist, John & Susie Everett: I Wanna Be Your Man
Old Man Luedecke: Woe Betide the Doer of the Deed *
Mary Jane Lamond: Mo Nighean Donn As Boidhehe
Dervish: Gypsies, Tramps and Theives
The Chapin Sisters: Sweet Light  *
Huck Notari: Very Long Dream
Olentangy John: Pretty Mary - John Brown's Dream *
Uncle Earl: Sisters of the Road
RedDog: How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live
Foghorn Stringband: Lost Girl
George Penk, Clyde Curley, Sue Songer & Creighton Lindsay: Miss Monaghan/The Cottage in the Grove/The Mason's Apron
Ginny Hawker: Love Will Roll the Clouds Away
Clyde Curley & The Oxymorons: Cruel Willie #
Kepa Junkera w/Bela Fleck: Nondik Jo Maurizia
Danielle Doyle: Pompeii *
Yves Lambert et la Bébert Orchestre feat. The Duhks: Buvons mes chers ami  #

We're proud to announce that we're working with three new stellar artists to promote their CDs via our VIP Mailing Campaign. Hit us up if you're a media contact (radio/print/online) and would like a copy of any or all of these CDs. And send this blog along to your friends so they can get a taste of this great music.

Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
2009. self-released.

There’s a brand new folk music movement afoot in Boston, Massachusetts, and fiddle prodigy Hanneke Cassel is at the forefront. This movement blends fiery fiddling from Celtic and American traditions with a rich knowledge of improvisation and an almost classical sensibility. In Hanneke, this new perspective on folk music has found an outgoing and charismatic spokesperson.

On her latest CD, For Reasons Unseen, Hanneke Cassel has invited an all-star cast of powerhouse folk musicians, most of whom are household names on the American folk scene: Alasdair Fraser, Natalie Haas, Casey Driessen, Crooked Still members/alumni Rushad Eggleston (cello), Brittany Haas (fiddle), and Corey Dimario (bass); The McKassons, guitarist Keith Murphy and ace fiddlers Lissa Schneckenburger, Laura Cortese and Kimber Ludicker. With a guest list like this, you can expect string arrangements as lush and promising as an acre of rainforest, but the real surprise of the album is how Hanneke’s fiddle soars over the canopy of all these guest musicians. It’s a distinctly American approach to Scottish traditions, but also a testament to a new generation of tradition-bearers who have grown up in a world of global possibility and international music-making.

LISTEN TO: "Leila's Birthday"

  

Leon Rosselson & Robb Johnson: The Liberty Tree
2010. Trade Root Music.

Eclectic and political British songwriters Leon Rosselson and Robb Johnson have teamed up on this project to examine the controversial writings of American patriot Thomas Paine in the light of today's world. Interweaving spoken word interpretations of Paine's writing with hard-biting songs inspired by Paine's ideas but taken from today's headlines, this double-CD casts a brand-new light on the American philosopher Teddy Roosevelt once called a "filthy little atheist".

Leon Rosselson has been at the forefront of songwriting in Britain for 50 years. His songs range from the lyrical to the satirical, from the personal to the political, from the humorous to the poignant. His song The World Turned Upside Down has been recorded & popularised by, amongst others, Dick Gaughan and Billy Bragg, and has been sung at demonstrations in Britain and the U.S.

Robb Johnson is now widely recognised as one of the finest songwriters working in the UK today. His songs feature in the repertoires of a wide variety of musicians, and he enjoys a similarly diverse spectrum of critical acclaim.

LISTEN TO "We All Said Stop the War"

Nils Olof Söderbäck & Peter Michaelsen: Kvarnresan
2010. Soulfelt Music.
 

Welcome to rural Sweden, around 150 years ago, where the tradition of twin fiddling entwined in intricate harmonies was still the predominant form of music, and the rhythms of the countryside propelled the fiddling.

Nils Olof Söderbäck and Peter Michaelsen learned this music from fiddlers steeped in these traditions. It was a different age, but it has things to say about our own age, and Olof and Peter deliberately emulate this old sound. As Olof says, “This is not University Music!” Olof and Peter like to preserve some of the rough character, the folkiness of their original models. The tunes on Kvarnresan were all recorded straight through, in Olof’s barn in rural Oregon.

Swedish fiddler Nils Olof Söderbäck is one of the Pacific Northwest's musical treasures. Born in 1954 in Flen, Södermanland, Olof grew up on the family farm, working with the dairy cows and forests that provided their income. At age 17 he gave himself over to the traditional folk music of Sweden. Now Olof lives in Talent, Oregon, where he teaches Swedish fiddling and explores his other musical interests: Balkan and Indian music. He's an eclectic musician, at home in a great number of different traditions, but when he settles into the groove of Swedish fiddling, his true mastery of this music is evident.
 

LISTEN TO "Kvarnresan"