Sound Stories & Interviews

Last year, when local promoter Marshall Glickman sought to join forces with the Oxford Hotel to put on a series of jazz concerts, he did so with two goals in mind. First, to expose local music lovers to quality jazz and, secondly, to offer couples a great date night out.
Getting top name players and groups to come to Bend proved easier than expected. Creating a true “club” and date night atmosphere in the Oxford's ballroom proved a bit more challenging, but was accomplished in style with café tables, soft lighting and an attentive wait staff on hand for food and drink orders.
Looking back at last year's shows, Glickman notes: “We put on five shows and sold 100 percent of the tickets. That proved that there is an audience in Bend not only of jazz lovers, but also of people who want to stay up late and hear world-class musicians in the comfort of an intimate jazz club setting.”

This spring, Spin magazine laid out a section about the throng of young-ish musicians who've brought back Americana sounds to the forefront of indie rock. Mumford and Sons were on the cover. The Low Anthem and the Head and the Heart were also prominently featured alongside a write up about The Felice Brothers. As much as that last band enjoyed the publicity, the placement of that article was a bit odd.
While The Felice Brothers had created a few records over its five-year existence that echo the rootsy influences of its upstate New York origins, The Felice Brothers had just recently released an album, Celebration, Florida, that is decidedly not Americana music. You can hear that foot-stomping goodness that harkens to the band's acoustic beginnings, but this latest offering dances right on the edge of the threshold of electronic dance music. And it's excellent.

A lot of words come to mind when someone mentions the name David Grisman, but “technologically advanced” likely wouldn't be near the top of the list. Or even on the list at all, for that matter. But when the mandolin master and bluegrass innovator received a list of questions via email (per his request) he fired back his thoughtful responses in a stunning two hours.
He must have one of those iPads or something, because that's impressive. And especially impressive for a guy who's known for preserving and promoting a style of music that harkens back to the earliest days of American music. As a young man in the early 1960s, Grisman began playing in jug bands and would soon meet, and heavily influence another young musician by the name of Jerry Garcia. The two would go onto collaborate for the years to come with Grisman playing on the Grateful Dead's iconic American Beauty. He might not get a ton of credit for it, but you know that gorgeous mandolin on “Ripple”? Well, that's Grisman.

I knew who they were coming to town and I knew they'd been here before. They're called the Riders in the Sky and I've heard their music for most of my life. So have you, even if you might not know it, you have. Trust me on this.
As someone who doesn't (and doesn't know anyone who does) listen to traditional Western music, I've never really known what to think about Riders in the Sky. I mean, their motto – or at least the one emblazoned at the top of their concert posters – is “bringing good beef to hungry people,” for crying out loud. Also, they've spent a sizable chunk of their collective career, especially as of late, playing music for children and call themselves by nicknames like Too Slim and Ranger Doug. That might make them hard to take seriously. But then I spent some more time listening to this band and realized that, more or less, you don't have to take them seriously. They're as much of a comedy troupe as they are a musical act.

After Jeff Tweedy assembled, what he declared, “the best Wilco line-up ever” in 2007, the sextet released the very straightforward, and dare I say boring, Sky Blue Sky. Wilco sounded more interesting with 2009’s Wilco (the Album), but still seemed too top heavy with seasoned musicians to produce something so sing-songy.
The Whole Love is a strong argument for the current lineup’s need to convey Tweedy's ideas. The brilliant early sonic deconstruction, water drip keyboards, and impeccable pushing bass on “Art of Almost” (the album opener and exclamation), builds “wasteland” abstractions through a straw, to a lesson in explosive krautrock. “Dawned On Me” has a genuine “fresh” pop quality to it that seemed missing from recent Wilco recordings and “Black Moon” possesses enough intrigue to carry you on to the tasty bass workout, “Born Alone.” The album ends nearly as strong as it starts with the cyclical 12-minute closer, “One Sunday Morning” as Tweedy gives his (often used) equation of life, death, and frustrations with God.

Looking over 3,200 square feet of performance and recording space, The Sound Garden Studio co-owner Kim Schouw says, “Our goal when we moved into this building was to use it to host monthly jazz and blues concerts, support local musicians by offering them a place to play, bring in national acts whenever possible to showcase them, plus offer people recording, rehearsal and video production space.”
A few steps between The Brown Bag and Searing Electric and Plumbing on Second Street, The Sound Garden Studio space was once an infants' apparel and thrift shop. It also did a stint as a church. Then the space went secular. Now it's another step in what might be called the slow, but ongoing, Second Street Renaissance.
The Sound Garden currently can seat an audience of 150 in lawn chairs. Once a raised loge section is constructed, audience members will be able to enjoy a concert or show while seated on couches or in easy chairs.
“We want to give the place an Austin City Limits meets your living room feel,” Schouw said.

Something has happened in the Bend music scene over the course of the past six years. Venues have opened.