Originally from the wilds of Alaska, singer/songwriter Rafe Pearlman now resides on Washington’s Orcas Island. With these locales as his backdrop, it’s not hard to understand why Mother Nature is so instrumental in Pearlman’s work. As he’s traveled the globe playing shows in India, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Mexico, he’s also traversed these United States — including a stop in Bend last year. His 2023 visit even inspired an appropriately titled song, “Bend.”
“It was my first time getting to experience Bend — seeing the beautiful Deschutes River running right through town, I was instantly charmed,” Pearlman says. He sought out Tumalo Falls, “and once again the river magic was just really working with me. I live on Orcas Island, Washington, currently, and there’s no river energy there to connect with so I was really soaking it in.”
That evening, “I got home to where we were staying; we were right next to the trails of Sawyer Park. We sat on the river rocks among the willows, soaked up some sun and jumped into the water. When I was a kid growing up in the wilderness of Alaska on the Nowitna and Yukon rivers, I used to make all sorts of little, fun things out of riverside willows. So when I got back to the house and saw a ukulele sitting in the corner, I picked it up and the song ‘Bend’ came out. I had never owned a ukulele before but figured out a few simple chords and started singing.”
“Oh you gotta Bend like a willow so you don’t break,
Oh you know in life you gonna make plenty mistakes.
You gonna fall down the mountain,
I hope you don’t break your back.
Just dust yourself off and get right back on track.
And come down to the river and sing,
Jump into the water, come clean…”
The just-released, upbeat, uke-filled tune is a timely preview of Pearlman’s winter solstice appearance at Bend’s Unity Spiritual Community of Central Oregon on Saturday, Dec. 21. On the darkest day of the year, Pearlman plans to light up the room with “some fun group singing with our audience. These creative vocal moments together are the goods! It really takes it out of the artists ‘performing’ into more [of] a bonding community experience,” he explains.
“One of the solstice-inspired things we’re planning on is bringing the lights down low and into darkness for a moment together in silence to honor the darkest night of the year and the returning of the light. We’ll sing something together to symbolize calling forth the light into our lives, most likely a piece of my song ‘Sunna,’ which is inspired by the Nordic name for the sun. This experience will be made complete while sharing a candle lighting ceremony together.”
Pearlman will be joined by Jason Krivo Flores from Portland on bass and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Berkman, a San Francisco-based artist who will play “kora (African harp), Ondomo (the first synthesizer ever made in 1928) and percussion,” he says.
“Bend” is the first track that Pearlman has finished from a batch of fresh recordings, “which will eventually turn into a new record for 2025,” he tells. Smith Rock is the inspiration for the single’s artwork, another “must-see” place he visited: “It blew my mind,” he says. “It was like stepping into an ancient world; I couldn’t believe it existed and I had never heard about it before. In fact, on top of the epic rocks there, another song came, called ‘High Country,’ that I hope to record and release next year.”
-Editor’s note: This article previously stated that: “Berkman will also open the evening.” He will just be accompanying Pearlman during his set. We regret the error.
This article appears in Source Weekly December 19, 2024.
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