It was only a matter of time: Central Oregon is growing in population every day, and with that has come a cadre of music lovers from other parts, looking for more in entertainment than one-off concerts. Music fans will get a full-meal deal this weekend: Days upon days of some of the best musicians out there, set up on three stages on the campus of the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center… and oh, and there’s camping.
The inaugural FairWell Festival happens July 21-23, and with this lineup, it’s sure to be one for the record books. Put on by C3 Presents, majority-owned by Live Nation, FairWell brings the smooth music machine of the world’s largest entertainment company to an overnight, all-out fest in Central Oregon. Beyond the fair itself, it’s arguably the biggest music event to hit Central Oregon, perhaps ever.
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic experience,” said Geoff Hinds, executive director of the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center. “We’ve got a great partner, C3, who does these events not just nationally but across the entire world, and so they know what they’re doing and they’re invested in making sure the experiences are great for all of their festival attendees. It’s the group that’s behind Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits and all these other festivals that people have heard of and maybe have had the chance to go to, and they’re bringing that right here to our backyard.”
While it’s still the first year of what promises to be the biggest music festival in Central Oregon, Hinds estimated that the economic impact to the region for the three-day event is in the range of $20 to $30 million.
“You’re talking about an event that is going to bring 75,000 or 80,000 visitors to the region, over the three days,” Hinds told the Source Weekly. “That [economic impact] number is massive when you start to add those.”
With the addition of Live Nation shows at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater, and now the advent of FairWell Festival, it’s clear that the secret is out on the charms of Central Oregon.
“From our perspective, they figured out what we all know — why everybody lives here,” Hinds said. “It’s an amazing place to live, work and play.”
In total, 36 performances are scheduled over the three days. Among the musicians playing at the fest: Willie Nelson, Mt. Joy, Sheryl Crow, Zach Bryan, Band of Horses, Gary Clark Jr,. Trampled By Turtles, Nathaniel Rateliff and so many more.
Continue for some interviews with musicians playing FairWell Festival this weekend.
[page]
The Soundtrack of Multiple Generations
Sheryl Crow plays Saturday night, ahead of Zach Bryan
By Dave Gil De Rubio
Let’s be clear – Sheryl Crow veers away from the offstage spotlight whenever she can.
As someone who cheerfully admists to “…living with my head in the sand,” she’d be the last person you’d expect the be front and center in a film projecdt. But here she is in “Sheryl,” the Amy Scott-directed documentary that recently bowed on Showtime. Featuring present-day interviews with Crow along with number of famous friends including Keith Richards, Brandi Carlile, Emmylou Harris, Joe Walsh, Jason Isbell and Laura Dern, this project traces the Missouri native’s path growing up as the piano-playing daughter of big band musicians up through the present day.
Rather than having it become a sunshine and lollipops kind of hagiography, Scott succeeds at creating a chronological narrative that includes a mix of performances along with insights into obstacles Crow ran into. Among the pitfalls touched on are the alleged sexual abuse from former employer Michael Jackson’s late manager Frank DiLeo (along with battling various forms of sexism while having to constantly prove her mettle as an artist) and Crow having her album banned by Walmart after including a song addressing gun violence that name-checked the big box retailer as a source for purchasing weapons. The film was an ambitious project the singer-songwriter wasn’t exactly eager to pursue.
“There were some great fun moments. But a lot of it was also very introspective and [involved] revisiting some hard stuff,” she said. “There was hours and hours of reflecting and it was exhausting and super-emotional. But in the end, I hate to use that stupid word cathartic, but it was.”
Of course, it wouldn’t mean anything if the music wasn’t the fuel driving this engine starting with early hits like “Leaving Las Vegas,” “All I Wanna Do” and “If It Makes You Happy” through latter-day gems like “Home,” “Soak Up the Sun,” “Redemption Day” and “Prove You Wrong” (featuring Stevie Nicks and Maren Morris). A trio of new songs, “Forever,” “Still the Same” and “Live With Me” proves Crow’s creative spark is still burning strong. And while she publicly said 2019’s “Threads” was going to be her final album, she intends to continue writing and releasing songs.
“It’s so nice to be able to write a song like ‘Forever’ and just put the dang thing out,” she said. “I just want to keep writing and putting songs out. I think putting records out now at my age is a little bit of a waste of time. People don’t listen to a full body of work, in order. I want to keep making music and putting it out. I’m going to do like David Bowie. I’m just going to put songs out every couple of months and people can make their own playlists.”
That said, Crow spent a good bit of 2022 touring with a band. She has a few dates on the books this year. For Crow, it’s less about the spotlight and more about sharing her music, particularly when she was asked what stardom means to her.
“Fame is a mind-f***,” she responded. “I’m going to have to put $20 in the swear jar in my kitchen as soon as my kids read this. But seriously, it sounds so hokey, but we’re so grateful to be able to go out and play songs that our audiences, which look like Bonnaroo — there are people there my age with their kids and their kids — who are singing all these lyrics. And it’s just such an unbelievably awesome position to be in, to have songs that are generational and a soundtrack. We go out there and play our hearts out and it’s so much fun. It’s a different show. We’re so committed and so present. It’s a good time.”
[page]
A Country-Soul Force of Nature
Singer-Songwriter Yola plays Sunday at FairWell Festival
By Dave Gil de Rubio
Stories abound of how musicians navigated the full-stop nature of the pandemic. For English singer-songwriter Yola, the extended COVID-19 pause gave her a chance to do a deep dive into herself with “Stand For Myself,” the follow-up album to her critically-acclaimed 2019 debut, “Walk Through Fire.”
While her introduction to the public came as a country-soul force of nature who earned multiple Grammy nods, including Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Performance (despite hailing from Bristol, England), the woman born Yolanda Claire Quartey has expanded her stylistic palette considerably with “Stand For Myself.”
With Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys returning as producer, “Stand For Myself” finds the sounds of Yola’s childhood bubbling up and encompassing everything from hooky protest jams (“Diamond Studded Shoes”) and Bacharach-flavored pop (“Like a Photograph”) to Gamble & Huff-flavored disco (“Dancing Away in Tears”) and silk sheet R&B (“Now You’re Here”). In the process, Yola did a self inventory, having already worked to hold onto her center while weathering a tsunami of success.
“It became apparent during lockdown when I was adding songs to my coffer of tunes, that I was writing about something,” she recalled in a recent phone interview. “It felt like the arc of my journey from being a little of a dual-mapped person to seeming like I was on my path properly felt like the inspiration to the arc of this record, a moment where life had realized some sense of timing. I negotiated how to get that for myself and how to have control over my own life — not anyone else’s — just mine. It was quite astounding how often I was in situations where people wanted to have control over my life and they didn’t even realize they were doing that.”
A major factor allowing Yola to find the greater truth she was seeking on this project was the involvement of a female-centric supporting cast that included Joy Oladokun, Ruby Amanfu, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby.
“I feel like with the first record, I was so surrounded by white men,” Yola explained. “It was my connections with women of varying background, hue and persuasion that gave me this wonderful ability to truly excavate everything I needed to [dig up] on this record. I was blessed to have a clutch of women that would get me there fully understanding where I was trying to go.”
Yola is eager to share the entirety of her “Stand For Myself” material as she returns to touring, Anchored by the rhythm section of bassist Nick Movshon (Sharon Jones, Amy Winehouse) and drummer Aaron Frazer (Durand Jones and the Indications), Yola promises both substance and sizzle with her show.
“I knew this record needed a rhythm section steeped in disco and funk. Feel in the pocket was paramount to the drum sections we had,” she said. “We’ve been opening for Chris Stapleton doing short sets, so finally we get the full fat arrangement, delivery and everything. I learned about how I connect to this record and what is coming to the fore in these live performances. It’s also an opportunity to present these topics that can be either taken on either a surface or deeper level and meeting people where they’re at.”
[page]
Dancing Their Way Through the Darkness
Lucius tours in support of its dance-driven album
By Dave Gil de Rubio
The Austrian novelist Vicki Baum once said, “There are shortcuts to happiness and dancing is one of them.” It’s a mantra Lucius embraced when they embarked on cutting “Second Nature,” the quartet’s fourth album, which was released in April 2022.
Co-produced by respected producer Dave Cobb and singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile, the 10-song outing is steeped in thumping grooves and vintage disco vibes. Anchoring the project are the founding members of Lucius, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, whose synchronized vocals reflect the aesthetic of twinning they engage in, whether it’s wearing the same outfits while performing or simultaneously wielding keytars as they did on a recent episode of “Austin City Limits.”
In a released statement, Wolfe revealed the dance-driven take on the current album was a reaction to the personal traumas of her divorce and navigating the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic. In a word, “…our focus was on dancing our way through the darkness.” It’s a sentiment Laessig echoed in a recent phone interview.
“We’d gotten to a certain point after touring with Roger [Waters] that we just kind of wanted to write songs that came to us without thinking about anything,” Laessig explained. “We started writing a few songs and then the lockdown hit. I think a few weeks into it, we decided to take the opportunity to write as much as we could while we had to be home. A few weeks in, it was starting to get a little isolating, so we decided to start writing some dance music and I think that’s where things started turning around for the record.”
With Lucius decamping to Nashville’s legendary RCA Studios, Cobb revealed his desire to work on a disco album, a surprising idea for someone better known for working with country artists ranging from Chris Stapleton and The Oak Ridge Boys to Shooter Jennings and Jamey Johnson. Wolfe and Laessig were quick to go with Cobb’s suggestion.
“We thought that sounded totally bizarre coming from him and we love that,” Laessig said with a laugh. “That became the focus—how can we feel connected, free and joyous together after all of this.”
While working with outside songwriters and producers was a new experience for Wolfe and Laessig, the recording site and Carlile’s background as a fellow musician proved to be a balm for the duo as they went beyond their comfort zone.
“It was really nice having an outside person (Carlile) there to say that we got this take and didn’t need to push anymore,” Laessig said. “Or to say that we can do more and be told we have more in us and that we should do a further take. With someone like Brandi, you trust them. You know she knows the instrument inside and out. And also, there’s a level of wanting to impress someone like that because she’s so bad-ass.”
The infectious vibe of “Second Nature is immediate, starting with the Afro-pop groove that bubbles in the intro of the opening title track that then gives way to the gurgling electro-funk swagger of “Next to Normal,” a jam that sounds like ABBA and Talking Heads having a baby with P-Funk. Elsewhere, Lucius weighs in with its bid for dance-pop anthem of the year with “Dance Around It,” a pulsing ear worm on which Sheryl Crow and Carlile augment the song’s already-juicy vocal harmonies. Providing balance are heart-rending musical statements like “The Man I’ll Never Find,” a gem framed by gentle symphonic arrangements, while the duo sings, “I thought it would be you/I wanted it to be you/And I’m sorry I was always looking for the man that I’ll never find.” Equally poignant is the pathos of the synth-soaked ambiance of “White Lies” and “Promises,” the latter a breakup song whose chiming acoustic guitar accompaniment is offset by lines like, “Promises, empty like a bed you sleep in/Broken like the spell you’re keepin’.”
“The important things you take from it—it’s definitely made its way into all facets of how we see our own project,” she said. “It’s a really exciting live show where we’re going to have lots and lots of sparking everything and plenty of dancing. We’re going to bring audience members on stage for what is going to be a disco party that’s really fun.”
[page]
Mapping Melodies
Rayland Baxter joins a star-studded Saturday lineup at FairWell
By Aaron Irons
Rayland Baxter maps melodies like a hopeful scout surveying an ever-expanding territory of sound. A legacy artist (his late father Bucky Baxter was a multi-faceted guitarist whose resume includes Steve Earle & The Dukes, Bob Dylan, and the Beastie Boys among others), Baxter managed to avoid the lure of the stage for nearly the first three decades of his life, instead focusing on athletics and outdoor pursuits before answering the call.
The proverbial duck to water, Baxter glided onto the scene with 2012’s “Feathers & Fish Hooks” with subsequent offerings “Imaginary Man” (2015) and “Wide Awake” (2018) plumbing sonic and lyrical depths, and in 2019, Rayland paid tribute to Mac Miller with the largely self-produced “Good Mornin’,” a leg-stretcher of an EP that heralded his next evolutionary bender, his current album, “If I Were A Butterfly.”
Gestating across a pattern of pre-COVID months and into the thick of the pandemic and beyond, Baxter’s “Bufferfly” manipulates genre and sounds reminiscent of final-phase Beatles and ever-chimerical Bowie. It’s a mixtape of the artist’s life, a reach back and hurl forward that comes across equal parts adventure and therapy, and like the titular lepidopteran, chronicles Baxter’s “becoming.”
“That’s what we’re doing,” said Baxter during a recent early afternoon phone call, a woodpecker keeping time in the background. “Fifteen years ago, I was living in Israel with my dad’s best friend and he was kind of like my mentor of songwriting as a listener and a fan. All he had was Bob Dylan DVDs and Leonard Cohen DVDs and albums, and that Bob Dylan documentary where he says, ‘An artist is always in a state of becoming.’ Zooming out, a human, we’re all becoming — even on our deathbed. There’s always the next chapter.”
[page]
W illie Nelson is nothing short of a legend, and to have him come to lil’ ol’ Central Oregon is like having a music version of God in our midst. Good thing he’s playing basically last, because after his set we’re wagering we won’t have much left in the tank.
Here are some of Source fans’ favorite Willie Nelson songs, based on an informal poll we ran this week on the Source Weekly’s website.
“Beer for My Horses” – 8%
“Highwayman” – 12%
“Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” – 20%
“On the Road Again” – 44%
(Other songs – 16% of the votes)
This article appears in Source Weekly July 20, 2023.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
