The first thing Esmé Patterson does is warn me: “I’m about to get a tattoo today, so I might be kind of distracted.” Even though we’re on the phone, the singer’s light laugh rings clear like one of her songs. “I just felt like getting a tattoo today. It’s just something I like. I don’t […]
Sound
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The Corrupt, The Honest and The Heroic
The Devil Makes Three is here
The Devil Makes Three is an interesting contradiction in sound and style. The band’s punk roots and upbringing, combined with an old school ragtime sound, saturated in a roughneck bluegrass ambiance, gives DM3 a sonic soundscape very different from bands with their toes in similar waters. Pete Bernhard (guitar, vocals) Lucia Turino (upright bass, vocals) […]
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Top 10 Albums of 2015
I Struggled just to come up with 10 albums that would have contended for my annual list in past years. The top five on this list would hang with the best in most any year, but picking the last few slots was tricky. But it was that kind of year. There were plenty of good […]
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Up In Smoke
Devin the Dude blows through Bend
When Devin the Dude’s favorite sticky, green substance became recreationally legal a few months ago, his fans knew he’d be on his way to Oregon shortly. Sure enough, just in time for the holidays, The Dude will be in Bend next week headlining at the Domino Room. It’s the first stop he and Potluck, the […]
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Bands on the Run
Make-A-Band shows its stuff
The time is now and the final event is upon us. Central Oregon’s Make-A-Band worked its way through the audition and team-building section of the event at Silver Moon from October 6 to 22. Each day featured auditions for different sections of a band. For example, vocalists tried out on October 6 and 8, guitar […]
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Traffic Jam
Dave Mason keeps a legendary band’s legacy alive
Traffic Jam is bringing some of Traffic’s greatest hits back to the stage. The four-piece band consists of frontman Dave Mason, Johnne Sambataro on guitar and vocals, Alvino Bennett on the drums, and keyboardist Tony Patle. Although Mason was inducted into the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame as one of the founding members of […]
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Psychedelic Dance Party USA
Asher Fulero returns to Bend
The Asher Fulero Band plays the type of jazz/funk fusion that is hard to do well. It walks the fine line between super chill jazz, chunky, dance-floor funk, and exploratory jam band noodling, without straining at the seams. Frontman and keyboard player Asher Fulero has been making music for a long time with multiple projects […]
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Instrument of Rock
Greensky Bluegrass turns a mandolin into something more
With Greensky Bluegrass, it isn’t just the name that’s the inverse of what’s expected, it’s the musical roots, too. Case in point: Bluegrass isn’t what Paul Hoffman, one of the two main songwriters in the bluegrass group, generally dials up when he wants to listen to music for fun. “I don’t listen to very much […]
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Newgrass City
The Lil’ Smokies pack a big sound
It would be simplest to describe The Lil’ Smokies as bluegrass, which is pretty accurate, but there is something else there not as easily definable. Most bluegrass has an effortless and unattainable vibe to it, where the audience can dance and have a wonderful time, but the technique is so complicated that there is always […]
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Good Vibrations
Seven minutes in reggae heaven with Israel Vibration
While it’s easy to set reggae on a shelf next to faded college memories of hookah smoking and wall tapestries, some bands are more than a flash in the pan—or pot, as it were. And there’s certainly more to the genre than that icon of icons, Bob Marley (whose likeness adorns countless dorm room walls). […]