Friday, July 16th
THIS EVENING’s PODS ARE SOLD OUT, SORRY.
Gates Opens at 6:00pm | Music Starts at 6:15pm | Event Ends at 10:00pm
John Craigie
8:45pm to 10:00pm
Renowned for his eloquent Americana style, engaging live shows, and off-the-cuff clever observations, John Craigie carries on the legacy of classic singer-songwriters, while blazing a trail of his own.
Recently, that trail twisted and turned into new territory for the Portland, OR performer who The Stranger appropriately dubbed, “the lovechild of John Prine and Mitch Hedberg.” His music speaks loud to both audiences and fellow artists. Todd Snider notably hand-delivered a gift on-stage, and Chuck Norris has sent fan mail. His fifth full-length album, No Rain, No Rose boasted two collaborations with Gregory Alan Isakov, namely “I Am California” and “Highway Blood.” Both quickly cracked One Million Spotify streams and counting, as his knack for a captivating narrative and rustic aural palettes powered the 13-track offering together.
“It’s about transparency,” he explains. “The storytelling enables listeners to relate. Really good music doesn’t make you feel good; it makes you feel like you’re not alone.”
As No Rain, No Rose landed, he caught the attention of none other than Jack Johnson. Through a serendipitous series of events, Craigie’s 2016 live effort Capricorn in Retrograde… Just Kidding… Live in Portland landed in Johnson’s car stereo during a California coastal road trip.
Shortly after, Jack reached out and Craigie soon found himself onstage for 12 shows during Johnson’s 2017 summer tour including performances at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California and The Gorge in Washington state. Along the way, he earned acclaim from SF Weekly, Seattle Times, AXS, and more. Festival appearances also include Ohana Music Festival (CA), Mountain jam (NY), SXSW (TX), Electric Forest (MI), Summer Camp (IL), Kate Wolf Music Festival (CA), Pickathon (OR), Edmonton Folk Festival (AB), Kerrville Folk Festival (TX), Wanderlust (CA & VT), High Sierra Music Festival (CA) and more.
When Craigie plays, it’s one of those special shows that can make you laugh and cry in the same song. It’s a musical journey that can’t be denied.
MIPSO
7:30pm to 8:30pm
Since making their acclaimed debut with 2013’s Dark Holler Pop, North Carolina-bred four-piece Mipso have captivated audiences with their finely layered vocal harmonies, graceful fluency in the timeless musical traditions of their home state, and a near-telepathic musical connection that makes their live show especially kinetic. On their self-titled sixth album and Rounder Records debut, fiddle player Libby Rodenbough, mandolinist Jacob Sharp, guitarist Joseph Terrell, and bassist Wood Robinson share their most sonically adventurous and lyrically rich work to date, each moment charged with the tension between textural effervescence and an underlying despair about the modern world.
Mainly recorded at Echo Mountain in Asheville, North Carolina, Mipso finds the band joining forces with Sandro Perri (a musician/producer known for his work with acts like Great Lake Swimmers, as well as his own post-rock/experimental-electronic material). In overseeing the production process, Perri guided Mipso toward their goal of shaping a sonic landscape that was expansive and atmospheric yet surprisingly personal, even playful. To that end, the band dreamed up Mipso’s resplendent textures by stretching the limits of their acoustic instruments, rather than employing outside musicians to create new sounds. The result is a body of work with spacious arrangements that gently illuminate the idiosyncratic details and refined musicianship at the heart of every song.
LEE PENN SKY
6:15pm to 7:15pm
Lee Penn Sky's songwriting is unadorned, the nature of his writing makes the songs all the more powerful - his metaphorical, vulnerable and often ironic lyrics have a way of getting to the heart of a matter and his presentation is often compared to Colin Hay's solo work. As a solo artist he has a rootsy, direct, powerful and often melancholic style of conveying his lyrics which lends to a very dynamic and intimate feel.
Lee Penn Sky has shared the stage with some amazing artists such as Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket, Rhett Miller of Old 97’s, the Black Lillies, the Barefoot Movement, Tony Furtado, Pual Cauthern, and Allie Kral from Yonder Mountain String Band. He has been billed with acts such as the Cowboy Junkies, Son Volt, the Old 97's, the Seldom Scene and many more.
Lee Penn Sky released his new album Lean into the Letter on 1/17/20, which chronicles an amazing journey that started with the discovery of a letter sent from Israel in 1958. This letter, found in the back of a drawer in a purse that belonged to Lee's Great-Grandmother Sadie, was translated at a local synagogue, revealing the author as Sadie's nephew, Jakob Nistel, thought to have perished with the rest of Sadie's family in the Holocaust. Jakob detailed the perils of evading the Nazis until the end of the war, hiding underground, to ultimately immigrate to Israel to start a new life. Through the magic of the internet, Lee's family located Jakob’s descendants in Israel, resulting in Lee, his mother, brother, and cousins embarking on a pilgrimage to Israel to connect with their history, their family, and their future.
The songs that compose Lean into the Letter thread together Lee's thoughts and emotions regarding Jakob, his survival in the face of horrific loss, his ongoing and unshakable faith, the discovery of and joy for new family, and ideas of resistance, depression, loss and anger in the context of historic and volatile conflicts that permeate the Holy Land.
No Depression named a pre-release copy of Lee Penn Sky's Lean into the Letter as one of their favorite albums of 2019!
29 Left Down, a 13 song album, was released in March of 2015 to much anticipation and immediate critical acclaim. Several of Lee’s songs from his debut album Prelude to Hindsight released in 2006, have been played on folk and alt-country radio shows throughout the United States and in Europe. His song "The Trees” was included on In Our Town: Songs for BOISE 150 in 2013.