Posts by Jonanna Widner

This week’s blog post is gonna be a quickie, but a goodie.

Will West has been holding down a lot of forts for us lately – heading up the White Eagle’s “Eagle Time” and “Add Love” showcases, kickin’ it at Rock Creek Tavern, etc.

We like West for his hand-clappy, call-and-response approach to Americana….

I’ll be honest: I’m not a big fan of Celilo’s occasional new age driftings. But when the group corrals its inner Enya and sticks to its own brand of mellow California 70s rock, it’s fun and groovy and gently rocking, in a Laurel Canyon kind of way. It’s a sound as airy as sea foam, but rooted, too, like a sequoia. If that makes any sense. 

Perhaps you’re thinking, Hey, I should go out and celebrate Ruby’s birthday tonight. After all, pints of Ruby are a mere $2.50 all across McMenamins-land. You would be thinking correctly, friend. Ruby’s big day is one of the most popular we have. The air around us carries with it the same zingy crackle as Ruby’s raspberry infusion. The beer’s a-flowin’, the smiles are…smiling, and the music’s jinglin’, janglin’, rippin’, and roarin’.

Music? You say. Why, of course! What’s a birthday without music? And you would be right. You’re a smart person, friend, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

I have spent the last 8 hours wracking my brain, trying to figure out how to tell you exactly how awesome KMRIA – Portland’s Pogues tribute band – is. The band, which consists of some of the best musicians the Pacific Northwest has to offer, will kick off the Saint Patrick’s Day weekend festivities tomorrow (Thursday, March 15) at the Olympic Club.

The Pogues are not your normal band, and this not your normal tribute band (after all, what tribute band can boast members of the Decemberists, the Eels, and Dr. Theopolis, among others?), and so I feel compelled to get the message out. And the message has gone through all sorts of fancy permutations in my head, borne of panicky questions: Do people know who the Pogues are anymore? Do people know what an amazing band they were? Do people understand the level of talent that’s in KMRIA? Do people know what “KMRIA” stands for?

The first time I heard Sarah Jaffe (who is opening for the New Multitudes boys at the Crystal Ballroom this Friday, March 9.) she was maybe 20 years old. It was 2007. I had just moved to Dallas to take the music editor position at the alt-weekly Dallas Observer, and one of the first things I heard out of the mouths of those in the know was, “You gotta go hear this girl, Sarah Jaffe. Singer-songwriter. She’ll blow you away.”

I was doubtful. I had already spent four years covering music elsewhere, and I had grown cynical about the genre. The words “singer-songwriter” to me equated “bore you to tears,” not “blow you away.”