In case you haven’t heard: Folk. Is. Back. And regional artists are leading the neo-folk movement. The mystical Northwest is known for dense forests, natural hot springs, and denizens with a penchant for the maryjane, so it’s hard to imagine any other part of the union (except maybe those hippies in California) spending so much time reinventing the genre. Portland experimental folk band Blitzen Trapper meets all the requirements: cool name; logo emblazoned in knotty pine; plaid-cloaked hipsters playing harmonica, banjo, and mandolin; sold-out shows at Portland’s most popular venues. Furr is Blitzen Trapper’s fourth album, its first studio album, and the sextet’s best to date.
Advertisement
With frontman Eric Earley leading the way, Furr is the Traveling Wilburys meets early Simon & Garfunkel meets Elliot Smith—earnest lyrics encased in folksy slide guitar and crooning harmonica, shot through with a little postmodern distortion and the melodic orchestral vibe that’s all the rage. Sweet ballads are mixed with Southern rock jams like the Skynyrd-esque “Big Black Bird” and alt-country tunes like “Texaco.” It’s the title track, though, that you’ll play over and over—perfect for cruising through the back roads of our evergreen state with good friends and a VW bus, reminding you of what it is to be young and free again.
Live in Concert
Snatam Kaur
Spirit Voyage Music
(2008)
There are few things in our fast-paced world that offer an instant sense of peace, a lowering of the heart rate, an internal calming. For many of us born and raised in the Western world, the closest we ever get to meditation is the last five minutes of a yoga class. But one listen to this Live in Concert album by Sikh wondergirl Snatam Kaur and you’ll find yourself chanting along, head bowed. Born in Colorado and raised in the Sikh tradition, Kaur grew up practicing daily devotion, chanting, and yoga. After graduating with a degree in biochemistry from Mills College in California, Kaur move to Eugene in 1997 and began a career as a food technologist for Peace Cereals. By 2001, she turned her full attention to creating and performing music. Her radiantly clear voice is the perfect match for devotional music known as kirtan, which she often translates into
Advertisement
English so audience members who don’t understand the ancient Gurmukhi language can have a deeper, fuller experience. A Snatam Kaur concert is less a performance than it is a communal celebration—neighbors holding hands, children dancing around the circle, the group swaying as one to the sounds from some of the top instrumentalists of the genre, including Manish Vyas and GuruGanesha Singh on the violin, tabla, clarinet, and guitar. If public devotion is a little out of your comfort zone, Kaur’s beautiful recordings translate the emotion of her concert experience so you can instantly become transported to a place of internal peace, wherever you are.
Secrets are Sinister
Longwave
Original Signal Records
(2008)
Portland band The Helio Sequence is just two guys—Brandon Summers (vocals/guitar) and Benjamin Weikel (drums/keyboard)—but you’d never know it from the rich layers of electronica-rock they produce. With Summers’ nostalgic lyrics and some serious whole-body drumming from Weikel, pop melodies are washed in sounds of waves and crashes, such as on “Can’t Say No,” or made into a fiery anthem, as in “Halleluiah,” or a celebration of 80s keyboard goodness with “The Captive Mind.” It’s the title track, though, that shows the depth of their 10-year partnership, proving that some things really do get better with age.
