Oregon Music News


Acoustic Acoustic

My Voice Music empowers at-risk youth – benefit concert on Saturday, May 19

Ian Mouser gives every voice the opportunity to tell a story through music. My Voice Music Benefit Concert on Saturday, May 19th, from 7pm-11pm

 at The Slate / Photo by Paul Schmitke



WTF Fest brings John Sinclair and live arts collaboration to Oregon – it is not the What The Festival

With live music, video, poetry and story telling, comedy, and painting with A MILLION VOLT TESLA COIL! At the Star Theater Monday, April 23 and Friday, April 27 at the Performing Arts Center in Astora.


Q/A with Naomi Hooley for Debra Arlin CD release – both Saturday at Jimmy Mak’s

Naomi Hooley (pictured) and Debra Arlyn celebrate Debra’s latest CD release Saturday. The two women are entwined, and their story is worth sitting down for.


Record Store Day: Saturday, April 21

Celebrate and support your Oregonian, indie record stores this Saturday. In return, they’ll shower you with special releases, super limited edition 7-inches, noteworthy collaborations, and freebies.


Win tickets to Melville, Ed & The Red Reds and Country Mice at Mississippi

On Sunday, April 15. Just leave a comment on this article for your chance to win!


The Shook Twins plus one: A Q/A with Katelyn Shook

The Shook Twins kick off their McMenamins’ Great Northwest Music Tour this week in Bend followed by stops around the NW including several in the Portland area at venues like Edgefield, Lola’s Room and more.


Water Tower: Indie-grass music all week at the Crystal Hotel

With four albums and multiple international tours under their belts, plus appearances on BBC and NPR, the Water Tower guys have created a buzz for themselves with their high-energy shows and hard work out in the music business bee hive.


Sharing the stage: Rodrigo y Gabriela y C.U.B.A.

Performing for the first-time ever with a backing band, Rod y Gab bring a Cuban-tinged five-piece to share the Schnitzer stage with them on April 4.


UPDATE: Sweet harmonies of  Americana duo, The Honey Dewdrops, sell out Eugene house concert on Sunday

Perfect harmonies are touching without being cloying, Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish are building a national following the old-fashioned way — through great concerts and word-of-mouth among a growing fan base. On Sunday, they’re playing a do-not-miss house concert in Eugene.


Photos: Eddie Spaghetti, Truckstop Darlin’ and Twangshifters at Dante’s on 3/30/12
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Portlanders Jenn Rawling and Basho Parks ‘Take The Air’ together

Local musicians Jenn Rawling and Basho Parks talk about how they became partners, releasing their first album together as a duo, and their upcoming whirlwind of a tour which starts this Friday, April 6 at The Piano Fort.


SXSW Report: Business and Pleasure

Each year thousands of musicians and music industry professionals migrate to the middle of Texas to that not-unlike-Portland-town of Austin for SXSW, the annual music festival and conference.


Photos: Ani DiFranco at the Roseland on 3/31/12
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Earl Scruggs, banjo virtuoso and pioneer, dead at 88

He had been in failing health for some time, according to his son, Gary Scruggs, who played bass guitar with his father. Talking about his father’s death, he said with a cracking voice: “He‘s 88 and it’s a slow process.”


Rob & Rob: The 7th Annual Shakers’ Ball

It’s time again for the Annual Shakers’ Ball on Friday at the Aladdin Theater, which will recognized the release of Rob Barteletti’s “Shakers’ Sessions.” Like a barn raising, it was a great gathering that helped create this album of Barteletti-penned songs performed by Northwest luminaries.


The soul of Kelly Joe Phelps

Kelly Joe Phelps has been on an inspirational soul-searching mission for the past few years. He brings that search to the Alberta Rose Theatre on Thursday, March 29.


Belinda Underwood, Tara Williamson and Kelley Shannon sing at this weekend’s SWAN Day…Support Women Artists Now

Again in 2012, OMN is a media sponsor for the Portland part in the international Support Women Artists Now Day. It’s free Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25 at the Better Living Show in the Portland Expo Center. / Kelley Shannon pictured


The Magnetic Fields perform a soft energy set at the Roseland

The Magnetic Fields delivered well-crafted takes on a variety of rarely touched subjects—appendectomies, pied-à-terres, and drag queens included—while the multi-talented Portlander Holcombe Waller opened with a set of showcasing his multi-tonal vocals.


Photos: The Magnetic Fields and Holcombe Waller at the Roseland on 3/21/12
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SXSW ends: Closes With Mumford & Sons, documentary ‘Big Easy Express’

“Members of the Austin High band watched their star turn in the premiere of “Big Easy Express,” then joined documentary subjects Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes and Old Crow Medicine Show in an outdoor concert at the University of Texas as the music conference fell into an exhausted heap on its final night,” says Huffington Post