Oregon Music News

I know the flowers are just blooming and we’re getting some warmer days but this is also the time when we start to think about summer and in Portland that means outdoor music festival time. I also know you have to plan ahead and that’s why once again, Peter Dammann, Artistic Director of the Waterfront Blues Festival is on the podcast to tell us about all of the artists he’s booked this year. It runs from Thursday, July 4 through Sunday, July 7. Of course, he’s no stranger to Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th. He’s played here many times. So what’s in store for the 2019 festival? Tickets are on sale right now so give a listen and let Peter give you a preview like no other.

It’s been since September of 2015 that Enrique Ugalde, also known as Soriah, has been on the podcast. He is, as I hope you know Oregon’s own Tuvan throat singer. Enrique is his given name and Soriah is the entity he becomes when he performs. He’ll be performing at the Old Church Concert Hall on Friday, May 17 with the Chirgilchin ensemble who are on tour from Tuva itself. They’ve actually regular visitors to Portland, having been here several times. We’ll play a piece by them at the end of our conversation with Enrique. It’s been a big year for him. Let’s find out why.

Welcome to another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation @ Catfish Lou’s located at 2460 NW 24th. I’m Tom D’Antoni, OMN Editor-In-Chief…although you may already know that. With me today is drummer Edwin Coleman III who I’m sure you know from his years as a major part of the Soul Vaccination groove. He’s very much in demand these days, including as part of the Louis Pain organ trio. But did you know he’s also a cellist? Betcha didn’t. I’ve been looking forward to this. He’s a very smart guy and fun to hang with. Meet Edwin Coleman the third.

We’re feeling nice and comfortable in our new podcast home…Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th…they’re proud that they won the Muddy Award for Best Venue in 2017 and 18. In with me is Kit Taylor who has had an interesting and diverse career. You should remember him from his previous band Intervision. They had a nice run a while back. But he had other ideas…a pop career. I know that sounds unusual in DIY central, Portland, Oregon but that’s what he wants and he’s got a album to prove it called Love + Pain. Let’s let him tell his own story. Meet Kit Taylor.

We’re back at Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th for another Coffeeshop Conversation. We’re coming full circle today because with Michelle Medler, we have now had all four of the Quadraphonnes on the podcast. Of course, we’ll talk about them but Michelle is here to talk about her new album Pink Sky. Some funky Jazz with husband Ben on bass, Dan Gildea on guitar and the ubiquitous drummer du jour Edwin Coleman III. Yes, we’ll try to find out when the Quadraphonnes album of Andrew Durkin music is coming out and we’ll probably fail. Has there ever been a longer-awaited Jazz album around here? I don’t think so. Nevertheless, Michelle Medler persisted.

Keyboardist Louis Pain was releasing a new organ trio album, "It's About Time," and I thought it would be a good idea to have him do an OMN Coffeeshop Conversation @ Catfish Lou’s so we scheduled for this week. And then last weekend, while playing a gig at Bluehour, he had a heart attack and almost died. I was ready to postpone but his wife Tracy Turner-Pain said nope, she’ll drive him. I said what? She said yep. So here he is at Catfish Lou’s, 2460 NW 24th St, twenty four hours after he was released from the hospital with two stents in him after having what is known as a widow maker heart attack. Hard to believe, I know. We’ll finish with a tune from the new album, but with the whole story is Louis Pain.

It’s great when there’s a musician who struggles throughout his career, you know he’s immensely talented and you try to expose his music to a broader audience and then one day, boom. He makes it. Andy Stokes is all that. OMN called him Oregon’s King of Soul years ago. Last year, his song “Best Day Ever” was a hit. He has a new album and we’ll hear something from it. He has sung right here at Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th St. many times. And he’s back today to talk about success. One note. Something happened to the start of the conversation, and we’re picking it up about a minute in. You didn’t really miss anything. Welcome back to Portland, Andy Stokes.

Welcome back to Catfish Lou’s, our home for OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. With me today is an unusual gentleman, even for a musician. Not only has he been a drummer on the Portland scene for a long time, but he’s also a Mafia historian. What? Yeah. Usually you think of Mafia music as stuff like the theme from The Godfather, or Louis Prima or Jerry Vale but in addition to his work on the National Crime Syndicate webmagazine, and appearances on national TV, he writes songs ABOUT the Mafia. How about that? Let’s meet Casey McBride.

Today we get to do what we love to do and that’s bring in someone who curates one of our major music festivals and let them tell us about everyone in it. We’re at Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th Ave. They won Muddy Awards in 2017 and 2018 for Best Venue, as you may know. With me is Nicholas Harris, who is one of the founders of the Soul’d Out Festival and is back this year to tell us all about the performers. He also books Jack London Review in downtown Portland, which has grown into THE place to discover national and international Jazz, Hip Hop, R&B talent and also a home for folks like Mel Brown. Nicholas is always engaging, he’s enthusiastic about this festival, as he should be. It starts in mid-April. Let’s turn Nicholas loose on the lineup.

We’re getting pretty comfortable in the new home for the podcast…Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th Ave. They won Muddy Awards in 2017 and 2018 for Best Venue. Lloyd Jones is no stranger to Catfish Lou’s, he’s played here several times and he’s here with me right now to tell you a fabulous story about making his new album with some Nashville Blues stars, and how he’s just launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring it your way. If you’ve ever heard any interviews (or his previous Coffeeshop Conversation) you know that nobody tells a tale like Lloyd Jones. He’s one of a kind and still out there blasting. Wait till you hear him tell this one.

OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations is back for our second week of what we hope to be a long run at our new home Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th Ave. It’s a real music club which won Muddy Awards for Best Venue from the Cascade Blues Association for the past two years. With me today is painter and photographer Diane Russell. You’ve seen her paintings and drawings of musicians all over town, including in here. And you’ve seen her photography on OMN for many years and we’re happy to be able to have her work on our pages. So we’ll be talking about a show she has up at the Art Bar as part of the 2019 Portland Jazz Festival and how she works and also about fighting it out in photographer scrums at concerts. Let’s meet Diane Russell.

Hi there. Yep, we’re in our new home for Coffeeshop Conversations, Catfish Lou’s, an actual music club. It’s at 2460 NW 24th Avenue and for the past two years it has won the Muddy Award for best venue from the Cascade Blues Association. And what better way to kick off what we hope is a nice long and happy run here than the great Blues guitarist/singer/composer/producer Terry Robb. He’s got a new album coming out called Confessin’ My Dues with some interesting new twists as well as the fine playing we have come to expect from Terry. We’ll find out about that and as usually happens with players like Terry, we’ll end up swapping stories and talking about great personalities. I think John Calahan may come up. Let’s talk with Terry.

OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations has traveled today. Next week we begin making these at Catfish Lou’s in Northwest Portland. But today we’re at Music Millennium for our annual conversation with Terry Currier on all things record store and lots of other things. They have their fiftieth anniversary coming up in March, and Terry has been there almost that long. They have lots of cool things happening to celebrate it, in-store and out, including a special concert at the Aladdin theater on March 15th. What’s he been listening to lately?

Welcome to another one of our weekly Coffeeshop Conversations. We don’t usually deal with the business part of show business because…well, unless you’re a working musician it can be boring. But I wonder if you knew that there is a chapter of the American Federation of Musicians in Portland known at The Musicians Union Local 99? Not only is there one, but it has a head honcho who is here with me today. There’s a lot that goes on that we don’t know and possibly don’t want to know, but Bruce is going to give us a non-boring glimpse into that end of de bizzinezz. What does a Musicians union do? How has their role changed with the changes in culture and technology. Let’s meet Bruce Fife.

It’s OMN Coffeeshop Conversation number 179 in a long line of OMN Coffeeshop Conversations from World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan. I am very happy to have Mary Flower here. She’s one of the world’s pre-eminent guitarists, specializing in Blues, Rags and fellow travelers. She has some big news for us today, which we are revealing here for the first time. I’ll let her do that. She also has had another in her series of instructional DVDs released. Everybody loves Mary Flower and by the end of this, you will too.

Well, the holidays are over, so are the Best of 2018’s and we’re back at it at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another whole year of OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. I’m Tom D’Antoni. The Portland Jazz Festival is right around the corner, beginning Wednesday, February 20 through Sunday March 3. Once again we’ve got the world’s foremost authority on the performers, Don Lucoff, festival Artistic Director, who curated all of the performers. He’s here to run down the whole schedule and tell us about who’s playing, why and fill us in on performers who might be new to us. We love to do this with artistic directors from the major festivals around here. Let’s unleash Don Lucoff and let him rip.

Dunno when you’re hearing this but in real time, this is the week before Christmas and all through the OMN house and at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan, we’re celebrating the return of Jimmy Mak’s with J.D. Stubenberg. Happy holidays from all us OMN’ers. And you heard me right, a new Jimmy Mak’s with J.D. and Lisa Boyle the faces behind the bar for all those years, back and this time in charge. It won’t be until spring but they have a building a few blocks from the old place, and it’s ready for interior construction. Oh boy! Let’s find out all about it.

This is going to be fun. Ever since I heard her show on KMHD radio on Thursdays between 9 and 11pm, I knew we were kindred spirits. It has a lot in common with mine. Now she’s here at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan to talk about her show and the events and dances she throws all over town. Her real name is Shannon Wiberg, by the way, she came to Portland from Olympia with powers far beyond mortal women. That’s a Superman ref, children. There are differences between her radio show and mine, but more similarities. Main thing is that we both love what we play. You’re gonna like this. Let’s find out how she got the name DJ Action Slacks.

We're at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. If you are a regular visitor, you know that from time to time I like to bring an OMN staffer in here so you can find out things about them, you nosey visitor you. Today it’s one of our photographers, Brent Angelo. Multi-media is just as important to us as the written word and we have a long history of great photography. Brent is one of our hardest working and most talented photographers. If you’ve looked at our photo galleries, you’ve seen his work. But what’s it like out there on the front lines, in the pit? Let’s meet Brent and find out.

Kelley Astoria intro We’re still in Portland but we’re going to talk about a special holiday show in Astoria with singer/composer Kelley Shannon who has done a lot of travelling since she moved away a few years ago. But she’s right here with me in the Cupping Room at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Gilsan along with a lovely little two-year-old named Violet. Her holiday show in Astoria at the Liberty Theater, The Astoria Christmas Fantastic on Saturday, December 22 features her, of course, plus Gordon Lee, Dave Captein, and Todd Bishop along with the North Coast Chorale…and she’ll tell us all about it. There are very few individuals quite like Kelley Shannon and you’re about to find out why. Here we go.