Oregon Music News

Hi there. Tom D’Antoni back with another OMN Coffeeshop Conversations Mini episode, something we started a few weeks ago. You can count on one full and one mini episode per week. And did you know we’re also on iTunes, SoundCloud and TuneIn? We are. Just search for Oregon Music News to find every past and present Coffeeshop Conversation. Of course, that coffeeshop is World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan. Today we’re bringing back the Boogie Cat, Norman Sylvester who is going to tell us all about a show he’s got coming up at Alberta Rose Theatre which he calls the “Phenomenal Concert,” “The Journey of American Music.” “From Africa to the Mississippi Delta to the 21st Century. Alright then, let’s find out about it.

May 17, 2016 As we wander on into our second hundred of these, let me welcome you back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me today is Dusty York. Dusty is/was a saxophonist, keyboardist, composer, label owner and now, somewhat suddenly he’s a standup comedian. How did this happen? It has been quite a while since he sold his horn, closed the label, and changed musical direction. But standup comedy? I have to tell you that in addition to our professional relationship…meaning I’ve done lots of stories on him, he’s also my baseball buddy, being the only other human I’ve met in Portland who is a Baltimore Orioles fan. And it was all we could do not to talk about baseball. You can see him as part of his show "Tell Me Where It Hurts" with 6 other comedians. Self-described as "Standup Comedians tell the most humiliating stories of their lives," Sunday, May 21 at Crush Bar. Find his latest album here. Let’s hear about the twists and turns of Dusty

May 9, 2017 This is our one-hundredth Coffeeshop Conversation. We started with Mary Sue Tobin on December 4, 2014 and with the obvious exception of a few weeks, we’ve been right here at World Cup Coffee and Tea, NW 18th and Glisan for each one. We’ll have Mary Sue back soon, but I’ve asked filmmaker Beth Harrington to return because she was a great guest early on, and also because she’s working on a major new project called The Musicianer involving a guy named Petunia. Her last film, The Winding Stream on the Carter Family was a major success and resides currently on Netflix, after Beth toured the country with it after its premiere three years ago. No, I don’t know what a “musicianer” is either. So we’ll find out straight away. And perhaps a glimpse at who this Petunia fellow is and what he’s about.

May 6, 2017 This is the second of our Coffeeshop Conversations Mini-episodes. Yes, I said “mini.” Even the world “campy” is campy, I know. Whatever. Josh Malm has been here before. On his new album, Saints & Renegades, he’s billing himself as Josh Allan Malm, he’s aka Redwood Son, also the name of his band, he’s been known as Josh Malmtree and I think Prince. Maybe not. He’s releasing his new album as an LP, available only at Music Millennium at first, with a rollout later on. He was here a few months ago talking about a prospective move to Nashville. We’ll see how that went. We’ll also find out how it felt to have the new album recorded and ready to go and then sit on it for three years. The life of a musician huh? Anyway, Josh is an interesting cat. Why else would I have invited him back? Let’s catch up and find out about the new album…and hear a track when we’re done talking.

May 3, 2017 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. As you know, from time to time I like to bring in a member of the OMN family and let you meet them. Today it’s Stephen Blackman, who has done a lot of good things for us including handling all of the Portland Jazz Festival Jazz Conversation recordings. He’s a guitarist, singer, composer, producer, engineer and a full-time attorney at the same time. He’s a man of long experience in music and one of strong opinions. I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of a legal procedure against him. He’s always been there for us and for me when things go goofy. And he always has a remedy. He plays every Thursday night at Gallo Nero 6-9pm and you can hear him with singer Lorna Baxter at the Hotel Vintage on Friday, May 5. He plays "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" at the end of our conversation.

April 24, 2017 Welcome back to another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation at our home for these things…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan. Tony Furtado is here today. He is known world-wide as a stringed instrument player, especially the banjo and more often than not these days, as a singer/songwriter. He has a new album out, a live one called Cider House Sessions – Live at Reverend Nat’s and if you don’t know anything about that place, you will by the time we’re done. He’s got an album release on Saturday, May 6 at the Alberta Rose Theatre. Full details and tickets here. He’s married to Portland singer/songwriter Stephanie Schneiderman. Two musicians in the family? How does that work? Hear a track from the new album at the end of the conversation.

April 19, 2017 Welcome to the first of our Coffeeshop Conversations mini-episodes. I figured why not do some of these around a particular event. They don’t have to be a full hour’s worth, but maybe something you’d like to hear. At World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland is the smiling face you remember from being behind the bar at Jimmy Mak’s that’s right, JD, who’s real name is John David Stubenberg. He and some other folks are staging a concert on Sunday night, April 23 at Roseland Theater in honor of the late Jimmy Mak and to kick off a scholarship to Portland State University in his name. He’ll tell us all about it. Full info here. OMN is happy to be a Media Sponsor. JD might even give a hint about what’s happening with the beginnings of a new Jimmy Mak’s club. Maybe. He and I stopped talking about baseball long enough to do this.

April 13, 2017 As we inch slowly toward sun and warmth, we’re going to find out all, and I do mean all, about the 2017 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, June 30 to July 4th because Festival Artistic Director and ace guitarist Peter Dammann is in the Coffeeshop today. Welcome to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. This will be the thirtieth annual festival and Peter has been either playing at or curating the music for every one. Have you seen the lineup. What did you think? Some new names? Yes indeed. Some were even new to me and I thought I knew everybody. This is a good thing! If you’re not learning, you’re dead. Let’s hear about them all from Peter Dammann

April 6, 2017 Back in World Cup Coffee and Tea in Portland at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me today is one of those people behind the scenes who’s name you may only know if you read liner notes…that is if you still buy CDs. His name is Bob Stark and he’s a recording engineer, a producer, arranger, mixer and composer. He has worked on Grammy winners by Esperanza Spalding and the album by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. What’s life like for a guy like Bob in a music world gone DIY? He was at Kung Fu Bakery in Portland for a long time and now works out of Sonic Media. What’s he up to? What are his latest projects? And what’s it like moving from engineer to producer?

March 30, 2017 Back in the World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glilsan after a week off keeping company with the flu, it’s another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. With me today is a singer whose name you may recognize if you were a music fan in Portland twenty years ago. She was the queen of Portland Blues singers back then. Her name is Sheila Wilcoxson. All of a sudden she was gone from the scene around fifteen years ago. Vanished. What happened? No, it wasn’t drugs or alcohol. It was more complicated than that. If you ever wonder what ever happened to her and why she has begun singing again…you’re about to find out. And you’re going to hear her sing again during this Coffeeshop Conversation.

March 17, 2017 Hi there. Welcome back to OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations here at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Gilsan. I’m trying to get over the flu or bronchitis or whatever that bug is that seems to have infected everyone in town since Trump was inaugurated. My voice will be back soon. When we recorded this Coffeeshop Conversation with guitarist/composer/luthier Mike Doolin, I was a full strength. Mike stopped building guitars a few years ago, but recently completed a new one for his wife Nancy Conescu. Why did he quit? We’ll find out. He’s one of the founding members of Soul Vaccination and he plays in multiple genres and configurations. One thing we’ll find out is why does he play a seven-string guitar?

March 9. 2017 From the cupping room at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland Oregon, here’s another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation In the coffeeshop with me is the singular Tony Starlight who gave up his night club a couple of years ago and now is the proprietor of Tony Starlight’s Showroom. What’s the difference? Keep listening. What will he bring us today? One never knows. He’s multi-talented, multi-faceted and can put you on the floor in laughter or teach hard lessons about the music business. I can only assume we’ll have a big dose of both. He’s Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra…he’s generations of entertainers. Let’s meet all of them. Here comes Tony Starlight

February 28, 2017 Karen Lovely returns to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan today for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation, the 92nd of them. Karen has finished her new album, but it’s not out yet. She’s got some crowd-sourcing to finish up. It’s been a great year for her since she was here in the Fall of 2015. Her last album was a hit…we’ll find out all about it and also about her new album which was recorded with some heavyweights in Los Angeles. She’s been touring everywhere in the U.S. and the world. She’s one of the most refreshing personalities in the Blues or any other world. And she makes no bones about her politics. Let’s catch up with Karen Lovely.

February 23, 2017 Welcome back to the coffeeshop…World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland. It’s another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. If you were in New Orleans you would have been celebrating Carnival for weeks now. Mardi Gras is coming up on Fat Tuesday, February 28. But did you know that there’s also Fat Monday. It’s called Lundi Gras and here to talk about it is New Orleans native saxophonist Reggie Houston. He’ll be playing a Lundi Gras show at the Lake Theater in Lake Oswego. We’ll find out all about that and learn some stuff about Lundi Gras I bet you never knew. Hey now! Get your beads out and listen to the real thing. Reggie Houston.

February 16, 2017 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. We’ve got saxophonist/vocalist/composer Chelsea Luker in the coffeeshop today. You know her from the Quadraphonnes sax quartet. You may know her from one of her other bands, Joy Tribe. Joy Tribe calls itself a World Funk band. We’ll find out what that means. She is classically trained, was a founding member of the Quads, had a band called Mars Retrieval Unit for quite a while. She’s got quite a story.

February 8, 2017 Today at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan in Portland we’ve got probably the best known Jazz musician in Oregon. Mel Brown is here for a Coffeeshop Conversation. Mel is here to talk about a special performance which includes John Faddis at the upcoming Portland Jazz Festival commemorating the 100th year of Dizzy Gillespie on Wednesday, February 22. We’ll find out all about it. And how is he doing now that Jimmy Mak’s his three-gig-a-week home is closed and Jimmy is gone. What about the plans for a new club? And what’s he doing in the meantime? He’s got a great Dizzy Gillespie story. Every Dizzy Gillespie story is a great one. Many thanks to musician, luthier and audio production wiz Mike Doolin for fixing the audio. Mel Brown is the dean of Oregon Jazz. Let’s talk to him:

January 25, 2017 Back in the coffeeshop again. That coffeeshop being World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan. Man, this is number 88…and I’m not tired of doing them. Today the other half of Kate Power and Steve Einhorn is here. The Steve half. They came back to Portland in January of 2015. They had been gone for four and a half years. For decades they were the owners of Artichoke Music, a store and teaching center, but more importantly, the hub of stringed instruments and song in Portland. It was a welcoming place to visit. There was always someone playing an instrument, many times one or both of the proprietors who also had a thriving career as a performing/recording duo. Kate did a Coffeeshop Conversation about a year ago, separately and now Steve is here to talk about…well, everything but also about a show they’re doing at Artichoke, their final show before the place moves. It's also the release gig for their new album Portland Romace and a benefit for Artichoke. Saturday, February 11, 8pm, $25 dona

January 12, 2017 Back in World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for this OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. and with me today is bassist Dave Kahl. He’s a Bluesman and has been for a long time, a fixture on the scene with many bands, including the legendary final Paul deLay Band with the big man, David Vest, Peter Dammann and Jeff Minnick among others. These days he’s in two or three or four bands. It’s the life of an Oregon musician. Dave’s history is the history of Blues music in Portland, from the 1960’s Blues revival to this minute. He was the recipient of the Cascade Blues Association's LIfetime Achievement award and Best Bassist award for 2016. There are lots of parts of his story that we didn’t get to, but wait till you hear about is encounter with Charles Mingus and how it changed his life. Let’s meet the guy you always see in the back on bass… Dave Kahl:

January 5, 2017 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for this week’s OMN Coffeeshop Conversations. You know, there are an awful lot of internationally known musicians who live in Oregon. They don’t necessarily work a lot here, they make their money all over the world and then come home to live here. One of them is guitarist Jennifer Batten. She’s a lot more than a guitarist, although she did do three world tours playing with Michael Jackson and spent time playing with Jeff Beck and a lot of others. She’s also a film-maker, glass artist, and well, a lot of other things. She’s known for her tapping technique on guitar and she’s pretty astounding with it. I’ve met most of the people who come to the coffeeshop but I had never met her until now.

December 29, 2016 Welcome back to World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Today we’ve got Clark Salisbury, guitarist/oud player and now one of the folks behind the group calling itself “While Rome Burns.” They’re doing what amounts to the fiddling, although no fiddles are required, the fiddle represents all instruments. The Rome in the title refers to America, which is about to be run by a madman. They say they’ve formed in response to recent social and political trends…that means Trump. Their mission is to leverage the power of music and community to support and confirm diversity and social justice in our neighborhoods. Needless to say, OMN is one of the media sponsors!