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Diamonds
& Rust Redux
Quitting his day job wasn't a hard decision for Sam Beam. "People started showing up at shows," says this quiet and unassuming father of two. Losing his low-salary job teaching cinematography at a film school in Miami where he lives wasn't a big loss either. With a Grizzly Adams appearance, Beam makes tender, acoustic guitar-based music with an occasional banjo overdubbed for spice, centered on religious faith (or lack of it), love and loss. The music and message is folky in a hushed, whispered way that sometimes borders on the too-precious. His earnestness and sincerity in conversation and in musical form reveals that he is blasé about stardom and much more comfortable as Sam Beam, the father and filmmaker. Sub Pop (yes, the label that broke Nirvana has definitely softened) released Iron & Wine's 2004 EP Passing Afternoon and will put out another six-song CD in February. Here are some excerpts from our conversation. EW: What does the name Iron & Wine mean to you? Sam Beam: I just thought it was an interesting coupling of words. A good contrast but at the same time ... I don't know. Where do you get your inspiration as a songwriter? Lots of different things. It's based on personal experience, or things I've read, or things people have told me. I could go song by song and tell you but generally, it's kind of a broad spectrum really. Your music is quiet and understated. It's not "busy" at all. Yeah, for the most part. I'm going to put out a record that's a bit more busy. It's still fairly simple, though. I like to take the simple things and make it as interesting as possible. Tell me about the next record you have coming out, Woman King. It's a little bit more playful. It's still very familiar. It's a little bit of an evolution. It's quite a bit more percussive, more playful in its instrumentation. It's quite a bit more, just different instruments. Electric guitar, stuff like that.
Ancient
Echoes 'Tis the season of gifts and gratitude, so I want to express my thanks for the surprising profusion of early music this autumn has brought. From the magnificent Sequentia to Fortune's Wheel to Anne Azema and Shira Kammen to our own new local early music group Sospiro, we've received an unprecedented bounty of far-too-rarely heard pre-classical music — ancient sounds that often move modern listeners more than the repertoire of the past couple of centuries. And now we're blessed with the first local performance by one of the world's finest and most intriguing early music bands: the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble.
SAVAE specializes in reconstructing the lost music of earlier eras, particularly music that bridges cultures. The group's astonishing new CD, Ancient Echoes, began around the time of the outbreak of the most recent Palestinian intifada, when the group's founders, early music scholars Christopher and Covita Moroney, encountered a book of mystical translations of prayers in Aramaic, the major Middle Eastern language of two millennia ago. Inspired by the idea that today's warring parties shared so many musical roots, they began attending interfaith meetings of Christians, Jews, and Muslims, studying Aramaic, Hebrew and Babylonian dialects as well as the instruments of the era, and learning how to recreate the multicultural music of Jesus Christ's time. We may hear some of those Semitic sounds, appropriate to the season, but since SAVAE's Dec. 11 concert at St. Paul's church (1201 Satre St.) coincides with the celebration of the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the program will emphasize material from their equally compelling previous album, Gaudalupe, Virgen de los Indios. Again drawing on an ancient text — deerskin-bound manuscripts discovered in the attic of a Guatemalan church, which contain music written around the time and place of the alleged miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary in what is now Mexico, 500 years ago — SAVAE reconstructed music that emerged from the often-tragic intermingling of Spanish colonizers and native Americans. The septet accompanied their singing with an assortment of handmade percussion instruments and flutes based on pre-Columbian Aztec drawings. SAVAE's concert promises a fascinating glimpse into ancient history and a rare and powerful musical experience. Wish they'd been around when I lived in San Antonio! This weekend also brings an equally welcome dose of
Baroque music in the Oregon Mozart Players' annual holiday candlelight
concert at First Christian Church featuring the lively suites drawn
from The Fairy Queen, the great English composer Henry Purcell's
semi-operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The show also boasts some of the greatest concertos of the 18th century,
including one from Archangelo Corelli's Speaking of Handel, we can't escape his seasonal perennial: the mighty oratorio Messiah performed by the Eugene Symphony on Friday, Dec. 10 at the Hult Center. Like The Nutcracker, it's now a tradition immune to critical complaint, but familiarity breeds only contentment with this stirring choral orchestral masterpiece. The Shedd ends a strong year with a couple of instrumental masters. On Dec. 11, the great Johnny Gimble totes his Western Swing fiddle and mandolin to town. Gimble won his reputation as the fiddler with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys in the 1950s, became Nashville's number one call session fiddler in the 1970s, then returned home to grace innumerable albums by Texas musicians and play with various groups including Asleep at the Wheel. He's won the "best country fiddler" awards so many times they should just name them after him. And he'll be playing swing, country and pop music from "Stardust" to "Milk Cow Blues" and more at the Shedd. The Shedd also hosts one of the great contemporary jazz clarinetists, Ken Peplowski. As his previous Oregon Festival of American Music appearances, performances with the likes of Rosemary Clooney and Hank Jones, and acclaimed recordings attest, Peplowski is a worthy inheritor of the mantel left by the great swing clarinetists — Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman. Peplowski and the Emerald City Jazz Kings will celebrate that great swing legacy on Friday, Dec. 17.
Basementalism Four UO art students. A basement. Music. This could only be a cool thing. Welcome to Stonehenge, Eugene's newest underground (literally and figuratively) hot spot. Adam Zeek, 20, and his four roommates opened up the club in the basement of their Eugene house at 2841 Central Blvd. and hosted their first gig at the end of September. Since that first show, Zeek and his housemates, all full-time students, have always had the goal of "connecting with the community." "It's a way of rubbing elbows and becoming friends with your neighbor," he says. "And just giving a place where people can go as an alternative to bars and feel totally safe and laid back and hopefully enjoy themselves and experience more accessible art and music." Zeek, who's lived in Eugene just two years, gained experience by hosting community-centered shows at other basement venues in town. "When we moved into Stonehenge, it was the perfect place to do this kind of stuff," he says. On Thursday, Dec. 9 Stonehenge will host Olympia-based Kickball, one-man band Thanksgiving from Portland, and Eugene's Micah Sykes and Bad Sector. Thanksgiving is "powerful amplified folk music." Sykes is a "bluesy, twangy, soulful guitarist," and Bad Sector is a collaborative group that dissects old Ataris, Gameboys and other electronic elements then rewires them to make dance music. "It's pushing the boundaries of music and technology and it's so wonderful to have somebody actually local doing this kind of groundbreaking stuff. Especially where you can go see it in a basement," Zeek offers with obvious enthusiasm. He stresses that Stonehenge is all ages and alcohol free. Parking can be a problem so he suggests carpooling or better yet, riding your bike. Cover is a sliding scale, $3- $5 and the musicians get it all. Zeek says that it's important that the venue be affordable and accessible to all. "We want to encourage people from all walks of life to come out," he says.
Food
for Change Rebekah Johnson of Spun Honey doesn't want to be one of those people who sits on the sidelines. She wants to make a difference and she's doing it the best way she knows how — by rocking out. This Sunday, she'll perform at Cozmic Pizza from 6-11 pm with Hollis Ann Thompson, the second half of the duo that makes up the core of the Eugene-based band, Spun Honey. Joe Brutzman on guitar, Howard Sichel on bass and Pete "The Beat" Burger on drums will join them for a sweet treat: the rarely assembled, full Spun Honey ensemble. "Looking back over the years, there have always been things that make us feel powerless and dejected," Johnson said. "But the fact that we can do something like this and make a difference for just one kid or just one family, it just shows you can make a difference." The event, called Pocket Full of Change, is a fund-raiser for FOOD for Lane County and all you need to get in is some change; the more the better. For every $1 they collect, five pounds of food will be distributed to hungry people in Lane County. That's a lot of fuller bellies, so show up for a great show and pony up.
BLACK FOREST CAFE PARADISO CLUB TSUNAMI COFFEE GROVE COOPERATIVE
COZMIC PIZZA@THE STRAND All
Ages COUNTRY SIDE RESTAURANT DA HOUZE DIABLO'S DOWNTOWN LOUNGE EMBERS SUPPER CLUB GOOD TIMES JO FEDERIGO'S JOE'S BAR & GRILLE JOGGER'S BAR & GRILL JOHN HENRY'S THE KEG LATITUDE 10 CAFE LAVELLE'S WINE BAR & BISTRO
LUCKEY'S CLUB CIGAR LUNA MAC'S AT THE VET'S MONROE STREET CAFE THE O BAR OREGON ELECTRIC STATION OVERTIME TAVERN
PEABODY'S PERUGINO PRIME TIME SPORTS BAR QUACKER'S RAMADA INN SAM BOND'S GARAGE SAM'S PLACE SAMURAI DUCK STACY'S COVERED BRIDGE SWEETWATER'S TAP 'N' KEG TAYLOR'S BAR AND GRILL WETLANDS
WOW HALL All Ages YUKON JACK'S
CORVALLIS INTABA'S KITCHEN All Ages PLATINUM
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