Deb Talen sitting on a bench with a piano in the background,
Deb Talen

Deb Talan

She has lived a full life of travel, triumph and setback. Now, Deb Talan, who climbed the indie folk charts with The Weepies, is on her own with a solo tour, and she makes a stop this week in Eugene with storytelling that is healing. Talan has been forthcoming in interviews and blog posts about the mental health issues surrounding her being a survivor of childhood incest and of being diagnosed with breast cancer, along with the chemotherapy treatment that went with it. Lucky Girl, her fourth solo album released in 2017, chronicles much of that journey. The Weepies, though, filled much of Talan’s professional time for years. Formed by Talan and Steve Tannen in 2001, the band made five albums and had songs in movies and television shows. Talan and Tannen were married in 2007, had three sons, and divorced at the start of 2020. That began Talan’s solo touring. A native of Massachusetts who now lives in Iowa, Talan is no stranger to the Northwest. She lived in Portland in the ’90s and helped form the band Hummingfish, a dance band in the hipster-grungy-geeky sense of the time. The Shedd welcomes her back to Oregon.   

Deb Talen performs at 7:30 pm Friday, Jan. 6, at The Shedd. Tickets are $25 to $29 and can be purchased at TheShedd.org.