Eugene Weekly

Beth Wood is a local singer-songwriter by way of Texas, and her brand of Americana, country and folk music has been getting people’s attention across the nation for nearly two decades. She has released eight albums, appeared on OPB’s Art Beat, received rave reviews from the likes of the Washington Post and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, won the 2006 Sisters Folk Festival Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest and been a finalist in the Telluride Troubadour Contest. Continue reading →

The drive from San Francisco to Portland is more than 600 miles, and the inspiration to keep moving can range from energy drinks to mix CDs, but for Eric D. Johnson, frontman for the indie rockers Fruit Bats, the inspiration is Eugene’s Fisherman’s Market. “That is one of my favorite places ever,” he says. “I often find myself doing these really long, crazy, balls-out San Francisco-to-Portland drives all the time. That’s like my treat to myself on the home stretch. Continue reading →

Nobody’s quite like Lyle Lovett. The Muppet-faced singer-songwriter plays, for lack of a better term, country music. But it’s a country must for A Prairie Home Companion fans, for Texans who vote Democrat and insist Austin is just different. Or to put it another way: Lyle Lovett plays adult-contemporary-country. But if you’re a Lyle-head I don’t need to tell you this; you are well familiar with his gentle tenor and literate take on American music — referencing Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristofferson and Townes Van Zandt.  Continue reading →

Faerieworlds has a solid music line up this year, but there’s one act that should not be missed: Mariee Sioux. And Howard Buford’s Emerald Meadows will be the perfect setting for her nature-infused, pseudo-mystical tunes like “Buried in Teeth” (“Down past the fossil ferns and antlers / A pack of ghost wolves are going to bring you under”), “Wizard Flurry Home” (“Crown, crown, crown your mountains”) and “Wild Eyes.”  Continue reading →

When is a guy with a guitar just a guy with a guitar? There are a million of them out there — at coffee shops and open mics, picking, strumming and singing; heard one and you’ve heard them all. Well, sometimes that guy with a guitar is just different, like Bright Eyes, the Mountain Goats, Iron and Wine or even Bob Dylan. Continue reading →

If a group makes it to the 25-year mark they must be doing something right, but with Donna the Buffalo you can argue that they are doing a lot of things right. Between having two harmonious and charismatic lead writers and singers — Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear — a way of writing songs that is simultaneously personal and universal and a knack for combining various elements of the roots music world together, this group is consistently engaging. Continue reading →