Bird Goes Electric

Paper Bird

Pushing yourself to do new things, creatively, can be challenging, but as Esme Patterson — one of the vocalists in the Baroque indie folk-pop group Paper Bird — can attest, such growth and change are necessary. The band’s fourth album, 2013’s Rooms, is proof. Continue reading 

Classical Notes

Tardis Ensemble

Eugene Symphony brings a trio of top singers to join its chorus for the Thursday, March 20, performance of Haydn’s great oratorio, The Creation, at the Hult. After one of the most famous opening scenes in music — nothing less than what we’d now call the Big Bang — the great classical composer doesn’t need no stinkin’ sets or theatrical props, using only his most colorful music to paint scenic portraits of the events and even animals described in the Christian creation myth.  Continue reading 

Bellingham or Bust

Corwin Bolt

The singing voice that comes out of Eugene musician Corwin Bolt is disarming: There are elements of Bob Dylan there, in the nasally delivery that registers passion in flat insistences and breathy hidey-holes; some Woody Guthrie, like a spike driven into a rail tie, hard-hewn and proud; a little Steve Earle, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt and not a small bit of the late Vic Chesnutt, a beautiful croak quenched by kerosene and gargled through the gravel of hard times. Continue reading 

Rain Songs

Linda Perhacs

Linda Perhacs has always loved quiet. “I was taking long solitary walks as early as I can remember. I have a deep, strong love for raw, wild nature,” she tells EW over the phone from her Topanga Canyon home. “You could hardly get me in the house. I knew very early on that I would not be in the kitchen.” Continue reading 

Come Sail Away

ACE gets sunny with Once on This Island

Alexis Myles, Kirstin Nusser and Troy Pennington

More so than any other theater company in town, Actors Cabaret of Eugene continues to reflect the spirit and ethos of Eugene. Led by artistic director Joe Zingo and executive director/producer Joe Roberts — and with help from the indomitable Mark Van Beever, whose music direction is always top tier — ACE channels the best of our local culture by remaining free-spirited and at the same time hewing close to a tradition that is equal parts frontier strong and renegade D.I.Y. Continue reading 

Arts Hound

Aloha Hawaii! After 32 years in the 50th state, the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival is coming to Eugene for the first time 7:30 pm Saturday, March 22, at the Hult. Grammy nominee and Na Hoku Hanohano (often called the “Hawaiian Grammys”) award winner Stephen Inglis will demonstrate his fancy fingerstylings, and virtuoso slack key guitarist L.T. Smooth will show how he got his nickname. Continue reading 

Get Your Drink On

16 Tons taphouse & 16 tons Cafe 265 E. 13th Ave & 2864 Willamette St. 345-2003 & 485-2700. sixteentons.biz & 16tonscafe.com. [BOTTLESHOP, BAR; CAFE] Taphouse features more than 700 beers, wines and ciders, with growler fills and rotating list of draft beers. Noon-10 pm Su-W, noon-midnight Th-Sa. Cafe offers growler fills, beer and wine menus, Best of Eugene trivia night. 9 am-10pm daily. Continue reading 

Warming Wines

Mainly just to scare the shit outta myself, I spent most of a Saturday afternoon in one of the UO’s new science lecture halls, listening to three paleontologists describing the effects of climate change — warming — in Oregon, over the next century. The room was half-filled, mostly with very serious people, furiously taking notes. I looked for wild-eyed, barking-mad deniers but saw none. Continue reading