The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The Anvil Blasters will serve up a slice of Americana music in two free shows at Black Butte Ranch on Wednesday, July 10 and Wednesday, July 17 at 6 p.m.

BBR hosts live music on the lawn near the Lakeside Activities Center on the Ranch. The shows are free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets and picnic on the expansive grassy area.

The Anvil Blasters are Lynn Woodward (vocals, mandolin, fiddle), Mike Biggers (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Jim Cornelius (vocals, guitar, harmonica), and Jeff Wester (vocals, banjo). Pete Rathbun works the soundboard.

The songs of the Anvil Blasters are peopled with border renegades and desert dreamers, poets and pirates and ghosts of the old, weird America. It’s a rollicking recipe of gunpowder, twang and tequila that has earned The Anvil Blasters a loyal following across Central Oregon.

The name of the band comes from Wester’s background as a renowned blacksmith. The tradition of “blasting the anvil” has deep roots in rural America, where at festive gatherings people — who may or may not have been getting into the whiskey — would blow an anvil sky high with a stout charge of black powder. The anvil makes a ringing sound as it flies sometimes hundreds of feet into the air in a cloud of white smoke. There are videos of anvil blasting on YouTube.

“No anvils are harmed in Anvil Blasters’ shows,” Cornelius said. “We’re looking forward to kicking off our summer at Black Butte Ranch. These are fun gigs in a beautiful atmosphere. Outdoors in the summertime is our favorite way to play.”