Sway Wild headed to The Belfry April 6

Sway Wild, featuring Mandy Fer and Dave McGraw, will play The Belfry in Sisters on Saturday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. Sisters musicians Benji Nagel and Brent Alan will open the show. Fer and McGraw have performed at the Sisters Folk Festival.

The Pacific Northwest-based songwriter duo voyaged further out to sea on their latest self-produced/recorded release, “Off-Grid Lo Fi.” Recorded entirely with solar- and wind-powered electricity on a nearly uninhabited, remote, off-grid island in northwest Washington, McGraw and Fer have ventured into new territory, both geographically and artistically.

McGraw and Fer were invited to a seaside farm to care-take for four old donkeys and a flock of chickens for three months on a non-ferry-serviced island with a winter population of fewer than eight people. Seizing the opportunity for a solitary writing residency, the duo loaded all of their instruments, minimal recording gear, and groceries into a tiny 16-foot aluminum boat and crossed the channel toward the US/Canadian border for what they called their feral adventure.

Pushing wheelbarrows full of provisions in their rubber boots, they made their way to a hand-built cabin where they recorded Off-Grid Lo-Fi in a livingroom overlooking the Pacific inland sea. The recording setup was basic: No computer screens or editing, no auto-tune, all real takes. The result is a 12-song album drenched with rich vocal harmonies, poignant songwriting, Fer’s potent electric guitar playing, acoustic guitars, percussion, cello and newly prominent banjo and piano (all played by Fer and McGraw).

Off-Grid Lo-Fi is an intimate, authentic and refreshingly honest exploration into the genres of folk, rock, and roots music.

Known as a standout electric guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Mandy Fer fills the stage with her strong yet poised guitar solos, defying long-held gender barriers for female lead guitarists. Dave McGraw’s emotional songwriting riffs on natural elements of the world around him. McGraw spent a decade as a wildlife biologist, studying endangered birds in remote locales from the deserts of Mexico and the Grand Canyon to the mountainous rainforests of Washington. McGraw and Fer joined forces in Flagstaff, AZ, in 2010 before relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 2012.

Tickets are available at http://www.belfryevents.com.