News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 155
Jenner Fox is new to Sisters, but the songwriter has already made a big impact on the local music scene. He is a starring musician at the Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) summer concert event this Saturday. Fox is a second-generation river guide, and singer-songwriter by trade. He was born in Palo Alto and grew up on rivers with his parents, who were also river guides. During river trips, Fox and his family had to find ways to entertain around the campfire, so they picked up... Full story
The Coffis Brothers will bring roots rock to the Sisters Summer of Festival concert series on Saturday, July 31. Jamie and Kellen Coffis were born and raised in the mountains of Santa Cruz, California. They took their musical inspiration from bands they listened to when they were young. According to their website bio, “nothing in their repertoire is overwrought or outstays its welcome. This is pure roots rock, focused on melody, harmony, rhythm, and mood. There are echoes o... Full story
Madison Cunningham is hitting the Sisters Folk Festival stage for the first time this Saturday, July 17, as part of the Sisters Summer of Festival. Cunningham will be performing on a co-bill with SFF alumn Steve Poltz. The show will take place outdoors at Sisters Art Works at 204 W. Adams Ave. in Sisters, at 7 p.m. Cunningham has been writing and playing guitar for pretty much as long as she can remember. Growing up in Costa Mesa, her dad was a musician at a local church and... Full story
Sisters Eagle Airport treated Sisters residents to a full show of airplanes and vintage and hot-rod cars at the annual Sisters Eagle Airport Fly-In event on the Fourth of July. A typical dry, hot summer day on the tarmac at Sisters Eagle Airport had several hundred patrons out and about to see the air show and drag racing to celebrate America’s birthday. The familiar sound of helicopters and other aircraft echoed down the runway all morning in Sisters Country. The event b... Full story
Emily Woodworth of Sisters is the recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship through the literary arts organization. Woodworth had been aware of the organization for many years and had been planning to apply for the fellowship after graduating from Pacific University in 2016. Woodworth graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing and a minor in editing and publishing. She then attended California Institute (CalArts), where she graduated in 2020 with a... Full story
Worthy Brewing Company in Bend seeks to maintain sustainable brewing practices — and enhance the planet. The Worthy Garden Club, a nonprofit organization and philanthropic arm of the Worthy Brewing Company, recently extended their ongoing philanthropy project Operation Appleseed to the Whychus Creek area west of Sisters. Kody Osborne, executive director of the Worthy Garden Club, spoke with The Nugget about the project and the nonprofit. “The work has really picked up i... Full story
Erika Eckert and her family lived part-time in Sisters prior to relocating from Seattle full-time two years ago. An Oregon native, Erika resided in Seattle for 25 years raising a family and creating art. Eckert is one of 76 artists donating a piece of art for the My Own Two Hands (MOTH) community arts fundraiser put on by the Sisters Folk Festival. The virtual auction event is currently underway, running through May 15. Eckert donated a hand-painted velvet-canvas piece titled... Full story
John Harvey, a Central Oregon local, is releasing his debut EP in May. An EP is a medium-length album, usually four to six songs long. Harvey has lived in Central Oregon for 10 years, a few miles outside of Sisters. Harvey has always been involved in music. He works a full-time job as the national program manager for Regence BlueCross BlueShield. Harvey is releasing his first-ever EP album after releasing a few singles over the past months. Harvey has been playing in a number... Full story
Karen Ellis and her family have lived in Central Oregon since the late 1990s and have been involved in the community art scene ever since they arrived. Ellis is one of 76 artists donating a piece of art for the My Own Two Hands (MOTH) community arts fundraiser put on by the Sisters Folk Festival. The auction event will be held virtually May 10-15. Ellis is contributing a cyanotype series of four connected nature prints. To create a cyanotype print, she uses objects placed on... Full story
Nathan Woodworth has received a unique opportunity in his acting career.... Full story
Brianna Lattanzi has been practicing holistic healing for 11 years — since she was 14 years old. Now she is launching the healing arts practice Legendary Strategies in Sisters. “I had been interested in learning about it early on. My grandparents had cancer when I was young and I wanted to find ways to make life enjoyable for them suffering, but also for those of us taking care of them,” she said. Lattanzi’s mission “is to cut back the pill pandemic and the way we hand... Full story
Central Oregon musician Lilli Worona is recording her first full-length solo album of original material, working at Grange Recorders in Sisters. She has launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to fund completion of an album of her songs. Worona is a violinist and seasoned vocalist and has performed in a number of local bands in Central Oregon — most notably, Sisters-area favorite Dry Canyon Stampede. Worona has been playing music since she was 6 years old. Her... Full story
Megan Ellsworth, Americana Project alumnus, who is now based in Denver, Colorado, released her first full-length album last Friday titled ELLSWORTH. As stated in the press release on the album, “The folk singer-songwriter’s impressive album consists of dreamlike vocals, bright melodies, and ruminative lyrics masterfully captured through skilled mixing and musical composition.” Ellsworth graduated from Sisters High School in 2016, and pursued her music degree at the Unive... Full story
Grant Tandy, formerly of Sisters and now living in Bend, is the manager at the Worthy Brewing Company “Hopservatory” in Bend. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hopservatory has not been able to run as usual, so Tandy has been honing his astrophotography and nature photography skills. Tandy is one of many local photographers featured in a new coffee table book, titled “Ineffable.” Ineffable is a community photo book for 2020 – ineffable meaning “not expressib... Full story
Michaela Tucker (formerly Miller) graduated from Sisters High School in 2016. Since then, she has completed her Bachelor of Health Science’s Degree at California Baptist University. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in the spring of 2020, not only with a health science degree, but also an Outstanding Student Award recognition. California Baptist University awards this outstanding student based on GPA, as well as involvement in the university and community and, as a Christian u... Full story
Wrenna Rose is creative by trade and by passion. She was an instrumental contributor to the new community website, Sisters Country Community Connects, as a project coordinator and designer of the logo and brand of the site (see related story). She currently works as a writer and an artist. She and her husband moved to Sisters from Salt Lake City, Utah, in February 2020. They moved here to “simplify and we were wanting something smaller,” she said. They traveled to various tow... Full story
Sisters Country has a new community-based website at sisterscommunity.org. Sisters Country Community Connects is the title of the new community website that was to launch Wednesday, December 9, built and created for and by Sisters Country residents, with the help from the organizations Citizens4Community (C4C), nonprofit Community Website Partnership (CWP) and funding from the Ford Family Foundation. Robyn Holdman, executive director of C4C spearheaded the project with a group... Full story
After the success of the My Own Two Hands auction that went virtual this year, Sisters Folk Festival is putting on another virtual auction raising money for supporting the arts in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The auction will be running from December 1-5, on an online bidding website. The Festival notes that, “The Winter JAM (Journey/Adventure/Music) Auction and Fundraiser will raise money for critical mission support. Since the pandemic hit in March, SFF has continued t... Full story
Former fire captain Justin Waalkes knows just how important the Central Oregon Public Safety Chaplains are to the well-being of first responders. Executive Chaplain Joel Stutzman helped him out of a spiral following critical stress incidents throughout his career. Waalkes went into the fire service just out of high school, going straight into fire science at Central Oregon Community College in 1989. Waalkes had been brought up around military and fire-service members. Waalkes... Full story
Firefighter and emergency responders see a lot of trauma — devastating fires, accidents, illness, injury and death. It takes a toll. Over the past 25 years, there has been a shift in focus on firefighter and emergency responders’ mental health as a more strongly emphasized part of training curriculum. “There has really been an adjustment in the thought process and culture surrounding the mental health of first responders and paying more attention to their well-being aft... Full story
Lauren Wattenburg is helping to keep the performing arts alive during a time when live performances are not possible. This Thursday, she will participate in virtual performances put on by Utah Ballet and the University of Utah School of Dance. Wattenburg — 2017 Sisters High School graduate — is a senior at the University of Utah pursuing her bachelor’s degree in fine arts in ballet, as well as doing prerequisite courses for physical therapy. This past year, her l... Full story
Thunderstorm Artisis returning to play the Sisters stage for the Sisters Folk Festival’s Close to Home 2 event on the evenings of September 11-13. Artis, a musician and singer-songwriter from the North Shore of Oahu, performed at last year’s festival as a solo artist and the year before with his brother, festival favorite, Ron Artis II. The Artis family and brothers have music in their blood. Their father, Ron Artis was a Motown keyboard player, playing on Michael Jac... Full story
Jacob Everett Wallace has always known that music was his desired path. Wallace recently moved to Sisters and is getting set to release his latest single at the end of August, titled “Wanderer.” Wallace is cultivating his own production studio in Sisters, located in the industrial park, called Ransomed Songs Productions. The studio will also serve as a prayer house, as Wallace is also a worship leader. Wallace grew up non-traditionally — schooling year-round and travelin... Full story
For Sisters Folk Festival, “Close to Home” meant just that — bringing live music close to home in Sisters Country. Last Saturday, Sisters Folk Festival (SFF) put on their first live, in-person music event since the start of the pandemic in March. For a few weeks, they were doing Bandwagon performances where local musicians played tunes on the back of a trailer rolling through town. They had also done a livestream for the My Own Two Hands fundraiser auction event onl... Full story
Haley Johnsen, a singer-songwriter from Portland, is one of the featured artists in the Sisters Folk Festival’s Close to Home concert event at the Sisters Art Works Building on August 1. The event is sold out, but there is a waitlist available. Johnsen has performed once before in Sisters at The Open Door and is excited to return. “Any excuse to go to that area, I am excited for,” she said. Johnsen first heard about the Sisters Folk Festival from Weather Machine founder and S... Full story
