News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters will ring with the sound of guitars and banjos and voices raised in song as the Sisters Folk Festival rolls into town for the 11th year on September 8-10.
Local songwriter Dennis McGregor will kick the festivities off with a set at the Village Green stage at 6 p.m. on Friday (see related story, page 11). In addition to McGregor, two other local musicians are featured at this year's festival: J. Patrick Lombardi, best-known here for his work with The Haymakers; and Monica Offield, who made her reputation as a stand-out Americana Project performer.
"I think that's going to be a fun way to kick things off with local musicians showing how deep the talent pool is," said festival Artistic Director Brad Tisdel.
The festival runs Friday through Sunday at multiple venues, including the Village Green and Bronco Billy's Ranch Grill & Saloon. New this year is a venue at the Americana Studies Center, in the area behind the Sisters Art Works Building at 204 W. Adams Ave.
Also new this year, Sisters Coffee Co. will host a free community venue featuring many of the headline performers at the festival.
"I think there's something for everyone," said Tisdel. "I think more than any other year, we're more musically and culturally diverse."
Tisdel described the line-up as ranging from the Southwestern, country-folk work of Sisters Morales - sung in English and Spanish - to the a cappella performance of Madrigaia, a group from Canada that performs accompanied only by a percussionist in half a dozen languages including English, French, Portuguese and several African and native American dialects.
Harry Manx melds Indian classical music with the blues into a unique and spiritual musical form, and Old School Freight Train brings together varied strains of American music into its own lively sound blending jazz and bluegrass with well-crafted, lyrically potent songs.
"I think it's an exciting direction for the festival to go in," Tisdel said.
In addition to the new ventures, the festival is also bringing back some fan favorites, including encore performer Ruthie Foster, who led the most rousing Sunday morning Gospel Show in the festival's history last year.
Also returning to the stage is blues guitar virtuoso and ace songwriter Chris Smither, who first played the festival in 1996 and has returned several times since.
Also making a return to Sisters is Jonathan McEuen. He first played in Sisters as a sideman with his father in 1996. He has subsequently been here twice with his group Hanna-McEuen, performing in Sisters Starry Nights shows.
At this year's festival he will turn in several solo sets and may also sit in with several other musicians.
According to Tisdel, the range of acts and venues reflects the growth of the festival and its audience. He sees the festival, which is expanding to offer year-round musical events and activities, as a vital part of retaining a sense of community in Sisters as the region grows.
"I'm excited for people to come out to the festival and take it in, but also to be part of what's going on in Sisters because I think it's an exciting time to be here," he said.
The festival also includes several workshops with performers and the Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest set for Saturday at noon at Bronco Billy's Ranch Grill & Saloon.
For more information on the Sisters Folk Festival, including ticket information, visit http://www.sistersfolkfestival.org.
Editor's note: Jim Cornelius is a founding board member of the Sisters Folk Festival.
The Sisters Folk Festival marquee has a name on it that folks in the audience might not recognize - unless they took a close look at the songwriting credits on songs from some of their favorite country and folk artists.
Darrell Scott has built a reputation as one of the top songwriters in the country on a string of hits for such well-known mainstream country artists as The Dixie Chicks ("Long Time Gone") and Travis Tritt ("It's a Great Day to Be Alive"). An ace musician on a variety of instruments, he's also worked as a session player and sideman for legends such as Guy Clark, Tim O'Brien and Steve Earle.
In recent years, Scott has been stepping out into the spotlight as a touring artist in his own right. He will perform in Sisters during the festival September 8-10 in support of his most recent CD, "The Invisible Man," which has been praised to the skies as a work of genius and a masterpiece.
The CD was recorded live in the studio and emanates the kind of energy that proves that with the right songs an artist can really rock with acoustic instruments.
Scott says he has a library full of songs already in the bag, and he selects carefully among them to create his records.
"I work albums thematically as opposed to (releasing) the last 12 songs I wrote and calling that an album," he told The Nugget.
The theme of "The Invisible Man" is "what it's like to be an artist in this day and time," he said.
That examination ranges from the intensely personal "Looking Glass" to the overtly political "Goodle, USA."
Scott, who is based in Nashville, acknowledges that it has been tough in recent years for artists who choose to be outspoken about their views on the state of the world.
"It's easier now than it was three years ago," he allowed. "There was almost this palpable sense (then) that you weren't supposed to say how you feel.
"What's an artist supposed to do? An artist is always supposed to tell the truth."
In addition to performances at the Sisters Folk Festival, Scott will bring his perspective on the art of songwriting to the Americana Song Academy, which started Tuesday at Camp Caldera. It's a three-day, deep immersion in the art and craft of songwriting that has drawn about 60 songwriters to Sisters to hone their work under the instruction of masters like Scott.
It's not easy to teach something that can be as intangible as songwriting, and Scott is adamant that he can't offer the key to commercial success, despite having so much of his own.
"What I can't talk about is how to write for the marketplace," he said. "It's like talking about how to win the lottery."
In his own case, Scott says his commercially successful work has been the same as the rest of his work; songs that come from feeling. Somehow those songs "percolated up" into the awareness of the artists who cut them and made them into hits on commercial country radio.
The songs don't fit the radio formula of the three-minute, upbeat positive country song. That's partly because Scott never listens to country radio.
"That's the last place on earth I'd go to hear music," he said.
So the attendees at "song camp" can expect to learn from an artist determined to pursue the art he is passionate about for its own sake. The audience at the Sisters Folk Festival can expect to hear those songs delivered with passion by the artist who created them.
It's been a long road to get to the point where the artist is pursuing his own work. Except for working with friends, Scott has set aside his role as an in-demand session player and sideman. Nor is he actively pursuing "cuts" for songs.
Right now, the focus is on developing his own niche as a performing artist.
"Basically, I feel it's time to do my own," he said. "I'm 47 years old now and sometimes I wonder why it took me this long."
For Scott's performing schedule and other information on the Sisters Folk Festival, visit http://www.sistersfolkfestival.org.
Editor's note: Jim Cornelius is a founding board member of the Sisters Folk Festival (and a big Darrell Scott fan).
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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