News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Anyone connected to the Sisters music scene knows that Brad Tisdel is a major force.
As the co-founder and director of the Americana Project, he has fueled the musical dreams of dozens of Sisters students. As the artistic director of the Sisters Folk Festival, he has helped turn the 12-year-old event into one of the premier music festivals in the country.
But Tisdel is first and foremost a singer-songwriter, and he's returned to refresh himself at that well with his new CD, "On Your Way."
"I started doing a lot in music (that was) not directly connected with being an artist, necessarily," Tisdel told The Nugget. "I found that work really rewarding. The challenge is remembering that I'm an artist first. About nine months ago I decided it was time to put my artist hat back on."
To make sure that hat didn't get knocked off by a host of other responsibilities, Tisdel trekked to Santa Cruz to record his CD - which would be his first recording in nine years.
"I really needed to get out of town to try to concentrate and focus on my music again," Tisdel said.
That wasn't the only motive, however. Tisdel also wanted to work with Sisters Folk Festival artist Keith Greeninger, who lives in the Santa Cruz area.
"On Your Way" was recorded in Santa Cruz with Greeninger producing and adding vocal harmonies. Tisdel mixed a supporting cast of Central Oregon musicians with players from the Bay Area including: Brent Alan (Stone Soup, Spoilers) on mandolin, banjo, dobro and vocals; Bend local Patrick Pearsall (Bond Brothers, Spoilers) on bass; John R. Burr (Alison Brown Quartet) on piano; Chojo Jacques (Waybacks, Houston Jones) on fiddle and mandolin; and Roger Feuer and Kimball Hurd (CityFolk) on guitar and mandolin respectively.
"Keith as a producer brings a lot of musicality to it," Tisdel noted.
The songs were written over a wide span of years, but most came in the past couple of years.
The title track was written about the birth of Tisdel's son, Spencer.
"That was written with the hopes of what perhaps I can share with him in his years to come," Tisdel said.
Other tracks include "Waiting for Shangri-la," chronicling a trip to Nepal and "Clinging to the Sky," about hurricane ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. All of the songs contain a thread of a theme that is important to Tisdel: service and spiritual commitment.
"It's time to get back to some of the values all of us embody and embrace, but in our lives we sometimes forget," Tisdel said.
The singer isn't trying to preach though. He's telling stories, and the musical narrative he created with Greeninger and the supporting musicians is warm and immediate and very musical.
Greeninger set out to help Tisdel create a recording that would be more than just a set of songs: They wanted to create a record that would sound fresh after dozens of spins in the CD player. The result is a recording that goes down easy but seeps through the din and hustle of daily life with its message of love and connection.
Tisdel will celebrate the release of "On Your Way" with a performance at Angeline's Bakery and Café on Friday, August 17, at 7 p.m. "On Your Way" will be available at Paulina Springs Books and Sunbuster Video in Sisters.
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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