Beth Wood sticking ‘Close to Home’

Beth Wood, musician, poet and singer-songwriter, has been considered a Sisters local after many years of hosting the Sunday community celebration at the Sisters Folk Festival.

She first hosted the celebration at the Village Green tent in 2011, which was the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“It was a wonderful, moving and rewarding experience — it was a bit out of my comfort zone but I loved it and the feeling in that tent on Sunday morning of the festival weekend,” she said. Wood has been hosting the community celebration ever since.

Wood is now actually a Sisters local after moving to town April 1.

“It was interesting making the move in the middle of a pandemic but I had been drawn to Central Oregon for a while and I knew it was the place I wanted to be,” said Wood.

Wood had been living in Portland but had never really thought of herself as a city girl. Over the years of Wood attending the Sisters Folk Festival, she developed relationships with the staff and the community of Sisters.

“This place had all the things I was looking for: community, music and artistic values, and it really rang true,” she said.

She thought she would take a leap and see if it would work to live in Sisters. It has been working well for her so far and she is thankful to be in a place of natural beauty during the pandemic era. “Some days I cope better than others, but it’s nice to walk outside and have access to natural beauty,” she said.

Beth Wood will be returning to the Sisters stage yet again for the Sisters Folk Festival’s Close to Home concert event on August 1. The event is taking place on the back lawn at the Sisters Artworks Building and will bring some festival-favorite Oregon-based artists. The concert will feature four sets of music from Ron Artis II & the Truth, Beth Wood & David Jacobs-Strain, Jeffrey Martin and Haley Johnsen

Wood, as one of the featured artists, is “excited to be with other humans making music again.” Wood felt surprisingly emotional about the event being able to happen — because as a musician, gathering together and being with an audience feeds them too, spiritually and physically.

“I look at it as let’s just try it out and see if works to be together in this way,” she said.

Wood will be playing a set with David Jacobs-Strain, another regular performer at the festival. After they played a few songs together during the My Own Two Hands live stream virtual auction performance in May, they realized they clicked really well together.

“We are figuring out what songs we want to do together … last time it was a sort of flying by the seat of our pants moment — but the energy worked really well when we were performing together,” she said.

The Sisters Folk Festival Close to Home will be held on Saturday, August 1 at the Sisters Artworks Building. Pod purchasing will be the “ticket” for the event. Seating is extremely limited More information on the event can be found at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sff-presents-close-to-home-tickets-112528702378.