It’s the inaugural day for the new calendar, and while we must move forward through those pages due to the ineluctable pull of time in this dimension of reality, we are nonetheless drawn to the past by our nature, a mini-paradox of the human experience and sensibilities. Exactly 29 years ago was the day we […]
Turtle Goodwater
Posted inMusic
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Forget what I was on about last week; that was just rope burn from all of the tension of 2025. It’s a new year and nothing quite helps grease the mystery chute to the future like a conversation with an old friend. I was lucky enough to have one of those on Christmas, and you […]
Posted inThe Setlist
Message in a Bottle
I’m writing to you from the murky depths of last week, ahead of a quick retreat away from wi-fi and glowing things, so apologies if I have missed some massive earth-shattering event in the news cycle. What that could be is anyone’s guess, as we have all learned time and again that things that should […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Saturday, June 12
Options abound tonight, but I’m going to steer you toward a tried-and-true summer jam that, from venue to performers, is a guaranteed good time for a warm night just off the Mad River. At 9 p.m., the Logger Bar will be hosting country-tinged strummers, pickers, singers and songwriters Turtle Goodwater and Jerome Stinsprig. These fellas […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Saturday, June 14
Sonoma-based power trio The Beer Scouts returns to its former headwaters of Humboldt County to play a couple of shows at — appropriately — two of our local breweries. If you missed yesterday’s 6 p.m. gig at the Paskenta Mad River Brewing tasting room, you can still catch the bluesy rock setlist of covers and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Today: Sunday, July 28
It’s the season of festivals, and I am a happy promoter of our more homegrown varieties, best personified in today’s Westhaven Wild Blackberry Festival at the Westhaven Volunteer Fire Department. This free event offers lots of fun, but my beat is ever the music scene, so here’s the goods there. Starting at 10 a.m., you […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Saturday, July 13
Two free gigs with very promising lineups for a July night of solid entertainment, perhaps rowdy, even. Only problem is both are at 9 p.m. and nowhere near each other, so you’ll have to pick one. Over at the Shanty, The Pine Hill Haints are back in town and ready to slap the gutbucket and […]
Posted inMusic
Summer Breeze
“July is dressed up and playing her tune,” is the relevant line from this week’s headline song, a dark, soft rock masterpiece from way back when. The question is, are you listening and from where? For my own part, I am temporarily housebound, recovering from a wee medical thing from last week (I’m fine), and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Wednesday, April 17
Let’s hear it for the Logger Bar again, which has positively crushed it with booking this week, finishing strong with the return of Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, Portland’s favorite stardust country and lost highway soul seekers fronted by one of the best voices in the biz. The very talented Turtle Goodwater of Barn Fire […]
Posted inMusic
Big White Cloud
No, we didn’t get a proper eclipse last Monday, but I still found a momentary pulse beat of Satori from a gliding collision of outside sources, and that’s good enough for me. I had been driving around listening to the sublime John Cale song I titled this week’s column after, so perhaps a moment like […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Dec. 19
We’re making up for two ghost days this week with yet another double-booked night of fun. First up at 7 p.m., Huckleberry Flint is putting on its popular Winter/Christmas show at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts. As in seasons past, this one is at a very real risk of selling out, so if […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Thursday, Oct. 26
Longtime readers might remember my review of The Handshakers’ debut record a few years ago, where I was smitten by the group’s excellent mix of acoustic country and folk songwriting married to superb and tasteful playing (“The Handshakers Find Their Place,” March 21, 2019). Those of you who enjoyed that project will want to listen […]