Primal stream therapy, April 29

This pandemic has made couch potatoes of us all, but fortunately you don't have to just sit there. Virtual concerts are coming to keep your ears entertained. So tune in and turn up: This is primal stream therapy.

A Franti-less summer? 

A Bend summer concert season without a performance from Michael Franti & Spearhead is almost unthinkable. But alas, the soul/roots/reggae/hip-hop artist is the latest artist to cancel or postpone their Les Schwab Amphitheater performance. Franti and special guest Bombargo canceled their July 17 performance at the amphitheater, making this the latest concert in Les Schwab's season to cancel so far.

He follows country star Chris Young, who canceled his performance at the venue May 8, and roots rocker Brandi Carlile, who postponed her show May 23 and plans to reschedule.

The amphitheater seems to be taking a cautious approach with its schedule and allowing artists to cancel as they see fit, rather than announce a blanket cancellation of the season. Bob Dylan's now season-opening show is rapidly approaching June 4. Stay tuned here or at bendconcerts.com for all the latest.

A screenshot from a recent video upload to NPT Benefit Performances featuring singer-songwriter Matt Puccio Jr.

NPT Benefit Performances

Every month for many years now, the Non Profit Tunes benefit concerts have featured local songwriters performing "in the round" to help raise funds for Central Oregon charities and nonprofit organizations. In recent years, the event moved from venue to venue, eventually finding homes at The Commons and Worthy Brewing.

Of course with the pandemic in full swing, the benefits have been put on hold. But organizer Thomas Hudson started sharing video of past NPT performances over the last two years to a new Facebook page, NPT Benefit Performances. Videos release on the page at 9 a.m. daily, alongside links to the featured artist's PayPal or Venmo accounts so that people can donate.

After years of helping out nonprofits in Central Oregon -- and with the pandemic wiping out many artists' incomes -- these musicians deserve all the support they can get. So go give it.

Worthy Roots

It wouldn't be primal stream therapy without a check-in with the Worthy Roots Relief Fund live streams. The final April stream hits at 6 tonight with Bill Powers of Honey Don't and The Silvertone Devils (check it out here). Then, catch Joseph Balsamo
of Boxcar Stringband at 6 p.m. Saturday here.

As always, Worthy Brewing will donate $5 from every six-pack sold on concert day to the Worthy Roots Relief Fund. The fund will be distributed to the performers, as well as others in need in the music industry on a nomination basis, according to Bend Roots Revival co-founder Mark Ransom. Check last week's primal stream therapy post for more information on how that will work.

Full stream ahead

Every week with these I round up what I can find on ye olde interwebs, but I'm sure I'm missing stuff. How does your pandemic streaming schedule look? Are you a musician performing live stream concerts in Central Oregon? I want to know about it. Comment below or email: brian.mcelhiney@gmail.com.

Feeding the front lines of the pandemic: A Q&A with #stcharlesmealmission founder Eric Leadbetter

Local songwriter and guitarist Eric Leadbetter and his wife, Briana, headed to St. Charles Medical Center on April 1 for the birth of their son.

They had attempted a home birth, but needed to transfer to the hospital. Their son was born at St. Charles, but family ended up stuck in the hospital for about four or five days in quarantine due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I couldn’t leave the hospital, she couldn’t leave, nobody could come in, so we were stuck there,” Eric Leadbetter said. “But the hospital staff, the nurses, the room service, the cooks -- everybody was just so cool to us. We asked the nurses, ‘What’s a good way to give back as like a thank-you?’”

The answer from every hospital staffer the couple asked was the same: food. Leadbetter posted something about this online and ended up contacting Lori Walls at The Blue Rooster food cart in Bend, which already was planning a meal donation to the hospital.

“I was like, ‘Well, instead of just donating some, what if I try and raise some money from some of my live stream shows to pay for a meal that will feed the entire staff on duty that day?’” Leadbetter said. “For the full 24 hours. So that first meal I paired up with Bleu Rooster and raised some money from a live stream.”

He started fundraising for what he’s dubbed the St. Charles Meal Mission, #stcharlesmealmission, with his Worthy Roots Relief Fund streaming show April 15. He played the first official #stcharlesmealmission live stream April 20, and plans to continue live streaming at 6 p.m. every Monday at the Leadbetter Music Facebook page.

Since starting the meal mission, Leadbetter has garnered support from the food business and music communities. Musicians including Jeshua Marshall of Guardian of the Underdog, Jennifer Lande, Bill Powers, Bobby Lindstrom, Greg Botsford, David Miller and Evan Mullins have donated a portion of their tips from live streams to Leadbetter’s fund. Bleu Rooster, Southern Accent and Big Ski’s Pierogis have provided meals so far, and this week Leadbetter teamed with SOPA at River’s Place.



Q: Tell me a little bit about how the St. Charles Meal Mission works.

A: It started with the birthing unit. … There’s pretty much five units, and so every week we’re feeding a different unit. And then once we go through all five, which we only have two more, then we’re going to start back over with the birthing unit and just keep going as long as we’re raising money.

What was cool is after the first couple (of) meals came out, Bobby Lindstrom reached out to me and he was like, “Hey, how do I contribute?” That just took it to the next level, and I was like, if other musicians want to contribute, then it would be less on my back. It would be like the musicians coming together donating a portion of their tips, all going towards this cause.

Q: Tell me more about that. How did you end up garnering support from the local music community?

A: Bobby Lindstrom reached out, and then after that some other musicians showed interest, like Pete Kartsounes, Jeshua (Marshall) from Guardian of the Underdog, Bill Powers, Greg Botsford, Lande, who else? David Miller, and then Evan Mullins is jumping on board too. So it turned into the Central Oregon local musicians all wanting to give back to the hospital staff under the circumstances.

A recent meal delivery at St. Charles.

So for me when I thought about it, I was like, well it’s a triple whammy: If I try and raise some money for the hospital staff, then maybe I’ll get some more views, which might make me get some more tips, which would help out me as a musician, because obviously I’m out of work. But then it would also help out the food carts, because that money is then going to … the restaurants, the food carts, it’s going to pay them, so that’s helping them get business. And then it’s helping them get a little bit of publicity to say, hey, so-and-so is contributing to this; go buy their food, go support them. And then it also supports the hospital staff and shows how appreciative we are for how hard they’re working under the circumstances.And then Ben & Jerry’s reached out and they wanted to be part of it, so they’re donating ice cream every single week with the meal that I’m donating through my virtual tips and through collecting some virtual tips from other musicians.

Q: So every Monday is when you do the streams for this?

A: So for me I do every Monday at 6 o’clock, and I take requests. I’m learning requests people ask me to do and playing a bunch of originals. ... The first one I started raising money for it was the Worthy (Roots Relief Fund live stream) Wednesday that I did (April 15). And a lot of that was me just trying to -- I fronted the money for the first two meals, and then was just trying to make some of it back, and that ended up happening, which I’m so grateful. And at that point is when a bunch of other musicians decided to jump on board and start contributing.

Q: I know you do your live stream once a week, so I’m guessing if you perform Monday, do you bring the meals Tuesday? How does that work?

A: I have my contact at the hospital named Becky (Sahadi), and she’s in charge of all the donations and stuff to the hospital staff. So she gives me the numbers. What we’re shooting for is what day of the week has the most staff on, and that tends to be Tuesday or Wednesday, which has been convenient. So I raise the money on Monday, and then the meal goes out on whatever day has the most people in that unit that we’re on for that specific week. So this week, April 29, it’s going to the medical unit; there’s 30 people on staff that day. SOPA’s doing a bunch of chicken fajitas, and then Ben & Jerry’s is bringing ice cream. So for me it’s every Monday. It’s kind of my mission that I started, and I’m really glad other people have taken it and ran with it. Like John Morris is taking the St. Charles Meal Mission -- we’re doing a hashtag, #stcharlesmealmission -- and John took it and ran with it. He’s getting hired to do it kind of on his own, which is great. That was the idea, was to help out other local businesses -- restaurants and food carts -- who need more income right now. So I’m stoked that he’s taking it and running with it and doing it on his own as well. And he’s donating to the hospital every week now under that #stcharlesmealmission, but he’s spearheading that chapter of it.

Q: How long do you plan to do this?

A: Right now we’re almost through May, and the idea is to keep this going as long as this pandemic is happening, as long as I can afford it. I’ve got to make sure I can pay my rent of course, and if that happens, then I’ll just kind of say, “Well the mission was a success, and thanks for contributing.” Everybody can’t donate every week; that’s a lot.

Q: Can you tell me how much you’ve been able to raise so far for these meals?

A: The pot that we’re at right now is $600; that’s how much we’ve raised from my tips and from the other guys . That’s covered all of April meals, and now it’s going to cover the first week of May. And so from then, we’ll just see if we can keep it rolling.

Q: When and where can people tune in?

A: For my stream, it’s on Facebook at Leadbetter Music. One thing that actually Ian Egan gave me the idea, because he’s the one spearheading the Worthy thing. What he ended up doing was a great idea. He was like, “If you share the live stream, that will enter you into a drawing to get a gift card for Worthy.” And I thought that could be kind of fun to do that for the food cart. So last week I said, “Whoever shares this live stream is entered to win a $20 gift card to Bigski’s Pierogies.” And so I think that’s what I’m going to continue to do with whatever restaurant or food cart. Part of the tip money will go to that as well, to paying for a gift card. It’s pretty amazing, the Worthy Wednesday show I did, I think it’s right about at 5,000 views right now, and it’s because so many shared it because of that gift card thing. And so the Monday one I did had just over 3,000 views. I think people like the requests. I have the luxury of having my wife and baby sitting right there, so she’s helping me telling me, “Oh, so-and-so wants to hear this,” or “So-and-so says hello from here.” So it’s more interactive than some of the other live streams that you’ll see, which is fun; I like that.

Primal stream therapy, April 22

It's late April, we're still stuck inside, but the streams keep coming. This is primal stream therapy.

Sisters Rhythm & Brews postpones 

More sad news on the real-life concert front: The third Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival, slated July 24 and 25 at the Village Green Park in Sisters, has been postponed to July 23 and 24, 2021. "Nearly all" performers scheduled for this year's festival will perform next year, according to the Sisters Rhythm & Brews website. Artists scheduled to perform this year included nine-piece Latin funk tribute to Black Sabbath, Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath; Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio; Mr. Sipp; Vanessa Collier and more.

Tickets will automatically roll over to next year's event. Visit the festival's COVID-19 response page here for more information and for a link to receive a ticket refund. Refund requests must be submitted by June 30 for a July refund.

Worthy Roots Relief Fund updates

Next up in this series is singer-songwriter and looping artist Greg Botsford of G-Bots and The Journeymen, who will perform at 6 tonight (link). The performance, which will be filmed professionally at Central Oregon Recording, also doubles as an Earth Day celebration, part of The Environmental Center's weeklong celebration (visit envirocenter.org for more information).

Saturday's Worthy Roots stream will feature Mark and Linda Quon, AKA The Quons. The former Parlour performers will start at 6 p.m., and you can check it out here.

The streams help support the joint fundraising effort between Worthy Brewing and the Bend Roots Revival to support musicians and industry workers affected by COVID-19. Each Worthy Roots performer for the month of April will receive $300 from the fund, said Bend Roots founder Mark Ransom. He hopes to continue awarding $300 per artist as the series continues, he said. The rest of the fund will go toward $100 individual grants for musicians or support staff such as sound engineers who are out of work during the pandemic.

"We've made a policy of selecting from those who have inquired and also those that ...  the bands and the Roots team -- Ian (Egan), me, Samantha (Harber) -- want to nominate for this additional relief fund money," Ransom said. "And the way it's gonna go out is, this month it's gonna be not that much. It's gonna be probably three or $400, but $100 to say four individuals, and then next month it looks like there's gonna be $1,300 to divvy up. So in May it'll be 13 individuals that are somehow connected to the performing arts community."

Check out the poster above for May's performers.

Another stream to consider: Dinner with Maxwell

Due to the pop-up nature of these live stream shows, it's a lot harder to write about them in advance than say, a scheduled show at Volcanic Theatre Pub or Spoken Moto. I've seen artists create event pages for their streams day-of.

For this column, I've tried to round up what I can find scheduled in advance, but I wanted to make mention of a stream I've seen pop up a few times now. Keyboard and organ prodigy (not to mention Hammond artist) Maxwell Friedman played his first "Dinner with Maxwell" live stream March 30, and has since hosted a couple more over at his band's Facebook page. As the name suggests, the shows feature Friedman's jazzy, funky, solo piano stylings during the dinner hour (usually around 6 to 8 p.m. or so).

If you're feeling stressed out from all this pandemic stuff, you'd do well to tune in. Check out the Facebook page for previous performances, and stay tuned for when he announces the next Dinner with Maxwell stream.

CSM's Got Talent

With all events canceled for the foreseeable future, Cascade School of Music has launched an online talent show, CSM's Got Talent. All Cascade School of Music students are welcome to submit a video performance no longer than three minutes. The submissions will be judged at beginner, intermediate or advanced skill levels by the following panel: Marilyn Magness (Disney creative director), David Creel (artist manager), Robert Lambeth (CSM director), CSM board directors Judy Heck, Maggie Jackson, Kip Gladder, and CSM faculty members, Meshem Jackson, Seth Burrows, Nathan Wegner, Cullie Treichler, Stephanie Slade and Rick Buckley.

Follow this link for more information and this link to submit your video (if you're a CSM student).

Are you streaming live music in Central Oregon? I want to know about it. Drop me a line in the comments below or email: brian.mcelhiney@gmail.com.

"Stage Theory," Gambler & Thief (review)

From the Red Hot Chili Peppers to The Eagles to Tupac Shakur, it seems every artist has a song about California. It's beyond a pop-music cliché at this point.

But if everyone sang the word "California" like Vanessa Dalrymple does in the chorus of "26 Acres (California)," the eighth track on Gambler & Thief's new album, "Stage Theory," no one would complain about California songs anymore. Taking every syllable deliberately and adding a few of her own, Vanessa sends the listener on a melodic roller coaster, rising and falling in time with the song's gentle acoustic chords, and wringing every ounce of emotion out of each letter.

The song, a melancholy goodbye to home from Vanessa and her husband and musical partner, Timothy Dalrymple, is a true story -- the duo did move from California to Bend in 2012 (and ended up in Bend again in 2015 after a short sojourn in Chicago). The song also is key to bringing the themes on "Stage Theory," Gambler & Thief's second release and first since 2012's EP, "Orchard Tree," into focus. The album eventually plays out like a concept record about how life is a constant process of growth and change, building subtly from the first songs to an emotional climax.

That climax actually begins one track before "26 Acres." Coming after some of the record's saddest moments -- the slow-burning "Traveling with Ghosts" and the deceptively pretty "Stay" -- "Come Lay Your Head Down" starts as almost a reprieve. As the song plays on, it's clear that the duo has drawn a line in the sand, as Vanessa croons, "We don't have to run, but we don't have to stay here."

The first half of the album features equally strong songs that gain context on repeat listens. Opening track "Cathedrals" synthesizes everything the duo does -- their worship music background, strong harmony singing, country and Americana songwriting -- into one powerful punch, helped along by Ricky Newton's thundering percussion lines and Mark Karwan's steady bass throb. The next track, "We Were Young," is an easy highlight, with offbeat harmonies and an immediate hook to draw the listener in. For more country, try "Catch that Train," with rhythms ripped straight from the Johnny Cash playbook.

Vanessa is great at singing yearning, unrequited love songs, and there's more than a few here. "Ache of the Drum" could not have a better title, echoed in Newton's percussion work and the lyrics. The aforementioned "Stay" is another masterclass in the style, with a deceptively sunny chord progression juxtaposed with heartbroken pleas.

The album was produced by Timothy with help from Precious Byrd's Casey Parnell, and recorded at Grange Recorders in Sisters with engineer Keith Banning. The performances and instruments all pop while maintaining an airy feel, with enough space around the edges to let the details shine through.





What should I review next? Comment below and let me know, or email: brian.mcelhiney@gmail.com.

Quarantine island, all-time top five: Shireen Amini

Bend singer-songwriter Shireen Amini is best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist for Central Oregon Latin dance/funk/rock group ¡Chiringa!. Formed in 2012, the band performs originals and Afro-Latin inspired covers of modern songs, and released its debut album, "Familia," in 2017. Amini also has a formidable repertoire of solo, original material.

Fans can hear her perform songs from these projects, as well as some new material, during her first live stream concert at 6 p.m. Saturday. The show is part of the Worthy Roots Relief Fund live stream series, which helps support relief efforts for musicians and support staff during the pandemic. Check out the Facebook event page here.


What was the first album you purchased?

"The Bodyguard Soundtrack!" Haha, I just adored Whitney Houston as a kid and still have this CD in my possession to this day.

What was the first concert you attended?

The first real big concert I can remember attending, I was in fifth grade. I went with my friend and her family to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I had never heard of him before. The only song I remembered from that concert was "Free Fallin'"... loved it!

Who was the first musician who made you want to be a musician?

I can't say I ever consciously chose to be a musician because I saw someone else and said, "I want to be like them!" I trained in piano early on and writing my own songs just gave me a feeling like no other. More of an internal gratification. If anything, I'd say my piano teacher, Myrna, who taught me for at least 10 years and encouraged me to write my own music, made me want to be a musician.

Who is the last musician you listened to?

I think it was Amy Winehouse! I watched that tragic Netflix documentary for the second time. It's fascinating how old-soul talent comes through certain young artists and it's heartbreaking that so many do not get the support they need for addiction treatment, drowning under the pressures of talent and fame. Hell of a voice, though.

What are your desert-island quarantine top five albums?

It's crazy, but I have been so immersed in creating music and projects to keep myself sane through quarantine, I have hardly been listening to music! Let me see, my partner and I busted out some classic salsa playlists (Celia Cruz, Hector Lavoe) on Apple Music to practice dancing in the living room. I'm super digging the music of Emma's Revolution, particularly a song called "Keep on Movin' Forward," which I heard through a virtual community singing gathering. For my partner's daughter's 17th birthday (in quarantine) we made a fire outside and drummed and belted out Sublime! "What I Got," "By the Rivers of Babylon." That felt good. Amazingly hip to this high-schooler even though it was hip when I was in high school, almost 20 years ago! I've been digging into some old spirituals like "Woke up this Mornin'" and "Keep your Eyes on the Prize" to just sing and give me strength and hope. Honestly, anything with a good groove right now seems to get me out of fear and mental stress.

Primal stream therapy, April 15

Before we get into the streams, some real-world concert updates. As many of you may have seen, the 2020 4 Peaks Music Festival canceled last week due to COVID-19. The annual event, slated June 18-21, was to feature headliners Grace Potter, JJ Grey & Mofro, Keller Williams, Lettuce and much more. Full refunds will be available; visit 4peaksmusic.com for more information.

Roots rocker Brandi Carlile's performance, scheduled May 23 at Les Schwab Amphitheater, has been postponed. It's the second show to drop from the venue's schedule following country star Chris Young, who canceled his May 8 performance. But Carlile is working to reschedule her date. Visit bendconcerts.com for more information.

OK, now that's out of the way, let's go to therapy.

Show Up Central Oregon's Locals Only Musical Event

Matthew Hand, owner of Hand in Hand Productions and the video face of internet network Show Up Central Oregon, posted a video to the page Saturday asking for submissions for a Locals Only Musical Event to stream April 17, 18 or 19. You can watch that video here, and the submission form for artists is here.

Show Up Central Oregon is looking for musicians and bands from Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. The form asks for your name, email, group name if applicable, home city and a short bio to be used as an introduction for the video segment. After filling it out, the site takes you to a link to upload a performance video. The video must be at least 720p resolution.

Hand is still working out how long the final event will be, he said in the video. It could end up being a couple of hours, or a full day of music. There's still time, so head over to the submission form and upload your video.

Worthy Roots updates

The Worthy Roots Relief Fund live streams continue this week with blues rocker Eric Leadbetter at 6 this evening (check it out here). Leadbetter recently started St. Charles Meal Mission, and has been donating tips from his live streams to help feed St. Charles hospital staff during the pandemic. That will continue with this stream.

Saturday's Worthy Roots stream will feature local Latin dance songwriter Shireen Amini. Check that one out here.

Worthy Brewing is now donating $5 from every six pack sold on concert days to the Worthy Roots Relief Fund, which will be used to help musicians and support staff who have lost work due to COVID-19. The series also announced acts for May; check those out below.

May 2: Joseph Balsamo of Boxcar Stringband
May 6: Richard Taelour and CJ Neary
May 9: KC Flynn
May 13: Travis Ehrenstrom of Travis Ehrenstrom Band
May 16: Appaloosa
May 20: Seth Acquarolo and Jeshua William Marshall
May 23: Dave & Melody Hill
May 27: Jordan Wolfe of Dive Bar Theology and Sugar Mama
May 30: Olivia Harms

Ridin' the Boxcar

Speaking of Balsamo, the Boxcar Stringband frontman will take to the airwaves at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Check that out here.

Are you streaming live music in Central Oregon? I want to know about it. Drop me a line in the comments below or email: brian.mcelhiney@gmail.com.

A creative state of mind: Travis Ehrenstrom and Courtney Bruguier's musical cross-country journey

Travis Ehrenstrom plays his guitar at Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea in Southern California. Ehrenstrom and his wife, Courtney Bruguier, recently returned home to Bend after an almost yearlong journey across the U.S., during which Ehrenstrom wrote a song for every state they visited. (Photo by Courtney Bruguier)

COVID-19 didn’t cut Travis Ehrenstrom and Courtney Bruguier’s cross-country trip short. The country itself did.

In April 2019, the married couple left their home in Bend in an RV with the goal of visiting every state in the U.S. Ehrenstrom, well known in Central Oregon as a musician with his eponymous band, as well as a veteran of the Sisters Folk Festival’s Americana Project, would write a song inspired by each state.

The couple -- along with their two dogs and cat -- made it through the West Coast and most of the middle of the country. But the East Coast, with its high population density and cramped cities not conducive to driving through in a 25-foot RV, stymied the family.

“It was just getting difficult to travel around because we didn’t have a vehicle,” Bruguier said recently from the family’s new apartment in Bend. “A lot of the campgrounds are pretty far away from the cities, so we were having to do Lyfts a lot and meet Rent-a-Cars and it was getting expensive. We decided that we needed to do it in a different way on the East Coast.”


Open roads, closed box

The Northeastern leg of the trip didn’t go as planned, but not much else did either. The couple outran about five tornado warnings, and they were in Nashville in early March when a particularly large one ripped through the city (fortunately they made it out fine). They discovered out-of-the-way places such as Biloxi, Mississippi, and the Salton Sea in California. And they learned more about the country, its people and its wildly differing regions and cultures than they ever expected -- including just how big it really is.

“One of the things that was more eye-opening than I had anticipated was how isolated the Pacific Northwest feels from the rest of the country once you get far enough away from it,” Ehrenstrom said. “Specifically, I got gas once in Florida and gave the attendant my driver’s license, and he asked me what state Oregon was in.”

Ehrenstrom wrote about 38 songs over the course of the cross-country trip, what he’s dubbed Our Creative States. He and Bruguier returned home pretty much the same day Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered everyone in the state to stay home due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“It’s been weird,” Ehrenstrom said. “We’ve been taking it pretty seriously, too. We haven’t really left. We got a little apartment back in Bend and we haven’t really left. We went from being on the road for almost a year, coming back to being stuck in a little box.”

Courtney Bruguier stands in front of one of the dinosaur sculptures at Peggy Sue's Diner in California. (Photo by Travis Ehrenstrom)

The journey begins

With Ehrenstrom writing songs and Bruguier serving as travel planner, photographer and blog manager, the family initially set out on a northerly journey that took them through Idaho and Montana. They then headed south in an attempt to outrun bad weather.

“I think that in the beginning we really knew where we wanted to go, but we didn’t really know how long,” Bruguier said. “We knew we wanted to do the national parks, but we’d never done this before so we had to wing it a lot. I feel like as soon as we got through Utah, we didn’t know what we were doing anymore.”

Ehrenstrom brought along a stripped-down version of his home studio to record with in the RV, including a small percussion kit, keyboard, guitar, mandolin and harmonicas. The resulting songs stick to Ehrenstrom’s folk and rock roots, while reflecting some of the flavor of each song’s state.

“They’re essentially how I would normally record demos,” he said. “One things I want to do when all of the songs are recorded is select a batch of my favorite tunes from the trip and do a more formal take at recording those songs.”

Some of those songs came easier than others. A Sisters native, Ehrenstrom often draws inspiration from nature, and this is reflected in some of the earlier songs from the trip, such as Wyoming’s “This Old Road” or Colorado’s “Red Rocks.” He would visit museums in most of the states the family visited to get some idea of the region’s history.

Eventually the songs started to reflect more of Ehrenstrom’s personal experiences in each state.

“I used to really think that John Denver was kind of a silly songwriter,” he said. “The older I get and the more I think about the songs that he wrote, the more I think that there’s something to be said there for -- I think it’s just my experience of who I am as a person. It’s the way I relate to life. I felt like that changed as we left (the western) part of the country too. Some of the later stuff is less natural.”


The Bombay Beach Club

The Salton Sea in Southern California, one of the more memorable parts of the trip, came toward the end of the couple’s “outdoor honeymoon period,” as Ehrenstrom put it. The shallow, saline sea is located on the San Andreas Fault. After being unable to find any place to camp in the Joshua Tree area, the duo headed to Bombay Beach on the sea.

A sign at Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea in California.

“I had seen a documentary 10 years ago about the Beach Boys being in Bombay Beach,” Ehrenstrom said. “We just happened to stay there by accident and found that there’s just this huge community of sort of -- I don’t know what you would call it. It’s basically an encampment of people who live full-time out of their RVs on an old RV ranch called Slab City. ... We fell in love with it because we were coming to terms with the fact that we were homeless wanderers, and we saw these people who were doing it in a much more full-time capacity (than) we were. … It’s the opposite of what Mad Max is like -- like full-time Burning Man I guess.”

Ehrenstrom and Bruguier spent a couple of weeks in Bombay Beach. Ehrenstrom wrote the bouncy “Bombay Beach Club,” taking a cue from the sunny sounds and harmonies of The Beach Boys’ classic ’60s era.

“Being at the Salton Sea was probably the highlight for me,” Bruguier said. “It wasn’t anything (like) what I experienced, or what I thought our experience of California was going to be like. I think just being there and seeing how other people in the world are living was very eye-opening for me.”


New perspectives

Other than a stop at Peggy Sue’s Diner in Southern California, home to some giant, “perfectly tacky” concrete dinosaur sculptures, Ehrenstrom’s favorite part of the trip was stargazing in Escalante, Utah.

“It was the middle of summer, and (it was) the first time in my life I’d seen the Milky Way vividly,” Ehrenstrom said. “And it was just this really surreal experience of not being that far from home, but experiencing something that I hadn’t seen my whole life, and it was something that’s visually available every night.”

The duo also got some perspective on the social and political divisions that have been hammered into the country’s consciousness in recent years. Through visiting out-of-the-way communities such as Bombay Beach, they realized that even words such as “liberal” or “conservative” mean different things depending on where in the U.S. you are located.

“We definitely met people who were kooky in how they interacted,” Ehrenstrom said. “We went into some place in Marfa, Texas, and I went to grab a coffee and the first thing the guy asked me was whether or not I thought they should have a wall there. I think the internet tends to overplay the division, but it’s definitely there for sure.”

Fortunately, Ehrenstrom’s conversation in Marfa wasn’t too confrontational.

“I think (I said) something along the lines of, ‘You’re the first person I’ve spoken to in Texas, and you’re just going straight to the point.’ I told him I thought it was a really stupid idea, and he said, ‘That’s the correct answer. Welcome to Marfa.’”


More adventures to come

Now stuck at home, Ehrenstrom and Bruguier are looking forward to restarting the project once nationwide lockdowns are lifted. Ehrenstrom said he hopes to visit the Northeast, Alaska and Hawaii this year to finish up the remaining songs. In fact, he planned on flying out to Vermont in April and renting a car before everything shut down.

Ehrenstrom plans to release the project in phases. He has recorded about 23 of the songs so far, and wants to put together a release featuring the first 25 songs in the near future. He also is working on a coffee-table book design for the full project to feature photos and stories from the family’s journey.

“We talk a lot about that not being the final adventure and wanting to get back out on the road again,” Ehrenstrom said. “I think for me it was a very powerful experience, and I would suggest that if anyone has the inclination to do it, that they should if they can -- if we ever get to go outside again.”



Check out the Patreon page for Our Creative States and support the journey here.

Listen to the songs that have been released so far in Our Creative States:

A Q&A with "Hear Me Now?" songwriter DL Down3r

A warning: The video for "Hear Me Now?" contains graphic depictions of child abuse. Viewer discretion is advised.

California native DL Down3r, born James Williams, rose to viral hip-hop fame in 2015 with his single "Suga Boom Boom," a catchy yet harrowing look at addiction. The song, which features choruses sung by Down3r's niece, started as a poem Down3r composed while serving a lengthy prison sentence, and helped launch the rapper's touring career.

Now back in Bakersfield, California, Down3r called Bend home in 2016 and 2017 while he collaborated with singer Lady Dice. Their collaboration included a remake of "Suga Boom Boom," for which Down3r is currently working on a new music video.

Down3r's latest single and video, "Hear Me Now?," featuring Bend rapper Jay Tablet and Unoxprodigy, is even more unflinching than "Suga Boom Boom." The song deals with child abuse and was inspired by 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale, California, who was killed in 2013 after suffering months of abuse at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend. Down3r hopes the video will raise awareness of child abuse, especially as millions of abused children are trapped in their homes right now due to coronavirus pandemic lockdowns across the country. He has donated to The Kid's Charities in Lancaster, California, and urged his fans to donate to local charities helping to combat child abuse. Check out the bottom of this post for some Central Oregon groups to support.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

DL Down3r

Q: So I watched the video and man, I almost didn’t make it through it. It is hard to watch.

A: Yes. We had to have it like that, and the reason why -- and I got a lot of slack. I got some hate mail over it. “How can you do that? This is a very sensitive subject.” Yeah it is, but you know what? There’s a lot of people out there that are blind to these kids. And I don’t want to say blind because they’ve never seen them before; I just want to say blind to them because they don’t want to deal with them. And that’s our biggest problem, because we’re all aware of a child being beaten, we’re all aware of that sign. It’s the fact that you don’t want the confrontation -- you don’t want to step up and be that person for that kid -- and that’s where I feel like we lack in society. So I needed it to be right in your face. To the people that don’t want to look at it, fine. But I needed it to be that impactful so it can hit somebody in the guts, so hopefully we can raise awareness. Especially right now, these kids are locked down. My girlfriend the other day was talking about it. She’s like, “Yeah, they’re locked down 24 hours with the parents that they really don’t want to be with because they get beaten on.” School was their only outlet and now they don’t even have that.


Q: Obviously as you mentioned, this is very timely coming up now with people in lockdown and a lot of vulnerable people in lockdown with their abusers as you mentioned. When did you write the song and record it, and was it just fortuitous timing?
 
A: It was fortuitous timing. Some real talk. We were sitting here, and … I had seen it on Facebook about the Netflix documentary (“The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez”). So we sat down as a family and we wanted to watch it, and we did man. We literally watched every episode without taking a break until it was done. We spent literally a whole day dedicated to watching this thing and wanted to watch it, and we did, and we all left out of there with no dry eyes in the house, I promise you that. And that inspired me. … A friend of mine named Uno out there in San Diego had just asked me to get on a song with him, and the song that he got that he sent to me was so real and raw, and the type of stuff that I really want to get into is that real stuff. I was like, oh, he’d be perfect for my project that I want to work on for this Gabriel track. And then obviously Jay Tab with his amazingness -- Jay Tab was a shoe-in already. … But that inspired me, and I wrote my verse, I believe, in probably I’d say a day -- I wrote it within the day, and that was it, man. The rest was like I said; we went and recorded it. And we actually shot the video right at the beginning of the pandemic, where it started really getting crazy out here. We heard about it, but my video crew came in hazmat suits. It was pretty crazy.


Q: That’s the Gabriel Fernandez documentary?

A: Yeah, “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.” And I actually talked to the uncle of Gabriel as well as the aunt. They both reached out to me; I’m part of their Gabriel Fernandez page. And they had reached out to me with some kind words, and we had talked for a brief second. It was really cool, man, so I’m gonna help them out in whatever I can as far as spreading the news, spreading the word. That’s why I implemented this Blue Light Challenge. I challenge everyone to put a blue light in their front porch, and we’re gonna do this for Child Abuse Awareness Month. And I do this because we don’t know who we’re living next to. You could be living next to a child that’s getting beat on, you just don’t know it. But if that child abuser sees that blue light, he might think twice or she might think twice about putting hands on that kid because they may have seen the post; it might have went trending. ... We’re letting these kids know and the abusers know that, hey, we’re watching, we’re listening, but most importantly we’re reacting.


Q: You mentioned filming the video in the pandemic, and that’s gotta be its own level of craziness. But just with the subject matter of the video itself, what was it like filming it? What was it like directing the kid and the people playing his parents?

A: Hard. Very hard, man. The little boy, his mom is a fan of mine. He loves “Suga Boom Boom.” So we made him feel very special that day. We wanted him to be like the king; we wanted to make sure he was very comfortable. It was very hard though, man. He didn’t have to go out to Lancaster, but for me and the film crew, we went out to Lancaster, to Palmdale. We actually went to Gabriel Fernandez’s apartment building, and we shot it -- we actually talked to the people that live inside of his apartment right now. So that was surreal just to look inside the apartment and know this is where this little boy -- where all this happened. It was, ugh, it was bone-chilling for real; it was crazy. It was sad, especially with re-enactments of the parts. Everything fell apart for me, for real. The day of the shoot, everything fell apart. I didn’t have a Gabriel, I didn’t have a Pearl (Fernandez’s mother), I didn’t have the boyfriend. I didn’t even have a location. All I had was, we’re gonna meet in front of Gabriel Fernandez’s mural outside of his apartments, and we’re gonna go from there. Everything fell in place after that, though. It was really amazing how it worked out.


Q: What has the response been so far?

A: The majority of them feel the way I feel: It needs to be said, it needs to be said at this level. People need to recognize and see the signs of these kids, because this is exactly what’s happening. And it’s happening in places that you may not think. “Oh no, I live in this nice neighborhood. We have everything we want right here. No, it doesn’t happen here.” Yeah, it does. It happens in the ghetto, it happens everywhere. So we just need to be aware of it, that’s all. Because I think that’s the pandemic, for real. We talk about the coronavirus, and I get that, but we’ve got kids dying especially right now. To me it’s scary, for real. It really is.

How to help:

The Kid's Charities, Lancaster, California

KIDS Center

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Central Oregon

Primal stream therapy, April 8

Happy Wednesday, or Thursday, or whatever day this is. Keeping track of time during a pandemic lockdown is hard.

What's not hard is tuning in to your favorite local artists' live stream shows online. With COVID-19 event cancellations putting millions of artists, support staff, promoters and more out of work, many have turned to the internet to keep the music alive. It could never be the same -- and the tips don't make up for the lost revenue from live performance -- but it's a way to show support and get some much-needed live music into your locked-down life.

So without further ado, here are some Central Oregon live stream highlights for the rest of the week. Of course this isn't everybody; how could it be? To be included in future weeks' roundups, comment or email: brian.mcelhiney@gmail.com.

A Worthy cause

The Worthy Roots Relief Fund live stream shows continue tonight at 6 with Derek Michael Marc, known for his solo work and his Eric Clapton tribute, After Midnight. Michael Shane and Ian Moore will make up Marc's stripped-down, social distancing trio. Check it out here.

Next up in the series Saturday is an acoustic set from Johnny Bourbon, formerly of Harley Bourbon and currently singer, guitarist and songwriter for indie-punk trio Roof Rabbits. Keep an eye on the Facebook event page here.

As with last week's shows, for every Worthy six-pack purchased on streaming days, Worthy will donate $3 to the Worthy Roots Relief Fund. The fund will help support artists and support staff (restaurant workers, sound engineers -- all the behind-the-scenes folks who make live music possible) during the pandemic.

Worthy Brewing

Bend Roots Revival

Rock out with the kids

Bend singer-songwriter Janelle Musson, AKA Janellybean, has started performing live stream shows for kids. Tune in for the first edition of "Dance and Sing with Janellybean!" at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Musson's page or at Show Up Central Oregon.

The Loop Ninja in quarantine

Not a Bendite, but Portland-area looping artist Tony Smiley has played so many shows here, he might as well be. He's gotten in on live streaming too in recent weeks, and his next show will be at 7 p.m. Friday (check the Facebook page). He plans to alternate more rockin' "dance party" shows Friday nights with acoustic Tuesday evenings. Stay tuned.

Places are closed, but the mic's still open

If you're missing Central Oregon's open mic scene, don't fret. At least two digital open mics have popped up, hosted by familiar faces. Derek Michael Marc's "Mellow Wednesday"acoustic open mic, typically hosted at Northside Bar & Grill, goes online at 6 tonight with live and pre-recorded performances (here's the Facebook group). Bill Powers, of Honey Don't and The Silvertone Devils, hosts The Commons' Storytellers Open Mic, and also set up a digital edition running from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays. Check that out here.

"That Something," "Systemic Pandemic," Pessimist Rex (review)

Bend singer-songwriter Jason Schweitzer is known for huge, soulful hooks and gritty R&B and roots rock, as propagated by his previous group, The Rum and the Sea, and his current band, Natty Red. He's less known for spitting rhymes over lo-fi hip-hop beats, but that's exactly what you can hear him doing in his latest project, Pessimist Rex. (Awesome name, by the way. Our mascot, Tyrannosaurus Lester Bangs, approves.)



The project's first two singles are up on Spotify. "That Something" rides a glitchy, funeral dirge of a beat as Schweitzer delivers introspective verses that probe for deeper meaning in day-to-day existence. Swirling organs rise to the top of the mix, combining with Schweitzer's deep voice to create an almost gospel feel. If Johnny Cash rapped, it might sound a little bit like this.







The second single, "Systemic Pandemic," goes full '80s dance rager, complete with drum-machine beat and bouncing synth lines. The lyrics are a greatest-hits of the current pandemic, with Schweitzer tackling toilet paper shortages, kids stuck at home and how he and the listener are going to "keep the liquor store in business." By the end, the message is one of unity in trying times, with Schweitzer offering a helping hand to those in need: "Keep your heads down now but don't lay low; remember that together we can weather any storm."





What should I review next? Comment below and let me know, or email: brian.mcelhiney@gmail.com.

Quarantine island, all-time top five: John Batdorf

 

johnbatdorfmusic.com

Singer-songwriter John Batdorf is best known for his work with '70s folk rock duo Batdorf & Rodney and the country rock group Silver, which scored a hit in 1975 with "Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang." Today, people might recognize that song from the soundtrack to the 2017 Marvel film "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." 

After Silver split in 1978, Batdorf turned to session work until relaunching his solo career in 2004 with "All Wood and Stones," an acoustic Rolling Stones tribute album and collaboration with James Lee Stanley. He's since gone on to release seven more studio albums, and is in the process of putting out a series of online singles to be compiled into an album titled "Singles Anyone?" You can check that out here. Since 2015, he has called Eagle Crest home.

As with so many musicians around the country, Batdorf turned to live streaming performances in the wake of COVID-19. His second live stream concert will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 4 (check the Facebook event page). For more information, find Batdorf online at johnbatdorfmusic.com.

What was the first album you purchased?

If I am not mistaken, it was "Dawn" by The Four Seasons.

What was the first concert you attended?

The Young Rascals. The show was in West Covina, California, in 1967. The band I left Ohio with, and Luv’d Ones opened the show for the Rascals. It was a thrill for me as a 15-year-old kid from Ohio to be on the same stage with such a great band.

Who was the first musician who made you want to be a musician?

My father was a musician and he taught me how to play guitar, but it was seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and hearing Buffalo Springfield on the radio that truly made up my mind.

Who is the last musician you listened to?

The Beatles on XM Radio.

What are your desert-island quarantine top five albums?

The Beatles/White Album

The Beatles /Abbey Road

CS&N First Record

Peter Gabriel /So

Buffalo Springfield / Retrospective

Remembering Adam Schlesinger and Tinted Windows

Adam Schlesinger wasn't supposed to die.

Schlesinger, one of America's finest power-pop songwriters known for his work with Fountains of Wayne and in film and television, was killed by COVID-19 on March 31. He was 52.

Obviously it's sad when anyone dies. And with COVID-19 ripping through the world, we're going to see a lot of death in the next few months. It's inevitable. But Schlesinger was not finished with this world or with his work. He just won an Emmy Award last year for his songwriting on the CW show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."

I keep wishing for a do-over, an extra life for Schlesinger and the many others who have already succumbed to COVID-19, as if we lived in a video game. They weren't supposed to die. This is a fluke disease causing fluke deaths; they don't count. But they absolutely do count, and the world doesn't care about my video-game, geek logic.

Schlesinger is gone, and with him a singular songwriting talent. Even if you don't know the name, you know the songs, whether it's the early 2000s Fountains of Wayne hit "Stacy's Mom," or the incredibly catchy, faux-'60s pop soundtrack from the Tom Hanks film "That Thing You Do."

But I'd like to talk about some songs of Schlesinger's you might not know. Back in 2009, Schlesinger unveiled the side project Tinted Windows, a glorious blast of diamond-edged power-pop hearkening back to the gooey melodies and razor-sharp guitars of bands such as Cheap Trick or The Shoes. To me, that's heaven on vinyl (or plastic, or digital ... whatever). Despite the quartet's short life -- it released a self-titled album in 2009 before virtually disappearing -- it might just be my favorite Schlesinger project.

Along with Schlesinger's songwriting pedigree, the group boasted a lineup that was at once head-scratching and genius. Speaking of Cheap Trick, the drummer himself, Bun E. Carlos, held down the rhythm section with bassist Schlesinger. James Iha, once and current guitarist for Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle, provided the required six-string crunch. And Taylor Hanson of Hanson served as frontman. That might sound like a ridiculous choice to music fans who stopped paying attention to Hanson post-"MMMBop," but the trio quickly grew out of boy-band mannerisms into a mature roots-rock outfit in the 2000s and 2010s that fully showed off the brothers' talents. Taylor, with his honeyed voice and heartthrob good looks, was the perfect frontman for Schlesinger's throwback to the glory days of big hooks and bigger guitars.

Despite band members teasing new material in interviews in the years since 2009, Tinted Windows never followed up its brilliant debut. The ever-busy Schlesinger started writing music for "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," Iha got back with A Perfect Circle and Smashing Pumpkins, Taylor returned to his brothers in Hanson and Carlos kept fighting and/or reuniting with Cheap Trick, depending on the week. And now one of the best albums of the 2000s will be forced to stand alone.

Rest in peace, Adam, and thank you for the amazing songs.

 

Primal stream therapy, April 1

I scream, you scream, we all scream for live streams. It's the age of COVID-19 and this is our new normal. OK, it's not so very normal, but at least there's music.

Musicians all over the country jumped on live streams as social distancing became society's new mantra in the last couple of weeks. Most of these were D.I.Y. efforts to start. A few attempts to create live stream concert series at a couple of Central Oregon studios fizzled after Oregon's ban on public events went from 250 people to 50 people to 10 people to just stay home already.

But Central Oregon's music scene is organizing, as it so often does. Two key players on the scene -- Worthy Brewing and the Bend Roots Revival -- teamed up to create the Worthy Roots Relief Fund Livestream Concert Series, which kicks off at 6 tonight with a stripped-down version of Guardian of the Underdog. The streams continue every Wednesday and Saturday through ... well, whenever this is over, one could assume (the series has artists booked through April; see the poster above for details).

Artists will still broadcast from their homes straight to yours, so no flaunting social-distancing protocol here. Folks can tip the artists for each performance through Venmo, Paypal or whatever their preferred virtual tip jar might be.

As the series' name suggests (and as the involvement of Roots might have tipped you off), the streams will kick off fundraising efforts to help musicians and behind-the-scenes folks such as sound engineers and stage crew who have lost their livelihoods due to the pandemic. For every six-pack purchased on streaming days, Worthy will donate $3 to the Worthy Roots Relief Fund. Roots and Worthy are still working through the logistics of how the funds will be distributed, but the priority is the musicians playing the streams as well as "cast and crew," according to Roots founder Mark Ransom. Roots has a long history of supporting musical education in Central Oregon through the annual Bend Roots Revival festival and its other events and programs, so this is a natural extension of the organization's mission.



Desert Quarantine island, all-time top five: Jeshua Marshall

To mark the start of the series, I'm unveiling what I hope will become a recurring feature in this blog. Each week (or each time I do this), an artist will answer five set questions about how they got into performing and some of their favorite musical things. 

Jeshua Marshall is the lead vocalist and guitarist for Bend punk/roots/world/folk band Guardian of the Underdog. He also plays with numerous other bands around town, including The Woodsmen, The Hot Club of Bend and Larry and His Flask, and books live music at The Brown Owl in Bend.

Photo by Adam Wood

What was the first album you purchased?

The first album I remember buying was a used copy of Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" on vinyl at a yard sale. I was 7.  

What was the first concert you attended?

Outside of church music, the first concert I saw was the pop-punk band MxPx when I was 12.  

Who was the first musician who made you want to be a musician?

I think it was my grandma and my dad, who neither of them ever played music professionally, but both had a huge influence on instilling a love for music in me.  

Who is the last musician you listened to?

We were listening to U2's "Joshua Tree" and Peter Gabriel early tonight.  

What are your desert-island quarantine top five albums?

Quarantine top 5 albums in no particular order - John Prine - "The Tree of Forgiveness" Macy Gray - "Ruby" MOsley WOtta - "This is (Not) All There Is Dubioza Kolektiv - "#fakenews" Inaiah Lujan - "Do What You Want"

Another stream to scream over: The Kronk Men

After getting down with Guardian, slam-dance the rest of your evening away with The Kronk Men. The Bend instrumental sludge/noise/punk trio enters the streaming realm in style with a live broadcast from Crawlspace at 8 tonight (Facebook event page here). Local photographer James Applewhite Gilchrist mans the camera, while Prismatic Prophet (AKA Ranch Records clerk Phillip Sinclair) will provide light projection.