Yes, I enjoy making fun of hippies and I don’t particularly enjoying camping. However, I am very much looking forward to this weekend’s Pickathon festival just outside Portland. For three days and two nights, I will sleep on the ground in the woods (or, rahter, on a Deluxe Series Thermarest) in order to take advantage of this lineup convening a stone’s throw from home at the annual indie roots festival.

Here’s a few words and a few songs from some of the acts I’m most looking forward to. Download the sampler as a zip file here.

Heartless Bastards
Straight-ahead slightly-twangy rock, fronted by a teeny tiny woman with a big big voice.

Sampler tracks: “The Mountain” and “Searching for the Ghost”

Bonnie “Prince” Billy and the Cairo Gang
Will Oldham aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy – you should know this man. Hoping their live set takes the tempo up a bit.

Sampler tracks: “With Cornstalks or Among Them” and “Troublesome Houses”

Chatham County Line
Sweet North Carolina (not-quite-straight-ahead) bluegrass with great harmonies. You should own their latest, Wildwood.

Sampler tracks: “Alone in NY” and “Crop Comes In”

Little Wings
Freaky folk from K Records’ Kyle Field, who may or may not now live in Portland. Haven’t tracked this guy for 5 years or so. Curious.

Sampler tracks: “Boom!” and “Look at What the Light Did Now”

Sam Quinn and the Japan Ten
…wouldn’t send me their album (*cough*) but you can stream a few “gleefully depressing” tracks from these North Carolina dudes at their website.

Roadside Graves
One of my favorite albums of 2009, their 2010 EP You Won’t Be Happy With Me is nearly impeccable. Can’t wait to see these guys live.

Sampler tracks: “Ruby” and “Everything”

Deep Dark Woods
The Sadies’ depressed Canadian cousins have released a gorgeous, dark, but redemptive album, Winter Hours, that you need to own.

Sampler tracks: “All the Money I Had Is Gone” and “The Gallows”

Typhoon
Portland’s next indie export? I like them, despite their youth and the following description: The seven core members of Typhoon (17 total) have all known each other since high school or before, are aged 21.8 years on average, and either live together or within walking distance of one another. Oh, Portland.

Sampler tracks: “Starting Over” and “CPR/Claws, part2″

Cotton Jones
Maryland-based indie-folk with dreamy vocals. I’ve liked — but not loved — these guys for a few years. I’m a little alarmed that their name may actually be “The Cotton Jones Basket Ride.”

Sampler tracks: “Gotta Cheer Up” and “Glorylight and Christie”.

Other local favorites who will be in effect include The Cave Singers, Black Prairie and Richmond Fontaine.



July

July 30 (Friday): Phosphorescent with J. Tillman at Doug Fir $12/14

August

August 2nd (Monday): Nathaniel Rateliff at Doug Fir $10/12

August 6, 7, 8 and 9: Pickathon Festival at Pendarvis Farm – preview coming this week!

August 8 (Sunday):  Levon Helm and Joe Pug, Oregon Zoo, $24

August 18 (Wednesday): Alejandro Escovedo, Alladin Theater, $20

August 19 (Thursday): Michael Dean Damron with Alexander Hudjohn, The Laurelthirst Pub

August 20 (Friday): Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglovia (The Swell Season), Oregon Zoo, $24, 7pm

August 20 (Friday): The Hold Steady at the Crystal Ballroom $23/25

August 21 (Saturday): Damien Jurado with Dan Bern and Dolorean at Mississippi Studios $14/16 part of the Portland Folk Festival.

August 22: (Sunday): Lucinda Williams at Roseland Theater, $30/35

August 22 (Sunday):  Builders and the Butchers, Crystal Ballroom, Free

August 29 (Sunday): The Dimes, Lewi Longmire and Quiet Life at Mississippi Studios,. Free on the patio, 2-8 pm.

September

September 8 (Wednesday): Mark Kozelek at Alladin Theater, $15/17

September 8 – 12, Music Fest Northwest

September 14 (Tuesday): The Gaslight Anthem at Crystal Ballroom, $20/23

September 18 (Saturday): Willie Nelson with Ryan Bingham at Edgefield, SOLD OUT

September 24 (Friday):  The Maldives at Doug Fir, $7

September 24 (Friday): Fences with The Head and the Heart at Mississippi Studios, $10

September 28 (Tuesday): Hayes Carll at Mississippi Studios, $12

September 28 (Tuesday): James McMurty at Doug Fir, $17/19

October

October 4/5 (Monday/Tuesday),The Black Keys at Crystal Ballroom, $28.50/32, probably sold out

October 5 (Tuesday): Besnard Lakes and Land of Talk, Mississippi Studios, $12

October 9 (Thursday): Frightened Rabbit at Wonder Ballroom

October 16 (Saturday): Broken Social Scene at Crystal Ballroom $25/28, probably sold out

To kick off summer (summer in Oregon really doesn’t start till early-mid July, folks) I bring you a slew of free music courtesy of Suburban Home Records. If you’re not familiar with Suburban Home (SH), you should remedy that. They do a stellar job of supporting/promoting a bunch of talented folks including Austin Lucas, Micah Schnabel, Tim Barry, Drag the River, and now Portland’s own I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House (SOB). My favorite SH feature – they send you custom beer cozies with album orders.

They also periodically create a mix tape and encourage people to share them. Each is inspired by a SH artist and includes both new and established bands all in the name of being “your friend through music.” This week they released Volume 5, inspired by SOB. You can download the whole thing (30 tracks) here.

If you’re not yet familiar with SOB,you are likely to react to the band the way you reacted to their name — you’ll either find them profoundly awesome or moderately offensive. Count me in with the former.  SOB is not easy listening, but they are a whole bunch of whiskey-fueled fun. I’ve had the chance to see a whole bunch of these guys  in the last six months or so as they prepped their first album in three years and played a handful of reunion shows and lead singer Michael Dean Damron continues to do a ton of solo shows. They’ve shared the bill with the likes of Tim Barry, Micah Schnabel, Kasey Anderson, Matthew Ryan, Drag the River and Alexander Hudjohn.

You can stream the new SOB album, The Sounds of Dying, here and pre-order it here to get an instant download and beer cozie. Here are some blurry shots of Mike D and my one-time harmonica teacher David Lipkind at some recent shows.

I also have hard copies of SH Mix Tapes Vol 2 (inspired by Micah Schnabel) and Vol 3 (Look Mexico) to share. Email me at cowbelle78@gmail.com if you want a copy.

If it’s been quiet around here lately, it’s because, on Saturday, June 12th, I got news that I’d lost a friend to a sudden, shocking death. Calling Tim a “friend” is like saying life is “interesting”. As I said in my Facebook post, “my friend, ex-boyfriend, partner in crime, and perennial pain-in-my-ass has died”.

He was (chronologically) an acquaintance, a flirt, a whiskey-drinking buddy, an accomplice, a friend, my boyfriend…something complicated. We broke up almost exactly 12 months ago under circumstances that now feel downright eerie. I’ve spent a lot of the time since then angry at him, which makes all of this more awful and complicated. We were getting to be friends again, but we never seemed to be in the same place at the same time.

That said, when it was good between us, it was fucking great.

He knew me all too well, could make me laugh till I peed, and knew precisely how to push my buttons.

I started this blog when we weren’t speaking. When we started talking and texting again, I sent him the link to this site. He said it was “not complete and utter crap like most blogs.” That’s a high compliment from Tim.

A lot of our relationship has been punctuated by music. I can’t begin to count the number of shows we were at together, and before I sat down to write this, I didn’t realize how much of our lives were shared around music.

We saw X and John Doe out in Forrest Grove in 2005. When he decided to start flirting with me, he sent me a picture he took of me at that show.

I have the poster from the Okkervil River show in September 2008 on my fridge. It’s warped and splattered. That show was the first one just the two of us went to together. We ran into some mutual friends who started to wonder what was going on between us — well before we had any idea.

He was on my first trip to Austin in 2007 to the ACL Festival. Those are some of the only pictures I have of him (including the one above, one of my favorites. He was definitely checking his phone).

Last year, when we were dating, we went to Seattle and saw Leonard Cohen – one of the more memorable shows of my life. That weekend, we also went to our friend Jared’s band, The Radio Nationals, reunion show. We left right before Kiefer Sutherland showed up at the High Dive, but we did see Lily Tomlin checking into our hotel when we got home.

We were at 2008′s Capitol Hill Block Party together in Seattle, and were supposed to attend 2009′s, but we broke up. I had asked him to maintain radio silence, but he texted me from the roof of Neumo’s at the Block Party anyway. He liked to do that sort of thing because it drove me crazy.

He rescued me from walking home in heels in a snowstorm in December 2009. We hadn’t spoken in months, but he got in his SUV, drove to where I was, handed me a beer, and dropped me at my front door without comment.

I was at lunch with him in April when I found out I was having a niece.

We saw Two Cow Garage open for Richmond Fontaine in early 2009, which re-ignited my interest in Two Cow and Micah Schnabel.

There’s a CD sitting on my desk right now with his handwriting on it. (It says something about power ballads.)

At August 2009′s Music Fest NorthWest, we got in an epic fight at the Frightened Rabbit show. One of the last times I saw him was at May 2010′s Frightened Rabbit show. The last time I did see him was at our friend GTB’s band’s reunion show on June 5th, a week before his death.

He was probably at every Drive-By Truckers show I ever attended as well as each Hold Steady concert, including the one where they played together and I set my hair on fire. (Mom, don’t ask.) The last time we had brunch, he was wearing the Jack Daniels t-shirt I got at the free Hold Steady show at the Crystal, sometime in early 2009 – the first time he kissed me in front of our friends.

For my 30th birthday he bought me a bottle of Blanton’s. I wish I’d kept the cork.

In the last 12 days, I’ve spent a bunch of time frenetically trying to remember, outline and understand our relationship over the last handful of years.

I’m sorry I ever took him for granted. I’m sorry I was mad at him when he died.

I am thankful that we had a relationship that included salt-water taffy; whiskey; pictures of rabbits, wombats and other cute animals; a naked bike ride; him calling me “Chica” and me calling him “Boy”; a Portland vs. Seattle NY-style pizza taste-off; him making me hike while hungover and golf in my pj’s; and a great amount of laughter.  He called me by my middle name cause it made me insane. He took me to Seattle and the coast and the only time he ever got in my car it was to drive the five blocks from his house to mine. We were going to go to Mexico and drive from Austin to New Orleans, but those — among many things — did not happen.

We were at a Lucero show the first time he said he loved me. He turned away from the stage to look at me and said “I love you, F. I can’t help it.” Like it was something he didn’t want to happen; I completely understood.

He didn’t have ketchup in his house, but he had 81 kinds of hot sauce.

He would sometimes let me pick the CD in the car, but I was never allowed to eat in it.

He jump-started my car twice before I told him I had AAA.

His beloved late pet rabbit was named after Leonard Cohen.

Several friends remember him dropping off mix CDs on their doorsteps after their first conversation about music. I remember us leaving apple fritters for each other after we had a fight. I don’t think he ever made me a mix, but he always asked for mine.

When I had the flu he delivered a basket full of oranges, soup, Emergen-C, a Chuck Klosterman book I’d wanted to replace, and The Replacement’s album Tim.

He hated the weather.

He loved Maker’s Mark.

I would give anything to have one last brunch with him.

I will spend the rest of my life, or at least my tenure in Portland, waiting for him to walk into the bar, the party,  the show.

The only time this week I’ve felt like I was able to do something constructive about his death and this confounding  grief was when our mutual friend asked for music suggestions for a DVD he was putting together. I sent him a few, and then put this mix together.

So here’s my compilation for/about Tim. It’s imperfect, but so was he, and so were we. I could write a paragraph about each song, but sometimes it’s best to stop talking and listen to music.

This is the only way I know how to do anything about this.

This is for Tim, with piles of grief, regret and love.

1) So who are you and where did you come from?

My name is Alexander Hudjohn. I’m working on 30 years of age and I was born in San Antonio, Texas. I spent my childhood in northern California and have since spent my formative years here in Portland.

2) Describe the music you make.  How would you like people to describe your sound?

I’m not a trained musician as most people can probably tell. I play by ear, very simply and to the point. I want so badly to be able to tell stories the way my heroes have. Joe Strummer/Steve Earle/Johnny Cash/Springsteen/Bob Dylan–there’s nothing better than a really good songwriter in my opinion. I’m working on it.

I guess in the end I’m a rip-off artist just like everyone else. I hear something I like and I take from it. I’m not reinventing the wheel here. The “dude with guitar and harmonica” thing has been done and is being done. A lot. This is just my take on it. Some people like it. Some people think it’s garbage. That’s art, I guess.

How would I like people to describe my sound? I guess, for what it is. A 30-year-old guy who used to be in punk bands, grew up on country, and now plays acoustic. I’m pretty sure that’s a genre now.

3) How would you/do you feel when people describe your music as punk-folk?

I don’t really care one way or the other. Genres and musical labels are so suggestive anyway. It’s just a way for people to categorize you or “file” your music if you will. Call it whatever you want. I call it “Acid Bluegrass”… not really.

4) Are you from Georgia or do you just write songs called “Georgia”?

Nope. I never lived there. I drove through it once. I just love the term Georgia Peach. I think if I was a lady I would like to be referred to as a Southern Belle or Georgia Peach. Hell, I just wish I was a southerner.

5) I really like this lyric: “A $40 bar tab just to feel resurrected.” Discuss.

Yeah, that’s one of my favorite lines in that song. I work a full time job. It’s a good job but not exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I’m willing to bet 90% of the population feels the same way. You wake up, go to work, come home, watch The Biggest Loser and go to sleep. Day in, day out, the same routine. It grates on you. Sometimes you just need to blow off some steam. Life can wear you down pretty fast. That’s why god created Whiskey.

6) I asked you to write a song about what you love and one about what you hate about Portland and I got this track. Tell me about it.

Alexander Hudjohn: Portland Garden

Well. I think it sums up Portland nicely.  I think you and I have the same love/hate relationship with the Rose City. There is so much that I really enjoy about Portland but there is a lot that really gets me down as well. I tried to incorporate that all in the song. It just seemed like it should all be in one song. That, and I’m lazy.

7) What will you do if it keeps raining? For real, are you gonna shoot yourself?

Nah, I’ll just get really drunk and pale like everyone else.

8 ) What have you been listening to lately? What do you recommend the rest of us listen to?

I’ve been listening to Joe Pug lately. He’s very Dylan-esque. Also Trampled by Turtles, Kevin Seconds, Cory Brannan, Chris Wollard, Chuck Ragan and Drag The River. The new Menzingers Record is pretty bitchin’ too. I just went three days listening to nothing but Samiam. That tends to happen every three or four months though. I love that band.

Recommendations include, Bryan McPherson, Possessed By Paul James, Micah Schnabel, Tim Barry, anything on Suburban Home Records and anyone that’s friends with the Lubricated Magazine folks.

You can download Alex’s EP, Acreage, for free on his bandcamp site. While you’re there, check out the Nashville Flood Relief compilation he put together that can be yours for a dollar or more. I know you have a dollar.

You can also follow him on Twitter, get more info on his myspace page, and Portlanders can catch him at the following shows.

June 10th @ Satyricon w/ Insomniac Folklore

June 19th @ Dante’s w/ Drag the River, I Can Lick Any SOB in the House and Power of County

July 6th @ The Hawthorne Theatre w/ Kevin Seconds and Dylan Summers

July 10th @ Bombay’s Redding , CA. w/ Austin Lucas, Cory Brannan, Brian Stevens and Curt Baer

July 30th & 31st @ Lake Shasta, CA. Campfire Fest 2010.

The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock band of all time, and Exile on Main Street is the greatest album of all time. These are positions I will defend stubbornly, like how The Band is the greatest American rock band of all time even though they are Canadian.

This week, Exile on Main Street was reissued with the original 18 tracks remastered, and 10 unreleased tracks. I’m saving my pennies for the Super Deluxe Edition (my birthday is in October, but I’ll accept gifts anytime). Some of the unreleased tracks were instrumental, so Mick Jagger wrote some lyrics and recorded new vocals. The outcome is…odd.

However, these two albums contain some pretty high-quality gems that you should have. Download them. Do it.

Here’s some more coverage from NPR Music and The New York Times and a trailer of the documentary Stones in Exile, out June 22nd on DVD.

May

May 24^th (Monday): Broken Bells at Wonder Ballroom $30/$34 SOLD OUT

May 26^th (Wednesday): Bobby Bare Jr. at Mississippi Studios $12

May 27^th (Thursday): Local Natives at Mississippi Studios $10

May 30^th (Sunday): Kasey Anderson at The Woods $5

May 31^st (Monday): Mumford and Sons at Aladdin Theater $12 SOLD OUT

June

June 1^st (Tuesday): Sera Cahoone at Mississippi Studios $12

June 3^rd (Thursday): PDX Pop Now! CD Release Party at Holocene

June 6^th (Sunday): Deadstring Brothers at Dantes’s

June 7^th (Monday): The Sadies at Doug Fir $10/12

June 10^th (Thursday): Richmond Fontaine at Dante’s

June 10^th (Thursday): Delta Spirit at The Doug Fir $12/14

June 11^th (Friday): Chief at Doug Fir, Early Show, $7/8

June 19^th (Saturday): Drag the River with I Can Lick Any SOB In the House and Alexander Hudjohn at Dante’s

June 25^th (Friday): Josh Ritter with Dawes, Wonder Ballroom $20

June 26^th (Saturday): Portugal.The Man with Builders and the Butchers at Roseland Theater $15

July

July 2^nd (Friday): The Moondoggies at Mississippi Studios $12

July 3^rd (Saturday): Damien Jurado at Mississippi Studios $13

July 9^th (Friday): American Aquarium with Kasey Anderson at Ella Street Social Club

July 13^th (Tuesday): Maps and Atlases at Doug Fir $10/12

July 16^th (Friday): Celilo at Doug Fir $8

July 17^th (Saturday): The Avett Brothers at Edgefield $35

July 20^th (Tuesday): Mary Gauthier at Mississippi Studios $20

July 30^th (Friday): Phosphorescent at Doug Fir

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: There’s a lot of great stuff coming out of the Midwest.

I think we all know about Bon Iver, or Justin Vernon, who, in 2008, made it cool to spend an entire season in a remote Wisconsin cabin. Then there’s the promising Juniper Tar, and now Missouri-native Nathaniel Rateliff has released his debut solo album, In Memory of Loss, recorded in Chicago.

This is not an album for sunny spring day; I had to wait till it was dark out to write about it. But this album is too beautiful not to draw your attention to.

Nathaniel Rateliff: Early Spring Till

Nathaniel Rateliff: You Should’ve Seen The Other Guy

Learn more at Nathaniel’s website and grab the CD at iTunes.

Update: Check out this new video of Rateliff and his band live at WMSE in Milwaukee. This band appears to have great taste in footwear.

Nathaniel Rateliff – “Brakeman” – Live at WMSE from High Frequency Media on Vimeo.

American Aquarium’s last full-length album, 2009′s Dances for the Lonely, is full of Springsteen-esque rock and Hold Steady hooks. It ropes you in from the first few chords of the first track. It won me over pretty quick, and placed number three on my Top 20 of 2009.

Their newest release, Small Town Hymns, is not a replica of, or a follow-up to, Dances. It’s not a rock album and it won’t immediately grab your attention, but it will sneak up on you and grow on you if you let it.

With the bar band left behind–at least for the time being–on Small Town Hymns, American Aquarium presents ten tracks that find lead singer/songwriter BJ Barham taking a detour from the ire and heartbreak that fueled Dances (“a ‘fuck you’ record about one girl said 12 different ways“). The result is a somewhat-mixed outing, with the North Carolina band reverting to the basic elements of a southern/alt.country/roots-whatever band while showcasing a more mature sound.

One of the album’s flaws is BJ’s lyrical approach to women, which drifts a little too often towards simple metaphor and cliche–woman as hurricane (Track 1); woman as rattlesnake (Track 7). In between we find (on Track 2) “a modern-day Audrey Hepburn,”the queen of Appalachia” and that she is, inevitably (by Track 9) “Gone, Long Gone”.

The exception to this pattern is “Meredith”. Punctuated with a mid-tempo country shuffle, you can hear BJ sidestep cliches and aspire to break his old patterns, promising Meredith, “I’ll change for you.” (Although, I think we all know how that’s gonna work out.) My other favorite song on Small Town Hymns is the accomplished “Coffee and Cigarettes,” which tackles familiar territory but with a unique treatment.

Dances was written in response to a particularly painful breakup and targeted at one South Carolina resident named Nicole. Each track felt entirely, if painfully, sincere. There didn’t seem to be a question that each song was based on an actual person or event, whether it was someone BJ wanted to marry or someone he knew for a few hours. But for some reason, I suspect the songs on Small Town Hymns are based are theoretical characters.

In addition to mis-steps in love, the other prevailing theme on Small Town Hymns is a look at the social geography of the South. On “Water in the Well,” we hear the familiar story of a Georgian farmer about to lose his land, and with it, his pride. “Reidsville” introduces an 18-year-old trying to escape his hometown, though both the singer and the audience know he’s predestined to fail.

While at times it feels like the band is turning out obligatory pieces on prescribed themes, and BJ is reaching a little too far for a rhyme (“when she called me darlin’, I started caterwaulin’”), Small Town Hymns is a welcome addition to the growing catalog of this Carolina band, even without the Springsteen fix.

Be sure to catch these guys live when they play a town near you, which, at 300 shows per year, they are bound to do. In addition to putting on a sincerely great live show, these dudes are sweethearts and just the right amount of trouble.

American Aquarium: Coffee and Cigarettes

You can stream other tracks from Small Town Hymns on the band’s myspace page and buy the album from Last Chance Records or on iTunes.