Cedar Teeth hails from the Cascade foothills, where the sound of saws cut through the Oregon woods and the lights of Portland set the western horizon aglow. The music of Cedar Teeth is shaped by the experience of living in this margin dividing the wilderness from the city. From the five members of the band emerges a fusion of guitars, banjo, keys and trombone, propelled by bass and drums, while vocal harmonies weave through the music. Their songs are thus sweeping and immersive, at turns rustically melodic, lyrically raw, and aggressive, as they explore the tensions of our time: love, loss, and destruction in a morally ambivalent landscape.
Over the past five years, Cedar Teeth has steadily crafted a distinct sound and set out to bring together audiences and fellow musicians from Portland to Seattle. Starting off 2015 with a series of shows in Park City, Utah during Sundance Film Festival, Cedar Teeth has gone on to perform at major venues throughout the Pacific Northwest, like Seattle's Tractor Tavern, as well as festival sets at Cascadia Rainingman and Summer Meltdown, alongside bands like Greensky Bluegrass and Fruition. Songs from their debut album, Hoot, have since been licensed for television programming on PBS and film soundtracks in America and Europe. Heading into 2016, Cedar Teeth will soon return to the studio and record their sophomore album before hitting the road, to bring their brand of NW roots rock to audiences far beyond the Cascade foothills from where their music is born.
- Website:
- http://www.cedarteethband.com
- Facebook:
- http://www.facebook.com/cedarteethband
- Twitter:
- https://twitter.com/CedarTeethBand
- Instagram:
- https://www.instagram.com/cedarteethband/
- Bandcamp:
- https://cedarteethband.bandcamp.com/
Longtime Portland folk troubadours Chris "Zydeco Skeeter" Miskow and Pat Buckley have revived the band they originally founded back in 1993. The Pagan Jug Band's current incarnation features an all-acoustic lineup of banjo, dobro, accordion, fiddle, guitar, upright bass and percussion, deftly mixing straight-ahead bluegrass, folk and country blues, and Louisiana Zydeco. The material is drawn from a variety of classic country, folk and roots sources, along with a large body of original songs.
"Their songs are packed with drunkenness and sex and the wages of sin, the musicians have the look of men once involved in bloodsport, but they have rather little to do with any organized religion. Organization itself, they have something of a problem with... they perform most every type of music, from bluegrass to Celtic to old-time funk and beyond, with an infectious vigor and memorable form... More bands should be like this." - Willamette Week
- website:
- http://www.paganjugband.com
Rich Layton & The Troublemakers are keepers of the flame for American roots rock, music that blurs the lines between vintage country, rock and blues. With comparisons to such artists as Marty Stuart, Dave Alvin and Sturgill Simpson, the band takes audiences for a ride from Sun Studios to Chess Records, and Muscle Shoals to Bakersfield. Rich's original songs thread seamlessly into the mix, weaving his Gulf Coast roots through tales of rock and roll redemption, harmonica-fueled and swampified.
Together a decade now, the band has released two albums, and performs at festivals and events throughout the NW, including the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival. Each summer, Rich joins Lyle Lovett as a special guest when The Large Band comes to town. Rich also has played on Portland tour stops by his friends Lucinda Williams, Dale Watson and the late Buckwheat Zydeco.
- Website:
- http://richlayton.us
Co-founder of BR549 and three-time Grammy nominee Gary Bennett grew up in Texas and Washington State. He received his first guitar and wrote his first songs at eight-years-old. He played bass in a local, traveling country gospel band when he was 16.
He worked as a timber cutter before playing in Portland country bands full time at 25-years-old. He moved to Nashville in 1993 and met Chuck Mead to start BR549. The band travelled the world many times over while recording five albums on Arista Records.
Besides earning 3 Grammy nods, Gary has appeared on countless TV shows such as Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Nashville TV and more. In 2013 Gary returned to the Pacific NW, bought the home he was raised in and started the Coattail Riders.
Shawn O'Connor grew up in Kelso, Washington and began playing guitar at age 10. He's been a regular on the Portland music scene for over 20-years.
He's worked with Nicolette Larsen, Bobby Bare, Little Jimmy Dickens, Joni Harms and has shared the stage with Randy Travis, Blackhawk, Diamond Rio, Lonestar and Mark Collie to name a few.
Rudi Spain bass player worked with such notable Portland bands as Buckboard and has been on the Portland music scene for over 30-years.
- Website:
- http://www.gbatctr.com/
