Notes by Northwest

Telemachus, archetype of the boy left behind, is portrayed in this novel by Bobby Bacca, whose father, M.M.Bacca, the famous poet, has died. Bobby, an artist who has gone in search of his father’s past, revisits the Bacca legend through stories told by those who knew him best, while his own memories intersect with the effects of trauma pervading the adult lives of his contemporaries. It was writte...

Telemachus, archetype of the boy left behind, is portrayed in this novel by Bobby Bacca, whose father, M.M.Bacca, the famous poet, has died. Bobby, an artist who has gone in search of his father’s past, revisits the Bacca legend through stories told by those who knew him best, while his own memories intersect with the effects of trauma pervading the adult lives of his contemporaries. It was writte...

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the incumbent Washington State Poet Laureate and Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, and the Vadon Foundation. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues , receive...

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the incumbent Washington State Poet Laureate and Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, and the Vadon Foundation. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues , receive...

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the incumbent Washington State Poet Laureate and Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, and the Vadon Foundation. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues , receive...

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the incumbent Washington State Poet Laureate and Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, and the Vadon Foundation. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues , receive...

Pete SeegerRoll on Columbia.  The KingsmenMoney Jelly roll mortonSeattle Hunch The wailersSeattle   Kenny LogginsCelebrate me home TimberboundMile and a half Merilee RushAngel of the morning The stoogesLouie Louie   Sunny day real estateSeven Crushwater Starry Skikes Dave lewisLittle green thing Built to spillBroken Chairs Enumclaw2002 Stevie Ray VaughnLittle Wing Robert crayDon't be afraid o...

A general mix of PNW music from Woody Guthrie, Ricki Lee Jones and Everclear. Woody Guthrie                                                Roll Columbia Roll  Kingsmen                                                             Shout The miracle workers                                      Psycho Diana Schurr & Jose Feliciano                 By Design Buck Owens                               ...

We are continuing to feature passages from Ken Kesey’s 1964 novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, which has been described as his “opus”.  It’s a story about an Oregon logging family led by a strong-willed father who fights with his family, his friends, and many in their small logging town. In this passage, we’ll hear some of his backstory, which actually takes place later in the book, about settling i...

This episode completes passages from the Ken Kesey book, Sometimes a Great Notion, which chronicles the story of a tough logging family, the Stampers, in a small Oregon logging town.  The patriarch of the family, Henry Stamper, has a motto, Never Give an Inch, and lives it in his actions with his family and the citizens of the small town. The passages we’ll hear today is about the backdrop of a sm...

Author David Guterson chronicles his love of the beauty of the PNW as a lifelong hiker.  In this excerpt from early in the book, he tells of some his first experiences as a hiker, and some of the colorful characters he meets. 

We continue with Guterson's sketches about hiking in the PNW which for the author is as much a spiritual journey as it is a physical one. 

The author of Snow Falling on Cedars chronicles his journeys in the wilds of the Pacific NW in these series of sketches about the people and the land.

Today’s segment is a poem entitled A Narrow Road to the Interior speaks not only to the interior of the PNW forest, but the journey to the interior of the soul as manifest by the very act of of hiking. David Guterson’s Turn Around Time was published in 2019 by Mountaineers Books.  You can learn more about the author, the book and his other words at his website, davidguterson.com.  

For the next four weeks, we will feature passages from Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, a story about an Oregon logging family set in the 1960s.  If the name Ken Kesey sounds familiar, he is also the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.   The passage we’ll hear today is the first few pages of the book, to the little logging town of Wakonda, where a union strike and an independent family...

Today we will continue to explore the passages from the Ken Kesey novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, published in 1964.   In the passage we will hear today, the underlying tensions of the Stamper family, loggers in a small Oregon town, become more tense, with half brothers Hank and Lee try to keep the family logging operations moving with the back drop of a union strike by other loggers in town. 

Seattle guitar legend Jimi Hendrix would have turned 80 on November 27 had he not died at age 27 in 1970.   This program features some of the musicians who influenced him, including Muddy Waters and Bob Dylan, Jimi's music from the three albums he released in his lifetime, and covers of Jimi Hendrix songs by other artists.  Also included is my interview with curator of the Museum of Pop Cultu...

Playlist The Highwaymen                             Roll On Columbia  Stompin Tom                                     Sasquatch song Hank Cramer                                      I guess he's rather be in Colorado Buck Owens                                       Streets of bakersfield Rosalie Sorrells                                  If I could be the rain The Ventures                     ...

Playlist to come 

Playlist Woody Guthrie                                Roll On Columbia Sonics                                                   Have love will travel  Wailers                                                 Sack o Woe Kingsmen                                            Shout  Daily Flash                                           Forever to Love Fleet foxes                                         ...

Playlist  Highwaymen                                     Roll On Colombia  Burl Ives                                              Big Rock candy mountain  Bing Crosby                                        Don't fence me in Ranger and the Re-Arrangers     Walk don't run Judy Collins                                         Turn Turn Turn  The Shins                                         ...

Playlist Judy Collins                                         Roll On Columbia  Kingsmen                                            Money  Paul revere and the raiders          Steppin Stone The miracle workers                       Psycho Charlie Ryan                                       hot rod lincoln Jeff Lorber                                          Pacific Coast Highway Esperanza Spaulding...

Playlist Peter McKee                      Roll On Columbia Rosalie Sorrels                   borderline heart  Loretta Lynn                       Portland, Oregon  Tammy Wynette              Apartment #9 Alison Krause                     Pastures of Plenty Dolly Parton                       Deportee Arlo Guthrie                       Oklahoma Hills Folk Uke                              Nobody Blue...

NW Passages features passages from books or poetry with a PNW connection. This is the first episode from Timothy Egan’s classic book about the Pacific Northwest, The Good Rain.   First published in 1990, is a beautifully written book about the people, history and natural wonders of the PNW, and was actually inspired by the book we featured last month on NW Passages, the Canoe and the Saddle, writt...