Oregon Music News

We're back at Catfish Lou’s, 2460 NW 24th for the one hundred and ninety ninth OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. Next time our national editor Art Levine will be here for number 200. Back in Portland for some gigs is Naomi Sparrow who with Rob Stroup make up Moody Little Sister. They were fixtures on the Portland scene until a couple of years ago when they moved their recording studio and their lives t...

Back at Catfish Lou’s…that’s 2460 NW. 24th in Portland…and another Oregon Music News Coffeshop Conversation @ Catfish Lou’s. Today it’s a gentleman who has made huge breakthroughs in music since he got his masters from Portland State. He’s touring the world and singing with Pink Martini. He’s Jimmie Herrod and he’s got one of the most beautiful voices on earth. He seems to be everywhere, a concert...

Leon Redbone, troubadour from a distant time, died this week. He was unique. He sang Ragtime, Vaudeville, Blues and Jazz tunes. He was the foremost interpreter of the last of the blackface minstrels, Emmett Miller. Nobody seems to be mentioning that in the coverage of his death, but to leave that out would to be eliminating a giant portion of Leon's repertoire. Deadpan, funny, a living ghost who p...

Welcome back to Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th for another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation. As you may have noticed we talk to more than music industry people. Like today, for instance. I re-watched the documentary, “The Battling Bastards of Baseball” the other night. Larry Colton popped up in it. He was a member of the Portland Mavericks. I thought, “Oh yeah, he would make a great guest.” Larry is als...

It's another one of these OMN’s Coffeehop Conversations at Catfish Lou’s! Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th has been a home to our guest today, Karen Lovely. As you may know, she had a hip replacement not long ago but is back at it and better than ever. The saga of what she went through is inspiring but her recovery is even more inspiring. She’s here to tell us about it but also to talk about her work...

Back at Catfish Lou’s, a Blues and Soul club at 2460 NW 24th, winner of the last two Muddy Awards for Best Venue. Today Sarah Tiedemann is here. She’s the Artistic Director of Third Angle New Music which has been astounding Portland audiences for decades with what we used to call the avant-garde. I’m not sure what we call it now, but I’m sure she found out. She’s going to let us in on what next se...

Not everyone knows what Chateau Marmont is. Points for you if you do. But if you say, “Remember the hotel where John Belushi died?” “Oh yeah!” The hotel happens to have a long history of celebrity hanky-panky. Portland’s Shawn Levy returns to the podcast to talk about his new book, “Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont.” It was published this week and...

I know the flowers are just blooming and we’re getting some warmer days but this is also the time when we start to think about summer and in Portland that means outdoor music festival time. I also know you have to plan ahead and that’s why once again, Peter Dammann, Artistic Director of the Waterfront Blues Festival is on the podcast to tell us about all of the artists he’s booked this year. It ru...

It’s been since September of 2015 that Enrique Ugalde, also known as Soriah, has been on the podcast. He is, as I hope you know Oregon’s own Tuvan throat singer. Enrique is his given name and Soriah is the entity he becomes when he performs. He’ll be performing at the Old Church Concert Hall on Friday, May 17 with the Chirgilchin ensemble who are on tour from Tuva itself. They’ve actually regular...

Welcome to another OMN Coffeeshop Conversation @ Catfish Lou’s located at 2460 NW 24th. I’m Tom D’Antoni, OMN Editor-In-Chief…although you may already know that. With me today is drummer Edwin Coleman III who I’m sure you know from his years as a major part of the Soul Vaccination groove. He’s very much in demand these days, including as part of the Louis Pain organ trio. But did you know he’s als...

We’re feeling nice and comfortable in our new podcast home…Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th…they’re proud that they won the Muddy Award for Best Venue in 2017 and 18. In with me is Kit Taylor who has had an interesting and diverse career. You should remember him from his previous band Intervision. They had a nice run a while back. But he had other ideas…a pop career. I know that sounds unusual in DIY...

We’re back at Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th for another Coffeeshop Conversation. We’re coming full circle today because with Michelle Medler, we have now had all four of the Quadraphonnes on the podcast. Of course, we’ll talk about them but Michelle is here to talk about her new album Pink Sky. Some funky Jazz with husband Ben on bass, Dan Gildea on guitar and the ubiquitous drummer du jour Edwin...

Keyboardist Louis Pain was releasing a new organ trio album, "It's About Time," and I thought it would be a good idea to have him do an OMN Coffeeshop Conversation @ Catfish Lou’s so we scheduled for this week. And then last weekend, while playing a gig at Bluehour, he had a heart attack and almost died. I was ready to postpone but his wife Tracy Turner-Pain said nope, she’ll drive him. I said wha...

It’s great when there’s a musician who struggles throughout his career, you know he’s immensely talented and you try to expose his music to a broader audience and then one day, boom. He makes it. Andy Stokes is all that. OMN called him Oregon’s King of Soul years ago. Last year, his song “Best Day Ever” was a hit. He has a new album and we’ll hear something from it. He has sung right here at Catfi...

Welcome back to Catfish Lou’s, our home for OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. With me today is an unusual gentleman, even for a musician. Not only has he been a drummer on the Portland scene for a long time, but he’s also a Mafia historian. What? Yeah. Usually you think of Mafia music as stuff like the theme from The Godfather, or Louis Prima or Jerry Vale but in addition to his work on the National...

Today we get to do what we love to do and that’s bring in someone who curates one of our major music festivals and let them tell us about everyone in it. We’re at Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th Ave. They won Muddy Awards in 2017 and 2018 for Best Venue, as you may know. With me is Nicholas Harris, who is one of the founders of the Soul’d Out Festival and is back this year to tell us all about the p...

We’re getting pretty comfortable in the new home for the podcast…Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th Ave. They won Muddy Awards in 2017 and 2018 for Best Venue. Lloyd Jones is no stranger to Catfish Lou’s, he’s played here several times and he’s here with me right now to tell you a fabulous story about making his new album with some Nashville Blues stars, and how he’s just launched a Kickstarter campaig...

OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations is back for our second week of what we hope to be a long run at our new home Catfish Lou’s at 2460 NW 24th Ave. It’s a real music club which won Muddy Awards for Best Venue from the Cascade Blues Association for the past two years. With me today is painter and photographer Diane Russell. You’ve seen her paintings and drawings of musicians all over town, including in...

Hi there. Yep, we’re in our new home for Coffeeshop Conversations, Catfish Lou’s, an actual music club. It’s at 2460 NW 24th Avenue and for the past two years it has won the Muddy Award for best venue from the Cascade Blues Association. And what better way to kick off what we hope is a nice long and happy run here than the great Blues guitarist/singer/composer/producer Terry Robb. He’s got a new a...

OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations has traveled today. Next week we begin making these at Catfish Lou’s in Northwest Portland. But today we’re at Music Millennium for our annual conversation with Terry Currier on all things record store and lots of other things. They have their fiftieth anniversary coming up in March, and Terry has been there almost that long. They have lots of cool things happening t...

Welcome to another one of our weekly Coffeeshop Conversations. We don’t usually deal with the business part of show business because…well, unless you’re a working musician it can be boring. But I wonder if you knew that there is a chapter of the American Federation of Musicians in Portland known at The Musicians Union Local 99? Not only is there one, but it has a head honcho who is here with me to...

It’s OMN Coffeeshop Conversation number 179 in a long line of OMN Coffeeshop Conversations from World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan. I am very happy to have Mary Flower here. She’s one of the world’s pre-eminent guitarists, specializing in Blues, Rags and fellow travelers. She has some big news for us today, which we are revealing here for the first time. I’ll let her do that. She also ha...

Well, the holidays are over, so are the Best of 2018’s and we’re back at it at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th and Glisan for another whole year of OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. I’m Tom D’Antoni. The Portland Jazz Festival is right around the corner, beginning Wednesday, February 20 through Sunday March 3. Once again we’ve got the world’s foremost authority on the performers, Don Lucoff, fes...

Dunno when you’re hearing this but in real time, this is the week before Christmas and all through the OMN house and at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan, we’re celebrating the return of Jimmy Mak’s with J.D. Stubenberg. Happy holidays from all us OMN’ers. And you heard me right, a new Jimmy Mak’s with J.D. and Lisa Boyle the faces behind the bar for all those years, back and this time...

This is going to be fun. Ever since I heard her show on KMHD radio on Thursdays between 9 and 11pm, I knew we were kindred spirits. It has a lot in common with mine. Now she’s here at World Cup Coffee and Tea at NW 18th & Glisan to talk about her show and the events and dances she throws all over town. Her real name is Shannon Wiberg, by the way, she came to Portland from Olympia with powers far b...