Verlon Thompson and Chris Arellano

As a solo performer and as the trusted sidekick of Texas Americana songwriting icon Guy Clark, Verlon has viewed the world from stages everywhere from Barcelona to Binger (his hometown in Oklahoma). Along the way Verlon Thompson compositions have been recorded by Jimmy Buffett and Alan Jackson, Dierks Bentley, Anne Murray, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, Del McCoury, Sam Bush, Trisha Yearwood and many more.

Chris Arellano, a Willamette Valley resident off and on for two decades, weaves together the Norteno music of his Northern New Mexico upbringing with Alternative Country and Blues influences-for a signature style that he calls Nuevo Americana. Fused with song and story, Spanish and English, his transcendent lyrics move listeners with emotion and passion.

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.

Song Circle

Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate.  Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.

Roy Zimmerman

There’s a new president and administration for Roy Zimmerman’s song-writing mill.  With everything going on in the world,  this should be interesting (and entertaining).

Roy Zimmerman is a satirical songwriter in the Tom Lehrer/Phil Ochs tradition with a great gift for clever and funny lyrics that really rhyme and an incredibly entertaining banter between his songs.

“You’re brilliant. Just brilliant!” — Terry Jones, Monty Python

Tom Lehrer himself says, “I congratulate Roy Zimmerman on reintroducing literacy to comedy songs.  And the rhymes actually rhyme, they don’t just ‘rhyne.'”

Joni Mitchell says, “Roy’s lyrics move beyond poetry and achieve perfection.”

He spent the Comedy Boom years of the Eighties doing stand-up in San Francisco, sharing stages with George Carlin, Bill Maher, Kate Clinton, Dennis Miller and many others. He wrote all the material for his funny folk music quartet The Foremen, recording two albums for Warner/Reprise Records. He’s done several shows with The Pixies’ Frank Black, swapping songs in a solo acoustic setting.

“Roy Zimmerman simultaneously inspires me and makes me laugh my ass off,” says comedian/author Paul Krassner.

Zimmerman tours almost constantly, taking his funny songs about fracking, creationism, marijuana laws, government shutdown, same-sex marriage, guns, taxes and abstinence across the country, often playing in some of the least Progressive places in America for the most Progressive people there.  “I get accused of preaching to the converted,” he says, “but I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as entertaining the troops.”

In thirteen albums over twenty years, Roy has brought the sting of satire to the struggle for Peace and Social Justice. His songs have been heard on HBO and Showtime. He has recorded for Warner/Reprise Records. He’s been profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Zimmerman’s YouTube videos have amassed over seven million views, and he’s a featured blogger for the Huffington Post.

Sing Out! Magazine writes, “Zimmerman is a guy on the left skewering folks on the right with rapier-sharp lyrics … underneath the caustic satire is a man who is surprisingly optimistic.”

Wesley Hall at the First Presbyterian Church is upstairs, most easily accessed through the entrance on 11th Street near the corner of Monroe.  This event is sponsored by the Benton County Democrats.  It is not a church-sponsored event.

RUNA

“Best of all, RUNA sounds like no one else!” – Travis Rogers, Jr., Music Life & Times

Quickly gaining recognition as one of Irish music’s new “super-groups,” RUNA has been en- chanting audiences by pushing the boundaries of Irish folk music into the Americana and roots music formats since their formation in 2008. Interweaving the haunting melodies and exuberant tunes of Ireland and Scotland with the lush harmonies and intoxicating rhythms of jazz, bluegrass, flamenco and blues, they offer a thrilling and redefining take on traditional music.

The group has been honored internationally, winning Top Group and Top Traditional Group in the Irish Music Awards and four Independent Music Awards including Best Live Album, Best World/Traditional Song and Best Bluegrass Song.

“Timeless and flawless…” – Jim Allford, PA Music Scene

RUNA consists of vocalist and step-dancer, Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, Cheryl Prashker of Canada on percussion, Zach White of St. Louis on guitar, vocals and mandolin, and Maggie White of Kentucky on the fiddle and Mandolin.

RUNA recently released their fifth album, “RUNA: LIVE”, which was recorded at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD on Thursday, March 17th, 2016. Receiving lavish praise on both sides of the Atlantic, the album has been hailed as “an incredible masterpiece” – Marcene Bronson, The Celtic Crier

Seeking to preserve and continue a traditional culture in a modern age, RUNA creates the backbone of its signature roots sound from the musical and geographical diversity of its individually established band members. Their strive for excellence and creativity blazes a trail for the future of folk music, earning them the reputation as one of the most innovative Irish folk groups of this generation.

“Genuine and with endless innovation…” – John O’Brien, Jr., Ohio Irish American News

Folk-Americana Duo
Jennings & Keller

Jennings & Keller is an award-winning nationally touring duo based out of Florida. They offer up 21st Century Americana with influences in folk, jazz, and roots music. They fuse many different musical elements into a unique eclectic style that is refreshingly diverse.

Dana Keller, a veteran pedal steel, dobro, and guitar player, has spent years performing on stage or in the studio with such luminaries as Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Stevie Wonder, Larry Graham, Marvin Gaye, Dave Mason, Johnny Rodriguez and The Allen Brothers, to name a few. Dana has been an endorsee of the Gretsch Guitar and Drum Company since 1980. His dobro playing has been called “jaw-droppingly good”. Along with being lauded for his world-class musicianship, he is known as a “songwriter’s songwriter”, often drawing comparisons to Gene Clark and Jessie Winchester.

Laurie Jennings Oudin is a former Shakespearean actress who has spent many years on the stage. Her theater background combined with a lifetime of professional singing gives her an obvious command of the stage as well as the songs she sings. With a vocal style that ranges from early Joni Mitchell to Emmylou Harris, Laurie leaves audiences mesmerized by her stunning vocal delivery.

In the 11 years of playing together, Jennings & Keller have released 4 CDs. They have received accolades and airplay from radio stations at one end of the country to the other. In true troubadour spirit, Laurie and Dana travel the country in their motor home, performing at festivals, cafes, wineries and house concerts. Along with developing a large and loyal fan base, they have earned a reputation for quality musicianship and expert storytelling.

The Fire

• Rebecca Lomnicky on Scottish fiddle,
• David Brewer on Highland pipes and whistles,
• Adam Hendey on guitar & bazouki

The Fire is a high energy pure-drop Scottish music band, with world class fiddling in combination with bagpipes, guitar, bodhran, whistle, and bouzouki. The group includes, International Scottish Fiddle Champion Rebecca Lomnicky, multi-instrumentalist David Brewer of the popular Celtic band Molly’s Revenge, and Adam Hendey on guitar and bouzouki.  Members of the trio have each spent copious amounts of time delving into the traditions of their respective instruments, with Rebecca and David having additionally lived and studied in both Edinburgh and the highlands of Scotland. Together, The Fire performs captivating Scottish music which bridges the gap between the fiddle and bagpipe music of Scotland—two worlds united, into a heartfelt and rousing musical experience. Between their entertaining and informative stage banter, vast array of instrument combinations and extensive repertoire, including everything from soaring slow airs to intricately arranged dance tunes, these charismatic performers will leave you on your feet with your hands together. The Fire has headlined at Celtic festivals such as The Pleasanton Scottish Highland Games, The Utah Scottish Association Highland Games, The Portland Highland Games, The Sedona Celtic Harvest Festival, The Northwest Folklife Festival, The Oregon Scottish Festival, The Yachats Celtic Music Festival, The Monterey Scottish Games and Celtic Festival, and has performed at a variety of venues throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland.

The Fire is currently based out of Santa Cruz, California, and has recorded two albums together. (Rebecca is from Corvallis)

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.

The Real Sarahs

With organic harmonies that enchant and uplift the spirit, The Real Sarahs share their special gift of vocal synergy. This trio of women, who are all named Sarah, create magic with voices in harmony, acoustic instruments and the energetic connection between artists and audience. With a breadth of influences, you are likely to hear threads of folk, jazz, blues, and country music running through their songs. Singing from the stories of their own life journeys and experiences, their original music is honest, evocative and heartfelt.

A house concert is a great way to hear music in an intimate setting and get to know the performers up close and personal.

Song Circle

Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate.  Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.

Melody Pie Trio

Neo-Traditional Folk • Roots • Music

Together in melodious folkroots conversation, MPT free-ranges from storysong folk balladry and lyrical harmonic tone poems, to traditional fiddle tunes, bluegrass, country rock, jump blues, swing grooves and improv jam. Fiddler Kevin Craven, cellist Beth Brown and singer-songwriter Ralph Penunuri play an eclectic variety of original and traditional multi-instrumental stylings. 

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.

Scott Cook

A roots balladeer with a rare personal warmth, Canada’s Scott Cook has managed to distil the stories collected over eleven years touring across Canada, the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia and elsewhere into straight-talking, keenly observant verse. Road-worn, painfully honest, and deeply human, his tunes weave threads of folk, roots, blues, soul and country over spacious fingerstyle guitar and clawhammer banjo arrangements. His fourth release, One More Time Around, was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award, and its opening track “Pass It Along” won the Folk and Acoustic category in the 2013 UK Songwriting Contest, with UK magazine Maverick Country naming him “one of Canada’s most inspiring and imaginative storytellers”. In 2015 he put together a seven-piece honky-tonk band for his fifth studio album, Scott Cook and the Long Weekends Go Long, and in 2017 he released his sixth album Further Down the Line, earning his second Canadian Folk Music Award nomination, for English Songwriter of the Year. The album is packaged in a 132-page softcover book offering a look back, in words and pictures, on his last decade of near-incessant rambling. Cook is one of the hardest-working DIY troubadours on the road today, averaging over 150 shows and a dozen festivals every year since 2007. All the hard miles notwithstanding, he still believes that songs can change your life, and your life can change the world.

“Scott Cook has distilled his travels down into songs powered by a sharp eye for imagery, a healthy dose of humanity, and that unforgettable voice, that at the same time intones the rigors of the road and the most comfortable couch you have ever slept on.” -David Francey, 3x Juno-winning songwriter

“As good a modern folkie as we have these days. A voice perfect for the genre. An understanding beyond the norm.” –No Depression

“He sings his heart and soul, and in doing so lets light flood into your own… A good eye for imagery, a gentle human touch, a wry sense of humour, a whole lot of integrity, a warm, rugged voice and a bunch of memorable lines… Truly one of Woody Guthrie’s children.” –RnR Magazine

A house concert is an excellent way to enjoy music in an intimate environment and get to know the musician.

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.

Rushad Eggleston

For those not in the know, Rushad is the cellist from another planet. He’s a legend, clown, goblin, cello-shredder, acrobat, wild “jazz” vocalist, bundle of laughs, inventor of bluegrass cello, Grammy Nominee, time traveler, creator of worlds, Pentecostal dancer, proprietor of igwarfnees, president of Norwegian Ostrich Society, winner of some contest in 1725.

Rushad is truly a musical genius and he spends a lot of time exploring boundaries.  While it may seem like he’s from another planet, he comes down to earth and plays at places like Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center.  He was the first string player awarded a full scholarship to the Berklee college of music, and while still there he became their first active student ever to be nominated for a Grammy award.  If you have never seen Rushad, now is your chance to witness greatness.

Note: Larger, more comfortable space and room for everyone, come one, come all!  No reservations necessary, bring your friends and family and pay at the door!  Please enter through the glass doors on 8th or from the parking lot on 9th.  We’ll still have a potluck snack break at intermission, but please don’t bring alcohol (church regulation).  This is kid friendly and encouraged, Rushad is inspirational.    Cash preferred  (checks made to Rushad Eggleston if you must)