Street roots., May 25, 2012, Page 10, Image 10

street roots
10
May 25, 2012
The endless
journeyman
Portland icon Lewi Longmire
has fo u n d success on many
stages, but his roots still run
deep beneath the Rose City
BY SUE ZALOKAR
S T A F F W R IT E R
ewi Longmire is a staple in the
Portland roots rock ‘n’ roll music diet.
He plays gigs more nights than not,
appearing with any number of bands. In a
2008 interview with the Willamette Week, he
said that in 2003, he peaked at playing 282
shows that year. He continues to collaborate
tirelessly with other musicians, from national
to local acts, including Michael Hurley,
Victoria Williams, Blue Giant, Dolorean, The
Minus 5, Fernando, Little Sue, Casey Neill,
Michael Jodell, Freak Mountain Ramblers
and The Peasants.
A multi-instrumentalist, the fair-skinned
redhead left his home in Albuquerque, N.M.,
16 years ago for the more forgiving skies of
the Pacific Northwest and headed for the
vibrant music scene in Portland. In that
time, Longmire has cultivated a reputation
as a “hired gun”. He is the booking agent for
the Laurelthirst Pub.
L
H e r e c e n tly r e t u r n e d fro m a n A la s k a n to u r
with the Lewi Longmire Band and sat down
with Street Roots to talk about songwriting,
the Vanport Flood and life in Portland.
S u e Zalokar: How would you describe your
music to someone who has never heard you
play?
Lew i Longm ire: That’s the question that
everyone wants to know of all musicians. It’s
difficult to quantify in that sort of way. I
personally am not into these descriptions of
music that are a mish mosh of a person’s
influences. Our music is like Frank Zappa
has a baby with Courtney Love and they all
go out to coffee. My music is rock ‘n’ roll
music played with the spirit of late 60s, early
70s. I like it kind of rough and ready. I like
more modern music, but I can’t say that a lot
of that influence has seeped into my music. I
tell people the music is along the lines of
Neil Young and Crazy Horse — loud, electric
rock ‘n’ roll, but with folk songwriting at its
heart.
S.Z.: You currently have, not one or two, but
seven (or more) active music projects: Lewi
Longmire Band, Portland Country
Underground, Michael Hurley and the
Croakers, Lewi Longmire James Low Duo,
Denver, Fernando and Ducky Pig. How do you
manage all o f that?
L.L.: Through the miracle of calendars
and datebooks. Really,the Lewi Longmire
Band and maybe to a lesser extent, the Lewi
Longmire James Low Duo are the only
projects that I am actively in control of any
major portion of the creative aspect. I’ve
pared down in recent years from what I used
to do. I’ve been learning how to manage my
time better — to make sure that I’m doing
the things that nurture my creativity and
actual allow me to be truly creative, like
writing songs. I do this for my living,
primarily, so there is an impetus to keep
playing live a lot because it’s the only way I
can make rent.
S.Z.: I have heard you described as
Portland’s hired gun.
L.L.: Really, a strong point in whatever
skill set I have developed as a musician is
that I do a lot of improvisation work. You
could hire me as your lead guitarist, and I
may have never heard the songs. And if
you’re confident enough that I’m gonna do a
good enough job, I have no problem with
going and playing an entire set of music that
I’ve never heard before. With that said, my
learning curve is pretty high. I get a lot of
session work and to do a lot of live shows
because I’m pretty quick at sussing out a
song.
S.Z.: Did you start on guitar?
L.L.: I started on trumpet actually.
S.Z.: In school?
L.L.: In the fourth grade. I transferred to
French horn at some point in high school
and played into college. But I started playing
guitar concurrently as a teenager. The wind
instruments were always just reading music
and playing notes on paper, and I was
honestly never very good. My lung capacity
was not great. My embouchure - I have bad
teeth - it didn’t work with the mouthpiece,
or something like that. It was only in playing
guitar that somehow I learned that you can
improvise and you can just make it up.
S.Z.: On your latest and the third release for
the Lewi Longmire Band, “Tales o f the Left
Coast Roasters”you tell a compelling story in
“Vanport 1948. ” What was the motivation for
this song?
L.L.: I was lucky on that one as a
songwriter. The song just came to me. I
often will take my dog for walks out at the
dog park near the Portland International
Speedway, which is on the site where
Vanport used to be. So, this complete verse
came into my head, and it just kept spinning
around. As I was lying in bed that night, this
verse just kept spinning around in my head,
and other verses came and would attach
themselves to it. More words kept coming. It
was driving me crazy. My mind wouldn’t be
quiet, and I really just wanted to sleep.
Finally I got out of bed and went downstairs,
and I wrote down everything I had and then'
I was able to go to sleep. In the morning, I
looked at what I had and kind of moved
things around so that it had a more
chronological feel, that the story made
See JOURNEYMAN, page 11
P H O T O BY
K R IS T IN A W R IG H T