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GRAB BAG book shelf • glimpse • wildlife • pop culture • words • q&a • food • fun Submitted photo by Michael Poole The Jackalope Saints are, from left, David Celis on trumpet, Steven Schob on drums, Jay Parshall on bass, Clinton Herrick on guitar and vocals, Lucas Welliver on keys, Sharon Can- non on fi ddle, John Chap on mandolin/banjo/guitar/vocals. Five Minutes With ... THE JACKALOPE SAINTS Q&A by RYAN HUME We spoke with Clinton Herrick, the singer/songwriter at the core of Portland-based folk pop band the Jackalope Saints, about mythical creatures, murder ballads and the Mystery Condition prior to the band’s two-night engagement at the Adrift Hotel in Long Beach, Washington, at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 23 and 24. Get a taste of the Jackalope Saints at www.jackalopsaints.com I like the name Jacka- lope Saints. How does the spirit of the jackalope — that mythical horned rab- bit of the American West and Midwest — present itself in your music? Thanks! One of the sto- ries of the jackalope is that it can mimic any sound it hears. Cowboys would sing songs around campfires and attribute their echoes to the jacklaope, and in a way I feel like that is what we are doing, repeating what we have heard and mashing it all together to make the genre of music we play. That’s why we have such a hard time putting a label to our music genre and resort to Americana or folk, two fairly vague musi- cal descriptions that cover an array of possible sounds. The name also eludes to the idea of reverence. As a musician or song- writer, who do you most revere and why? Bob Dylan and Paul Simon were the first two songwriters that had me obsessively listening to lyrics. I would (and still do) listen to their songs on repeat, dissecting every line of their lyrics. Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt both became huge influences once I started writing. Waits can paint a mental picture full of colors, sounds and smells in one line: “The road is out before me/the moon is shining bright/I want you to remember me/as I disap- pear tonight. But today is gray skies/tomorrow is tears/you’ll have to wait/ till yesterday is here.” He’s full of gold! Townes can break your heart with three well-placed words. His word choice with his lonely, des- perate, honest voice cuts to the bone every time. One thing that strikes me about your lyrics, besides the strong Amer- icana imagery, is your commitment to narrative storytelling within the tradition of the folk bal- lad. What types are stories are you trying to tell and to whom? For the most part, unfor- tunately, we are telling sad stories to upbeat music. Heartbreak, loss of a loved one, disappointments in life that we have gone through and most likely will all go through again. Turmoil and\or unhap- piness seems to be what cultivates inspiration for writing. It doesn’t have to be a life-changing issue; one gloomy day can be enough inspiration to write a murder ballad. A sunny summer day in the park will never lead to a new Jackalope Saint’s song. As far as who we are trying to tell the stories to, anyone who cares to listen and can relate in one way or another about what we are playing, be it musically or lyrically or both. Last time I checked, you clocked in as a sev- en-piece ensemble. Is this the line-up one should expect during your two- night engagement at the Adrift Hotel? We are a seven-piece group. There will be six of us for both of the shows at the Adrift. Your last record, “Illu- minations of the Mystery Tradition,” came out in 2013 and saw the Saints exploring an expanded sound with some very intricate arrangements. What do you foresee for the Jackalope Saints in 2015? “Illuminations of the Mystery Tradition” is where we really started messing around with actually com- posing music with the help of our friend Gabe Salo. He wrote out the intro, outro and all of the interludes, and then we recorded them in hopes to have the album have a close-to-seamless sound from start to finish. Since then we have add- ed some new members, Sharon Cannon on fiddle and David Celis on trum- pet. These two have been a huge part in the evolution of our music over the past year. When we started playing music as the Jackalope Saints a few years ago, we were wanting to be a rowdy bluegrass band with face-melting solos (we still are advocates of this). But we have expanded our sound to a point where most everything now sounds as if it has purpose and has been thought out, adding (we hope) textures and depth to our music that we had never had before — while still working in some face-melting solos provided by John Chap. As far as what I foresee for the Jackalopes in 2015: I hope to mix the simplis- tic and direct songwriting style of say, Woody Guthrie, while blending in the full and rich sound of Ennio Morricone. In other words, we are going to aim for the stars and hope we at least hit the horizon. NW word Dismal >Gܼ]mԥl@ adjective 1. dreary or woeful; of gloom, doom or melancholy in mood, condition, circum- stance, sound or forecast 2. obsolete. Unlucky or ca- lamitous; sinister or evil noun 3. informal, U.S. South: local name for a tract of swampland, usually near the coast, esp. in North Carolina 4. Dismal Nitch: AKA Megler Cove, a natural recess and present day Washington State Rest Area on the north shore of the Columbia River within Lewis and Clark National His- torical Park Origin: First recorded in English as meaning “gloomy” in 1593. Enters the language by way of the Anglo-Norman in 1256 through the Old French, dis mals, from the Medieval Lat- in, dies mali, literally meaning “evil days.” Medieval calendars marked two days each month as unlucky days, sometimes re- nerd ferred to as “Egyptian days” as these portentous dates were supposedly fi rst noticed by Egyptian astrologers. DISMAL NITCH takes its name from a reference to the spot in Capt. William Clark’s journal: “I had the canoes loaded in great haste and Set Out, from this dismal nitch where we have been confi ned for 6 days…” The rest area was offi cially renamed in 2005 from the Megler Rest Area. “Based on recent research, NPS and the Washington Historical Society (WHS) believe the actual Dismal Nitch – so named because of miserable weather con- ditions the expedition experienced there for six days starting Nov. 10, 1805 – is located about a mile east of the rest area.” — “Dismal Nitch won’t be quite so dismal after facelift,” The Daily Astorian, Dec. 23, 2013 “[Rex] Ziak was the fi rst writer to fully highlight the stay of Lewis and Clark on the Washington bank of the Columbia River before they overwintered at Fort Clatsop. His focus was on the 30 days between Nov. 7 , 1805, and Dec. 7, 1805, a time when Clark’s journal entries were vague and confusing. 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