Acoustic blues guitarist Mary Flower kicks
off blues month at Peninsula Arts Center
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Nobody
picks it like Mary Flower.
An internationally known
and award-winning picker,
singer-songwriter and teacher,
Portland acoustic blues artist
Mary Flower will perform live
at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at the
Peninsula Arts Center.
Flower’s immense ¿nger-
picking guitar and lap-slide
prowess is soulful and me-
ter-perfect, a deft blend of the
inventive, the dexterous and the
mesmerizing. Her supple hon-
ey-and-whiskey voice provides
the perfect melodic accompani-
ment to each song’s story.
Evolving out her native
Indiana, Flower ¿rst relocat-
ed to the rich Denver music
scene, working with Katy Mof-
fatt, Randy Handley and Pat
Donohue and was a founding
member of the famed Mother
Folkers. After building her ca-
reer and reputation as a pick-
er’s-picker, including top-three
¿nishes (and the only woman
¿nalist) at the National Finger-
picking Guitar Championship
in 2000 and 2002, Flower es-
caped the Denver orbit to land
in culturally rich Portland. She
continues to please crowds and
critics at folk festivals and on
concert stages domestically
and abroad, ones that include
Merlefest, Kerrville, King Bis-
cuit, Prairie Home Companion
and the Calgary Folk Festival,
among many.
Flower embodies a luscious
and lusty mix of rootsy, acous-
tic-blues guitar and vocal styles
that span a number of idioms —
from Piedmont to the Mississip-
pi Delta, with stops in ragtime,
swing, folk and hot jazz.
Flower’s 10 recordings,
including four for Memphis’
famed Yellow Dog Records —
“Bywater Dance,” “Instrumen-
tal Breakdown,” “Bridges” and
“Misery Loves Company” —
show a deep command of and
love for folk and blues string
music.
Flower recently released her
10th album, “When My Blue-
bird Sings,” this time on her
Submitted photo
Acoustic blues artist Mary Flower will perform at the Peninsula Arts Center on Feb. 6.
Mary Flower
7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6
Peninsula Arts Center
504 Pacific Ave. N., Long Beach, Wash.
360-901-0962
$12
own label, Bluesette Records.
“This CD is a departure
stylistically from my previous
recordings,” Flower says. “The
CD is a mix of lap slide instru-
mentals and guitar pieces with
vocals, all original. Some of
these tunes have been rumbling
around in my head for quite a
while and seemed well-suited
for a solo project. Many of you
have asked for more solo and
more slide — so here it is, the
raw and unadorned. Enjoy.”
Accolades come easily and
deservedly for Flower — the
aforementioned National Fin-
gerpicking Guitar Champion-
ship ¿nishes, as a nominee
in 2008 and 2012 for Blues
Foundation Blues Music
Awards, a 2009 nod with the
coveted Vox Populi award at
the 2009 Independent Music
Award’s Acoustic Song cat-
egory, and a 2011 Portland
Muddy Award win. The list
goes on. But for Flower, it’s
not about prizes. It’s about
making the music come alive
onstage, in her recordings,
and with her teaching. She
continues to compose, record
and tour relentlessly, honing
and evolving her style rooted
in rich tradition but always
moving America’s indigenous
music forward.
The Peninsula Arts Center
is located at 0 Paci¿c Ave.
N. Admission is $12 at the
door, by calling 360-901-0962,
or online through Brown Paper
Tickets. Wine, beer and other
refreshments will be available
for purchase. Concerts bene-
¿t the Long Beach Peninsula
Acoustic Music Foundation, a
01(c)3 non-pro¿t charitable
organization.
Lowest Pair bring Americana to the Fort
ASTORIA — Fort George Brew-
ery welcomes The Lowest Pair
to perform Americana and blue-
grass at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7.
All ages are welcome, and there
is no cover charge.
Born in Arkansas and now
homesteading in Olympia,
Washington, Kendl Winter
sprouts alfalfa beans in mason
jars in the back of the tour van
and spreads her songs across
the country, Johnny Apple-
seed-style. Winter brings her
weaving poetry of song, old and
new, and a voice somewhere be-
tween Gillian Welch and Iris De-
Ment with a little Olympia twist.
Palmer T. Lee, who hails from
Minneapolis, was 19 when he
inherited a couple of banjos and
discovered he could reassemble
them into his dream instrument.
Lee’s songs are distilled into the
warm sweet sounds of his percus-
sive wordplay and the melodic
interludes of his own style played
on a pieced-together banjo.
After a year of traveling the
country playing clubs, hotels,
house shows, backyards and
street corners, the duo found
their way back up to Minnesota,
this time to Duluth, where they
sat down to record the follow-up
to “36¢.” Linking up with
Tom Fabjance at an old church
(the same one Low recorded
“C’Mon” in) seemed like the
perfect way to expand on their
sound without diluting their orig-
inal magical formula.
Their latest album, “The Sa-
cred Heart Sessions,” is a col-
lection that allows the listener to
enter the space that surrounds its
creation. One can virtually feel
the walls and vaulted ceiling of
the old wooden church rising
up, creating a natural reverb and
warming the air.
Be it Winter’s punk roots,
her admiration for the tradi-
tional American songbook or
The Lowest Pair
8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7
Submitted photo
The Lowest Pair will perform at the Fort George Brewery at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7.
the gravitational pull she sensed
drawing her to Olympia, it’s her
combining these talents and cre-
ative impulses with Lee’s Mid-
western charm, the long winters
spent listening to a steady diet of
Open 7am
Daily!
S E R V I N G B R E A K FA S T,
LUNCH & SUPPER
European Style Coffeehouse by day,
intimate bistro offering neo-regional
cuisine by night.
Regional selection of beers, wines and
vintage cocktails available.
All ages
Free
243 11th Street, Astoria, OR 97103
503-325-1787
www.AstoriaCoffeeHouse.com
We cater your event!
Fort George Brewery
1483 Duane St., Astoria
Townes Van Zandt and John Hart-
ford and the strange moment of
fate that left him with two inherited
banjos as a young man; this com-
bination has resulted in a original
sound that is The Lowest Pair.
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February 4, 2016 | coastweekend.com | 11