SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 // 11
SUBMITTED
PHOTO
PHOTO BY
INGRID RENAN
SOUWESTERLODGE.COM
NICK DELFFS
JENNY DON’T AND THE SPURS
KYLE CRAFT
Take Nick Delffs, perhaps best known
in the Portland music scene for his work
as the lead singer of The Shaky Hands, a
group that has been on pause for several
years.
Delffs said he tries to compose from
different genres and thereby transcend
them — a trait exhibited by many of his
favorite songwriters, such as Paul Simon,
who “takes from a lot of different kinds
of music and makes it his own thing.”
A father who now lives in Boise,
Delffs, half tongue-in-cheek, described
his music as “emo experimental dad
electronic folk rock.”
After The Shaky Hands, he released
an EP and plays in The Tiburones. He
recently released his fi rst album under his
own name titles “Redesign,” bespeaking
a process both exciting and daunting, he
said.
At the Sou’wester, he and a band
formed around his latest work will play
songs from the album, as well as newer
songs.
Get rowdy
Jenny Don’t and The Spurs is sim-
ilarly tricky to pin down; labels prove
slippery.
“No one really knows where to put us
when they’re booking us,” band mem-
ber Kelly Halliburton said, adding that
“alt-country” is usually the easiest to
write down.
The band doesn’t play contempo-
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The Sou’wester Lodge and avenue of trailers
rary or singer-songwriter country, but a
hard-edged, relentless, desolate-sounding
“outlaw roots” country — “western with
sprinkle of rockabilly in there as well,”
Halliburton said.
“We’re more like the barroom country
western,” he said.
“We like people to get rowdy,” Jenny
Don’t, the lead singer-songwriter, said
with a laugh.
The band has said in interviews that
their sound hearkens back to Hank Wil-
liams and Johnny Cash.
“I mean, people love it, but a lot of
people don’t play it,” Halliburton said.
“Or know what it is,” Jenny added.
Incidentally, the cover for their fi rst
LP was shot down the street from the
Sou’wester.
The band will play songs from both
their fi rst, self-titled album, and their sec-
ond, “Call of the Road,” released earlier
this year.
A special place
Elder, who has lived in Portland for
about six years, considers the artists per-
forming at the Sou’wester to be family.
But she began as a fan — as a someone
who simply appreciated their work.
She remembers when she discovered
Aan: “They were one of the fi rst bands
I ever saw in Portland, and I remember
just, like, my jaw on the fl oor.”
To share that kind of experience with
other people — who may only know one
artist on a bill but are open to new and
revelatory musical experiences — is Lose
Yr Mind’s goal.
“It’s just a really good opportunity to
share that kind of emotion, of just really,
really raw and powerful songwriting,”
$10 for Friday, $15 for Saturday, $20
for both.
Accommodations at Sou’wester are
not included and must be booked
separately via phone 360-642-2542
with the Sou’wester (not on their
website).
The lodge has blocked out the most
trailer, cabin and camping accom-
modations for attendees of Lose Yr
Mind.
Door tickets will also be available
for each day, but advance tickets are
encouraged.
For the festival potluck Saturday,
Sept. 30, in the covered outdoor
pavilion, bring something to share. A
market is located a couple of min-
utes up the road in downtown Long
Beach.
For more information, visitloseyr-
mind.com/souwester-weekender/
Elder said.
The Sou’wester Lodge attracts a cer-
tain kind of artist, Ricci Ross said.
“It’s not the place that makes sense for
most touring artists,” she said. “You have
to know how special the Sou’wester is to
want to come play there.” CW