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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2021
Singer is inspired by wild scenery of Eastern Oregon
By JERAD WALKER
Oregon Public Broadcasting
With only 2,000 resi-
dents, Enterprise is the larg-
est town in Wallowa County.
It’s surrounded by vast cat-
tle ranches and boxed in
by the stunning Wallowa
Mountains and a forebod-
ing 8,000-foot-deep gorge
called Hells Canyon that
straddles the Idaho border to
the east.
Despite that remoteness,
it’s also home to a music
community that nurtures the
work of artists like Margo
Cilker, whose debut record
“Pohorylle” was released
last week.
Cilker’s arresting voice is
the latest in a line of song-
writers inspired by this wild
corner of northeast Oregon.
Beauty and isolation
When folk musician Janis
Carper moved to Enterprise
from Seattle nearly 20 years
ago, she made seven trips in
a pickup truck fi lled with her
family’s belongings. And
each time she crossed the
Minam River on state Route
82, it hit her.
“Well of course I was
fi rst awestruck by the nature
— the beauty,” said Carper,
who is the executive direc-
tor of a regional music non-
profi t called the Wallowa
Valley Music Alliance.
While the jaw-dropping
scenery of Eastern Oregon
off ers ample artistic inspi-
ration, Carper insists that
there is a tradeoff for musi-
cians who settle in this rug-
ged place.
“It is defi nitely a feel-
ing of geographical isola-
tion. People don’t come here
on their way to anywhere
because you can’t really go
anywhere from here,” she
explained before adding
“except to Hells Canyon and
Snake River — you can just
go over the edge!”
Fellow musician and pro-
ducer Bart Budwig thinks
that isolation also has
advantages.
Jerad Walker/Oregon Public Broadcasting
The picturesque but rugged Wallowa Valley in northeast Oregon is one of the most isolated places in the United States.
“You have to be kind of
proactive about commu-
nity. People are motivated to
make things happen because
they aren’t going to happen
on their own,” Budwig said.
Budwig speaks from
experience. Since 2015, he’s
mostly lived and worked in
the historic OK Theater in
downtown Enterprise where
he’s recorded albums for
musicians from all over the
country.
A local sound
In recent years, the OK
Theater has also served as a
rallying point for a tight knit
group of songwriters loosely
bonded together by a love of
clever lyricism and classic
Western music.
“The music coming out
of Wallowa County is not
frantic,” Budwig said. “I feel
like it is grounded and rooted
and often about coming
from personal experience.”
Budwig cites fellow
musician Cilker and her song
“Brother Taxman Preacher”
as a shining example of
that sound. It’s a brutal, but
funny, critique of male-dom-
inated rural power structures
disguised as a honky-tonk
jam. In the song’s lyrics, she
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Stephen Smith
Margo Cilker pictured in the alley behind the OK Theater in
downtown Enterprise.
calls out religious leaders
and even her own brother.
“I’m sorry, (but) no one’s
safe,” Cilker said laughing.
“You’re not safe. My friends
aren’t safe. You could
always end up in a song.”
Cilker, who’s worked
day jobs as a server at
local restaurants and most
recently on a poultry farm,
is fascinated by the people
she comes across in every-
day life.
“And that’s why I love
music and songwriting, it’s
because it’s fun to profi le
people. I love meeting color-
ful characters. I could strike
up a conversation with the
wall.”
‘If you’ve got to
ramble, ram’
Cilker’s enthusiasm for
documenting the human
condition has earned her
supporters from well beyond
the shadow of the Wal-
lowa Mountains, includ-
ing respected Seattle-based
musician Sera Cahoone.
“I love her lyrics,” said
Cahoone. “She’s witty.
She’s just a great songwriter.
It was pretty immediate for
me. I was like ‘Whoa, that is
such a tricky lyric that you
did there!’ So I knew that
she had something special
going on.”
Cahoone produced Cilk-
er’s debut record, “Pohor-
ylle.” The new album fea-
tures 11 songs punctuated by
barroom piano, pedal steel
guitars and bouncing horn
arrangements. But surpris-
ingly, Cahoone’s favorite
song is also one of its sim-
plest — a goosebump-in-
ducing confessional called
“Flood Plain.”
Cilker wrote the piece
about her relationship with
husband Forrest Van Tuyl,
a musician who works sea-
sonally on horseback as a
professional cowboy. It’s a
stunning performance that
showcases her versatility as
an observational writer who
can also look inward.
“Yeah, that’s just a song
about marriage,” said Cilker.
“It’s a song about giving
each other space. It’s a pow-
erful message of ‘things are
really hard right now, but
I’m not letting go. I’m going
to hang on.’ I had this image
of an elastic — sometimes
someone does have to ram-
ble. If you’ve got to ramble,
ram. Go and come back. It’s
that kind of leniency I would
want someone to off er me,
too.”
Next year is shaping up
to be an exciting year for
Cilker, who recently signed
a record deal with Port-
land-based label Fluff and
Gravy. She and Van Tuyl
plan to overwinter on a
ranch near the Columbia
River Gorge before head-
ing out on tour together. It’s
a much-needed break from
two years of COVID-19
imposed isolation in Enter-
prise, which is already one
of the most secluded places
in the country.
But after that extended
ramble, Cilker plans to return
to the wide-open spaces of
the American West.
“I mean, why shouldn’t
someone live in the middle
of nowhere — center of the
universe — and make art?”
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