12
MIXED MEDIUM
MAY 4�11, 2022
THE ARTS AROUND
EASTERN OREGON
Bag of Hammers, Firefly play the Churchill stage
By Lisa Britton
Go! Magazine
“It’s a fun show — it’s really ener-
getic,” he said.
B
FIREFLY
AKER CITY — Musicians — local and
one from afar — will grace the stage
at Churchill School on Friday, May 13.
Bag of Hammers, featuring Luke
McKern and Holly Sorensen, tour mostly
around Eastern Oregon.
Firefl y Walter, hailing from Santa Fe,
New Mexico, is getting ready to spend
the summer in Europe to study medieval
and folk music.
For the concert, doors open at 6 p.m.
and the music starts at 6:45 p.m.
Tickets are $10 in advance at www.
churchillbaker.com, or $15 at the door.
Proof of vaccination or a negative
COVID test is required. Admission is
free for fully vaccinated youth age 15
and younger who attend with a ticket-
holding adult.
BAG OF HAMMERS
Nicola Gell/Contributed image
Firefl y will play May 13 at Churchill School.
McKern and Sorensen have played
as Bag of Hammers for about 10 years.
They, like so many musicians, are return-
ing to playing again after nearly two
years of no live performances.
“We’re just getting it going again,”
McKern said.
Bag of Hammers/Contributed image
Bag of Hammers, featuring Luke McKern
and Holly Sorensen, play May 13 at Churchill
School in Baker City.
He describes their concerts as “live
looping.”
“We build all of our songs from
scratch,” he said. “We play a bunch of
diff erent parts that we layer together. It’s
like a recording studio on the stage.”
Sorensen handles the vocals, and
McKern plays the guitar, bass, drums
and keyboard.
Firefl y spent her childhood in North-
ern California, but often visited family in
Baker City. As a child, she learned to play
piano and clarinet but says it was “an im-
mersion in folk classics and obsession
with ‘90s female singer-songwriters”
that led her to take voice lessons and
teach herself guitar.
She toured along the West Coast for
nearly a decade and released her fi rst
album in 2015. She joined the band The
Seventh String in 2017.
She describes her music as “folk-
tronica” — folk with electronic music
production — and is inspired by tracing
the European roots of her Ameri-
can heritage.
“Our ancestors’ stories are shared
through the songs,” she said.
During her time in Europe this sum-
mer, she said she’ll be “studying tra-
ditional and ancient music” with The
Seventh String.
Her second solo album, titled “shape
shifter,” is available on multiple stream-
ing platforms. To learn more, visit www.
linktr.ee/fi refl ywaltermusic.
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