Tunesmith Night

The Wallowa Valley Music Alliance is pleased to announce the  the ninth season of Tunesmith Night on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at Lear’s Main Street Grill in Enterprise. Held every second Saturday, October through May, this monthly showcase of original music is an opportunity for songwriters to present their work to a supportive listening audience, sharing insights with the listeners and camaraderie with their fellow tunesmiths. The show is presented in a round-robin format, with each musician playing a song, then the next taking a turn, creating an interesting and varied performance. Doors open at 6pm, music at 7pm, all ages welcome. Saturday’s songwriters are James Dean Kindle, Travis Ward and Gregory Rawlins.

The music of James Dean Kindle is inspired by rural Oregon and the cultural richness of his Eastern Oregon home base in Pendleton. This past fall Kindle and his longtime backing band The Eastern Oregon Playboys released their third album, Many Splendored Things.
 
Travis Ward’s music is influenced by old time hillbilly music--blues, Appalachian, dustbowl—and his original and traditional songs cross those boundaries often. With steel guitars and banjos in tow, Ward, based in Boise, has traveled the U.S. and Great Britain spreading his version of folk music to any open ears, as a solo artist and with the band Hillfolk Noir.
 
La Grande songwriter Gregory Rawlins has a style that’s tough to label. His inventive compositions, austere language, and homegrown honesty translates to what one coined as, “Alternatively Bestial Truckstop Folk.” With subject matter that crosses the natural reverence of John Denver with the unsettling introspection of Leonard Cohen, Rawlins’ playing style moves from quick, jangly strumming to delicate fingerpicking with a tinge of Southern country/blues.