posts about live music, performance of music, concerts, etc.
The Oly Old Time Festival is taking place in three locations around Olympia in 2017. – First Christian Church 701 Franklin St. SE, Olympia – South Bay Grange 3918 Sleater Kinney Rd. NE, Olympia – Arbutus Folk School Arbutus Folk School, 610 Fourth Ave. E, Olympia Check-In The Oly Old Time Festival requests that all attendees check in …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS For some bands, messiness can be a virtue. Not everyone thrives on the airtight compositions of Robert Fripp or other leaders of compositional tidiness. A band like The National draws its strength from disciplined arrangements and an almost drum-machine-esque rhythm section, but that focus can result in music devoid …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Country superstar Vince Gill will perform Friday in Olympia, but he won’t, strictly speaking, be playing country music. Gill, who’s won 20 Grammys and 18 Country Music Association awards, is coming to town not on a solo tour but as one-tenth of Western swing supergroup The Time Jumpers. Western …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS As the winter months descend on the world, the cold and darkness is met with a combination of reverie and revelry. Nights get quieter, and the solitude is countered with companionship. One lasting holiday tradition is the singing of Handel’s Messiah, an oratorio from the mid-18th century. Messiah‘s enduring …
by Guy Bergstrom for OLY ARTS The international hit Stomp—which first hit the London stage in 1991 and has been playing on Broadway since 1994—is coming to Olympia in January 2017. Creators Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas go back another decade to 1981. Cresswell is a self-taught drummer who left school at 15 for music. …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Foghorn Stringband has long been lauded as one of the main forces behind the Northwest revival of old-time music. These days, though, the quartet has gone international. “We’re not really a local, Northwest band anymore,” founding member Caleb Klauder said. Klauder, who plays mandolin and fiddle, and guitarist Reeb …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Music is part of the mission of St. John’s Episcopal Church, and the annual Service of Lessons and Carols is a shining example. The service is both a religious observance and a musical event that draws a community crowd far exceeding the regular congregation. “Last year, there were at …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS Local music scenes like Olympia’s can’t always support bands built on classical influences. From a purely economic standpoint, not many struggling musicians can afford string or woodwind instruments like cellos or oboes, and audiences tend not to be as inclined to come out on a weekend to hear music …
by Guy Bergstrom for OLY ARTS Art never dies–and nothing sticks to people more than the music they grew up with, no matter how good or bad it was. You can’t kill those memories. Whether you listened to grunge in college or still have a collection of Moody Blues cassette tapes, there’s a band you’ll …
by Jonah Barrett for OLY ARTS Washington State History Museum’s newest exhibit, “A Revolution You Can Dance To,” opens Sept. 10 in Tacoma. The exhibit focuses on Olympia’s radical music scene, ranging from the late 1980s to mid ’90s. Visitors will learn about local record labels that emerged during this period, such as K Records …