posts by Adam McKinney
By ADAM McKINNEY Anyone who ever trashed disco has been proven wrong by decades of cultural reappraisal. What is true – and what many always knew to be true – is disco is a joyous and far-from-pretentious musical genre designed to be enjoyed by everybody. Seattle’s Sonic Funk Orchestra, in its desire to recreate the …
By ADAM McKINNEY Blessed with a clear, strong and achingly vulnerable singing voice, Mikaiah Sawyer is one of the brightest spots in the Olympia music scene. Drawing inspiration from blues and folk, smoothed with a penchant for crowd-pleasing pop-rock, Sawyer possesses the ability to get listeners to rise to their feet or shed a tear …
By Adam McKinney The very first track on Alex Creamer’s latest LP says it all: titled The Wallpaper Song, the lyrics immediately paint a picture of a restless artist in search of something to break her from the comfy banality of everyday life. As our narrator details time wasted staring at the wall when she …
By ADAM McKINNEY Washington is no slouch when it comes to quality and quantity of jazz bands, but some lack a sense of self-awareness and infectious fun. It’s a fate that can befall anyone who spends a lifetime mastering a craft. That’s not the case with Hook Me Up, a Puget Sound quartet that approaches …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS The annual return of two Olympia institutions is approaching — the Luminary Procession and the Procession of the Species. Started in 1995 as the brainchild of local nonprofit Earthbound Productions, the Procession is a lovingly crafted, DIY march that aims to bring attention to the ever-present crisis of human impact …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS One would be hard-pressed to find a band more intimately ingrained in the Los Angeles scene than Las Cafeteras. Their sound is an eclectic mixture of styles, combining elements of folk, hip-hop, cumbia, punk and Americana, reflecting the vibrant multicultural makeup of L.A. They formed at local community center Eastside …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS The Lacey Ethnic Celebration returns in 2018 with a bevy of exciting performances, food, music and community-oriented activities. This is a free event appropriate for the whole family to enjoy. Children and families can enjoy music and dance from around the world while sampling exotic flavors and arts from …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS Since his emergence on the folk scene in the ’70s, John McCutcheon has not only been one of the most respected songwriters and instrumentalists out there, but he’s also been one of the most prolific. The man nailed a stone cold genre classic in 1977 with “The Wind That …
by Adam McKinney and Tom Simpson for OLY ARTS Our music has a grand tradition of passing the love of music on from generation to generation. Brograss is a great example of this genre’s continuity over time. Tashi (16) and Kaj Litch (13) learned to appreciate bluegrass early on, thanks to their family’s band, the …
by Adam McKinney for OLY ARTS Old-time string music, with origins dating back to the late 19th century, never really went away. More accurately, it fell out of popular style, as most hit genres eventually do. Being a fundamentally American art form, though, it was always around, and it got a boost in national attention …