Pickathon Indie Roots Music Festival: Saturday - Pendarvis Farm (Happy Valley, OR; Aug. 1, 2009)

Saturday at Pickathon was dominated by some stellar performances on the Woods Stage, starting off with the painfully adorable Laura Gibson. The woods provided a cool respite after a brutally hot day, and were a welcome solace for weary festivalgoers.

Gibson is the quintessential Oregonian musician. The daughter of a logger and a kindergarten teacher, she grew up in rural Oregon, fostering a love of music at a young age. Her brand of folk floats through the air on the wings of a delicate voice and some killer arrangement and song writing. Gibson, however, is first and foremost a musician, not a performer. The simple facts that her music is gorgeous and her backing band is incredibly talented were the saving grace to a somewhat lackluster performance.

Alela Diane was a high point on Saturday in the Woods. Fresh off the plane from London, Diane apologized for her lack of a drummer. Apparently, the poor guy’s flight got canceled and he was on a plane back to the U.S. at that very moment. Despite this pitfall, Diane put on a spirited performance. After the first song, she brought her dad up on stage to help on guitar and backing vocals. Her sound was rich, and rife with perfect harmonies. Between songs, she chatted up the audience a bit and her bassist even tried his hand at beat boxing. What truly won over the crowd though was Diane’s voice; it’s the type that makes everything else around it melt away into oblivion.

Breathe Owl Breathe also played the fabulous Woods Stage on Saturday evening. The set opened with Andréa Moreno-Beals’ chill-inducing cello on the beautiful “Drop and Roll.” In his soothing baritone, Micah Middaugh sang lyrics characteristic of the band’s brainy and self-reflective style. “Well I tried to wake it, I tried to break in, I tried to lay it down by the river. Even the river wondered: ‘Which side are you on?’”

Breathe Owl Breathe has some of the most thoughtful lyrics around, but the band by no means takes itself too seriously. It’s as though they’re pushing you through the darkness on a boat made of quirk. Before starting “Do You Remember Dancing on a Boat?”, Middaugh directed the crowd in the “thigh slap dance,” a throwback to the days of pre-school. The crowd slapped its thighs to make rain sounds as Middaugh sang, “Do you remember dancing on a boat? We weren’t scared. Were we?” On “Run Off,” Middaugh led the crowd in a “woo-haw” callback sing-a-long as he sang about the water rising slowly over him. Who knew drowning could be so much fun?

Never has an act achieved such poignancy while keeping everything so light. Part Penguin Café Orchestra, part Joni Mitchell, Breathe Owl Breathe gave one of the best performances of the festival.

Back in the Galaxy Barn, Joe Pug was strumming up a storm like a modern-day Bob Dylan. His music is an example of everything right with country-influenced rock today. His voice bounced between nasally growls and gentle whispers, with so much longing and emotion in between. His guitar and harmonica parts were simple, but moving. Pug himself was a riveting guy to watch and was more than friendly to his audience. He stopped to tell those watching about his first impression of Oregon and made everyone in the barn hum the Jeopardy theme song while he scrambled to change a guitar string on stage. An admirer of Elliott Smith, he did a wonderful cover of Smith’s “Angelas.” Towards the end, he was having such a good time that he handed out his CDs to anyone who came up to him to talk after the set until he ran out.

Pickathon has such a varied lineup, you’d have to hide in your tent all weekend not to discover and enjoy an act you’ve never heard. One of these acts was C.W. Stoneking and his Primitive Horn Orchestra. A tall man dressed all in white with a red bowtie, Stoneking flew the 2000 miles from Australia to perform in Oregon. His band was unable to acquire visas, so Portland darlings Pink Martini joined Stoneking on trumpet, trombone and tuba.

Stoneking’s milkman attire combined with his high and tight blonde hair portrayed an image diametrically opposed to his dark, meandering songs. We were enthralled as Stoneking picked on his banjo and mumbled his way through “Jungle Lullaby,” a song ostensibly about heat and craziness. He explained his next song, “I’m Going to the Country,” as the transcript of a conversation he had with himself while living alone in a farmhouse years back. Though a creepier vibe was expected, the song turned out to be funny and catchy. 

While Dr. Dog played on the main stage, country music loyalists gathered in the Galaxy Barn to watch John Doe play with The Sadies. Doe’s songs reinforce Richard Ford’s assertion that some people are just meant to experience the highest moments of their lives in bars. His protagonists are wrecking balls and snowballs waiting for hell. Accompanied by the extraordinary Sadies, John Doe sang songs to include every type of drunk, from the lovelorn to the murderously jealous. 

In “The Cold Hard Facts of Life,” a song depicting a husband’s brutal murder of his wife and her lover, Doe sang, “I guess I’ll go to hell or I’ll rot here in this cell. But who taught me the cold hard facts of life? Who taught who the cold hard facts of life?” The crowd danced and hollered along as Doe and bassist Dallas Good sang in tandem. This was country at its finest—music that puts every emotion and taboo right there on the table.

Perhaps the highlight of this set was witnessing Jesse Fiske of The Hackensaw Boys watch in awe from the wings. Not only did Pickathon provide a forum for fans to admire their favorite bands, it also gave those bands a chance to admire the masters.

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