The Lowtimers:
Evolution may leave a lot on the cutting room floor, but it always preserves what is essential—not just for survival, but for the self.
For nearly a decade, two dueling guitarists and songwriters, Austin Smith and Mark Tegio, built the backbone of their namesake outfit, honing their hard-worn Americana songwriting. Their music shaped by years of troubadouring up and down I-5, from San Diego to Seattle.
Over time, their sound evolved from its more folk roots, inspired by the likes of Doc & Merle Watson and their guitar interplay, as well as mining the lines left by Townes Van Zandt and Blaze Foley, trying to learn the lessons those broken heroes left behind. As Smith and Tegio split their time between Portland and Santa Cruz, a new crew of musicians entered the Central California mix, expanding their sound in ways the duo perhaps didn’t know they needed—until they knew they did.
Enter The Lowtimers. This new 5-piece band—Tegio (guitar and vocals), Smith (guitar, vocals and harmonica), Tim Kelso (drums), Andrew Dreher (bass and harmonies), and Payton Vermeesch (pedal steel)—remain rooted in soulful Americana, but they now lay it over a new sonic landscape, injecting fresh empathy and drive into songs that paint wise western portraits of lives and loves on the road to redemption, where the goal is less about prosperity and more about peace of mind.
We may remember the past, but we should never forget what the future may hold. To be open and honest with art, it’s evolve or creatively die. And often, evolution delivers an entirely new animal.
Their debut album Cracks is set to be released on May 16th.
Ruby Oland:
A sense of place and belonging resonates from the music of Ruby Oland. An intriguing voice, akin to Patsy Cline or Angel Olsen, snares tidbits of fleeting existence- a trapped moth, sparks from a fire, roadside sunflowers.
Oland has been recording and releasing music independently for nearly ten years, with two EP's and two LP's under her belt. Born in Utah, she has been bouncing between Portland and Northern New Mexico. Crafting odes to the rivers, deserts, and mountains of The West; to all of the enchantments that occur within its liminal spaces.
Although her earlier releases were folksier, think Mountain Man or Adrianne Lenker, her latest work has fermented into a sweet twang, a honeyed country glaze, aligning her in a more "y'allternative" lane.
Her 2019 EP Wolf Spider was recorded and produced by Ryan Oxford
(Y La Bamba, Rose City Band). Later, her two full length albums, Born in the West & Perfectly Colored Moth, were recorded and produced by Jack Omens (Wicked Shallows, Beggars Canyon) and released in 2021 and 2023.
One might hear influences of Leonard Cohen, Lucinda Williams or Conor Oberst in her creations. Ruby Oland's lyrics are apt to sweep down the canyon, jump into the cold river, circle around the campfire, all before returning to the familiarity of your own childhood backyard.
free / all ages
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