Event

Samuel James with Brown Bird, Joe Fletcher and The Wrong Reasons

Samuel James is a Portland's own master of fingerstyle, slide, banjo, harmonica, and piano. With musical influences ranging from Skip James and Sonny Terry to Gus Cannon and Charley Patton, such understanding of pre-war blues is rarely embodied in the music of one person. But he's no revivalist. His songwriting is absolutely unparalleled in contemporary blues, reclaiming a tired genre from self-involved licks and meaningless verses to connect with relevant and entertaining stories that feel of the present day as much as they are timeless. Beginning as the brain child of songwriter David Lamb, Brown Bird has developed into a miniature orchestra of harmonized voices and instruments carrying Lamb's haunting lyrics on surging waves of Appalachian, gypsy, and shanty music. Joe Fletcher and the Wrong Reasons make their SPACE debut with a snarling set of real rock n' roll that would make Johnny Cash proud.