PULLMAN, Wash. - The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University invites the Pullman campus and surrounding community to a series of free concerts in April on the 22nd and 29th. During these concerts, the museum will remain open after regular business hours so visitors can enjoy the exhibitions in addition to the concerts.
Live performances at the museum this month are an offshoot of the exhibition Indie Folk: New Art and Sounds from the Pacific Northwest, which features a playlist by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records. According to Isaacson, "the music genre Northwest Indie Folk could mean a lot of different things to different people. Our region is home to many cultures that have adapted their traditional folk music to the modern world: The term 'Indie Folk' would apply to them all."
A digital publication accompanies the exhibition, and offers a fuller account of current activity, while constructing a historical lineage of the artists, studio craftspeople, educational institutions, and museum collections that shaped and supported work in this vein.
Join a free preview performance by local band Bigger Boat in the Pavilion Gallery of the museum on Friday, April 22 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. Bigger Boat is a a cappella group from Moscow, ID that sings sea shanties and maritime songs. And-because sea shanties aren't just fun songs to listen to-Bigger Boat encourages audience participation. Sea shanties are work songs and have a call and response structure comprised of verses, which are sung by one leader, and a simple chorus which can be sung by a large group.
The main concert will be held outdoors on Friday, April 29 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. on Terrell Mall in front of the museum. Portland musician Brian Mumford of Dragging an Ox Through Water, and Whiting Tennis, a Seattle-based artist and musician will be showcased. Brian Mumford's song "True and False Comforts" is included on the Indie Folk playlist and Whiting Tennis's paintings and collages are included in the Indie Folk exhibition. Pullman's own Raza NorthWest, with WSU faculty Darryl Singleton and Alan Malfavon, will open the concert playing son jarocho, a style of Mexican folk music that reinforces the Mexican-American influences heard on the Indie Folk playlist.
Indie Folk Sounds from the Northwest Concerts are free of charge and in collaboration with the WSU Student Entertainment Board.
