Oregon Ballet Theatre presents "Uprising" feat Weinland & Laura Gibson
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Uprising is a collaborative movement initiated by dancers from Oregon Ballet Theatre to bring great dance together with local indie musicians in unexpected venues. Creating new choreography on seven dancers to share the stage at the Aladdin with WEINLAND and Laura Gibson, Uprising is bringing the passion and beauty of what we feel on OBT's stages throughout the season into more intimate environments. Come have your ideas about ballet shattered. Witness an Uprising.
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Weinland
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Among his stories and patient instrumental interludes, Shearer manages to interweave hope into his songs of loss with melodies and lyrics that battle for poignancy.
Proving the old adage that pain equals art, John Adam Weinland Shearer started working on a new batch of songs in 2007 with WEINLAND's second record, La Lamentor. Darker in feel and heavily influenced by the struggles Shearer faced in relationships and at work in a flawed and troubling mental health system, La Lamentor portrays life's misfortunes with dark-hued tones and moving lyrics. Shearer says of his experience and how it affects his song-writing, "My eyes are open to a new level of struggle. The people I've known and our relationships play recurring roles in the stories I tell."
Shearer, who spent the last six years working with emotionally disturbed teenagers says, "The complications that come along with working in such an emotionally charged environment force you to think... sometimes it gives you amazing perspective and sometimes it shuts you off."
Beginning as a bedroom recording project in 2001 under the name John Weinland, the band turned into a full-fledged act in 2005 and as a natural evolution, dropped the name John to simply be referred to as WEINLAND. This music bears the heart of Neil Young, the thoughtfulness of Nick Drake and the beautiful sorrow of Elliott Smith. Weinland's music stems from a myriad of experiences and by employing an arsenal of musicians to include Aaron "Rantz" Pomerantz (dobro, mandolin, bells, pedal steel, accordion, lap steel, etc), Rory Brown (bass), Ian Lyles (drums, banjo) and Paul Christensen (piano, keyboards) they assist in creating the signature lush and haunting WEINLAND sound.
Featuring guest performances by Adam Selzer (M.Ward, Norfolk and Western), Rachel Blumberg (M.Ward, Bright Eyes, The Decemberists, Norfolk and Western), and Nathan Delffs (The Shaky Hands) among others; La Lamentor was primarily recorded with close friend, and Demersville (2006) co-producer, Adam Selzer at Type Foundry studios. WEINLAND also collaborated with Dylan Magierek, proprietor of Badman Recording Co. (My Morning Jacket, Hayden, Mark Kozelek), hatching a plan to record full band songs with Selzer and hire Magierek to record and co-produce the band's more acoustic songs with the intention of giving the new recordings a greater depth.
A regularly contributing author to Willamette Week's Tour Diaries, WEINLAND recently recorded "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" for a Led Zeppelin tribute LP alongside Laura Veirs and M.Ward. They also contributed a track to a live compilation from Portland's Mississippi Studios featuring Feist and Regina Spector. Both albums are set for release in 2008.
With La Lamentor complete, Badman Recording Co. as a new home and a 2008 tour planned, a self-assured WEINLAND prepares to take on the next step when they release La Lamentor on March 4th, 2008. Resigning from his career in mental health to pursue the band's success full time, Shearer hopes his difficult experiences translate as the musical healing that aided in the record's manifestation.
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Laura Gibson
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Laura Gibson lives in Portland, Oregon, sings songs and plays a nylon-stringed guitar. She is 26 years-old...she grew up in a small isolated logging town in the south coast of oregon, the daughter of a forest ranger and the town's kindergarten teacher. She was a state champion high-jumper, and went to college on a math scholarship and later studied counseling in graduate school...she couldn't tell you what band put out what particular album in what year, but she could probably describe where she was, how she felt and what you talked about, when she first met you, or what the trees looked like the last time her heart was broken...she likes trees.
In November 2004, she self-released an ep called Amends, produced and engineered by Drew Grow, on a lap-top, in a house in Newberg, Oregon. She began playing shows around that time (unless you count playing shows at local nursing homes, which she has done for some time). since then, many have been endeared to her voice and her songs. she has performed at such fine establishments as the Doug Fir Lounge and the Triple Door, The Tractor Tavern and the Hotel Cafe. She has toured the west coast, and has shared the stage with both old folksters and indie kids. Her music has been featured by West Coast radio stations, and at show-and-tell in her nephews kindergarten class. she thanks her lucky stars for these opportunities...
*CURRENTLY*
Gibson is recording her debut full-length album with Adam Selzer (Norfolk and Western, M Ward, Decemberists) at his Type Foundry studios in Portland, and Dylan Magierek (Badman Records - Mark Kozelek, The Innocence Mission) at Closer Recording studios in San Francisco. Recorded completely on analog tape, the full-length highlights Gibson's delicate voice and guitar performance. Gibson found the perfect backing band in the members of Norfolk and Western, arrangements varying from bare-bones guitar and voice, to an orchestra of trumpets, piano, vibraphone, saw, violin, cello, banjo and found sounds. The songs themselves are haunting portraits of nostalgia and intimacy, of loneliness and wide-eyed hope hope. The release is tenatively planned for Fall, 2006. The song Hands in Pockets was selected for the 2006 Pdx Pop Now! compilation, and will be available July 2006.
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