Win Tickets ($56): Plains @ Revolution Hall | w/ MJ Lenderman, Indie Rock, Country

We are giving away a pair of tickets to Plains @ Revolution Hall on October 22. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed October 17.



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From our sponsors:
Plains
October 22, 2022
Doors 7PM, Show 8PM | $28 | 21+ (Minors OK in Balcony)
More info: event.etix.com

Revolution Hall
1300 SE Stark St., Portland, OR

Hitting play on the debut album from Plains, the duo composed of Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson, we’re immediately teleported into a world of Southern sunsets, wide open spaces, and the unapologetic nature of Country music.

Plains began out of Crutchfield’s and Williamson’s mutual love for each other’s music and after trading albums (Saint Cloud and Sorceress, respectively) in early 2020. Feeling that it was time to have a separate project that could reflect a different side of her creative inspirations, Katie felt that Jess was the perfect fit for a collaboration, and they set off to create I Walked With You A Ways.

Written between Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Marfa, the album was recorded in Durham, NC with collaborator and producer Brad Cook. The creative magic of only a few vocal takes, tracking with a band comprised of Spencer Tweedy and Phil Cook, gives the album a feel of fresh, on-the-spot conception. The trust and history of Crutchfield and Cook’s collaborations (Saint Cloud, Great Thunder EP) set the tone for this new container of spontaneity and experimentation.

With both being from the South, we hear the history of place and story in each song: Texas meteor showers, family ties, and the lineage of songwriters who have come before.

As solo practitioners of the craft of song, Williamson and Crutchfield bring a creative permission slip to both the process of songwriting itself but also to the listener. In both of their solo projects you hear a specificity of experience that is so sharp and intimate that it brings the listener into a personal side of the experience of life. With Plains, we are invited into this spaciousness of story, to a shared narrative spanning the beginning of the album to the end.

“Summer Sun,” the opening track, greets us with their two voices in perfect unison and sets the tone for the album – “come along with us, we’ll be here for you the whole time.” We’re catapulted into what feels like a small show on the back porch of a house in West Texas. There is an essence of their own friendship that clearly emerges that is just as much about joy and playfulness as it is about two people ushering each other through life’s great journeys.

And that’s the thing about Country music, and what so much of this album nods to – from Waylon and Willie, to The Judds, The Chicks, Trio, and beyond – these are groups that are formed out of family and friendship, that lyrically take their listeners on a voyage of sorrow and hope. Crutchfield’s sharp, honest edge of truth telling paired with Williamson’s ability to paint the scene with candles, plains, sunsets, and small Texas towns is one of the strongest parts of this album. “When the summer sun melts candles / I dig out the wick / Honey we’re up against somethin / Our love alone can’t fix / So I won’t see the garden or the figs when they are ripe/ It hurts to be leavin, but I know that stayin ain’t right”

MJ Lenderman

Jake Lenderman lives in Asheville, North Carolina. He plays guitar in the indie band Wednesday, sometimes fishes on the Pigeon River, and creates his own music as MJ Lenderman. His latest solo release with Dear Life Records is titled Boat Songs. Lenderman describes the album as his most “polished” sound to date, built around songs that “chase fulfillment and happiness”—whether that means buying a boat, drinking too much, or watching seeds fall from the bird feeder

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15 Comments

  1. aud on October 3, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    ill wear my finest boots to the plains

  2. Tracy Graham on October 3, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    Would love to see win tickets to this show. The range of their voices, lyrics and emotion fits the name of Plains perfectly!
    Thank you!

  3. Sam on October 4, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    Waxahatchee is my jam. This is going to be truly special.

  4. SMP on October 4, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    Big fan of both of them! I put Jess Williamson’s ‘Sorceress’ album in my top pandemic albums. Some light during those dark times. So far it sounds like Plains are not going to disappoint.

  5. cassandra harris on October 4, 2022 at 2:18 pm

    Luv to c this band….I’m the Judy’s distant cousin!♡☆

    🙂 Just actually learned this a while back lol from my auntie all I know is I always was inspired and drawn to the juds so funny the way God works (or the universe haha)

    Love to take my daughter to this show !!☆◇♡

    Thank pdx mag!

  6. cassandra harris on October 4, 2022 at 2:18 pm

    **the judds

  7. Hunter M on October 5, 2022 at 2:17 am

    This ought to be super fun!

  8. Judson Cato on October 5, 2022 at 6:15 am

    I’d like to see a show at Revolution Hall and talk some smack about the Pigeon River, aka Dirty Bird downriver from Stankton aka Canton, NC. I think I’ll go listen to this band just in case I win.

  9. Robert Gronotte on October 7, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    I’d love to check out the show.

  10. Terra on October 8, 2022 at 2:37 pm

    I’d love to see this incredible collab! Great venue and amazing artists!

  11. Joe on October 10, 2022 at 10:51 am

    Enjoying a night of sublime music from Plains sounds remarkable. My cowboy hat and boots would gladly thank yee.

  12. Cory on October 11, 2022 at 4:13 pm

    From the pits of hell

  13. Carol Trekas on October 11, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    indie rock. heck yes.

  14. Brian on October 13, 2022 at 10:55 am

    Ohhh man, I love these two ladies and the early songs off this album are amazing. would love to catch this one!

  15. Cheyenne McCoy on October 17, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    I’m a big Waxahatchee fan and I would LOVE to see MJ Lenderman–he’s put out my favorite record of the year so far. <3

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