Home - Portland Folkmusic Society

Find out about Westside Concerts here Find out about Eastside Concerts here

Click the buttons to find out about all the artists coming up, locations, times and dates, and prices!

FallSong 2024 Save The Date
FallSong is PFS's annual on-line, participant-led music weekend. It will be held this year October 25-27 2024.
Save the date to enjoy music from around the world, for all ages, and in many genres! More info coming...

Singtime Pictures

Some pictures from Singtime 2024 are posted here.
Enjoy! (Really sorry we can't post the music - that was better than the pictures. Maybe next year!)

Summer heat make you sore? Cool off with the new Local Lore!

The July-August Local Lore has got some good quick reads and lots of information about folk music events.

The usual line up of virtual and in-person song circles, Concerts, and Singtime and Fallsong continue, along with open song circles, workshops, classes and jams. Notable are two series of classes by Mary Flower (right) and Avery Hill, two great local musicians. Find out about the Classes and Workshops here. And, of course, much more info on the two - count 'em, 2! - PFS concert series that are also featured at the top of this page.

And, there are a couple of pages dedicated to musical event happening this summer in the area.

Now, the news and features!

Board member and really good guitarist Steve Cheseboro has a touching and kind of scarey article about Mississippi John Hurt. (If you DON'T know Mississippi John's music, just take a second to click here and listen to a very short recording of a live performance. His guitar picking, gentle voice and sense of humor are instantly recognizable.) Steve tells us the sad news that the 200 year-old house (right) he lived in from the 1920's to the 1960's burned on in February of this year. The tiny house had become a museum and was on the Nartional Register of Historic Places, and filmakers were in the area shooting a documentary when the fire occurred. A few days later, the historical marker on the site was stolen.

Arson is suspected, even strongly suspected But while we are condemning acts of hate, let us praise the wonderful musician that was Mississippi John, and thanks Steve for letting us know about that.

In the May-June issue, David Ingerson wrote a charming article about when he was traipsing around Ireland, forty years ago, discovering the depth and spread of Irish music, and chancing upon an old couple, Thomas and Nora Lernihan, who taught David a missing verse to an Irish song he sang for them. In this issue, we flash forward four decades, to when David returned to Ireland, and went looking for traces of Thomas and Nora, and... No way! I'm not going to tell you what happened. You have to read the article!

Kevin Nordlie is on a roll, with TWO "Take Five" interviews about performers: First is Chris Smither (left), appearing at the Shedd Institute in Eugene on July 17, and the following day at Alberta Rose. The other is Kelly Hunt, performing at Hart House in Beaverton on August 28.

Don't miss Kevin's interviews. They are always informative, and his interviews often reveal unexpected aspects of the lives of traveling musicians. Thanks for all you do, Kevin!

Finally, PFS President Alana McKenzie has a report on recent news from PFS - all good news this month! And Paul Rippey has an article on Five Things You Didn't Know about the PFS Website! Read it and let Paul know how many of the five are new to you!

We are SO grateful to Kim and all her writers and proofers and mailers for making Local Lore so good. If you like Local Lore, send Kim a note and let her know!

Archives

And finally, don't forget that years - many many years - of Local Lores are available to download on the Resources menu above. Enjoy!

PFS Virtual Song Circle

Every Saturday Night, rain or shine, aurora borealis or volcanos, elections, selections, predilections, truth or fictions... a group of folks meets on Zoom for the Virtual Song Circle, or VSC. The virtual doors open at 6:00 PM Pacific Time for schmoozing and tuning, and singing starts at 6:30. There's a group of regulars, and frequent newbies drop in, and sometimes people who have dropped out drop back in. It doesn't make any difference: all people, all songs, are welcome. You can stay for five minutes or five hours. Very relaxed.

If you know all you need to know about the VSCs, just click here to join.

Want to know more? There's tons more information here.

Events Calendar

Please check out our events calendar below. Editor Barry Gorden manages to capture almost all the upcoming folk events, but if yours is missing please let us know. The list below shows the next week's events, and is updated continuously.

If you need more, go to the Events menu above and pull down to Folk Calendar. When you go there, you can sort by performances, classes, virtual, radio - whatever you like - and you'll have all the events from now until... well, you'll find everything we know about. If it's not listed here, it's probably not happening.

Since 1976, Portland FolkMusic Society has been active preserving, presenting and promoting folk music and arts in the greater Portland Oregon area. PFS sponsors song circles, concerts, workshops and retreats – in person and virtual – and helps its members and the whole community pass the word around about folk music events, from old time ballads to sea shanties, from 60’s protest folk to contemporary singer-songwriters.

PFS is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Portland FolkMusic Society
P.O. Box 1448
Portland, OR 97207-1448