Last Friday I was fortunate to be able to attend NW Documentary's Homegrown DocFest and the premiere of the documentary Treeverse, which was absolutely excellent. I'd love to write about that, but this a music blog. That being the case, it WOULD be appropriate to tell you about Kory Quinn & the Comrades, the musical act that played before and after the films. They played some great bluegrass and folkish americana that was almost exclusively original and entirely enjoyable.
I'm not straight on if what I saw was technically Kory Quinn & the Comrades. I feel like sometimes there are probably more Comrades than that. This was just Kory and another fellow who played the lap steel and the banjo. It is hard for me to ascertain whether or not someone is actually good at the banjo, but when this he played the lap steel it was clear that he was very, very good at playing the lap steel. Like really good. I kept wanting to yell, "Lap steel solo!" But I didn't because that didn't seem like a very good idea.
Kory is a good singer and performer but I think he really stands out as a songwriter. There is a travel weary authenticity that comes through and you get the sense he is a bit of a bindlestiff road kid. I get the impression that he is from Illinois somewhere (Chicago? Aurora? Waukegan?) but he is a Portlander now and you can (and should) go listen at one of their upcoming shows.
Find out when these shows are and more about the band here:
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