Episode #85 featuring Wanderlodge & The Deadstring Family Band

Brothers from The Deadstring Family: Matt Cadenelli, Kurtis Brothers and Kris Stuart in The Helm. Photo by Anne Marie for Local Hero Media

Stream or download Episode #85: Episode 85 w/ Wanderlodge/Deadstring Family Band

We’re winding it down at The Helm, our home base for every podcast episode recorded in the 2.0 version of That Much Further West. That’s four-plus great years and 85 episodes featuring some of the best singers and songwriters from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. It’s been a great run and a whole heckuva a lot of fun.

But before we exit The Helm and point the ship toward our next destination, we gathered a few very special friends to record Episode 85: Kris Stuart and Matt Cadenelli, the duo that currently perform as Wanderlodge, and also make up two-fifths of The Deadstring Family Band, led by our other guest, Kurtis Brothers.

The lads stopped in to talk about the two projects and spread the word about Wanderfest, the second-annual music and camping event they’re hosting in Gaston, OR, on June 29 and 30. (Tickets, lineup, more info) With a killer lineup featuring some of the best of the best acts in our local Portland rock, folk and country scene, Wanderfest promises to be an amazing two days of music and revelry.

Matt Cadenelli, Kurtis Brothers and Kris Stuart of The Deadstring Family Band, performing live in The Helm. Photo by Anne Marie for Local Hero Media

Kris and Matt share a live performance of the song “I Want More,” the tune that opens the tour CD they were selling while out on the Wanderlodge Spring Tour through California and Oregon. We add in a couple of recorded songs from a few of the Wanderfest, including tunes from The James Low Western Front and Redray Frazier.

Then Kurtis joins the fray to talk about his move from Nashville to the Pacific Northwest and that fateful weekend in July 2013 when he met all the parties involved at the Wildwood MusicFest & Campout. For Kurtis, who met his wife that same weekend, it was a sign of the changes to come and the twists and turns that led him to relocate from Nashville to Portland.

With Kris and Matt riding shotgun, Kurtis fronts The Deadstring Family Band and leads a set of stellar acoustic performances that prove to be a perfect way for us to cap our time at The Helm.

All the fun, facts, fibs, stories and songs are right here in Episode 85, so kick back and enjoy. Here’s the playlist:

Green Volvo, Wanderlodge
I Want More (Live In The Helm), Wanderlodge
Smile, The Deadstring Brothers
Whiskey Farmer, The James Low Western Front
Like Rain, Redray Frazier
Lucille’s Honky Tonk (Live In The Helm), The Deadstring Family Band
Sacred Heart (Live In The Helm), The Deadstring Family Band
Blindfolded (Live In The Helm), The Deadstring Family Band

Review of Years by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers

Years by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers (2018, Bloodshot)

100 Words on Years
By Mike Lee
That Much Further West Podcast

How do you avoid the sophomore slump when your debut album punched through the country music scene in 2017? You craft 10 country songs infused with a frantic punk rock energy spinning a carousel of earnest lyrics about love, whiskey, heartbreak, redemption and two middle fingers up at the music establishment. Years expands where Sidelong left off teaching a lesson of all thriller and no filler. Tight, well crafted songs with an efficiency of rhythm, melody and lyrics that had me reminiscent of the mighty, Los Angeles, cowpunk legends, X!

Sidelong was the setup and Years is the knockout punch.

Mixtape Trio Bravo:

Listen to “Good As Gold”:  Good As Gold

Listen to “The Bottle Never Lets Me Down”:  The Bottle Never Lets Me Down

Listen to “Lesson”:  Lesson

Catch up on all things Sarah Shook and the Disarmers on their Facebook page or through Bloodshot Records. WEST COAST PEOPLE be sure to catch the band in July  as they hit the left coast and play our favorite festival, Wildwood Music Fest & Campout July 20-22, 2018.