[UPDATE: we've reached capacity for this gathering, please join the wait list and we'll let you know if any seats open up]

About Alela Diane

When an eerie September windstorm roared through the Pacific Northwest, sparking historic wildfires that choked the region with hazardous smoke, Portland singer-songwriter Alela Diane took to the piano in her backyard studio and began to pour her unease into a song.

By the next day, Diane, who is known for her “immaculately beautiful indie-folk songs”(Paste Magazine), had recorded a rough version of the epic “Howling Wind,” the first single from her cathartic and ethereal sixth studio album Looking Glass.

What began during the unfolding of a single natural disaster evolved into a song about the wider instability and volatility of contemporary life. The “howling wind” becomes a metaphor for our many collective fears and sorrows, captured here in powerfully stark imagery. (“The orange sun burning through the smoke/vultures circling til a man choked/There is war in the street.”) In Diane’s warm voice, the mounting chorus itself takes on the feeling of a howl, mellifluous but urgent: “Howling wind, there’s a howling wind/ A wild wind that’s howling through all that we’ve built.”

The result is a song that KCRW has dubbed “a balm for our turbulent times,” one that sounds faintly like a descendant of the classic that gave voice to the troubles of another tumultuous period: Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

“Is this how it ends?” go Diane’s lyrics. “Could it be this is how it begins?/voices ricochet—shouting as one/on that howling wind.”

That shot of hope, the possibility that something better might emerge from the ashes, is signature of Diane’s songwriting, which is often bittersweet, her lyrics equal parts melancholy and uplift.

“Howling Wind was born of the great reckoning we’ve been living through these past few years,” said Diane. “These days of uncertainty, of fragility, of war, of disease, of brutality, of grief, but also hope, beauty, and love. ‘Howling Wind’ is a song for that feeling, whatever you call it.” Another of the new tracks, “Paloma,” strikes a similar note, this time balancing lyrics of imagined catastrophe with a relaxed, upbeat melody in a characteristic braiding of lightness and dark.

“She has the sort of voice that both affirms one’s world-weariness and soothes it,” wrote Jim Vorel in Paste Magazine. “It feels like the aural equivalent of someone laying a hand on your shoulder and saying, ‘I’m here for you, if you need to talk.’”

In times like these, Diane’s haunting and reflective new songs seem to ask, where can we find shelter? That question—of shelter, of refuge—links Looking Glass to Diane’s entire body of work, which often touches on the various meanings of home, past and present.

A self-described home-body whose tastes run toward the antique and the homemade, Diane is likely to be found drinking tea in a rocking chair on her wraparound porch (when not corralling her two young daughters).

Looking Glass is the first of her records to be produced by the celebrated Tucker Martine (Neko Case, My Morning Jacket, The Decembrists). The album was arranged by her longtime friend and fellow musician Heather Woods Broderick. Notable guest musicians include Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), Scott Avett (The Avett Brothers), Eli Moore (Lake), Mikaela Davis, Luke Ydsitie (Blind Pilot), and Ryan Fracesconi (Joanna Newsom).

Details About the Show

Dec 7, 2024 / Doors at 6:30pm / Music at 7:00pm

Address: 3865 Fairview Dr. Hood River, OR

Music gatherings at the Red Barn are intimate listening experiences celebrating the craft of songwriting, and the role music, story and community play in our lives. Our events are BYOB, and we'll also have a cooler with a small collection of beverages if you need to keep anything cold. No kids or dogs allowed.

Details About Making a Donation to Reserve Your Seats

To reserve your seats, we ask that you make a donation to the Red Barn Community. Please follow the donation link above to confirm your seats. We've chosen to work with Givebutter to help manage donations because they specialize in helping non-profits host events that raise funds to create a positive impact in the world. This means that there's no crazy extra handling fees at all. There will be a small transaction fee added to your donation when you check out (tiny compared to other platforms like Eventbrite) and then you will have the option to "tip" Givebutter for providing this free service to non-profits (that's how they pay their bills). You can select whatever tip you want from 0% on up, so pay attention to that before you checkout. After you reserve your seats, the Givebutter platform automatically asks if you want to make an additional donation on top of reserving your seats, this is in their code and we've submitted a request to take it out, so for now, just select ZERO---unless of course you actually want to make an additional contribution to Red Barn (any additional funds raised will help us cover the costs of recording audio and visual content from the shows).

Parking Details:

We don't have any vehicle parking onsite (but plenty of bike parking!). Please park at a 45 degree angle across the street from our house in front of the horse fence where you'll see our yellow van. Our amazing neighbors have generously allowed our community to use that extra space.

FAQ

Do you serve alcohol?

Nope. These are BYOB gatherings.

Are kids allowed?

Nope. We love kids (we have four of our own!) but we also want to make sure these music gatherings at the Red Barn are a unique performing experience for artists and a rich listening experience for attendees. We host other events throughout the year that are more kid friendly. (teenagers are allowed if they are musically inclined and would enjoy this kind of listening experience)

Where do we park?

See above!

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to redbarn@threepin.org

in love,

Garett & Kendra

*****

Red Barn Community is a 501c3 non profit organization based in Hood River, OR. To learn more about our programming, please visit: www.redbarncommunity.org

Alela Diane at The Red Barn (12.7)

By Red Barn Community

Alela Diane at The Red Barn (12.7)

An intimate evening of lush NW indie folk