Join us every Thursday night for our celebration of songwriting and Portland's vibrant songwriter community. Songwriters, put your name in the hat to play an original song during the show.

A great night of all-original music, whether you're playing or listening.

Hosted by Matt Meighan with Sherry Pendarvis. This week's featured performer: Robert Owen.

Join us every Friday night for an evening of live, eclectic music. Our treasure trove of local talent brings you music from the folk and world music traditions.

Matt’s fingerstyle guitar and tradition-steeped original songs have delighted audiences in venues and on street corners from New York to Australia to Italy. Informed by his years as an activist, journalist, parent and poet, Matt’s songs are at once political and deeply personal, leavened with humor.
A fixture of the Boulder, Colorado folk scene for many years, Matt regularly brings his songs to the pubs of Ireland and the campfires of the Kerrville Folk Festival. He and his wife Nancy moved to Portland in 2005 and Matt continues to perform regionally and nationally. He has released one CD, Fall Down, and is recording his second, Long Way ‘Round. Matt performs at Artichoke regularly and hosts the weekly "Songwriter Roundup" at Artichoke every Thursday night.

This is Kate's final Portland performance before moving to New Mexico. Don't miss it.

Kate grew up at the foot of the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico, and desert textures subtly sculpt her music. A deeply resonant, unique vocal quality, atypical chord progressions, and compelling and intelligent lyrics combine to conjure comparisons to artists as varied as PJ Harvey, Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave.

A former high-school teacher, Kate had an awakening in 2005 that led her to dedicate herself to music full time. She traded in her car for a van, overhauled her mother’s classic 1963 Gibson steel–string acoustic, and started playing coffeehouses, dive bars, and farmers’ markets. Her unique brand of moody Americana has been cultivating a loyal local fan base, and she is continuing the trend regionally with performances throughout the western states.

Cabin Fever NW, made up of Dianne Wood Bochsler and Tara Caldwell Wolfe, is a genre-bending country/folk duo who conjure a brew of musical flavors including blues, pop, bluegrass, gospel and more. Whatever you call it, audiences agree, these two gifted performers step on stage and create music that lifts your heart and soul, helps get you out of the doldrums, and takes you on a trip to feel good town.

Back to their performing roots as a duo, Sky in the Road creates music with an organic feel that reflects their unique native Oregonian perspective. They describe their music as folk-based winding its way through Americana, country, Celtic, world folk, gypsy jazz, new age, rock, reggae and more. Known for their tight, soaring vocal harmonies they fill out their sound with a variety of instrumentation including 6 and 12 string guitar, Irish bouzouki, banjo and East Indian harmonium.

Sky in the Road has released several CDs including, "Time Travels", "Celtic Gypsy", "Where Everything is Music" and their 1996 debut, "Sky in the Road". Their recordings have received airplay in major markets such as Boston, San Francisco and Portland and on numerous college radio stations nationwide.

Lauren is a charismatic 'songster', an interpreter of songs learned from some of America's greatest folk and blues artists. She is known for her voice, which slides through old lyrics like clear water through a smooth creek bed. Her performances are memorable for the authentic range of her material: from unaccompanied ballads, to boozy Memphis blues, to old time banjo tunes, to old country songs and eclectic modern folk. She is a musical shape shifter, in one song making the willow weep and in another making the werewolf howl. "She is a true entertainer, weaving the stories and history of the music into her performance and connecting with her audience on a personal level." (Gray Eubank, Director, Portland Christmas Revels). "Like the old songsters, I seem to have a simple destiny with song," says Sheehan. "I just collect, interpret and play the music that strikes my heart. It's the power of the strike that pulls me into a particular song."

She writes about basic human emotion with layers of meaning behind them. In her live performances, she has the undeniable ability to captivate and connect with her listeners through her words and music. Recognized for her talent as a songwriter Terry performed in 2008 at the Kerrville Folk Festival as a “New Folk Finalist.”

She does not believe in placing limits on herself and until 1999 her full time job was "stay at home mom." Her life changed when the youngest of her 3 daughters moved away, a transition that coincided with the passing of her mother. Depression settled in. Seeking solace she reached for her guitar and began shifting her pain into writing music. The first song she penned became the title track for her 2001 debut CD "Am I Here Is This Me,” which was originally intended only as a keepsake for her daughters. The album of introspective songs started garnering sales and critical acclaim and was followed by her 2nd CD "Colored Rooms."

Today she tours performing at House Concerts, festivals and other venues continuing to build a loyal following. "It's very humbling and gratifying when people like your music. If I can touch one person with a song, then I feel that I've accomplished something great in my life."