I'd only been once to Oregon, with my friend Jeremie Albino on a little tour he was doing with Sierra Ferrell. I made it to Portland, but not much further. This time, I went deep, I went to Pendleton, home of one of the worlds largest rodeos. Also apparently home to extreme music lovers, as I found out meeting Chad Colwell and Rian Beach, who are the two folks behind the Jackalope Jamboree. The guys didn't know me from Adam, but invited me across the country to come document some of their local festival, a labor of love they've been pouring their hearts into for a couple years now.

I'll admit i'm skeptical of "festivals". The typical event i'm imagining, and have experienced, is nothing but a corporate cash grab, filling the stage with whatever you can extract a profit from and jamming the place with us much soulless vendoring and upsells as humanely possible. The thought of navigating the red tape of a festival hierarchy and trying to create what I make sounded, bluntly, lame. This turned out to be the opposite. Chad, running around the festival like a college football coach (fitting, he's a track coach), met me on day 1 to personally give me the tour. All over the festival grounds there were volunteers - personal friends of Chad and Rians, locals, former students etc - who were there to help make this thing a reality for Pendleton. Real, actual community at work.

And getting to know Chad, I could tell these were my people. Folks who just enjoy music, who respect the craft and want to see their regions musicians thrive. Throughout the whole weekend, Chad would be there shoulder to shoulder with fans in the crowd, watching the musicians he'd invited play, pointing out this person or that person as integral to a local scene he loved. This isn't how it always goes, y'all, and i'm going to point it out when I see it. We need more people like this.

They have good taste, too, so naturally I wasn't surprised to find Two Runner (winner of the Gems in the Rough 2022 contest) at the festival. Before they got on the big stage, we rode down the road in their little tour van to record a new one on the side of the road, in a beautiful field that wouldn't look out of place in a classic western film. Paige and Emily are the sweetest of souls, and an absolute blast to record, hang out with and listen to. I appreciate their spirits immensely, and hope you do too.

I'll have more from the Jamboree coming out later. Hope you enjoy this first bit from my time there this summer. Check them out, and if you're in the area (or even if you're not), next year you should go.
https://www.jackalopejamboree.com/
  / jackalopejamboree  

Our undying love and gratitude go to our Patreon executive producers for making this possible: VJ Arizpe, Brady Jones, Irvin Maddox, Keith McQuillan, Joshua Taylor, One Aldean, Reverend Rockn'Roll, and Neon Noodle.

Check out more of Two Runner;
https://tworunnermusic.com/

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GemsOnVHS is a long running series of intimate, off-stage performances by songwriters we love.
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