Bellingham gets its fair share of touring musicians, but most of them are following the well-worn paths of the North American touring circuit. When folks come through from L.A., New York or Austin, it’s not too surprising. But when I heard the Honey Moon had a performer coming through on tour all the way from Peru, that made me sit up and take notice. Then, once I actually checked out the music of La Zorra Zapata, I got really intrigued.
The project is really one person, songwriter and multimedia artist Nuria Zapata. Even If you don’t understand the Spanish language lyrics, the melodies are strong enough to get stuck in your head anyway. The accompaniment is mostly acoustic with layers of vocal harmony and counterpoint, and the songs have a deep, emotional power to them that doesn’t require language. In the studio she adds gently pulsing drum beats and occasional synth flourishes. The cumulative effect is almost hypnotic — music you can really get lost in.
The show is on Saturday, July 27, and also features Traesti Darling, the excellent local musician/poet who made the connection to bring her to town in the first place. Although Zapata’s played in the U.S. a few times before, this is her first full-scale tour.
Traesti happened to meet Zapata’s partner through a pandemic-era online men’s group, of all things, and that connection eventually blossomed into this show. So if you’re interested in hearing something truly original and different from the usual offerings, this show is highly recommended.
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It’s hard to describe, but it really felt like there was something special in the air last weekend in the music venues of Bellingham. Everywhere I went, it seemed like there were huge crowds of people out looking to enjoy live music. Part of this was spillover from the Northwest Tune-Up festival, certainly — but even in totally unrelated places, the energy was noticeably very high. Hopefully we can keep it up!
Speaking of Tune-Up, though, that Lupe Fiasco set was one for the record books. I’m still astonished how one human can maintain that level of movement and stage presence for 90 minutes while simultaneously remembering that many lyrics. I was also pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed Indigo De Souza’s Friday night set. I like her music but I was worried her quieter songs wouldn’t work in a festival setting. Always nice to be proven wrong on something like that!
We’re about halfway through the year, so it feels like a good time to look back. As always, I’m not going to call this a “top albums” list because music isn’t a competition, and there’s always going to be good stuff I leave out. But just for the fun of it, here are 12 notable local albums that have come out so far this year, across a variety of genres:
- BJ Block, “Antiphony” (funky jazz guitar)
- Checker Bloom, “Ballads of Mirror Road” (indie rock)
- CHRVNS, “untitled..” (hip-hop)
- Kian Dye, “S/T” (bluegrass instrumentals)
- Full Color Dream, “Grouse” (indie rock)
- Girl Parallel, “Future Flowers” (acoustic R&B/indie folk)
- Lipstitch, “Let’s Talk” (pop-punk with a glam twist)
- Morgan McHugh, “Live at Mojo” (singer-songwriter folk)
- Tim Mechling, “Itself the Sea” (psychedelic rock)
- North Country Highway, “What Got Us Here” (roots rock/Americana)
- Various Artists, “Sudden Valley Drive” (hip-hop collection)
- Willdabeast, “Beneath The Surface” (electronica with horns)
Jesse Stanton's music column, The Beat Goes On, appears weekly. Reach him at jsbhammusic@gmail.com; @JSBhamMusic. Check with individual venues to make sure events are still taking place as scheduled. Live music events in Whatcom County: http://www.cascadiadaily.com/category/living/arts-and-entertainment/music/music-calendar
