Events

Blind Billy Blue and Natty “O” each found their way to the blues on different roads but they sure are two Blues Kindred Spirits. When you hear them play, you’ll know there is passion and feeling behind what they do. To them, this music is a gift, for their own souls and for the people they can share it with. And they are having fun playing and singing the blues. When you see them perform, so will you!

The blues have been at the heart of Natty’s life for as long as he can remember. He started playing guitar, writing music, and singing the blues as a kid and has never looked back. Natty has played with many groups including Michael Tracey and the High Tones, Kelly Thaibeaddus and the Etoufeé band, and he’s been an important musical presence at local blues jams for a long time. Natty has been an important personality in the regional Blues scene through his work as a DJ for “Breakfast with the Blues” on KRVM for over 20 years. When you hear him play and sing, you will know that you are in the presence of a true Blues Man!

Blind Billy Blue has always had music in his blood. He’s been singing his whole life, but now that he’s found the blues, Billy is finally feeding his soul right. Billy has a background performing classical, jazz, and sacred muisc…in his own words, he spent much of his adult life only singing at “weddings, funerals, Christmas, and Easter.” A couple of years ago, Billy was going through some real tough times and a friend told him he needed to find a way to “feed your soul.” So Billy turned to his music. In 2017, Billy started singing some karaoke which led to singing at bluegrass jams locally. He started playing around with the harmonica a few months later and finally found his way to his first blues jam in the Spring of 2018. Did he finally find the Blues or did the Blues finally find Billy? It doesn’t matter because he knows he’s found his way home. And when you hear Dusky Blues lay it down, so will you!

Talk to Me: What the Science of Language Tells Us About Communication

With Melissa Baese-Berk, PhD, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Oregon

Doors open @ 5PM | $5 Suggested Donation
 

Imagine a world in which you could send a message from one brain to another through the air. While this sounds like science fiction, this is in fact how we communicate through language. The processes of understanding and producing speech are fast and effortless in most circumstances. However, these processes are hugely complex, and our understanding of them is still developing. Further, circumstances that do challenge the speaker or listener (e.g., noisy environments or communication between individuals with different language backgrounds) can inform our understanding of more effortless language processing.

In this talk, Professor Melissa Baese-Berk will discuss the science that underlies communication through language. Specifically, she will address issues of how individuals understand and produce speech, with a special emphasis on how adults learn new languages. She will conclude with discussions of how individuals with different language backgrounds communicate across language barriers.

Melissa is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Oregon where she directs the Speech Perception and Production Laboratory. She earned her BA in Linguistics from Boston University and then her PhD in Linguistics with a specialization in Cognitive Science from Northwestern University. She completed postdoctoral research fellowships at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, and Michigan State University. Her research examines psycholinguistic aspects of second language acquisition and native/non-native communication. She also enjoys teaching a variety of courses and was awarded the AJ Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Tykeson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Melissa is also a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher and enjoys cooking, knitting and crocheting and cheering for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.

Science Pub Eugene is a monthly event that is open to anyone and everyone. No RSVP or scientific background required. Just bring your curiosity, sense of humor, and appetite for food, drinks, and knowledge! For more information or to sign up for our mailing list, email: sciencepub@omsi.edu.

Mike Clark – Drums and Vocals

Anthony Forcellini – Guitar and Vocals

Ryan Galas – Bass and Vocals

Dylan Shock – Guitar and Vocals

Contact us at booking @ unclestumbles.com

Since their beginnings in 2003, Eugene’s Uncle Stumbles have grown beyond the “first impression” of their name… over ten years later, the name Uncle Stumbles reminds us that each of us stumbles and trips every once and a while-and your friends cover your back. Uncle Stumbles plays late ’60’s style rock and roll with an Americana tinge. An honest exploratory music that draws from influences as broad as Frank Zappa, to Stravinsky to the Grateful Dead, Uncle Stumbles continues to impress and win over crowds wherever they play. Uncle Stumbles plays to the moment, whatever that may be, often surprising themselves in the process.

Drummer Mike Clark cut his teeth playing in Eugene back in the 90’s. Clark is one of those rare drummers that plays to the front of the music ala Elvin Jones and the Meters’ Joseph Modeleste.
Drums are a solo instrument in Mike’s playing, the beat and groove are trusted and implied in this unique style.

Anthony Forcellini has written the lion’s share of original material for Uncle Stumbles. Forcellini studied saxophone for 13 years including studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston before switching to guitar for the Detroit area band Resurgency in the late 1980’s. Anthony is also the lead guitar player in the Garcia tribute band Cap’n Trips.

Ryan Galas studied music at LCC as well as playing in Figure It Out and Innerstate. Ryan’s bass playing is heavy on “linear” line playing in the style of Phil Lesh. He also plays upright bass in the roots group the Wainwright Brothers.

Dylan Shock’s first word was guitar. He has been playing for over half his life, approaching a musical intuition and vocabulary of one much older than his years. He started performing publicly with Anthony Forcellini in the Americana duo Dylan and Anthony.

Over the years, members of Uncle Stumbles have opened for the Cast of Clowns, Clinton Fearon, George Porter, The Zen Tricksters, The Bridge, Jefferson Starship, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. They have also been involved in fundraising for community radio stations KRVM and KSOW-LP. Come on down and visit everyone’s favorite uncle sometime. You never know what might happen.

Originally created as a side project in 2008, The BeatCrunchers quickly grew in scope to start carving their own niche in the NW music scene. Borrowing members from bands such as Macaco Velho, Samba Ja, Kef, and the Klezmonauts, the group draws from a variety of genres and sensibilities to form a fresh and distinct sound.

The Beat Crunchers are fresh, funky, and live. They get the booty shaking and keep it shaking with their mighty Brazilian percussion and exuberant horns. The Beat Crunchers take you on a breathless tour of the world’s best dance parties, Afropop to Balkan to Cumbia. This is a band that turns everything it touches to a divine rug-cutting boogie-down, be it a childhood cartoon theme song or a funked-up Rachmaninov prelude. The Beat Crunchers resist boxes, and enable you lovely dancers to do the same.

Ken Sokolov – drum kit, vocals
Matt Noble – bass, vocals
Matt Pilcher – Percussion, vinyl, vocals
Markus Johnson – Surdo, cuica, dub effects
Ashley Wright – Tenor saxophone, keyboard, vocals
Ryan Chaney — trombone
Alex Lowe – trumpet
Cody Simpson – trumpet

This jam is open to all acoustic instruments. We play a mix of bluegrass, folk, blues, and all around acoustic Jam tunes. Come enjoy! [Edit]

In an era where imitation is the rule of thumb, Walk Talk is staking their claim to the groovy avant-garde of post-pop panache. A delicious duet much-buzzed about in the Northeast, Walk Talk is born of the musical partnership of Mayteana Morales and David Bailis. The prolific pair of NYC-based multi-instrumentalists are well-acquainted, nearly a decade deep touring the globe as two-fifths of the critically-acclaimed future-funk outfit Pimps of Joytime.

Walk Talk identifies as a culmination of time, genre, travel, rhythm, and dance; manifesting love variations and soul vibrations through original songcraft and electrifying live performance. The longtime co-conspirators have re-emerged as an exciting new and dynamic duo; Walk Talk offers a fresh and inspired take on classic 60’s Soul, High-Life Afro-rhythms, quiet storm R&B, golden-era Hip-Hop, boogie Funk, and blissfully beyond. Morales and Bailis steadily unveil a creative canvas on which these passionate artists draw original soundscapes, rhythms, and sensualized harmonies, intoxicating elixirs that resonate deeply across a wide swath of demographics and genres.

“Our sounds aim straight for the heart, with the knowledge that we are all connected by shared experiences, and that each beat and melody should not be taken for granted.” Mayteana Morales & David Bailis: Walk Talk

Percussionist/vocalist extraordinaire, Mayteana Morales needs no introduction, her list of collaborators includes Afrobeat stalwarts Antibalas; she appears on their celebrated 2017 LP Where the Gods Are in Peace. Mayteana is the featured vocalist on legendary funk drummer Bernard Purdie‘s recent comeback smash “Deep in Love” as well as next-generation Brooklyn Afro-funkers Ikebe Shakedown’s debut LP. Morales and David Bailis shared discography with Pimps of Joytime is well-documented. Bailis is no stranger to the world of hip-hop, having toured with Fugees-affiliate John Forte. David has also written and performed with Sierra Leone born, Brooklyn, NY-bred Bajah & the Dry Eye Crew. His guitar-wizardry can be heard spraying textures within his own jazz-rock trio DB3, whose debut record was released in July 2018 on the venerable Ropeadope Records.