AUGUST 2026 ARTBEAT

ARTBEAT ART BEAT THE COMET

august 2026 21

AUGUST 2026

STAR ANNA TAKES TO THE STAGE AT

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WENATCHEE FIRST FRIDAYS MAP INSIDE

ARTBEAT

A monthly publication by NCW Arts Alliance and The Comet

Publisher: Ron Evans Contributors: Jamie Howell, Joel Myrene Callie Baker, Meg Sanders NCW Arts - Elevating the Arts in North Central Washington

ON THE COVER:

Ellensburg’s Star Anna brings her soulful voice to MusicBox in Wenatchee Friday, August 7. Photo by Hilary Harris Story on pg. 3

MUSICBOX TURNS WAREHOUSE 3 INTO A CREATIVE PLAYGROUND

By Jamie Howell

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owntown Wenatchee will be humming with music, poetry, dance, and discovery when NCW Arts Alliance presents MusicBox on Friday, Aug. 7, from 3 to 10 p.m.

Part of Wenatchee First Fridays, this all-ages celebration invites the community to experience one of the city’s most exciting emerging creative spaces: Warehouse 3.

With three stages, indoor and outdoor, operating throughout the event, MusicBox will feature more than a dozen performances by local and regional bands. Poetry will also take center stage in the BYO Studio Member Lounge, including a special reading by Washington State Poet Laureate Derek Sheffield, headlining a lineup of talented local poets.

But MusicBox is designed to be explored. Guests can wander through the nooks and crannies of Warehouse 3, visit open studios and meet the artists currently creating there. The building is quickly becoming another underground art gem in downtown Wenatchee—and on MusicBox night, it will be absolutely teeming with creativity.

Around every corner, something new will be happening. We’ll unveil a new mural by Ron Evans and Sarah Sims

(who will also be performing as Deep Green Sea). Epic Motion Dance Studio will keep the energy moving with dance breaks, while vinyl DJ Tanner Dotzauer spins records. Cashmere Records will host a dedicated spin room, and NCW Arts members can enjoy special performances in the Members Only Lounge.

Not a member yet? Memberships will be available during the event.

Come hungry and thirsty: tacos, beer, wine, and cider will be available as you move between performances, studios, and gathering spaces.

MusicBox is more than a concert. It is a chance to experience the remarkable range of creative talent growing across North Central Washington—and to support the work of the NCW Arts Alliance while having a terrific summer evening.

Come explore the first annual MusicBox from NCW Arts. Advance tickets are just $15, or $20 at the door. This is an all-ages event.

WHERE THE HECK IS WAREHOUSE 3?

You’ll find Warehouse 3 in the alley running between Yakima and Kittitas streets on the south end of downtown Wenatchee. Enter at 218 S. Columbia Street (one block toward the river from Wenatchee Avenue). Half the fun will be finding it!!

FINDING NEW ROADS

STAR ANNA REFLECTS ON FINDING HER VOICE, EMBRACING CHANGE, AND BRINGING NEW SONGS TO MUSICBOX. album Crooked Path?

My very first band was called No Continuous Standing and I was the drummer. We were high school freshmen. Growing up in a town known for its rodeo, I think there was a part of me rebelling against Country music, so punk felt right. When the band broke up sophomore year, I started playing guitar. I started listening to Neko Case, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Uncle Tupelo, realizing the vast difference between comSo first off, thank you so much for mercial country and alt-Country/Ameribooking a show in Wenatchee! I know cana and that really informed so much of you are from Ellensburg, so not too far my first album, Crooked Path. away, but when was the last time you played a show in Wenatchee?

By the time I first heard your music As the crow flies, I used to sometimes in 2013, you already had three albums be able to see the glow of Wenatchee out, and were widely known. Did you lights over the mountains between us, to feel like your musical journey has been my North. I’m actually having trouble a slow steady build? Or has it varied to remembering the last time I’ve played some extent throughout the years?

Wenatchee, but I do remember some of the I’d say it’s been a lot of slow and steady earlier shows I’ve played there with my build for the most part, with bursts of old band The Laughing Dogs. We played momentum. A big one would definitely Cafe Mela a lot back in the day (between be meeting and working with Mike Mc2008 and 2012.) I’m really looking for- Cready of Pearl Jam. That definitely ward to being back in Wenatchee again! pushed me forward and allowed me exciting opportunities. In 2011 me and my band Growing up in Ellensburg has got to the Laughing Dogs got to perform at Albe interesting from a musical stand- pine Valley for Pearl Jam 20 and that was point. You have both the vibe and cul- such a fun experience. Overall though, it’s ture of the college kids, set against a a slow and steady journey, a lot of hard very rural/agricultural framework. You work, dedication, and determination. also have one of the biggest bands from the NW coming out of there (ScreamYou had a roughly 8 year span being Trees). How was it growing up and tween 2016’s Light in the Window and being interested in music during your 2024’s Love and Sex and Fear of Death. early years in Ellensburg? Were people Did you decide to step back from music fairly supportive? for a while, or just a pause in releasing We had a record store in town, Rodeo recorded music?

Records, that was run by Mark Pickerel I didn’t decide to take a step back so (original drummer for Screaming Trees). much as life just happened. There were I was about 11 when I started playing always songs but the short and simple drums and that was around the same time answer is making an album isn’t cheap.

I stepped foot into Rodeo Records. It’s There were a few efforts in that time to safe to say I spent the next ten years in make another album before Love and Sex that record store, soaking up as much as I and Fear of Death came together. I recould. When I started playing guitar at 15, corded about 12 songs two different times Pickerel and other small local businesses in two different studios that never got finwould let me perform during the day. I’d ished, attempted a side project that ended also spend countless hours in the deli side up going nowhere and then COVID hit and of the Valley Cafe where my mom worked, everyone had to slow down and step back. practicing songs by Indigo Girls, Tom Pet- That’s when I really got into building song ty, and The Beatles. demos in GarageBand on my phone and started building the songs that would beI heard your first band in high school come Love and Sex and Fear of Death. was more of a punk band. What got you interested in pursuing music more in the folk/alt country range of your first continued on pg. 6 peared twice on the television show Band in Seattle. Both episodes showcase Star at different but equally incredible points in her musical career. If you watch the 2024 Band in Seattle episode and aren’t transfixed, there is something wrong with you.

Star will be playing a solo set at the upcoming NCW Arts Alliance Musicbox event, so I thought I would catch up with her before she rolls into town.

Star Anna - photo by Emma Brouqua

By Joel Myrene

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he name Star Anna came onto my radar sometime around 2013. I would see her name on show posters at various venues, and there seemed to be quite a buzz and momentum behind her building through the northwest and beyond. Naturally I was curious what all the talk was about. And all that buzz was (and still is) absolutely warranted.

Do you remember the first time you heard Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star)? I sure as hell do. I was captivated by her voice, the music and the overall mood the whole band created. This is also how I felt the first time I heard Star Anna. A lot of her albums fall into the alt-country realm. While her newest LP (Love and Sex and Fear of

Death), released in 2024, has a more indie/ pop/electronic/80’s feel. But whatever the genre she chooses, one thing is a constant, and that is an unmistakable goosebumpinducing beautiful voice that Star brings to every song. It’s authentic. It’s not forced.

It makes you believe and feel every lyric.

Listen to “Easier to Shine” off of her 2014 album The Sky is Falling and try to tell me her voice isn’t something special. Ellensburg (her hometown) is certainly aware of her talent, a mural was recently painted of Star downtown.

But don’t take my word for it. Duff McKagan (of Guns ‘N Roses) is a fan. Star recorded a single with Mike McCready (of Pearl Jam) and Ellensburg’s own Mark Pickerel (of Screaming Trees fame) has appeared on her recordings. She has ap-

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ONSORS AND SUPPORTING PARTNERS

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ORONDO AVE. PLACEMAKING PROJECT CELEBRATION Featured Artist: Ellen Bruex

ect downtown on Orondo Ave., in between Wenatchee Ave. and Columbia Street!

Meet and greet with muralist Ellen Bruex and see her new placemaking proj-

Friday, August 7 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Ellensburg artist Jason Clifton’s tribute to Star Anna as part of Ellensburg’s Mural Fest that took place in June.

Continued from page 3 Your newest album goes somewhat in a few new musical directions from your previous albums. What inspired the change?

I have ADHD and I don’t like to stay in the same lane for too long, I think. I felt like, musically, I understood the framework of an alt-country/Americana song and I wanted to push myself into new uncomfortable territory, hence the drum machines and synths. I could build these songs in GarageBand, never even touching an acoustic guitar and that was so exciting to me!

You have some pretty talented and well known friends in the music industry. But you always have come across to me as being incredibly humble. Which is refreshing. It must be a pretty incredible thing to have talent like that want to work with you/support you through the years?

It’s always mind-blowing and such an honor that I never want to take for granted.

It pushes me to keep working hard and to keep showing up and to keep following my heart because when I do, that’s when the magic happens.

Do you find anything in particular these days, that helps inspire you to write new music?

I’ve always written songs as a way to exercise my own demons and to alleviate feelings of fear, anxiety, and helplessness.

What really inspires me these days is connection and community and the hope that the songs I write to heal myself might help someone else heal too.

Do you have a preference these days in playing solo, versus with a full band?

I honestly can’t say I prefer one over the other, especially with the current line-up of my band. They are all such powerhouses, I don’t even have to play guitar and I can really put my whole self into singing. I also love performing solo because it’s all up to me and there’s nothing to hide behind.

What might we expect from your set coming up in Wenatchee?

I’ll be performing solo, playing a lot of new material and giving it my all!

Any last thoughts for the readers of the ArtBeat?

Stay curious, stay kind, be brave, be bold, and love like it’s the only thing that matters.

Star Anna will be taking to the KOHO stage at MusicBox Friday, August 7 at 7:30 pm at Warehouse 3. Advance tickets (purchase at ncwARTS.org) are $15, or $20 at the door.

FIRST FRIDAYS FEATURED EVENT

POEM OF THE MONTH Forger

By Tam Reynolds

ART ALLEY @ PYBUS R. FREEMAN EVANS

It was not in the woods Nor near the sea It was never in the thoughts of the ghosts of the past Nor the ghosts yet to be born It was all a mirage — no sand in sight.

It was suffocated — no diggable earth to be seen.

There was a break in the air — whatever that means.

There was a curse in the wording Not a swear Nor a hex Just an unlucky wording I guess.

And maybe the misfortune of bad directions But my breakdown really had no clue where to make itself happen.

Which makes it rude twice by my count.

But who’s counting?

I simply waited by the phone.

Funny how we still say things like that.

Funny.

The phone rang and beeped and buzzed. But not from you.

And now I lay on the floor attempting to forage my needs from some other field.

For this one has dried up.

R. Freeman Evans presents his show “The Eyes are the Windows to the Soul” Everyone is invited as Ric Evans brings us his highly-anticipated “The Eyes are the Windows to the Soul” show at the Art Alley @ Pybus!

Featured Musicians: Lucky Break Boys Beverages and hors d’oeuvres crafted by local Pybus merchants available by donation.

Friday, August 7 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm VISIT WENATCHEEFIRSTFRIDAYS.COM FOR MORE EVENTS