American Trails #9 International Edtion

Rolling Along,

Vanlife BBQ BONANZA | MEMPHIS AN EPIC MUSICAL JOURNEY THROUGH THE SOUTH | ATLANTA, NASHVILLE, NEW ORLEANS SIZZLING OUTDOORS ADVENTURE | SWELL, UTAH AMONGST THE PEOPLE | PHILADELPHIA CALIFORNIA CRAFT BEER | INGLEWOOD, LA HIGH PROOF BAR IN BED-STUY | BROOKLYN, N.Y.C.

OREGON | CITY GUIDE

portland

UK £12. #9 | SPRING 2020

IN THE OLD INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS, PORTLAND’S CREATIVE SOULS SET ON FIRE. THE CULINARY SCENE HERE IS A DREAM FOR ANY FOODIE. WE WANDER ABOUT AND TAKE IT ALL IN WITH CRAFT 3 AMERICAN TRAILS BEER AND WINE, SPECTACULAR FOOD, AND OF COURSE CIDER. SPRING | 2020

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ROCKIN’ THE SOUTH Friendly people, legendary hospitality, sensational scenery, delectable Southern cuisine, rich music and history — all in three of America’s finest cities.

rhythmsofthesouth.com

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Past, Present and Future

H

ow do you travel anyways? Is it in the labyrinth of memories along the winding roads of the past? Or is it with the blank canvas of the eyes set on the future?

An unpainted future where every turn is a possibility, and every crest an opportunity. Or perhaps you travel preferably in the here and now, with every sense at unease with the fear of missing some nuance, some ripple on the surface, or

even a whisper.

We at American Trails find ourselves not often in the here and now. We take our time soaking up previous experiences or in planning new antics and challenges. Rarely do we find ourselves musing over the present, take for example the latest issue of our magazine; by the time it left the presses we were already throwing ourselves into the next issue. Christmas time we forced ourselves to it. We plowed through the latest issue from cover to cover and realized that what we do is actually quite slick. Two consecutive first prizes in the form of the most prestigious award one can receive in Sweden, The Publishing Prize, isn’t that proof of something? (Yea you know, we are pretty humble but can’t help but soak in these commendations and the praise that American Trails has received, it is truly fantastic).

Two years of solid hard work have given us eight big issues, well, sixteen if you count the two different editions, because we work just as hard on the English magazine, as we do on the Swedish. Two years of meetings along the roads, breakups, new contacts, and countless exciting opportunities. Oh what we have learned along this road, this journey, and still how much we haven’t yet learned, how much we haven’t gotten around to – yet.

So we are throwing ourselves into the New Year with a resounding and vibrant amount of new energy.

Past, and future – yep. Every journey gives us possibilities to discover each of these temporal phases and dimensions. It is through the study of history that we understand better our current situation and can best prepare ourselves for what lays on the roads ahead. 2020 makes this clearer than ever. In this issue we encounter the Nelsons, a couple that finally caught up with their past (p. 136), we of course embrace the road and end up in Portland where creativity and curiosity always manages to take our breath away.

We think there is just as much multifaceted content as we as interesting content here, and we hope you agree.

Hoping to see you out there!

Jonas Henningsson and Jonas Larsson Ps. A few weeks before we sent out this issue for print, we signed on an English editor, who when isn’t out searching for quintessential Trails content, is at home in London. Say hello to Simon Urwin, who you will recognize from the epic cover photo to issue #7 and the beautiful content from the Canadian Badlands. Simon will be helping us take some bold new steps out into the world. In this issue he got his taste buds wet with some Memphis BBQ (p. 38).

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Oregon

Wyoming

Colorado

OUR ROAD TRIPPING VAN VAGABONDS VISIT GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK. PAGE 102.

EMIL NORDIN DRIVES MILE AFTER MILE WITH SIGHTS SET ON SILVERTON. PAGE 102.

Utah

SWELL IS A NATURAL PARADISE. MATTIAS GOES DEEP. PAGE 20.

DON'T GET LOST IN PORTLAND. WE GIVE YOU THE BEST CITY GUIDE. PAGE 72.

OFF THE MAP

Alaska

HENNINGSSON VISITS SOME OF ALASKA'S GLACIERS. PAGE 162.

California

WE TAKE A BEER IN INGLEWOOD. THREE WEAVERS BREWERY CRAFT BEER TO DIE FOR.

Arizona

EMIL NORDIN LIVED OUT OF A VAN FOR A FEW MONTHS. SEE HIS AMAZING PHOTOS ON PAGE 102.

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Iowa

A NEW STATE FOR US. WE DISCUSS THE ENVIRONMENT WITH WELL PREPARED FARMERS PAGE 86.

Pennsylvania

PEOPLE OF PHILLY. WE CHECK IN WITH THE LOCALS TO SEE WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS CITY. PAGE 120.

N.Y.C

QUALITY CONTROLLING DIVE BARS IN NYC. PAGE 134.

Tennessee

WE ARE IN NASHVILLE AND MEMPHIS, TURN UP THE VOLUME! PAGE 38.

Georgia

DONIVAN AND ROBERT DANCE AND SMILE THEIR WAY THROUGH SOME LEGENDARY MUSIC CITIES. ATLANTA IS A NATURAL STOP. PAGE 54.

Texas

THROWING SOME FRISBEES IN AUSTIN. PAGE 16.

New Orelans THE SOUTH AT ITS BEST. PAGE 54.

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Contents

5. EDITORIAL LETTER | PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

86. COYOTE RUN FARM | IOWA

We have done 8 or really, 16 magazines, since we started.

We look back on this experience, but also keep our eyes set on the future.

Meeting local farmers who take land stewardship and climate change dead seriously.

90. CHEERS TO THE BEERS | INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA

6. THE MAP

The South and the West dominate this issue.

We never know where we are going to end up, but this feels like a good combo.

In Inglewood we visited Three Weavers Brewery, one of the most exciting brew operations of the day.

13. CONTRIBUTORS

Photographer Emil Nordin and his girlfriend Maxine Jonsson made their dream a reality – buy a van and hit the open road.

102. VAN LIFE | WESTERN USA

Say hello to four fine team members.

14. A DINER WITH STYLE | UTAH

The most stylish diner in the west, without a doubt.

120. PEOPLE OF PHILLY | PHILADELPHIA

Meet some pleasant Philadelphians.

We ask them what’s going on out there.

16. FRISBEE | AUSTIN, TEXAS

Zilker Park is a cool place to chill in Austin’s warm summer.

134. TO DIVE FOR | DO OR DIE, BROOKLYN, N.Y.C.

We visited yet another dive bar because we love them.

18. BBQ DONE BY THE BOOKS | PAGE, ARIZONA

Big John’s Texas BBQ in the small town of Page, is a good starting point for discovering the exciting nature in the vicinity.

136. THE AMERICANS | UTAH

20. OUT OF THIS WORLD IN UTAH | SAN RAFAEL SWELL

140. PORTFOLIO, CHRISTINA JOHN-ROCKET

Meet Bruce and Ann Nelson. A teenage love that died out, many years later they’ve found each other again.

Photograper and graphic designer with an obsessed interest for the old and rusted, delivering an unparalleled portfolio.

Close to the city Green River in southern Utah lies a fantastic outdoor paradise.

It is like being on a completely different planet.

156. FORGOTTEN CLASSICS | BETTYE SWANN

Our music editor has dug up some forgotten gems.

38. GUYS WHO GRILL | MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

Simon Urwin visits the legendary BBQ joint, Rendezvous. A staple in the music city Memphis.

162. COLD AS ICE | ALASKA

The ice cold boy as well as editor in chief Jonas Henningsson take the temperature on Alaska’s glaciers.

54. THE RYTHYM OF THE SOUTH | ATLANTA, NASHVILLE AND NEW ORLEANS

Come along on an epic musical tour to three of the most renowned music cities in the South.

164. LIFE’S THEATER | PORTLAND, OREGON

In beautiful South Burnside street we find this art deco movie theater, truly a glimmer of light in the darkness!

72. CITYGUIDE PORTLAND | OREGON

We have pieced together the ultimate cityguide to the creative and ever surprising, Portland. For even more Portland tips, go to americantrailsmag.com

166. SUBSCRIBE!

An offer you can't refuse.

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UTAH

PHOTO: JONAS LARSSON

a tribe called

Contributors

In this issue we present four new fantastic team members. Interested in joining the ranks? Send a line to info@amtrailsmag.com We are always interested in meeting new people and hearing their ideas.

American Trails EXPLORE WITH US

CHRISTINA JOHN-ROCKET, LONDON, UK

Film photographer and Graphic Designer Christina John-Rockett finds a 7 hour long open road and country radio the most relaxing way to spend her time. She calls London her home and spend her days plotting out fictional/ future road trips and researching what weird and wonderful roadside attractions and scenic byways the satnav would normally fail to register.

Instagram: driveby_shooting_ ANETTE ROSVALL, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

A dinner, some glasses of wine, leads to the deep questions in life. In such instances, you’d be hard pressed to find better company then Anette Rosvall.

She is working with social media here at American Trails. She is an author, art director and spokesperson for Stellagalan, and in 2019 she was appointed to one of Sweden’s Super Communicators.

Instagram @anetterosvall. Website anetterosvall.se ROBERT LINDHOLM, BROOKLYN, USA

Robert is a Swedish photographer who usually works as a fashion photographer in New York.

When he is not doing that or hanging out at Do or dive (see page 134) in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, he is out looking for the US that we at American Trails like. See Roberts and Donivan Berube's absolutely incredible music-historical journey in the classic South on page 54.

JONAS CULLBERG, NEW YORK CITY, USA

Jonas Cullberg is a freelance journalist, based in Queens, New York. Last year his book En Amerikansk epidemi (An American epidemic) about the opioid crisis was released. In this issue you'll find Cullberg's article about two farmers at Coyote Run Farm in Iowa who have their own ideas on how agriculture can benefit the environment.

JONAS HENNINGSSON EDITOR IN CHIEF AND PUBLISHER HENNINGSSON@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

JONAS LARSSON CREATIVE DIRECTOR LARSSON@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

SIMON URWIN UK EDITOR URWIN@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

DONIVAN BERUBE MUSIC EDITOR BERUBE@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

LINDA GREN PHOTO EDITOR GREN@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

ANDERS BERGERSEN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER BERGERSEN@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

JOHAN LETH PROJECT MANAGER/EDITOR LETH@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

EREK BELL TRANSLATOR BELL@AMTRAILSMAG.COM

ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIPS JONAS LARSSON LARSSON@AMTRAILSMAG.COM TEL: +46 70 76 01 720

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SUBSCRIPTIONS INFO@AMTRAILSMAG.COM AMERICAN TRAILS MAGAZINE IS A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION AND AN ONLINE COMMUNITY, WHICH FOCUSES ON PEOPLE, PLACES, AND PASSIONS. WE DISTRIBUTE THE SWEDISH EDITION IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES, AND THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION IN THE UK, USA, FRANCE AND IRELAND. WE DO NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LOSS OF UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO QUOTE AND PRAISE US AS LONG AS THE SOURCE IS IDENTIFIED. FOR PERMISSION TO USE ANY OF OUR PHOTOS OR STORIES, PLEASE CONTACT THE EDITORS. ISSN 2002-7842

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Dine with style ROAD ISLAND DINER | OAKLEY, UTAH WORDS AND PHOTO: JONAS HENNINGSSON

Out there along the road it stands shining in its own attitude under the strong sun rays, and we of course have to make this a pit stop on our road trip – Road Island Diner. The self-confidence of it all is understandable, for there aren’t as many classic diners out there that breathe so much pure Americana as this art deco gem.

It was built in 1939 with hand laid wooden floors, Italian marble countertops, and a shining streamline trailer exterior. The company that built the trailer, the Jerry O’Mahony Co., proudly modeled it at The World’s Fair in New York that same year.

After the World’s Fair, the diner ended up in Fall River, Massachusetts and from there it moved on to Middletown, Rhode Island, where it wound up in the hands of a Greek immigrant family for four generations.

Just over 10 years ago it made it out here to Oakley. We didn’t know any of this proud history when we climbed on into the diner – but of course with steaming hot coffee being poured, so too does the heritage of this place serve itself up, as is so often commonplace in this story-rich country.

Some hours later we thank the establishment and head on our way, throwing several last minute love filled glances for the design and charm of the Road Island Diner. The roads are waiting.

981 W WEBER CANYON RD, OAKLEY, UTAH | ROADISLANDDINER.COM

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Park life

ZILKER PARK | AUSTIN, TEXAS WORDS: JONAS LARSSON | PHOTO: ANDERS BERGERSEN

Right around where Barton creek converges with the Colorado River, lies Zilker Park. When Andrew Jackson Zilker donated the land to the state back in 1927, Frisbee hadn’t even been invented, but of course people were up for a good old fashioned picnic. Today, people are out there enjoying both of these activities in this popular park. There’s botanical gardens and a sculpture park, and from time to time a festival pops up. But the best is to rest down under the shade of a tree and let life unfold right before your eyes. If that doesn’t quite float your boat, take to the water onboard a kayak rental from Zilker Park Boat Rentals at Barton Creek.

Paddle slowly and carefully, there is some great turtle spotting to be had.

ZILKERBOATS.COM

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An eye for the forgotten

DOROTHEA LANGE | MOMA | NEW YORK CITY WORDS: JONAS HENNINGSSON | PHOTOS: DOROTHEA LANGE

Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures is the first big separate exhibition with the iconic photographer in 50 years. It was time for us at Trails to show up at MoMA again in the spring. When Dorothea left Hoboken, New Jersey as a young woman, she never knew that she would end up living and working in California for the rest of her life. For many years Lange refined her portrait art in her studio in the Bay Area. But it was when Lange left for a life on the road that her photography came to prominence.

Dorothea Lange photographed migrant workers, refugees and tent cities during and after the Great Depression.

In addition to the exhibition, which in itself leaves a strong impression on the viewer thanks to Lange’s lens for realism and an eye for the forgotten and invisible in society, one should also check out the incredible, Last West- Road songs for Dorothea Lange. The poet Tess Taylor follows the winding roads that Lange travelled along during the Great Depression. Tess Taylor pairs her texts with Langes own diary notes and makes the injustices of the day creepily shine through these strokes from the past.

Last West is presented by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition runs from the 9th of February to the 9th of May.

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OUT OF THIS WORLD IN UTAH

SAN RAFAEL SWELL Where in the United States is the best National Park if you are into climbing, spelunking, and biking, in a stunning lunaresque landscape? Well, we have got to say it’s Utah! We sent our outdoors enthusiast, the highly active Mattias Lundblad, to the small town of Green River, Utah to discover and explore the incredible natural playground that is San Rafael Swell.

WORDS AND PHOTOS: MATTIAS LUNDBLAD

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To lower yourself 100 feet down into a cave is absolutely bewildering.

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E

verything feels bigger in Utah, except for the crowds. “You get used to driving when you live here, that’s for sure.” says Robin Nelson, a resident of Green River, a town of 800 people in Emery county. The high desert landscape is seemingly endless. For a photographer, traveling takes extra time. It’s impossible not to be captivated by the landscape. Each and every mile changes dramatically, unfolding in shifting lights. You always feel the urge to hop out of the car and set up a tripod for just one more photograph. San Rafael Swell in Southeastern Utah is geologically described as an anticline; a type of fold with an arch-like shape uplifted area of layered rocks. Here, the anticline is about 75 miles by 40 miles in area. Most of it has eroded away with exposure to water, wind and ice, creating nearly every imaginable landscape feature you can think of – valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, buttes and badlands. The Swell, located entirely within Emery County, has long been considered an undiscovered natural wonder of the American West, but is starting to get attention. “San Rafael – closer than you think” is one slogan, and by Utah standards, a three hour drive from Salt Lake City, or five from Las Vegas is no big deal.

GOBLIN VALLEY

Goblin Valley National Park is named for its thousands of strangely shaped rock formations, called “hoodoos”. A surreal landscape. When Hollywood needed an extraterrestrial-looking landscape for the movie Galaxy Quest, this is where they went. It’s also one of Utah’s more popular parks, established in 1964, with a parking lot, bathrooms, and several sites for camping. Logan DeGrand is a canyoneering guide with Get in the Wild Adventures. Most of the time he is based in nearby Moab, but he spends the winter season in Washington state. He hands me a harness, a helmet and a rope, and we start with a short hike between the hoodoos and climb through a tunnel of rock. I keep staring up at all the new shapes. It’s time to learn how to use the ropes and the tools. We start off at an easy slope.

“Are you right-handed or left handed?” Logan asks, while attaching the rope to the starting point. I’m both or in between, so I hesitate and go for left. He instructs me how to use the brake. There are a few things to remember, but it seems easy enough. After a couple of attempts and some gained confidence, we keep walking and reach the Basilisk, a large cave, almost like a church carved out in the sandstone by water. While Logan is securing the ropes, 24

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Otherworldly sandstone formations.

Powerful, aweinspiring - San Rafael Swell, Utah!

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Hold on to your hat, or rather, hold on to that cliff.

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I’m suddenly realizing what I have gotten myself into. The plan is to rappel into the cave from the top, and I have to go first. Logan with his reassuring ways, manages to talk about rappelling into the abyss as well as the fear of it, as being something entirely normal. I lean back and start walking backwards, while slowly feeding the rope through the descender on my left hip. “Is it too late to change my mind?” I shout through the hole. “Yep.” is the answer. The body throws all kinds of instinctual reflexes at me to fight this and I suddenly don’t remember anything at all, expecting to flip over and fall down. Controlling the rope lefthanded turns out to be the wrong choice. My right hand wants something to do, but I don’t know that it would have been much better. Then the wall disappears under my feet, and there is nowhere to step. Hanging freely and rotating, my body is full of adrenaline and the arms with lactic acid. But, a realization that it’s working sets in, and it starts to get fun for the last stretch of the nearly hundred feet descent. Logan descends after.

“Would you do it again?” he asks. “Sure.” I reply, half-convincing with shaking legs. The room is truly majestic, with its soft shapes illuminated from above and from one side.

The next obstacle is a narrow tunnel. We crawl in head first into the darkness and the taste of sand, until it’s too narrow to get through and we turn around. There is supposedly another way out, but Logan is not entirely sure where. After returning to daylight, I ask who deems this to be safe. “Nobody, you have to use your own judgement.” says Logan, and tells me that the tunnel we’ve just crawled through has only been known for about seven years.

DARK SKY

After returning to the trailhead, I stay for the famous night sky. The contrast between day and night is stark. It gets dark quickly, and the temperature drops immediately.

A pleasant, almost hot day, turns below freezing as the full moon rises behind the hoodoos. Goblin Valley recently achieved “dark sky certified” status. This means excellent 28

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stargazing and night landscape photography. There is no light pollution from cities or highways, and the park is sparsely illuminated. Where they haven’t been able to eliminate lights entirely, it is directed downward. The full moon interferes with the stargazing, but makes it possible to hike among the hoodoos in what practically feels like daylight, adding to the sense of otherworldliness.

Not far from Goblin Valley, are Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon, a popular family destination with easy hiking between the softly shaped sandstone walls. In some places you have to squeeze sideways between narrow walls, and sometimes you have to climb a bit, but anyone in decent shape can make it. The whole loop is a good half day hike of about eight miles, but it’s also worth going in for a bit, and turn around, if time is limited.

not checking that the rental car has a proper spare tire, and pray to whichever deity is responsible for air pressure.

I keep up the speed until I reach a fenced-in building in the middle of the desert: Buckhorn Visitor Center, where I will meet members of Mecca Bike Club and go for a ride. A friendly knock on the window. It’s Kim Player, speech pathologist in the Emery County school district by day, mountain bike enthusiast the rest of the time. Her husband, Rod, is retired from a career working for the county. Now he spends some of his time raising bees, but a lot of it riding horses and mountain biking. Rod and Kim load our bikes on the bed of their huge truck, and we all hop in and head for the Wedge Overlook, also known as “Little Grand Canyon”. We unload the bikes and head out on the Good Water Rim Trail.

“It got its name from a still down there,” says Rod. “This was during prohibition time, and there was a lot of bootlegging going on. Here in the San Rafael there are numerous places where there were stills. Lots of the

GOOD WATER RIM

A wide and mostly straight gravel road, in some places blocked by cattle, runs through the desert. I begin to regret 29

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Rod and Kim Player let loose together.

canyons, springs and potholes are named for that. That was of course pretty funny in a Mormon state.” The Mormon Church, which prohibits the use of stimulants, is very present in Utah, ever since Brigham Young brought his pioneers west, and still over 60 percent of the population belongs to the church.

“But I think there were a lot of good Mormons who were drinkers too.” says Kim. She and Rod are members of the church. “But I’m willing to make fun of our history.”

Kim adds. Rod points out a plant that is growing on the rim. “This is called Mormon tea or Brigham tea,” he says.

“It’s bitter, and you have to put in a bunch of honey for it to taste good. It gives you a bit of a buzz.”

The trail runs about 17 miles along the rim and is mostly flat, offering easy pedaling over moderately sized rocks and roots. Sometimes, however, the trail is awfully close to the edge. If there is one thing that signifies outdoor activities in Utah, it’s the lack of somebody to hold responsible for it if something goes wrong. Fences and designated parking spots are few and far between.

Common sense and mutual respect are the keywords.

There is a freedom in this that you rarely come across in America. The Good Water Rim Trail was long considered illegal, but still rather well known and accepted. Recently it has become semi-official and made its way into some

trail maps and guide books. The trail and the bike club were both founded by Lamar Guymon, a charismatic and beloved man, well-known in the community. He passed away in October 2018.

“We really miss him,” says Kim, “it’s too bad he’s not here, you would get a laugh.”

Rod stops and points over to the other side of the canyon.

“Over there is Lamar’s fall.” he says, and he and Kim explain how Lamar Guymon was riding alone when his tire got caught on something. He fell off his bike and over the edge, but was miraculously caught on a treetop, as if in a cartoon. He broke his arm and fractured his orbital bone, but managed to drag his bloody self-up, grab his bike, and get back to the car to drive home.

“He felt he couldn’t call the EMS.” says Kim, explaining that the illegal trail was almost singlehandedly built by him – and he happened to be the county sheriff. “But the fall was not what killed him, it was the diabetes.”

JOE’S VALLEY

Continuing on the gravel road, you reach the small twin towns of Castle Dale and Orangeville, in what was once a booming coal mining region. But the mines closed, and since the 1990’s, climbers from all over the world have been coming for the sandstone boulders. Joe’s Valley, a 30

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The Good Water Rim Trail was long considered illegal, but still rather well known and accepted.

Recently it has become semi-official and made its way into some trail maps and guide books.

The trail and the bike club were both founded by Lamar Guymon, a charismatic and beloved man, well-known in the community. He passed away in October 2018.“We really miss him,” says Kim, “it’s too bad he’s not here, you would get a laugh.”

Rod stops and points over to the other side of the canyon. “Over there is Lamar’s fall.” he says, and he and Kim explain how Lamar Guymon was riding alone when his tire got caught on something. He fell off his bike and over the edge, but was miraculously caught on a treetop, as if in a cartoon. He broke his arm and fractured his orbital bone, but managed to drag his bloody self-up, grab his bike, and get back to the car to drive home.“He felt he couldn’t call the EMS.” says Kim, explaining that the illegal trail was almost singlehandedly built by him – and he happened to be the county sheriff. “But the fall was not what killed him, it was the diabetes.”

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Theresa and John Moir, all packed up for a bouldering trip.

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HE FELL OFF HIS BIKE AND OVER THE EDGE, BUT WAS MIRACULOUSLY CAUGHT ON A TREETOP, AS IF IN A CARTOON. HE BROKE HIS ARM AND FRACTURED HIS ORBITAL BONE, BUT MANAGED TO DRAG HIS BLOODY SELF-UP, GRAB HIS BIKE, AND GET BACK TO THE CAR TO DRIVE HOME. .

few miles northwest of the towns, is becoming one of the world’s premier spots for bouldering. On a Friday morning at the end of the season, a few cars and vans are parked along the road. Adolfo from British Columbia is just waking up in his van. He is taking a rest day after a few intense days of climbing. He has been on the road for five weeks. Soon, another van rolls in. It’s Steve, originally from Arizona, but at the moment he is nomadic, roaming the country in his van and climbing rocks. “Climbing ruins lives,” he says. He took to the road after graduating from college in the spring of 2018. Alex Patten and Tina Pride from Maine add to the group. They offer repairs on equipment and clothes out of their van. From a small tent on the campground across the road, Theresa and Jon Moir emerge with big mattresses on their backs. They are just about to begin the final day of their climbing vacation before a 16 hour drive straight north, home to Calgary, Alberta. The couple met through climbing.

Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that requires very little equipment: climbing shoes, chalk for the hands, and a pad to fall on. The idea is simple: problems of various difficulty are to be solved. “The whole point is to do it from start to finish without falling. It takes a lot of patience and strength to get through it,” says Theresa Moir. “You spend a lot of time to figure things out, then just climbing on and falling off. You become very familiar with failure and falling. You spend most of your time falling off. That’s what makes it so much sweeter when you make it.”

What is now known as bouldering was used as training for larger ascents at the end of the 19th century. That’s when the words “bouldering” and “problem” started appearing together in British climbing literature. Bouldering emerged as a separate discipline in France in the early 20th century. In the US, the difficulty of problems is graded on an open-ended scale beginning with V0. “The V grade system was started more as a joke,” says Jon Moir.

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In front of them laid the pure vista, imperfect and full of ecstatic joy.

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A mattress pad to fall on, some chalk and a pair of climbing shoes is all that is needed.

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GOBLIN VALLEY RECENTLY ACHIEVED “DARK SKY CERTIFIED” STATUS. THIS MEANS EXCELLENT STARGAZING AND NIGHT LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY. THERE IS NO LIGHT POLLUTION FROM CITIES OR HIGHWAYS, AND THE PARK IS SPARSELY ILLUMINATED.

“V actually stands for ‘vermin’, which was a statement that climbers shouldn’t take grades too seriously.”

V1 means that a problem can be completed by a novice climber in good physical shape. V17 is the highest number assigned so far. At Joe’s Valley, the boulder Scuzlock has the most difficult problem, V13. Theresa and Jon are working on “Scrawny Variation”, a V7 problem. They are taking turns, one cheering on the other, who is hanging under the rock, holding on to cracks with fingers chalked for dryness and grip. After several attempts both of them make it.

For a long time, most Orangeville and Castle Dale residents were unaware of the climbing scene and how attractive the area is for climbing, although some noticed visitors showing up at the public library for wifi and at the gas station for coffee. Things started to change in 2015, when climbers helped with a town cleanup. Town officials came to find out why so many people from all over the world would come to visit one of the emptiest counties in America. As conversations progressed, it was decided that an annual festival should be held in Joe’s Valley. Amanda Leonard, a volunteer for Emery County’s tourism department reached out to the climbers Adriana Chimaras and Steven Jeffrey, and things started moving quickly. The first Joe’s Valley Festival happened on a cold Thanksgiving weekend the same year. Only the most stubborn climbers showed up. Since then, the festival is held during the usually more pleasant last weekend of September. It has grown to be one of Americas top climbing events, but it’s not all about climbing. It is also an event where climbers and non-climbing locals – put simply: boulderers and cowboys – can meet and get a taste of each other’s worlds. Rodeo games, ghost tours, yoga, and climbing are on the schedule.

Along the road there are several spots for a tent or a van, and in some places a simple bathroom. Most sites are free of charge. Joe’s Valley is no longer a secret. Around 15,000 visitors come here every year. The coal-fired power station remains the largest employer, but climbing is starting to have an impact on the local economy. The only coffeeshop within an 11-mile radius, Cup of Joe’s, opened up in 2017

out of the Stilson family’s home in Orangeville. At times cars are parked bumper to bumper around the bouldering sites. “We’re just a bunch of ants. On the weekend it’s quite busy here and it’s like everyone is everywhere, we’re seriously like ants swarming the boulder. It’s funny,” says Theresa Moir.

GOOD TO KNOW

Getting around is generally not hard, but takes some preparation. You will almost certainly be driving. The main roads are mostly very good. A regular car will do for most needs, but some gravel roads require 4WD and high clearance. They are often marked. There are large areas without cellphone service, so planning the route before leaving rather than relying on the GPS is necessary, and there are not many service stations, so the gas tank needs to be filled, the car needs to have a proper spare tire, and you need to bring food and plenty of drinking water before heading out. In the summer, humidity is very low and the temperatures high.

92% of Emery County is public land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. BLM has generous rules for camping. There are campgrounds that require a fee. Most of them are on a first come first serve basis, but for some, reservations can be made at recreation.gov. Most public land is also open to dispersed camping. Dispersed camping is allowed for 14 days within a 28 day period. After that you have to move 25 miles.

Conditions can change suddenly. Rain is rare, but when it comes there will be flooding due to the sparse vegetation and hard, rocky ground. Being in a canyon can then become suddenly very dangerous. For even if the rain falls far away, the water will naturally finds its way through these ancient riverbeds. Keeping an eye on the weather report is necessary. blm.gov getinthewild.com theswellutah.com 38

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San Rafael Swell is almost even more beautiful as the night and darkness creeps in.

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MEMPHIS | TENNESSEE

DRY RUB RIBS SOUTHERN GRILL

For over 70 years the Rendezvous restaurant has been a Mecca for meat-lovers, tickling taste buds with its renowned signature dish - a unique family recipe turned quintessential southern staple: Memphis-style, dry-rubbed ribs.

WORDS AND PHOTOS: SIMON URWIN

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Y

ou’ve gotta treat the meat with tender, loving care”, says Henry Lee Morris with a smile as he slowly unpacks a box of glistening pink pork ribs, fresh from the butcher. “That’s one of the secrets to great barbecue. You gotta put your heart and soul into what you’re doing. You also need a quality product and you gotta get your technique right. Those things add up to making Memphis barbecue taste as good as it does; it’s the best you’ll eat in America.”

The 54-year-old pitmaster opens a kitchen oven, allowing a waft of heat and delicate wood smoke to escape into the ether. One by one he stacks the ribs on a charcoal grill rack, then closes the door so the amber coals can start working their magic. “We use a special cut from the pig loin which is done to our own specification and we cook it for 90 minutes”, explains Morris. “I baste them with a vinegar wash half-way through then we finish them with a shake of our dry rub. Then they’re good to go - full of flavour. It’s how the Rendezvous has been doing ribs since it first opened in 1948.”

Ellis pauses to check on the progress of lunchtime preparation before going on to explain the intricacies of the Memphis-style barbecue.

“Everywhere in the country has a different way of doing it”, he says. “Some states might prefer brisket but here we love our pigs and our pork. We like it pulled, yes we do.

But we especially like a big ol’ rack of ribs. We go through around 6,000 pounds a week in the restaurant, some weeks up to 8,000 pounds.”

While some food joints use the ‘wet’ method (brushing the ribs with a sauce before, during and after cooking), at the Rendezvous, they have their own pioneering twist on the alternative, ‘dry’ technique.

“We never marinade the ribs – we don’t need to because the meat is already flavoursome. We cook over hard wood charcoal which puts just enough smoke taste into the ribs – enough, but not too much. A lot of places use mesquite and hickory and all that kind of thing but there’s a real purity about this place – we’re not trying to do anything super fancy. We’re grilling not smoking - there’s a big difference. When you smoke meat you let it sit for four to five hours. When you grill it, it cooks fast, you have to keep a close eye on it – but it also means you get a better taste. So we grill neat, then we baste half way through with a little pickle juice, a vinegar solution, – it keeps the flame down, creates a little steam, so it moisturises the meat, adds yet more flavour. Then we finish off with a dry seasoning of salt and spices, a rub created by the original founder Charlie Vergos, now no longer with us. It’s a family secret you know? They keep it locked in a safe.”

Ellis’s voice noticeably quietens at the mention of his former boss’s name. “I’m now in my sixties and I first started working at the Rendezvous when I was 13”, he confides. “I joined twenty years after Mr Charlie opened up, and I’ve been here ever since. It’s the first and only job I’ve ever had. I dropped out of school in 10th grade - I didn’t have a choice because I had to take care of myself.

Both my parents had passed away, but that’s life. I got on

PREPPING

It’s early morning and the basement restaurant, located downtown in a hidden alleyway, is already a whirlwind of activity. Linen napkins are being studiously folded into neat triangles; tables are being dressed in their bright redcheck tablecloths, while the kitchen stations are frantically chopping, slicing and roasting, all under the watchful eye of Bobby Ellis.

“We get the grills going at 7am and we cook all day long”, says Ellis, the kitchen manager. “We cook all kinds of meat – chicken, lamb, sausage, beef. You’ve even got vegetarians nowadays”, he says with a rather incredulous chuckle, “so we cater for them too. But deep down, we’re all about the hog.”

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A locals' joint for more than 70 years, and a sign that says it all.

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The importance of a heavy, sturdy napkin can not be underestimated.

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There are different traidtions from state to state. In Tennesse, you do a dry rub.

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with it and got in with good people by starting working here – they became my surrogate family. Mr Vergos was a good man. Tough, but fair, and above all, kind.”

Ellis excuses himself to welcome the first customers of the day with his beaming smile. The trickle of loyal clientele soon turns to a flood and by the time the clock strikes midday the dimly-lit space is crammed - humming with the sound of chatter in the tipsy, sing-song accent of the Tennessee South; the clinking of beer bottles drifting across the room to a jukebox soundtrack of Memphis soul and delta blues.

portrait on the wall. “That’s my grandfather – my father’s father. He came here from Greece when he was 12 or so and set up a hot dog stand on Beale Street back in the 1960s. We still use his coleslaw recipe to this day – it’s around 100 years old. It gets copied by a lot of other restaurants.”

Vergos invites me to sit so I can sample from the menu, first calling out to a waiter and requesting he brings a pot of their much-imitated side dish. It’s delicious; tart from a dash of vinegar; sweet from a touch of sugar; a gentle kick from the addition of mustard. “It’s funny. The success of this place is really something of an accident”, Vergos explains, before suggesting I next try one of his favourite dishes on the menu: the Rendezvous’ brisket.

“My father Charlie entered the restaurant business with his brother-in-law, first of all by setting up a ‘meatand-three.’” (a traditional restaurant of the American South where customers could pick one meat and three side dishes from the daily selection.)

A FAMILY AFFAIR

“All these years later it’s still very much a family affair”, says John Vergos, 71, one of Charlie’s children, now the restaurant’s co-owner. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re so popular. People appreciate the heritage. This is one of the oldest restaurants in Memphis, and it’s the longest-running family joint in town.” He gestures to a 48

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The food was so good, we swore we saw the light from Heaven.

“JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU TASTE THE RIBS, THEY’RE THE REAL SHOWSTOPPER”, SAYS VERGOS, BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THE FAMILY HISTORY.

“It didn’t go well so they went their separate ways. My father moved into the basement and set up a sandwichand-beer business for men who had time to kill while their wives did their shopping. He called it ‘The Rendezvous’. Now it just so happened there was an old coal chute which he converted into a smoker so he could give his ham some flavour to make good sandwiches. It wasn’t some great Thomas Edison moment of invention, just pure luck that he started barbecuing.”

Vergos pauses as the plate of brisket arrives. Smoked for almost a day, it’s been seasoned then slow-cooked for 6 hours. It’s so tender it falls apart at the tap of a fork; the flavour so full, it elicits a coo. “Just wait until you taste

the ribs, they’re the real showstopper”, says Vergos, before continuing with the family history.

“Anyway, over time, Charlie tried other ingredients in the smoker - like salami, which sold well, and chicken and oysters, which didn’t. His butcher then suggested he try ribs. At that time, ribs were considered scrap meat, used for big, outdoor cooking days like the 4th of July in poorer neighbourhoods. He was the first to start cooking ribs in a restaurant.

And the formula he came up with we still use to this day.”

A waiter then brings a rack to the table. The famous ribs are gloriously sticky and chewy with coal-charred flavours around the edges; the Rendezvous’ trademark red spice rub providing a zingy aftertaste.

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Bobby Ellis is ready for the day’s rush.

He has worked here since he was 13 years old

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Mr, Charlie, himself. Charlie Vergos started the bar in 1948.

This page: BB King.

Next page: BBQ King.

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The friendly Bobby Ellis loves his job at Memphis’s oldest family restaurant.

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The jukebox is loaded with the classics.

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Food, for real.

THE RENDEZVOUS REGULARLY SERVES THOUSANDS OF COVERS ON A SATURDAY NIGHT, AND COUNTS THE LIKES OF AL GREEN, AND THE ROLLING STONES AS REGULARS. THE KITCHEN HAS EVEN CATERED FOR THE LATE GREAT ISAAC HAYES

“To make it, he took classic Mediterranean flavours: garlic, lemon and oregano and played with them. That’s a typical thing to do in a town like Memphis. It’s on the Mississippi river – a place full of different cultures, open to ideas. He loved chilli peppers and the seasonings he tried in New Orleans so he mixed the Greek with the Cajun and threw in paprika to give it a burnt orange glow, a barbecue look. Nothing was scientific or thought out, it all just kind of clicked. He created a whole new barbecue category in the process. People went nuts over it, and the rest is food history.”

as regulars. The kitchen has even catered for the late great Isaac Hayes, and most recently, the Obamas, who ordered take-out to eat on Air Force One. “Barbecue is the dish that defines the city”, says Vergos, “and we’re a big part of that. We have a saying here: ‘when pizza leaves New York, that’s the day that barbecue leaves Memphis’. Until then - and I hope that day never comes – we’ll carry on burning up ribs with the best of them.”

REGULARS AND FAMOUS PEOPLE

Now a Memphis institution, the Rendezvous regularly serves thousands of covers on a Saturday night, and counts the likes of Al Green, and the Rolling Stones 55

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THE RHYTHM OF

THE SOUTH ATLANTA | NASHVILLE | NEW ORLEANS

Our music editor, Donivan Berube and the brilliant photographer Robert Lindholm took a seven-day road trip through the historic recording studios and musical tool sheds of Atlanta, Nashville, and New Orleans in search of residence in Southern rhythm.

WORDS: DONIVAN BERUBE | PHOTOS: ROBERT LINDHOLM

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eople talk as if Atlanta’s music scene began in 1994 with Outkast, Organized Noize, and the Dungeon Family. Their “dungeon” was the group’s home recording studio in producer Rico Wade’s mother’s unfinished basement. With no walls and no floors, it was nothing but a dirt hole in which they could write rhymes and record hits in perpetuity. Dig a little deeper, though, and the city supports a rich history of diversity in music, arts, and community that far predates this seminal turning point. While the modernization of rap and trap music in American pop culture has certainly taken its stronghold as the city’s identifying sound, younger generations might forget that Gladys Knight was born here, and so was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The city’s location on the southeast corner of the United States makes it an international stepping-off point for air travel (with the nation’s most heavily trafficked airport) as well as a veritable melting pot for immigration.

but when she finally made it here, the screams were deafening. Literally, if you didn’t bring earplugs then you went home hurting.”

It’s not just concerts that locals love about the Tabernacle either. People have gotten married here. Movies premiere here as part of Georgia’s burgeoning film scene. When Dave Chapelle recorded his Sticks & Stones stand-up comedy special here last year, a stunning red carpet of actors and celebrities were in attendance, either out of pure fandom or simply because their day’s filming had just wrapped.

The Tabby’s walls are adorned with fresh bohemian paintings and beautifully hand-carved wooden intricacies, preserved faithfully from its tired roof all the way down to the creaking boards in its heavily slanted floor. Massive organ pipes behind the stage provide a breathtaking backdrop to even the most minimalist of stage productions.

Performances have included Prince, Outkast, Kendrick Lamar, Bob Dylan, and a seemingly limitless roster of legendary artists on tour. Martin has noticed that the building seems to have fostered a unique reputation of credibility within the Atlanta hip hop community. “People simply want to play here,” he said, from younger stars like Chance the Rapper to legends like Killer Mike of Run the Jewels. For most, the Tabernacle is something of a last call to catch the superstars of tomorrow right on the cusp of global ascension.

TAKE ME TO CHURCH

In the heart of downtown Atlanta lies one of its oldest living relics, the historic Tabernacle music hall. Voted Paste Magazine’s “best place to feel sanctified by a guitar solo,” this neoclassical masterpiece operates as a loving throwback to its religious roots of the early 1900’s. Originally constructed in 1910 as a church for Dr. Leonard Gaston Broughton, his congregation numbered into the thousands and continued to grow rapidly, requiring repeated expansions and added accommodations to the building.

Nowadays, its busy 2,500-capacity concert schedule is managed by Live Nation alongside nearby sister venues such as the larger Roxy and Buckhead Theatres, plus smaller rooms like Aisle 5 and the Masquerade for up-and-coming artists. Marketing Manager Josh Martin recalled the exciting growth of Grammy-winning rapper Lizzo’s trajectory within Atlanta’s club circuit: “I remember seeing her play at the different smaller rooms in town,

ESCAPE THE TRAP WITH T.I. & COMPANY

Just 10 minutes down the street is the low key and understated Trap Music Museum, serving as the defacto epicenter for Atlanta’s claim to musical fame. Widely considered to be the “godfather” of the trap music genre, rapper Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (known professionally as “T.I.” or “Tip”) financed the museum in memoriam not just to the community he’s helped raise, but for the community that raised him in turn.

While shining a bright and unfiltered light on the dangerous lifestyles of the movement’s many stars, the artifacts are presented as more of a learning tool than a 58

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Getting ready for a gig at J.R. Crickets i Atlanta.

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Long live the Tabernacle, Atlanta.

“THEN OTIS REDDING TOOK ME DOWN TO MACON, GEORGIA,” HUGHLEY EXPLAINED. “HE WANTED TO SIGN ME TO A RECORD DEAL, BUT DIED THAT WEEKEND ON HIS WAY BACK FROM WISCONSIN.” HUGHLEY REMAINED IN ATLANTA FOREVERMORE, DESCRIBING THE SCENE THERE AS SOMEWHAT OF A SOUTHEASTERN LAS VEGAS CATERING HEAVILY TO JUKEBOX CROONERS LIKE BROOK BENTON.

glorification. “Gucci Mane’s Kitchen” is an exhibit not intended to encourage a culture of drug use, but as a faithful documentation of the storied rapper’s living quarters.

Directly beneath their commissioned painting of “Trap Music’s Mount Rushmore” is a recreation of the jail cell T.I. lived in for 11 months, a fate shared by so many of his contemporaries within the trap music scene. Guests are encouraged to tag the walls here, with so many signatures and drawings flooding in with each visit that they have to fully repaint every single week. The drugs and paraphernalia littering the coffee table in “Grandma’s House” are only as much a part of the scene as the baby photos on the wall or Eddie Murphy’s iconic Delirious stand-up comedy special playing on the television.

The complex averages around 3,000 visitors each weekend between the museum and its adjacent escape room, an experiential real-life puzzle wherein guests react with paid actors to “escape the trap.” Picture Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf reassembled inside of a trap house, with each minute detail of every room transporting guests into a scene from its founder’s memory.

asked to perform outside of an attendee’s barbershop to attract customers. One of the barber’s customers then asked the band to perform at his country club, and one lead turned to the next forever thereafter. A DJ at Atlanta’s WAOK radio station, named Sonny Woods, came on board as Hughley’s manager, and the legendary Joe Carpenter joined the band on guitar. Hughley recalls record producer Wendell Parker rolling into town on assignment, carrying $20,000 in his pocket to bribe local DJs into playing Hughley’s records. While varying iterations of the bands came and went, they became the go-to opening act for icons like Joe Tex, Irma Thomas, Big Joe Turner, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and the great Tina Turner.

“Gatemouth said that next time he came back to town, he’d play before us, not afterwards,” Hughley laughed.

“We were running all around and jumping off stage. He didn’t want to follow all that energy.”

He implored these stars for advice and took their lessons to heart. “They taught me how to perform, how to focus on the audience, to look them in the eyes and adapt to what they want to hear,” he said.

After writing “It Hurts Me Too” at just 15-years-old, the tune would go on to become his very first recording just a few years later at the age of 18. It was released on 7” vinyl in 1961, with Gladys Knight’s Pips singing backup vocals. This early success led to a deal with Buddah records, famed home to Captain Beefheart and other heavyweights, releasing more singles that followed.

“Then Otis Redding took me down to Macon, Georgia,” Hughley explained. “He wanted to sign me to a record deal, but died that weekend on his way back from Wisconsin.” Hughley remained in Atlanta forevermore, describing the scene there as somewhat of a southeastern Las Vegas catering heavily to jukebox crooners like Brook Benton. “All the hotels had blues clubs, so everybody would come through to play and stay there.”

After his band The Shadows warmed up the crowd with a few songs, Hughley was welcomed to the stage as the night’s star while launching into their rendition of “Rock Me Baby.” The set traversed a classic repertoire of soul

LEGENDARY SOUL SINGER GEORGE HUGHLEY

With great legend comes rare sighting, and the septuagenarian soul singer George Hughley is no exception.

Bringing his electrifying set to a weekly Friday night residency at Blind Willie’s blues club in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta’s northeast corner, Hughley arrived early and dressed immaculately, wearing a sharp three-piece suit topped off with a French beret and red sequined shoes.

Although originally from Louisiana, Hughley came to Atlanta back in 1954 after his grandparents died in a car accident. He was only 11-years-old at the time, and had mistakenly perceived his grandparents to be his actual biological parents. He moved in with his mother first, but was soon sent to live with extended family.

From there, Hughley set to playing guitar and writing songs quickly. He formed a band with some friends for the Howard High School talent show, who were ­subsequently 60

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Gucci Mane´s Kitchen in Trap Music Museum.

Inside the trap.

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Pop in to Blind Willies on Tuesday nights, George Hughley will be there!

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You know you want to have one.

You know it.

standards, blues ballads, and original songs, seamlessly blending Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, and an entire James Brown discography in medley. The band made way for Hughley’s Brown-inspired screams while the crowd joyously kept time. Those old records that he cut back in the day are now in extremely rare supply, selling for hundreds of dollars online when available, so it might be best to catch him live at Blind Willie’s instead.

in during one recording session when the turntable used to listen to demo takes stopped working. Dolly Parton wrote and recorded both “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day here, just after driving her car into the side of the building upon arrival. Grammy-winning songwriter Chris Stapleton picked up his first guitar ever on a family tour of the building at just seven years old. The world’s first vocal isolation booth is said to have originated here when technicians cornered Roy Orbison behind a few coat racks. The lowered ceiling tiles retain their yellowed stains of age, as does the chipped checkerboard flooring, but why restore something that was never perfect in the first place? The room was never about looking the best, but simply sounding the best.

And whereas Studio B showcases the spirit of Nashville’s history, Third Man Records is paving the way for its future. A record store, photography studio, and concert venue tactfully curated by its owner, Jack White, Third Man is the place to find anything White Stripes-related, with rare records, custom guitar pedals, and Hotel Yorba

THIRD MAN RECORDS AND RCA’S HISTORIC STUDIO B

Just north across the state line and into Tennessee brews an entirely different batch of music history. Since the origins of Nashville as “Music City” are most closely aligned with the heyday of country & western music of the 1960’s, its story has been more expertly documented as a national hub for the music business and its recording artists. The city’s oldest and most famed studios are still in use to this day, lovingly preserved as educational tools and exhibits unto themselves.

At RCA’s Historic Studio B, they’ve saved everything, down to the splintered pieces of a door that Elvis kicked 64

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Third Man Records, owned by Jack White, is a record store, club, and photography studio.

Three good things

snowglobes. The label’s expanding yet exclusive catalog is on foremost display, with releases from contemporary country rock songwriters to blues and country classics and psychedelic metal bands. Neil Young recorded an entire record here in their automated direct-to-vinyl record booth, with more 150-second sessions to follow by Willie Nelson, Shaquille O’Neal, and countless others.

Behind the store and through their office space is the Third Man concert venue and recording studio, featuring another direct-to-acetate vinyl lathe and tape machine.

Performances here are cut simultaneously for in-house production by renowned recording engineer George Ingram on the exact 1950’s Scully lathe used by King Records to make early James Brown and Motown records.

The machine is calibrated against each live performance for optimum vinyl playback in a hermetically sealed booth backstage, completely soundproof and wrapped with acoustic tiling so as to be fully isolated from even the loudest and heaviest of heavy metal shows happening literally on the other side of the wall. Ribbons of mixing

notes are strung about like party decorations, input notations ripped from the mixing console to make way for the next session. It seems that nothing in Nashville gets lost in translation, but preserved for all time to provide insight further down the road.

SWEET HOME CARTER VINTAGE

Just around the corner from Third Man is where husband-and-wife team Christie & Walter Carter opened the doors to Carter Vintage Guitars, starting out with only 150 instruments in stock. Six lightning-fast years later, their inventory has skyrocketed to include an average of over 1,700 of the finest, rarest pieces of craftsmanship in the world. It’s not just the highly sought-after 1950’s Les Pauls and Telecasters on display, but stranger artifacts as well. There are guitars autographed by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bill & Hillary Clinton, or a homemade Bo Diddley guitar with a CD player embedded into the plywood. The very last G&L bass that Leo Fender worked on was resting on the counter, his scrappy pencil markings and loose 65

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There's a new sheriff in town.

The jacket, the hair, the hat and guitar case – world class.

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Hey Ya! Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

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Rebirth Brass Band in da house!

The mighty Mississippi River runs through New Orleans.

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That feeling when you find an album that you thought was lost away forever.

­ easurements still intact. The world’s first Ro-Pat-In m electric guitar hangs in the corner, a Spanish design from 1932, right next to the exact 1973 Stratocaster on which Ed King wrote and recorded Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” Several offerings from the shop’s collection are listed for well over $300,000, while the bulk of their sales floor is comprised of the holy grail 1970’s builds of Fender, Gibson, and Martin’s most prized models.

While the store hasn’t been open very long, Walter worked for a decade as Gibson’s in-house historian and has written a dozen books on the subject, establishing Carter Vintage as the go-to destination for any and all enthusiasts. On one afternoon, Lenny Kravitz, Chris Stapleton, and John C. Reily all arrived at the same time, all separately, to shop amongst the revered collection.

This has become something of a common occurrence, as Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb is known to stop by with his guests during studio breaks. The stars are out on every day of the week, it seems, and always in search of new tools and toys to utilize on the next album.

THE CRADLE OF JAZZ WITH JOHN MCCUSKER

While New Orleans doesn’t necessarily characterize “Southern music” in the way that places like Memphis or Nashville do, NOLA is without a doubt the nation’s most musical city. “New Orleans jazz was never a genre, it’s an entirely different way of playing music,” explained John McCusker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and jazz historian. “These guys were playing popular styles of ragtime and blues music, but making it something you could dance to. And that’s the same thing musicians are doing today, except that the popular styles of music now are rap and hip hop.”

We met at his home in Algiers Point, a sprawling archive of historic jazz artifacts and restored Victrola phonographs. McCusker began offering his “Cradle of Jazz” tours about 25 years ago, partly out of embarrassment that there were no other music tours, plaques, or similar commemorations happening in New Orleans. “The city’s number one best-selling tour was about hauntings; people would rather learn about ghost stories than the actual 70

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Rebirth Brass Band.

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A living encyclopedia with a rad hat. John McCusker shows around visitors to all of New Orleans music history.

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TALKING MUSIC WITH MCCUSKER IS LIKE SPEAKING INTO A VISCERAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, AND WITH HIS EXTENSIVE INVESTMENT IN RESEARCHING THE CITY’S HISTORY, HE HOPES TO DISPEL THE COMMON MYTHS AND INACCURACIES THAT ARE SPUN SO OFTEN.

histories of people from the very birthplace of American music,” he bemoaned.

Talking music with McCusker is like speaking into a visceral encyclopedia, and with his extensive investment in researching the city’s history, he hopes to dispel the common myths and inaccuracies that are spun so often, like the true story behind Louis Armstrong’s birthday (lying about his age simply so that he could get into the jazz bar where he was playing with King Oliver’s band). “Kid Ory said that Louis came up like a sunflower,” McCusker said, explaining that Armstrong was a kid once too, playing trumpet for others’ bands while in his late-teens and early-twenties, still too young to get into the bars where they were playing.

Having already published the biography, Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz, his most recent labor of love is the restoration of Kid Ory’s birthplace plantation. He dreams of the museum as an authentic document of New Orleans’ history, “not just another rich white family’s house filled with expensive European furniture.” McCusker earned his Pulitzer along with the entire staff of the Times-Picayune newspaper for their book Katrina: The Ruin and Recovery of New Orleans. “All my life I’d dreamed of this award,” he admitted. “But I’d give it all back just to sit on the couch in my old living room and watch a Saints game again.”

its salience in the future of New Orleans’ music. Their love for the venue is grounded even further back though, as saxophonist Ben Ellman used to work in the now-defunct kitchen. Now utilizing the room as a recording and rehearsal space, we joined the band as they prepared for another two week, 10-show tour across the United States, having just returned from the annual Jam Cruise festival with Les Claypool, Tank & the Bangas, and dozens more artists.

Hanging from the vaulted ceilings, exposed wooden crossbeams, and corrugated tin siding are the vintage concert prints and posters from their most recognizable performers: Memphis Slim, Dr. John, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Taj Mahal, the Meters, Buckwheat Zydeco, Doc Watson, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Bo Diddley, the all-star list goes on and on.

And converting old houses into legendary music venues seems to have become somewhat of a theme here, as the Rebirth Brass Band has called Tuesday nights home at the Leaf for three decades. In that time, they’ve been voted Best Jazz Band by Offbeat Magazine, won the 2012 Grammy for Best Regional Roots Music, and even have a beer named after them, NOLA Brewing Company’s Rebirth Pale Ale. A 30-year residency can’t come without its fair share of turnover, and the night’s lead trumpeter described getting the offer to come up. “People find out you can play,” he said. “And eventually you get the call.” Their lineup may change but the energy never dies, with their riotous sets being met with nonstop applause from the jam-packed Tuesday night crowd. The show felt very much like we’d stumbled into a neighborhood block party, the perfect balance of musicianship, brotherhood, and celebration, woven between original compositions, marching standards, and modern hip hop covers. In a city where brass bands set up nightly on each street corner to perform for tips, Rebirth’s longevity is a singular testament to their success.

REBORN IN BRASS

Uptown on the corner of Napoleon Avenue & Tchoupitoulas Street is Tipitina’s, the storied centerpiece of New Orleans’ live music venues. Though renamed after a Professor Longhair song, the building started out as a gambling house and brothel in the early 1900’s. Throughout more recent years, the WWOZ community radio station broadcast from one of the apartments upstairs, lowering a microphone through a hole in the floor to air concerts happening downstairs.

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PORTLAND OREGON | CITY GUIDE

Urban wineries, craft beer, craft distilleries and well, craft and handmade everything. Small scale, quality, and creativity go hand in hand in one of the USA’s most exciting cities. If you find yourself overwhelmed by all of this, don’t worry because there is pristine nature close by, and not to mention a valley full of vineyards. Questions? We are here to help with a guide, for a longer version check out americantrailsmag.com/cityguides WORDS AND PHOTOS: JONAS LARSSON

Han Oak- Cozy Modern Korean Welcome on home to The Chos! Chef Peter Cho and his wife Sun Young Park run their small and charming restaurant right next door to their home. Don’t be surprised if little Elliot comes running through the restaurant wanting to play in the outdoor garden serving area. At Han Oak you get the most fantastically modern Korean cuisine served up in equal parts trendy and homely.

Good wine list and cocktails. Simply a favorite! hanoakpdx.com | 511 Ne 24th Ave

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New Deal Distillery

”Do it simple and do it right” was the motto for Tom Burkleaux and Matthew VanWinkle when they started the first craft distillery in not just Portland, but the entire US, in 2004. Today it holds its place along Distillery Row, 11 craft distilleries in the northwest (NW) and southeast (SE) of Portland. New Deal sits in the small industrial area in South East, amongst several other crafty businesses. The third Saturday in every month there is the Distillery Row Crawl. All the distilleries mix up their own variation on a dedicated cocktail, so you can compare the tastes… at least, maybe the first three… newdealdistillery.com | 900 SE Salmon St

Lance and Melissa are this happy, even if they can’t drink on the job.

Melissa Girbach’s Favorite Bars DIVE BAR: THE SANDY HUT, see the next spread (page?)

TIKI BAR : HALE PELE 2733 NE Broadway St. | halepele.com DIVE BAR: CREEPYS NOT A CLOWN BAR 627 Southeast Morrison St. | creepys.business.site TAVERN: REEL'EM IN TAVERN: 2430 SE Division St. | Se facebook.

COCKTAILS: HEY LOVE: The bar at the Hotel Jupiter Next, 920 E Burnside St. | heylovepdx.com

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Olympia Provisions is a classic deli that we we’re shown as one of our stops with Big Foody.

107 SE Washington St, olympiaprovisions.com

ACE HOTEL, DOWNTOWN – THE ULTIMATE COOL

The Big Foody PDX, The Foodies Dream

There are endless possibilities to eat and drink well in Portland, but it can suddenly become overwhelming. It can be tough to find those truly genuine places with just the right amount of hipster anonymity.

We sought help from the professionals, The Big Foody. They organize food and drink tours with varying themes. We chose, “The Big Foody Central Eastside” tour. In the old industrial quarter hides some hidden gems. Tea tastings at Smith Teamaker was a fantastic start. I have been a tea drinker ever since. Onwards to the delis, coffee shops, and distilleries. I think there was a brewery in there somewhere too. We almost always recommend these kinds of food tours; not just because they are cool and educational, but one gets the chance to see and experience a lot and get the low down from the local guides on all the good places. Remember, the guide is probably just as nerdy about food and drink as you! thebigfoody.com

The Instagram-friendly Ace Hotel is one of our favorites, we have stayed here many a times. You always want to try and get a new room, cause each are unique and have their own appeal. Ace is a really cool and charming place, well thought-out and creative.

Gorgeous lounge, right next door to Stumptown Coffee and the beautiful restaurant Clyde Common.

Ace is right downtown, a stone’s throw from the legendary Powell’s Books and the thriving Pearl District. You can rent or borrow a bike and easily discover the city, or just enjoy and hang at the hotel.

Nice little breakfast hall. acehotel.com/Portland |a1022 SW Harvey Milk St, | clydecommon.com

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To dive for, the sandy hut

It’s not news to our dedicated readers that we love dive bars. The Sandy Hut screams dive bar; the outside, an oblong cinderblock and glass brick bunker, is a call back to the good old days. Inside it is comfortably dark and the air cool, perfect for an afternoon beer or for storing spices. A spice is exactly what this bar is, metaphorically speaking. In defiance to the newly built apartment complexes popping up all around this neighborhood, Sandy Hut adds a dimension of flavor to the area. I throw myself down in the bar and order myself a Pabst Blue Ribbon and a whiskey chaser. Judas Priest bellows from the speakers, this is how it should be. The girl behind the bar has a cool rock look to her, so cool that I quickly down my beer to gain some confidence to ask her for a picture, “not a problem” she smiles. Soon enough I have attracted the attention from the other five guests in the bar. A long and beautiful conversation starts, and ends a few beers later. Emerging from the bar, the light of day seems surreal. Best food tips: “The Fat Man Sandwich” a burger that would have Elvis pleasantly rolling around in his grave. What do you say about bacon, a fried egg, ham, all topped with fried onion rings?!

A jaw buster that has been served up on a burger here since the Hut opened in the 1960’s.

1430 NE Sandy Blvd

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Many classic brands come from Portland. Danner boots have been here since 1932. Feel it, you dig?

The King has his own bar, the Elvis Room is a beautiful watering hole.

Take a break.

Washington Park’s rose collection refreshes the senses.

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Four Favorites in

Portland DAnner boots, made in PDX

Charles Danner came to the Pacific Northwest to make the best boots. Demand was high from the lumberjacks. Today the boots are a sort of standard uniform amongst many of Portland’s inhabitants.

Check out the fine boutique downtown in the beautiful Union Way district. Here you’ll find not only boots and other Danner products, but also a great selection of outdoors gear and really nice staff.

A true Portland boutique experience. danner.com | 1022 W Burnside St.

The Elvis Room, royal We knew it. But not that he lost his hair.

Yep, the name says it all. A bar to honor the King.

Albeit not as tacky as one might expect, in fact this place is spectacular. A grandiose staircase leads up to the second floor's white and glowing bar, reminding us of the bordello that occupied this space some when else in time. Back downstairs the lights are a bit darker. Not quite a temple for Elvis but really just a cool bar with good drinks. Of course, yes, you can have a peanut-butter burger!

203 SE Grand Ave

Washington Park, park life

In June when the flower blooms are at their peak, a walk around the over 600 different varieties is absolutely stunning. The park opened up in 1915 with the intention of saving the roses in Europe from the atrocities of the First World War. The collection of roses has now grown to incorporate varieties from near and far, from all over the world, resulting in some unique hybrids. Take the chance to also visit the Portland Japanese Garden which is right next door. travelportland.com/attractions/portland-rose-garden japanesegarden.org

Cup & Bar, Sweet and Strong Cup & Bar, great place for a coffee break. Try the avocado and cream cheese sandwich.

When Trailhead Coffee Roasters and Ranger Chocolate Company combined their efforts to start a modern coffee shop and chocolate store, Cup & Bar was born. This is a modern coffee shop in an old workshop, where you can hang you bike on a rack on the wall, so Portland. Try our favorite, avocado sandwich with lemon zest, you will not regret it. cupandbar.com | 118 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Base Camp Brewing Company

Like many others in the PNW (Pacific North West), Base Camp finds its inspiration from the nature surrounding it. The brewery has spectrum of beers, ranging from easily drinkable lagers to cask aged experimental beers. In the bar, an upturned canoe hangs over the guests. Here you can drink a pint of your favorite, or order up a flight with different beers in smaller glasses, perfect for testing new flavors. If you’re hungry, there 82 AMERICAN TRAILS are always some food carts at the ready just outside.

SPRING | 2020 basecampbrewingco.com | 930 SE Oak Street

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Lan Su Chinese Garden

Smack dab in the middle of Portland’s downtown is a little paradise. Climb in through the gates at Lan Su Chinese Garden and let all of the world’s troubles wash off of you. Built upon inspiration from Portland’s sister city Suzhou, in Jiangsu province in China, the gardens let the soul breathe a sigh of relief, as one wanders around. Take in the architecture from different angles and let the thoughts drift away into the waters of the ponds. lansugarden.org | 220 NW 2nd Avenue

Oui Wine Bar + restaurant The Neighborhood Wine Bar

Oui is a part of the urban winery, South East Wine Collective, located along the hipster neighborhood Division in South East Portland. Try out samples of wine from some of the small wineries and producers doing sustainable wine here. The atmosphere, a beautiful neighborly bar kind of relaxed. We are always stopping in here when we are in town. sewinecollective.com | 2425 SE 35th Place

Frock, Go frock yourself

Angie Heiney and Ali Wykhuis opened their doors on Alberta Street in 2003. Here you’ll find many small scale local designers in a retro hippie-chic atmosphere. Frock is a typical Alberta/ Portland-boutique built on integrity and that community feel. frockboutique.com | 1439 NE Alberta St

Deviled eggs at Oui, fun wine bar in the hip neighborhood, Division.

Calm in the middle of the big city, Lan SuTRAILS Chinese Garden AMERICAN well worth a visit.

VINTERis | 2019

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Portland is varied and gorgeous.

To bike around the residential neighborhoods is an experience in of itself and resets one’s moral compass. Good stuff Portland!

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Tiny House Hotel, Cozy in the North

Quite Possibly the coziest lodging in all of Portland, a handful of tiny houses organized like a small village in the lovely neighborhood of Alberta (NE). Here you stay in a camper trailer sized house built by local craftsmen with the environment in mind. tinyhousehotel.com | 5009 NE 11th Ave.

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Proud Mary. The place, the food, the coffee, the staff – totally awesome.

Jan Marc, a Californian with a smile as white as his magical wines.

Proud Mary Cafe – PDX, Best place to get stuck

I’ll come out and say it directly, once you come to this place you will not want to leave, you are happily stuck here. Nolan and Shari Hirte started Proud Mary in Melbourne, Australia 2009 and now they have opened up shop in the cool Alberta neighborhood in northern Portland. With their Australian charm and warmth, there’s no doubt you’ll find yourself at home here. Not to mention the food, coffee, and place itself proudmarycoffee.com | 2012 NE Alberta St.

Garagagiste PDX, Garage Wine

There are those that make more wine then Jan Marc, and there are those that make it in bigger facilities – actually, most do. Even being in the small scale Mecca, Jan Marc’s wine production is comparatively small, it is in his garage where these excellent wines are born. Now he has even started a little wine bar not far from his garage. This tall and sympathetic Californian makes the most magical wines, bottled up in return bottles with glass caps; buy, drink, enjoy, return, and repeat. It is of course perfectly ok to sit in the bar and enjoy the wine, shove down a Portland Chevré cheese with radishes and sea salt. I have written about Jan Marc before due to his incredibly well made and crisp wines, and I will surely do it again. janmarcwinecellars.com | 1225 N. Killingsworth St.

Early morning outside Doug Fir 87 Lounge at Jupiter AMERICAN TRAILS Hotel.

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Ready for changes at

Coyote Run Farm The climate issue is a problem that we simply gotta solve, says a group of farmers in Iowa. We trekked out to Coyote Run Farms and met two of them who are passionate about finding solutions to the greatest challenge of our time.

WORDS: JONAS CULLBERG PHOTO: MATTIAS LUNDBLAD

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Matt and Patrick. Two Iowa Farmers with the environment on their minds.

MATT AND THE FARMERS BELIEVE IN A PRACTICE KNOWN AS REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE, A NEW GROWING METHOD WHICH REDUCES CARBON DIOXIDE

I

EMISSIONS WHILE AT THE SAME TIME INCREASING CARBON STORAGE IN THE GROUND.

In his twenties he was on the path to become a Catholic priest, but instead Matt Russel decided to follow in the footsteps of his family and become a 15th generation farmer. Fifteen years ago he settled down at Coyote Run farm in Southern Iowa together his husband, Patrick Standley. Matt Russel has bigger ambitions then to just raise the shaggy Black Angus cows which trot along in the open spaces between the snowy hills of Coyote Run Farms pasture. He wishes to encourage the farmers of the United States to become an active voice in the questions surrounding climate change; a problem which in recent years has hit Iowa hard in the form of flooding and drought.

Through the organization Interfaith Power and Light, he has organized farmers to meet in churches where they together can discuss issues of climate change.

– They have developed a collective message through the conversations: We are farmers, and we work with solving

problems every day. We have a lot to offer when it comes to this problem, explains Matt Russell on a January morning in the farmhouse kitchen, all the while Patrick fries up some eggs and toasts some bread.

Matt and the farmers believe in a practice known as regenerative agriculture, a new growing method which reduces carbon dioxide emissions while at the same time increasing carbon storage in the ground. This is something Matt Russel has been experimenting with at Coyote Run Farm.

The project has had a big impact. Right before the Iowa caucuses in the beginning of February, were the Democrats begin the process of selecting their candidate to challenge Donald Trump for the Presidency, Coyote Run Farm had a string of Presidential candidates, like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, come out to visit the farm and discuss climate change and agriculture with Matt.

– They came here and learned what we do on the farm and that we, just like a thousand other farmers, are ready to work with climate change solutions.

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Through the organization Interfaith Power and Light, Matt has organized farmers to meet up in churches, where they together can discuss issues surrounding

CRAFT BEER | INGLEWOOD | LOS ANGELES

ANGELS AT THE LOOM

HEAVENLY BREWS

´

AT THREE WEAVERS

It wouldn’t be too surprising, it hasn’t made much noise – until now. One of the driving forces behind the changes being made out here, are some women who love to brew beer and create a meeting place where everyone is welcome.

We ventured off to the city which is on a lot of beer nerds’ lips.

TEXT AND PHOTOS: JONAS LARSSON

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F

or a few years it has been fermenting away out in an old industrial warehouse which has taken on a new life.

It’s not just a brewery—it’s grown to be a meeting place for the locals, where the place itself has taken on a special, intimate feeling. Where Inglewood and the people are at the center. This is how you want it to be, welcome to Three Weavers. Because a brewery should really be a lot more than just a place to brew beer.

Lynne Weaver, our founder, choose Inglewood for the site for the brewery because it is a part of Los Angeles that is undergoing change, the kind of change that one wants to be a part of and to contribute to, says Jesse Kercheval who shows me around Three Weavers. Jesse lives in LA and his daytime job is with CANarchy, which Three Weavers is a part of. Through CANarchy, craft breweries who want to expand and challenge the big guys are able to join forces and help each other out. But, and this is an important note here, they do not have to compromise their independence or methods when it comes to brewing beer.

”You had me at lunch” I think to myself. Out of the mouth comes, “Sounds absolutely fantastic”. We get our sandwiches from the lovely mother and daughter duo, and head back on over to Three Weavers to sit ourselves down in the tasting room bar. Jesse pours up a couple Seafarer Kölsch brews and he was so right, this sandwich is to die for. I have always been skeptical with vegan/vegetarian imitations of meat, but if it can be pulled off like this, then call me a believer! It hits the spot, paired excellently with a cold Kölsch, a classic beer style that always pairs well with food.

THE BREWERY

Three Weavers tasting room is the hearth of the brewery, the walls are lined with art created by local artists. Locals meander on in to hang in the bar, or enjoy themselves under the glow of lanterns in the beer garden. It’s like a big playground where everyone is welcome. We continue to taste our way through the beers. I go for one of the most popular in their standard selection, Expatriate, a West Coast IPA. It is a beautiful, well-balanced IPA with nice floral notes and a fresh citrus touch. The right IPA taste without a hop bomb in the mouth. I could drink a lot of these. Jesse suggests that we should go take a look inside the brewery, back to work for this guy, the beers can wait.

Kyler Sturtz, one of the brewers looks at a cask aged beer. I take the opportunity to ask him some brewing tips.

– Whats the most important aspect of making beer?

– There are a lot of important things, cleanliness is paramount, but when it comes to ingredients it is impossible to understate the importance of fresh hops. That is why it can be hard to find good American IPAs in Europe, it takes a while to import the hops and by the time they wind up in the process, they aren’t always the most fresh.

The most important thing for me is the floor, chimes in Jesse. It sounds a bit strange in my ears, but he explains that there is such wear and tear in this industry, that if one hasn’t built a proper floor, then problems will certainly arise. I take away that there is a lot of knowledge and experience that must be had to run a brewery. This explains the 30 people who work at and run Three Weavers.

VEGAN SANDWICH AND CRAFT BEER

Things are happening in Inglewood in the coming years.

The city is underway with the construction of SoFi Stadium which will become the new home turf for the NFL teams, the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. The city will see in increase in more visitors and tourists, more than ever before, and naturally Three Weavers will be a part of it. At the same time, with this influx of newness, one would like to do something for those who already live here.

Have you eaten lunch? Jesse’s question interrupts my day dream and comes off more as an order. I am so hungry I can barely concentrate on what he is saying.

There is an insanely good vegan/Cuban sandwich shop right next to the brewery, they make a crazy yummy vegan Cuban sandwich, and you won’t even notice that it isn’t meat. It’s run by a mom and daughter and they are so down to earth and charming, he says.

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FOTO: THREE WEAVERS

A party in true Inglewood fashion, amidst it all there's Oskar Blues Brewery, which is also a part of CANarchy.

Right across the street from the brewery are these two lovely ladies, 95 serving up the world's AMERICAN TRAILS best vegan food.

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Adrianna Hodapp is one of the brewers at Three Weavers.

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Some of the beer is aged in old bourbon barrels.

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A complete and very Californian design on the cans, with skateboard motifs in the background.

Kyler Sturtz stands a proud brewer in front of the kegs that hold the aged beers.

I GO FOR ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR IN THEIR STANDARD SELECTION, EXPATRIATE, A WEST COAST IPA. IT IS A BEAUTIFUL, WELL-BALANCED IPA WITH NICE FLORAL NOTES AND A FRESH CITRUS TOUCH. THE RIGHT IPA TASTE WITHOUT A HOP BOMB IN THE MOUTH.

Jesse shows me the beer kegs made of plastic, used for beers heading for export. We are in California and it shows. Not just in this case of recyclable beer kegs, or the vegan food, but in the whole sustainable approach of this brewery.

she found Alexandra Nowell, all the pieces came together.

Brew master Alexandra Nowell was no greenhorn when she hopped on the Weavers train in 2014. From the beginning she learned from the legendary craft beer pioneers at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, which started in Chico way back in 1979. She’s been navigating the waters of the craft beer world for many years. When Lynne called her up and invited her out to Inglewood to be a part of creating a new brewery, where she herself could decide the developments and production of her own beers, the answer was a resounding yes.

There was a gap in the Southern Californian market when Golden Road Brewing got bought up by one of the big breweries, pulled a Robert Johnson and sold its soul to

EXPERIENCED BREW MASTER

Three Weavers is a relatively young brewery. It started in 2013 by Lynne Weaver who named it after her three daughters, Three Weavers! Lynne who was always a dedicated home brewer, wanted to take the step and break out in the craft brewing industry. To do this she needed a capable and talented brew master that understood her ideas and concept, and who could also brew beer. When 99

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The heart of the brewery.

The floor is the most important aspect for a brewery. Nothing works on a bad floor.

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FOTO: THREE WEAVERS

Three Weavers tasting room is connected right to the brewery. Always a good mood in this place.

THE AMBITION TO BE BIGGER HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE, BUT SELF-RELIANCE IS CRUCIAL FOR THREE WEAVERS. THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO, TO JOIN FORCES WITH OTHER BREWERIES WITHOUT SELLING OUT THEIR SOULS IN ORDER TO GROW, CAME IN THE FORM OF CANARCHY.

the devil as some say. Given up to reality and realized that it just wasn’t going to work anymore, say others. It was judgement day for those who still dreamed that there was room for a bigger, but independent, brewer in these parts.

In the same moment that Nowell jumped on board the train, Three Weavers began their journey. The ambition to be bigger has always been there, but self-reliance is crucial for Three Weavers. The opportunity to do so, to join forces with other breweries without selling out their souls in order to grow, came in the form of CANarchy. CANarchy is a cooperation comprised of independent breweries spread out across the whole country. Amongst its ranks you can count the Colorado grown Oskar Blues and the Tampa based Cigar City. The breweries hold on to their philosophy, their methods, and their freedom, all the while helping each other with distribution and other ­battles that

are needed to stand up to the big guys. Cockiness, individuality, and forever uncompromising, all canned up.

Not to mention they organize the beer, music, and outdoors festival, “Burning Can”. It takes place in May, in Lyons, Colorado and in August in North Carolina (burningcancolorado.com). The lanterns out in the garden light up, the buzz and commotion swells. All the locals head on in to Three Weavers to cap off the day. Every self-respecting city needs meeting places like this. I round off my visit with a dessert beer, Midnight Flight, a beasty Imperial Stout, big in flavor and dark in the glass, much like the Californian sky that has transformed since I stepped through the doors here. The flavor packed beer goes down smooth, I drink slowly. Got to enjoy every sip, and be mindful of the 9.5% ABV we are dealing with here.

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Jesse Kercheval is pleased to say that Three Weavers is now a part of the proud line up that is CANarchy.

Outside of their base range of beers are many experimental beers of varying styles.

It can't be a brewery if there's no brewery dog around.

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THIS AMAZING

VAN LIFE OR THE ART OF CAPTURING THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY

Sell everything you can, pack your bags and get a plane ticket – but above all else – make sure you find yourself somewhere that gives you the freedom to do what you want, whenever you want.

It was fate that lead photographer Emil Nordin and his girlfriend, Maxime Jonsson, to meet Vanona Rider.

WORDS AND PHOTOS: EMIL NORDIN

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ONE WEEK AND SEVERAL EMPTY HOURS SPENT ON CRAIGSLIST LATER, WE ROLLED OUT ONTO THE HIGHWAYS IN OUR NEW HOME AND OUR BEST FRIEND – VANONA RIDER. 5,500 POUNDS OF STEEL, HORSEPOWER AND PURE LOVE.

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e had talked about it for many years, but there was always some obstacle, some excuse that got in the way.

The idea to travel far away, not just to discover new places, but to experience a new everyday life, had captivated me and my girlfriend Maxime. We dreamed about seeing North America’s many faces from a close up perspective, and soon enough it became apparent that nothing else could compare to the freedom of Van Life. To not be tied down to one place, to one society, it felt intoxicating and liberating.

In the end we realized that the perfect opportunity would probably not just preset itself, or maybe even, it could be right around the corner. We saved up our cash together as much as we could, asked for leave from work, sold what we could at home in Stockholm and bought our plane tickets. With heavy bags and a long list of National Parks, we landed in Vancouver in the beginning of June. The route was plotted from British Colombia in Canada towards Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, with Alberta being the final destination and our point of return. Like a lasso and the West. Five months, eleven states, and countless miles in front of us. Now it was all about finding a ride.

One week and several empty hours spent on Craigslist later, we rolled out onto the highways in our new home and our best friend—Vanona Rider. 5,500 pounds of steel, horsepower and pure love. Destiney had given us this God-like creation complete with beds, kitchen, and just the right amount of storage that our new found nomadic lifestyle required—thanks to the previous owner for installing.

A more than adequate sound system and the sweet drone from the 20 year old V8 drowned in the tones of War on Drugs, blasted as we began our journey towards the south. No one could have known what awaited, but one thing was clear—the perfect opportunity was right here and right now.

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SEDONA, AUGUST 29TH 6:33 PM.

It is said that Sedona has a high concentration of energy vortexes, a sort of spiritual energy well. The mountain Cathedral Rock is one of them. We has just been to the summit to see the sunset and decided to head back down for some dinner before heading back to the van. In an instant, the light fell and thunder rumbled as we trekked our way down through the darkness, amidst this natural display of light and sound. It hadn’t rained in many weeks and now the skies seemed desperate to squeeze some drops of rain from the dark but dry clouds. Maybe this was a vortex cooking up. Before we are back at the car, night had fallen and laid itself down over Arizona’s glowing blood-red and rumbling horizon.

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GRAND TETON, SEPTEMBER 23RD 5:53PM.

It shows that camper van culture is well established in the US and for many, it is a lifestyle above all else. On a plateu just outside of Grand Teton National Park we found a small community that shows just that. People from near and far fumble about, packing things up as the day turns to night.

Renovated vans and RVs fill up the flattened earthen spot. Kitchens are set up, ingredients are shared and borrowed, and experiences are exchanged between travelers. Neighbors for a night or two bound by a common love for an undemanding existence. There is something genuine and beautiful in these small gatherings regardless if they happen just once in a lifetime.

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ANTELOPE CANYON, SEPTEMBER 6TH 11:47AM.

The horizon is but a sliver, and the light just enough to illuminate the undulated sandstone path.

Antelope Canyon with its winding trails is a product of the powerful forces of erosion not that of man’s sculpting hand. They have been here for thousands of years, like monuments of nature’s fantasy, showing us that we humans have much to be learned.

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YELLOWSTONE SEPTEMBER 24TH 1:18PM.

Buses packed with European and Asian tourists roll in, but disapear quickly in the dense fog. A dream like sensation takes over when we stroll around the damp gangplanks, lost amongst the world’s largest steam pools. The warm springs are the finishing touch on the natural masterpiece that is Yellowstone National Park. The park is a brilliant manifestation of the American “more is more” mentality with its expansive plains, blasting geysers and majestic bison. It is a Mecca for the nature-lover like me, but never before have I felt so much like a tourist. Maybe it is due to the millions of annual visitors, or to the fact of its own geography, it can really only be experienced for most by car. It would take in all actuality years to explore it by foot, immersed in the true wilderness. This is exactly what we fantasize about as we drive away.

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SILVERTON, SEPTEMBER 8TH 3:57PM.

Silverton has always enticed those who are looking. Not all that long ago a group of well-meaning and hopeful Americans struck gold and found the American Dream.

Today this small society lives off another hard to find resource. Tourism has, for a long time, been the industry that replaced the old metals, and now is the new life source for these small mining towns. The history unravels itself in a poetic way when we puruse through the small mining museums, saloons, and photo studios where one can get a vintage sepia portrait taken dressed up in traditional 1800s attire. It is a time capsule soaked in the romanticized American West, but in the background and behind it all is the everlasting search for sustenance, for survival, for means. Four wheel drive desert jeeps stand at the ready along the main drag, waiting to haul out new visitors to the gold miner’s old hunting grounds. A journey to where it all began. 116 AMERICAN TRAILS VÅR | 2020

GRAND TETON SEPTEMBER 22ND 12:30.

We are reaching the 17th National Park on our list, and maybe it can be a bit understandable that there is a feeling that we are getting full, like after a really big but amazing meal. But, when Grand Teton slowly starts to emerge through the tree line it is impossible to not be completely taken aback. The horizon moves and meets the sky, mountain tops pierce the clouds in regal triumph.

We just got a message to be rerouted after a warning that the grizzly bears are descending the mountains, on the hunt for precious pounds. The latest snowfalls in the past few days has caused the bears some stress, forcing them to look for food farther out into the park before winter comes. Nature, ever uncompromising—this time she will get her way, and we happily oblige. Maybe this is the sort of cognitive behavioral therapy the modern person needs.

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GRAND CANYON, AUGUST 26TH, 7:01 AM.

It’s a hard not to become just a little bit religious from the nature we are encountering. As a big fan of the Swedish topography, it pains me to say that this continent takes the cake. It feels more and more like a journey between worlds then a trip between states. Just now we were enjoying some of the rarely found shady areas and an over worked air condition unit.

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ZION, SEPTEMBER 4TH, 9:22 AM.

The road winds itself like a 2,000 mile long asphalt storm, and we ride through deserts nestled between the mountains and along the rivers. We have left Arizona and unknowingly crossed state lines. Utah is, in a lot of ways, a sort of inverted mirror of its neighbor. The same dusty red path that led us down into the Grand Canyon, began to take us up towards Zion, and further on towards Arches ancient portals. The glimmering heat follows us constantly, just like the otherworldly feeling that characterizes the landscape.

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people of

PHILLY

We hang out in Philadelphia with a group of beautifully creative people that helped everyone out in order to create the city we just can’t get enough of. Simply put—People of Philly.

WORDS AND PHOTOS: JONAS HENNINGSSON

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Michelle Dewey Amongst Vintage Jeans and Leather Jackets Passyunk Avenue in Southern Philadelphia cuts diagonally through the neighborhood, differentiating itself from the grid pattern characterizing much of Philadelphia’s other streets. But this isn’t the only unique quality here, Passyunk Ave has much more matchless charm to it. Revolt and yet, cheekiness, could also be said with a strong affinity for this stretch of asphalt. If you like vintage shopping and provocative fashion, then you have ended up in the right place. A place definitely worth checking out is Michelle Dewey’s Mesh Vintage which is bursting with beautiful fabrics, not just vintage jeans.

Mesh Vintage 1820 East Passyunk Ave. Facebook: meshvintagephilly

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Bryan Kravitz– The Typewriter Guy “Type Ins began here, now it is all over the America.”

At Philly Typewriter, everything deals with typewriters.

Row after row of elegant vintage machines stand as if on parade. The founder, Bryan Kravitz shows us around.

“We started Type Ins here and now it has spread all over America.”

A Type Inn is a meeting where people gather take a drink or two, and talk shop over all things typewriters. Bryan also leads a project, The Philadelphia Public Typewriter Program, which aims to make access to typewriters more readily available in public spaces like libraries and bookstores, but also at home for everyday people. The goal is simple enough, to spread the usage of typewrites for all ages – to especially inspire kids with the sounds of clicking and clacking keys. A large blackboard shows which machines are at the moment under repair in the small workshop. People from all over the country leave their typewriters to be repaired here, no mail-ins, “It is not a good idea to mail a typewriter, they are treated like footballs in the post,” Bryan Explains. Everything is done by hand at Philly Type Writer.

Not a single blinking computer screen in sight.

– Hardly anyone seems capable of living without a computer these days, but we do, and so far it is working just fine!

Philly Typewriter 1439 E Passyunk Ave phillytypewriter.com 127

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Bill Covaleski – Beer Guru ”The fountain of Youth is right there, in a keg!”

Bill Covaleski smiles cunningly before he tells his story. Bill started Victory Brewing Company together with his childhood friend Ron Barchet for a hundred million years ago (1996 to be more exact) but he looks fresh out of college. Maybe this actually could be the fountain of youth as I sip down a sour beer from the huge tap list at a favorite spot, The Standard Tap. The American beer scene has got to change in order to keep pace with the changing tastes of the world, Bill describes, for the world now drops hops like bombs exactly like the USA did when it became famous for craft brewing after the beer revolution. For Bill it has never been a problem, he has always had a foot deeply anchored in Europe. When he began brewing with home batches with his dad in 1979 he tried to emulate the classic German Lager style of beer. Bill and Ron made a pilgrimage to Europe in 1987 and fell in love with the beer that could be found there. A few years later they founded Victory, in Downington, Chester County, because it is advantageous to be just a bit away from the big city. Yet another thing that separates these pioneers from other brewers of their day, who seem to get a little extra knot in their livers for living in the big smoke.

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Philadelphia. Men Passyunk Ave är också motsträvigt på många fler sätt. Upproriskt uppkäftigt skulle man kunna säga med en stark samhörighet. Gillar du vintageshopping och upproriskt mode har du hamnat helt rätt. Ett ställe att spana in är Michelle Deweys Mesh Vintage som är sprängfyllt med sköna plagg, inte minst vintagejeans.

Mesh Vintage 1820 East Passyunk Ave. Facebook: meshvintagephilly

Julia Grassi Miss Demeanor thrives in the slaughter house

Mesh Vintage 1820 East Passyunk Ave. Facebook: meshvintagephilly

N.R.S Boutique 1822 East Passyunk Ave. Facebook: Nicoleraestyerboutique

Julia Grassi balances herself nicely in an armchair placed by a window inside her store People of Philly Miss Demeanor. Her butik is composed of the Vi hänger i Philadelphia och träffar ett skönt kreativa remains of what once before was a butcher människor som alla hjälpt till att skapa staden vi inte kan få nog av. People of Philly helt enkelt. shop and slaughterhouse. The space retains Text och foto: Jonas itsHenningsson raw style, the slaughter table, meat hooks, and some neon signs left behind, but the walls Nicole Rae Styer – skapar kläddrömmar clothes Passyunk har flerare än 150lined oberoendewith småbutiker längs den and bags. It’s American långsträckta avenyn och av dem är nästan hälften ägda clothing and fair trade goods. Julia runs av kvinnor. Det made är dubbelt så många som genomsnittet i landet. Många av dem säljer vintagekläder, second hand Miss Demeanor together with mother Katie, och designerkläder. Som Nicole Rae Styer som är designer och ägare bakom N.R.S Boutique.

Hon säljer egentillverthey’ve got two locations in town. kade kläder och vintage, liksom accessoarer man blir glad av.

N.R.S Boutique 1822 East Passyunk Ave. Facebook: Nicoleraestyerboutique

Miss Demeanor 1729 East Passyunk Ave. missdemeanor.com

Michelle Dewey - Bland vintagejeans och läderjackor Passyunk Avenue i södra Philadelphia skär diagonalt genom bebyggelsen till skillnad från många andra gator i

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Nicole Rae Styer Dressed Up Dreams Passyunk has more than 150 independent small boutiques all along the lengths of the avenue, and of those, almost half are owned by women. This is nearly double in comparison to the national average. Many of them sell vintage clothes and secondhand designer fashion, like Nicole Rae Styer who is the designer and owner behind N.R.S Boutique.

She sells handmade clothing and vintage accessories to complete your look.

N.R.S Boutique 1822 East Passyunk Ave. Facebook: Nicoleraestyerboutique

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Tony and Johnny The creative boys behind South Fellini I meet Tony Trov, one half of Tony and Johnny, at South Fellini. Tony started South Fellini together with his is old comrade Johnny Zito, both from South Philly, a brothers in arms operation since their days at Temple University.

Tony and Johnny have several notches under their belts: film work, comic book authors and clothing design to name just a few. Everything is goes out under the umbrella company South Fellini that is impossible to miss on Passyunk Ave. The heavenly blue façade draws you in, but it is the duos funny t-shirts, pins, and patches is what will make you stay.

South Fellini 1507 East Passyunk Ave. southfellini.com

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To dive for

DO OR DIVE, BEDSTUY | BROOKLYN, NYC WORDS AND PHOTO: EMIL WESOLOWSKI

The place is located in an old Bedstuy space right off of Bedford ave. One that was previously populated by Justin Warners wonderfully strange Michelin awarded eatery Do or Dine. Instead of rebranding the exterior, the new owners chose to keep the old signs, and corruptly spray painted a “v” over the “n” in dine, spelling Do or Dive. On the inside, the theme stays true to the outside and the walls are loaded with decadent and ironic decorations and memorabilia.

Drop in at around 3 pm on any weekday for a calm and intimate atmosphere and strike a conversation with the friendly bartenders – or dive in at 9 on a Friday night for a loud, crowded and overall punkier vibe.

There’s a chance you might have to deal with an occasional roach in the restroom sink. But the Narragansett is $4 and their boozy frozen coffee is truly to die for.

1108 BEDFORD AVE, DOORDIVEBEDSTUY.COM

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THE AMERICANS

“Anyway, here we are. We’ve had a nice life, and I got a whole bunch of more kids.”

B

WORDS AND PHOTOS: MATTIAS LUNDBLAD

ruce and Ann Nelson were high school sweethearts, but it took them over 50 years to marry. We meet in their house outside Green River, Utah. Bruce has lived in the area since the age of four, when his family moved from Salt Lake City. The family grew melons, and Bruce’s father worked at the railroad. It was in the middle of World War II, and the steam powered trains stopped in Green River to fill up on water and coal.

“One of the first things I remember as a youngster was throwing cantaloupes up into the troop train windows. We parked that old pickup right beside the track, and they wouldn’t let the soldiers off, so they opened the windows. I don’t remember watermelons, they were probably bigger than me,” says Bruce.

PUPPY LOVE

Bruce and Ann met as teenagers. She had moved from Hanksville, about an hour to the southwest, where the school only went to the eighth grade. Ann’s family, who had a business trucking uranium from the mines nearby, relocated to Green River. Bruce and Ann went to school together and started dating. After high school and some college studies, Bruce went to Western Samoa on a mission for the Mormon Church.

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LIVING WITHOUT MODERN CONVENIENCES WAS NOTHING NEW FOR BRUCE, WHO HAD SPENT MANY SUMMERS IN THE MOUNTAINS LOOKING AFTER THE FAMILY’S CATTLE, BUT HE REMEMBERS SPENDING SIX WEEKS IN BED, SICK FROM BAD DRINKING WATER.

“You had to be 20. I was still a young man. I got the call I have repented any of it, but I have mellowed out some, I guess.” from the church to be a missionary, and I left on January 4 of 1959. I had to learn the language, and I did fairly well, I think. We were actually the first group to be able to fly BLIND DATE AND NEW HORIZONS down. We flew from Salt Lake into Los Angeles. From In 2004 Dorothy passed away, and Bruce did not handle there to Hawaii, then to Fiji, then to American Samoa, being alone well. Ann was already a widow. Plans were and then by a little tugboat to Western Samoa. We lived soon made behind the scenes. mostly in areas where there was no running water or elec“My brother and his wife set up a blind date on Christtricity. We were always on the ocean, so mas morning,” Ann says. “I knew, ‘cause that’s how we bathed.” they can’t keep a secret, but Bruce didn’t THE AMERICANS Living without modern conveniencknow. His daughter in law told him es was nothing new for Bruce, who had Bruce and Ann Nelson what to wear and everything, but he didn’t even do it. It was in church, and he spent many summers in the mountains looking after the family’s cattle, but he was the group leader of the older people, GREEN RIVER, UTAH remembers spending six weeks in bed, so he showed up with all the old peoOCTOBER 23, sick from bad drinking water. After two ple,” She laughs at the memory. “Then 10.15 AM. we took him home and had a nice visit. and a half years, he came back to Green River and Ann. But the spark was gone.

That’s how it all started.”

“It was too long. We didn’t have it The spark is clearly back. You could mistake them for teenagers in love, taking every opporwhen I got back,” Bruce says.

“I was a good girl, and waited ’til he got home,” Ann tunity to hold hands, tease each other, and laugh. says. “Then I didn’t like him. So we both married someone “We’ll finish life together, I guess. I think she’s more else.” of a savior than anything. I don’t know how long I would Ann ended up in Vernal, 160 miles up the river with last being alone.” says Bruce. Ann, on the other hand, had her husband Johnny and had three children. Bruce would been alone for 13 years and was used to it. have eight kids of his own with his wife Dorothy. He “I had started a business and had my kids. I was okay. I became an elementary school teacher, all while keeping still felt married to somebody. Anyway, here we are. We’ve the farm going. had a nice life, and I got a whole bunch of more kids.”

“There are three good reasons to be a school teacher: June, July and August.” says Bruce. The long break is also the prime growing season for melons. He retired from teaching in 1996, and is not entirely sure how good he was at it.

“They were glad to see me leave. They didn’t want any more court cases,” Bruce says, laughing. “I paddled a couple of kids, and that got the parents upset. I don’t know if 140

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Old love never fades.

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PORTFOLIO

BY CHRISTINA JOHN-ROCKET I N S TAG R A M : D R I V E B Y _ S H O O T I N G _

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I received my driving licence in the UK flew to Los Angeles and drove up to Oakland for a festival. The 10 hour round trip was enough to secure my love affair with American road travel.

The old American way of road travel, where the journey was just as much about the experience as the destination was. Gas Stations, roadside attractions, small town detours and diner dinners resulting in brief encounters with Buck Williams who holds the ‘fastest draw’ world record and Cindy who leaves ‘have a nice day :) ‘ on a napkin with my cheque. It’s the America of the big screen but with a big genuine smile on top.

Life takes a slower pace in small town America and old neon acts as a reminder to an era of travel being bypassed with haste and urgency.

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FORGOTTEN CLASSICS

Bettye Swann

Don’t You Get Tired Too?

The Disappearance of Bettye Swann In each issue, American Trail´s vinyl editor Donivan Berube tells the story of classic, but forgotten, American album.

This time, Donivan looks for the lost Bettye Swann.

I

WORDS AND PHOTOS: DONIVAN BERUBE

f the music business really is “90% hype and 10% record,” Bettye Swann’s career as a rarified soul singer from the rural swamplands of northern Louisiana was built upon a statistical nightmare. And after climbing the ranks to major label record deals with relative success and tireless ambition, her decision to retire from the music business entirely after just three albums didn’t help her cause. So what then are her chances of being stumbled upon over 50 years later by unbeknownst record collectors? More importantly, what makes someone so willing to give up that which was once their defining work? And how does someone so talented step away so easily from the livelihood that they’ve spent an entire career working towards?

Born in 1944 in a small town just outside of Shreveport, Louisiana, Swann grew up as one of 14 children and left home immediately after finishing high school in her late teens. Her earliest memories in music were singing at

church with her mother or in a high school group called the Fawns. While the family worked as sharecroppers and picked cotton, Swann recalled singing songs by Sam Cooke or Booker T. & the MG’s and listening to Little Richard and Chuck Berry on the radio. Moving immediately to Los Angeles in pursuit of her own dreams as a singer, she signed her first record deal on her twentieth birthday and married her manager, George Barton. After moving across the country again, Swann passed on interest from Motown to make the major label upgrade to Capitol Records where she was paired with the company’s R&B specialist Edward “Wayne” Shuler. His father Eddie is the one who famously claimed that “the record business is nearly always 90% hype and 10% record,” having founded and managed a Cajun music record label of his own called Goldband while playing guitar in The Hackberry Ramblers. A fellow Louisianian himself, Shuler simply knew how to best utilize Swann’s sound, piling on experience over the years working multiple positions 158

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FACSIMILE FROM THE RECORD DON'T YOU EVER GET TIRED OF HURTING ME

with a varied spectrum of artists from arena rock stalwarts like Bob Seger and Johnny Winter to the more similarly soul-minded Billy Preston and blues guitarist Mississippi Fred McDowell.

While her first brush with success came right away with her 1967 debut Make Me Yours, it was the release of two albums in 1969 that became her absolute masterstroke.

Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me? and The Soul View Now! are each a flawless spin of earnest country soul in their own right, never mind that they both came about within the same calendar year. And though the title track to Make Me Yours was certainly her most commercially successful song (topping the R&B charts at number one while simultaneously breaking into the pop charts’ top 20), it’s 1969’s slow burner “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” that’s without a doubt her magnum opus. “Kiss me each morning for a million years / Hold me each evening by your side,” she hums to a simple and softly picked guitar. “Sweeten my coffee with a morning kiss / Soften my dreams with your sighs / Tell me you’ll love me for a million years.” It’s not the usual broken-hearted ballad soaked in pain and regret, but more of a sad send-off to the good loving she dreams of. “Then if it don’t work out, then you can tell me goodbye,” she concludes. “Then if you must go, I won’t tell you no / Just so we can say we tried.”

A sultry burst of horns behind a chorus of backup singers brings the hook home each and every time. The

A NATIVE TO THE WETLANDS OF THE SOUTH

A native to the rural swamps and wetlands of the South, Swann was just as adept at singing old country tunes as she was with R&B music, recording an unpredictable array of covers from Merle Haggard’s “Just Because You Can’t Be Mine” and Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man,” to Otis Redding’s “Chained and Bound” and “These Arms of Mine,” Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar,” mixed with 50’s pop standards and even a Bee Gees song in “Words.” Any potential breakout success that her dangerously romantic duet with Buck Owens might have garnered on “Today I Started Loving You” was quickly shelved due to the label’s fear of racial controversy. With the nation’s civil rights era in full swing, Capitol feared that their star country singer would be commercially derailed for singing with a black woman, and therefore kept them from appearing together on television or elsewhere in concert.

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A native to the rural swamps and wetlands of the South, Swann was just as adept at singing old country tunes as she was with R&B music, recording an unpredictable array of covers from Merle Haggard’s “Just Because You Can’t Be Mine” and Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man,” to Otis Redding’s “Chained and Bound” and “These Arms of Mine,” Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar,” mixed with 50’s pop standards and even a Bee Gees song in “Words.” Any potential breakout success that her dangerously romantic duet with Buck Owens might have garnered on “Today I Started Loving You” was quickly shelved due to the label’s fear of racial controversy.

WITH THE NATION’S CIVIL RIGHTS ERA IN FULL SWING, CAPITOL FEARED THAT THEIR STAR COUNTRY SINGER WOULD BE COMMERCIALLY DERAILED FOR SINGING WITH A BLACK WOMAN, AND THEREFORE KEPT THEM FROM APPEARING TOGETHER ON TELEVISION OR ELSEWHERE IN CONCERT.

albums’ production more closely resembles the Memphis soul style of Stax Records fame or the country-tinged Muscle Shoals swamp sound of Alabama. This song in particular never seems to arrive at an apex, but instead grooves within its own melancholy contentment round after round. The acoustic instrumentation led by her hushed, almost-whispered delivery adds a somehow-tangible element to the familiar songs heard countless times before.

Her vocal presence is featured up front and unfiltered, with an airy, smoky quality that makes it sound as if she’s sitting right next to you. As opposed to the displacement of studio echoes and reverbs, her vocal tone presents each line with equal parts tumultuous wail and fragile whisper, a soliloquy of song in perfect melody and without regard for who might be listening. “I never cared too much for diamonds or furs,” she implores on “Little Things Mean A Lot.” “Honestly honey, they only cost money / You could do twice as much with your touch.”

not much was known about what happened to Swann in the time since.

A compilation of hits and singles from her three-year zenith was released by the archival reissue label Honest Jons in 2004, but Swann’s 1969 Capitol classics have never been revisited in the 50-plus years since their release.

Perhaps it was the death of her husband in 1980 that subsequently buried her drive for making music. Without her longtime partner, manager, and caregiver, the logistics of making records and touring behind them can certainly feel insurmountable to say the least. She’s only offered loose explanations over the years that she’d gotten tired of the music business in general. With no website, contacts, or estate, her legacy seems to be waiting in limbo with no outlet for rediscovery of the songs that she made so special. Connections made over the years were most often lucky phone calls guessed straight from local phone books.

Swann always seemed to be halfway out the door, answering the calls and taking questions politely, but without much time to spare and without much care to follow up.

“The little things” must have meant even more to Swann than her songs could capture.

THE LITTLE THINGS

Fast forward to a half century later, and original pressings of any beat up and heavily spun Swann records will start at $50 on average. A handful of singles followed suit on Atlantic Records in the early 1970’s, but another album never materialized. Many journalists and music fans have attempted to contact her over the decades. Some heard that she was waiting tables in Georgia where she’d moved to help her husband’s music management and concert promotion business. Others heard she’d retired early to Las Vegas, Nevada, changing her name and converting to the church of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Candi Stanton, a soul singer and peer who’d met Swann at a show early on in their careers, only had her praises to sing, describing her as friendly, soft spoken, and generous. “She was just a down home girl,” Stanton explained. “Someone you’d be glad to know.” But even to a close friend such as this, 162

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Ice or Neat?

GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK | ALASKA WORDS AND PHOTO: JONAS HENNINGSSON

Nowhere in the world can you see as many glaciers as in Glacier Bay, a UNESCO-listed National Park along Alaska’s west coast; where desolate mountains mirror themselves in the ice cold water brimming with natural sea ice sculptures drifting across the surface. I am taken aback by the glaciers Margerie and John Hopkins. A subtle smile forms at the sight of seals and sea lions, a joyous gut of laughter for the hilarious playfulness of the clumsy otters behind the boat, and being totally dumbstruck by the sheer majesty of the humpback whales who own the seas up here. Glacier Bay National Park covers a 3.3 million acre area. The best time to see these natural plays is between May and September.

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Craft Cinema

2735 EAST BURNSIDE ST. | PORTLAND, OREGON WORDS AND PHOTO: FOTO: JONAS LARSSON

– What are they showing tonight?

The question is completely irrelevant. If they were showing The Seventh Seal in reverse, dubbed over into Japanese, I would still go see it at the Laurel Hurst Theater, because it is so banging cool. An art deco dream that opened its doors under neon lights back in 1923, and it is still in good shape, maybe even in a bit better shape. 1923 and prohibition was going strong. Booze was totally illegal. During this time you couldn’t enjoy beer and popcorn with the silver screen. Flash forward to today and things could not be more different. Here there is a pub and you are welcome to sip down a cold craft beer while watching the antics of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Potatohead in the latest Toy Story film. It doesn’t get much better. You can find this neon dream at 2735 East Burnside Street, not far from one of our favorite restaurants, Tusk.

LAURELHURSTTHEATER.COM

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