Two virtuosos of acoustic blues and roots guitar styles, Mary Flower and Lauren Sheehan, throw down on the upper deck of the Portland Spirit for the Sail on Sister Blues Cruise on Friday, July 4.
The internationally-renowned, award-winning Portland-based singer/guitarist/songwriter Mary Flower is a prodigious talent whose seasoned skills have established her as one of America’s foremost roots performers. Flower combines deep historical knowledge with a restless creativity that keeps her music evolving into new territory while echoing influences from Piedmont to the Mississippi Delta, with additional stops at ragtime, swing, folk, and hot jazz.
Midwest native Flower relocated from Denver to the vibrant Portland music scene in 2004. Since then, she’s continued to impress crowds and critics at folk festivals in America and abroad, including Merlefest, Waterfront Blues Fest, King Biscuit, A Prairie Home Companion and the Vancouver Folk Festival, while maintaining a parallel career as a renowned guitar teacher. Along the way, she’s twice been a finalist in the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship, as well as being nominated three times for the Blues Foundation’s prestigious “Blues Music Award.” “One of our state’s treasures, A diamond in the Oregon mud.” – Blues On Stage
Some call Lauren Sheehan a “songster,” referring to entertaining old blues-based finger-picking guitarists who played blues, folk, tin-pan alley, early jazz, jug, string-band tunes — and whatever else they wanted to play. Dubbed “Portland String Queen” by The Oregonian for her multi-instrumental prowess, Sheehan adds her unforgettable voice “dipped in good sippin’ whiskey,” recreating the feel of down-home excellence for audiences around the country. She tours, teaches at Pacific University, and has recorded five CDs, which have received airplay on BBKing’s Bluesville, NPR, BBC and other stations worldwide, and her music is cataloged in the Library of Congress. Her most recent release, Sweet Bitter Blues, a compilation celebrating living Piedmont blues, was produced by Phil Wiggins and Frank Matheis.
