So much has been written about the last 16 months that it would be hard to find anything to add. We do want to post a grateful hooray for everything that has brought our communities back to life -- and…
Jul 6 2021
Mar 17 2020
Libba Cotten
I have been lucky enough to do some writing for an on-line bluegrass publication called Bluegrass Solutions. I was honored to be asked to write about Elizabeth Cotten. We all know her song Freight Train, but fewer know the amazing…
Mar 19 2019
Community in the campground
Free Range went to the desert.
We were extremely lucky to have timed our trip to Arizona and California in time to see the beginning of the super bloom -- yellow and pink and purple and white flowers covering the…
Jan 17 2019
On Sondheim and simple music
"If I cannot fly, let me sing." Stephen Sondheim
Singing is the best antidote for overthinking that I've encountered. Now I think that instead of checking my news feed compulsively throughout the day, I should take myself off to…
Jul 8 2017
Columbia travels
We've set ourselves a goal of traveling the Columbia River from its headwaters to its mouth over a number of years. Last month, we started the journey. We drove to the town of Canal Flats in British Columbia and wandered…
Feb 5 2017
Love happens every day
I just read this great quote:
"February days are a marketing gimmick; love happens every day."
It was written by an Indian film star named Randeep Hooda. Now I have to watch Monsoon Wedding and everything else he's been in…
Aug 8 2016
A la Carts
One member of Free Range has a confession. She has long wanted to play music at a food cart pod.
And she got to fulfill her desire yesterday at the great Rose City Food Park at 52nd and Sandy.
In…
And she got to fulfill her desire yesterday at the great Rose City Food Park at 52nd and Sandy.
In…
Jul 25 2016
There's no place like home
OK, we're Portland-centric, but it seems to me that there's no place better to be during the summer than Oregon.
And if you happen to be in the city, the best place to be is at a farmers market. And…
Jun 22 2016
Little girls in pink tutus
The first time we played at Fire & Stone was on Easter Sunday. Just a few families were there at 6, when we started playing.
One of the listeners was a little girl in a pink tutu, who wasted no…
One of the listeners was a little girl in a pink tutu, who wasted no…
May 16 2016
The End of the Oregon Trail
In about a 20-year period in the mid-1800s, half a million people crossed plains and mountains to reach the Oregon Territory. Many came over the Barlow Road in what's now Clackamas County, roping up their oxen to keep them from…
Mar 22 2016
We sprang ahead
We have made it through another time change, which becomes a greater accomplishment each year.
This is a favorite time of year, when cloudy skies make the blooming plants seem even more vibrant than they appear when it's sunny. And…
This is a favorite time of year, when cloudy skies make the blooming plants seem even more vibrant than they appear when it's sunny. And…
Feb 9 2016
February contemplations
It's February, and we're having one of those precious days that sometimes happens at this time of year when the air smells like spring and the camellia buds tantalize us with the promise of summer flowers.
We Free Rangers are…
We Free Rangers are…