Tradition-bending Po’Girl cycles its rootsy music through Seattle
BY MIKEL TOOMBS
Po'Girl (photo: Jeff Steinmetz)
The members of Po’Girl might like to bike to their two Seattle shows, Thursday (Nov. 12) at the Crocodile Cafe and Friday (Nov. 13) at the Columbia City Theater.
Alas, the tradition-bending Po’Girls — multi-instrumentalists (and I do mean “multi-”) Allison Russell, Awna Texeira and Benny Sidelinger, plus drummer JJ Jones — have migrated from Vancouver, B.C., where Russell co-founded the group in 2002, to various cities in eastern Canada.
To offset the carbon debt, Po’Girl is heading up the Bike Works fundraiser Friday in Columbia City (tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $30 at Brown Paper Tickets).
“Our Seattle angel and surrogate Po’Girl “dad” Bill Lippe has been involved in the organization for several years and introduced us to their work. It’s gonna be a rockin’ night at the Columbia!” Russell promised.
“They’re an amazing organization and we’re proud to help in whatever way we can,” she added. “We’re all urban riders ourselves whenever we’re not on the road, and we think empowering people to fix their own bikes and helping at-risk youth to find healthier alternatives is a vital community service.
“As touring musicians, we lament the amount of fossil fuels we have to burn in order to pursue our careers — at least we car pool! There’s always five to seven of us in our trusty Chester the wee Chevy Astro! We are in the market for some fold-up tour bikes that can fit in the trailer.”
Wait a second: “Chester the wee Chevy Astro”? Does Po’Girl name its (many) instruments, as well?
“Yes, our instruments have names and personalities and they’re our friends,” Russell said. “You’ll hear a lot more accordion and clarinet in our sets: Sofia and Yolanda, respectively, have really fallen in love with each other and like to croon together — insisting on their rights, really!”
(Mikel Toombs is a Seattle-based freelance writer and music critic.)
