She’s demonstrated her Siren’s call on two forays into Europe in recent years, but Portland chanteuse Sara Jackson-Holman has never toured the USA.
Until now, that is.
A six week jaunt of the west and midwest begins Nov. 28 in Bellingham, Wash. She’s supporting both Portland’-based band Horse Feathers and her summer-released River Queen EP (Expunged Records), a six-track effort with the enduring legs of a Rockette.
Since her debut with 2010’s When You Dream, Jackson-Holman’s atmospheric offerings have not only often been picked for television placement (including Orange Is The New Black, Hemlock Grove, The Good Wife, Bones and Castle), they’ve been the basis of a string of increasingly remarkable music videos, as well. True to form, the superbly photogenic singer-songwriter’s clip for River Queen‘s title track reaches the new artistic plateau that the song occupies.
Languid and sensual, with silvery injections of Hurrell-style old Hollywood, the video provided Jackson-Holman a chance to let down her fabulous hair – literally and figuratively. However, the presentation doesn’t reveal a new look for Jackson-Holman —just a different one.
“Like anyone else, there’s a lot of things that make up the person that I am,” she explained to EPB. “I felt that it was a really fun way to present a facet of myself… It’s a really romantic, really personal song. Skyler (Norwood, her co-producer/engineer and boyfriend) was with me, and that made it really comfortable.”
The interior footage for “River Queen” was filmed in Eugene, with the gorgeous exteriors captured in a two-day shoot at the Oregon Dunes near Florence (the underwater segments were filmed in her hotel’s swimming pool).
Jackson-Holman – whose lifelong love of water is well-known to fans – instantly fell in love with the Dunes, which were picked for their Sahara-like visual qualities, with an ocean often just offscreen.
“Perhaps it’s reading into it too much, but I thought of it as a metaphor for being a river in the desert,” the pianist said of her onscreen strolls across the sand. “When I write songs, I often thing of them in temperatures, and emotions – ‘River Song’ is warm and dreamy… so, to have someone interpret the feeling I wanted into visual elements was exciting. The director, Ife (Adeniji) and his wife Kelsey, who run Artistic Outlet Media, made it all so easy.”
The singer’s latest cinematic project, “Summer Song,” was purposefully DIY, she says.
“The song always feels nostalgic to me,” Jackson-Hlman explained, “So i wanted it to look like an intimate, home video snapshot of a certain time of life. The summer… and the summer of a relationship, sweetness tinged with the sadness of knowing that it can’t last forever.”
One segment of “Summer Song” was filmed in her front yard; the other, during a camping trip with Norwood at Forlorn Lake in the Gifford Pinchot Forest – a “gorgeous, isolated area,” she recalled.
Unfortunately for fans, “Summer Song” has only been available onscreen – but it’s not exactly a B-side.
“I have always had a fondness for (the track),” Jackson-Holman explained. “I wrote it while I was writing Cardiology — but by the time I had recorded everything, I felt the album didn’t need any more ballads — so i held on to it. I passed over it for River Queen, too, because it didn’t quite fit.
“It felt like it was its own, whimsical entity,” she continued, “And after it played in (the Netflix series) Hemlock Grove this past June, I decided to make a video for it. The editing was not so much fun; it gave me even more respect for people who do that (professionally)!”
Jackson-Holman returns to the River Queen EP with her upcoming video, “Haunt Me,” which is currently in post-production.
Tour Dates:
10/28 – Bellingham, WA / Wild Buffalo
10/29 – Vancouver, BC / Biltmore Cabaret
10/30 – Seattle, WA / Crocodile Cafe
10/31 – Spokane, WA / The Bartlett
11/1 – Missoula, MT / Top Hat
11/2 – Bozeman, MT / The Filling Station
11/4 – Jackson, WY / Town Square Tavern
11/8 – Denver, CO / Bluebird Theatre
11/9 – Colorado Springs, CO / Ivywild School
11/11 – Albuquerque, NM / Low Spirits
11/13 – Austin, TX / Holy Mountain
11/14 – Dallas, TX / Club Dada
11/15 – Norman, OK / The Opolis
11/16 – Lawrence, KS / The Bottleneck
11/18 – St. Louis, MO / Firebird
11/19 – Madison, WI / Play Circle Theatre
11/20 – Chicago, IL / Lincoln Hall
11/21 – La Crosse, WI / Cavalier Theatre
11/22 – St. Paul, MN / Turf Club
11/23 – Fargo, ND / The Aquarium
12/3 – San Francisco, CA / Great American Music Hall
12/4 – Santa Cruz, CA / The Atrium @ Catalyst
12/5 – Los Angeles, CA / The Satellite
12/6 – San Diego, CA / The Casbah
12/7 – Phoenix, AZ / Crescent Ballroom
12/9 – Flagstaff, AZ / Cococino Center for the Arts
12/11 – Salt Lake City, UT / State Room
12/12 – Boise, ID / Neurolux
12/13 – Eugene, OR / WOW Hall
River Queen EP on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/river-queen-ep/id881539942
