Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld

In their latest release, Save It For Later, Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld continue to transcend traditional genres, creating a musical narrative that is both expansive and immersive.

With feet in both the vast poetic landscapes of the big sky west and Portland’s eclectic music scene they create a symbiotic blend that transcends musical boundaries. Their collaboration becomes a canvas where heartfelt  lyrics meet intricate guitar arrangements, painting a tapestry of emotions that creates an intimacy and invites listeners to embark on a shared journey of introspection and discovery. Scanlan and Neufeld are not just musicians; they are architects of emotion, sculpting a space where the intricacies of life unfold through the cadence of their craft.

Known widely for original work that has shaped and influenced the course of  Americana; Neufeld was a founding member of the experimental roots band Black Prairie and Scanlan’s debut solo release The West Was Burning endures as a timeless classic, Save It For Later is their first body of interpretive work.  What might occur as a departure instead feels like a revelation, a homecoming.  Scanlan and Neufeld inhabit these songs so fully that we forget that they were never theirs, or ours, to begin with.    

This collection of covers, their second collaborative project since 2022’s Last Stars First Light, reflects fourteen years of friendship, touring and recording and stands as a testament to their enduring connection and artistic synergy.

One can find currents of previous collective works weaving throughout this album; the haunting performance of Fleetwood Mac’s Storms echoes the raw acoustic intimacy of their first recording on a remote Montana ranch for Scanlan’s 2010 Tongue River Stories, while the lush layering in The Numbers by Radiohead reflects later works like the 2018 release The River And The Light, recorded in Portland and heralded by No Depression as a “sparse, sonic masterpiece.”

The transcendent honesty in Scanlan’s delivery serves as a kind of alchemical bearing witness that transforms these songs into quiet hymns of nature and the human experience.

Neufeld’s skill as producer, as innovative and improvisational as his guitar playing, makes these transitions between spare acoustic renditions and lush symphonic performances feel seamless.  As mixing and mastering engineer, he creates a sonic space with the emotionality and vulnerability of the live performance at its center.

It is that emotionality and vulnerability of live performance, exemplified in the title track Save It For Later, that reverberates throughout and pulls these songs together into a deeper current and what has most characterized the duo’s work over the years. The lush electric guitar laden cover of a Pete Townsend cover of a song by The English Beat, Save It For Later took on a life of its own in recent years as a way of opening shows and sinking into the flow of music.  Recorded live in the studio in Portland, the track flows and pulses with that same aliveness, that same invitation to exist in the moment with all of its vulnerability.

More than the achingly beautiful musicianship and heartfelt conviction and delivery in these performances it is that deeper current flowing through this unlikely collection of songs from artists as diverse as Beyoncé and the Grateful Dead that carries it, and us along with it, transformed and resonant with belonging.

Joining these fine folks will be local Artist Harper Powell.