BETH WOOD

Greetings, friends and fellow music lovers!

As we are rounding the corner on this year and this decade, I want to send my warm wishes and deep gratitude out to you. What a year, what a decade it has been! Thank you for being part of my journey and for walking with me every step of the way.

I am so excited for a new chapter, a new season even though I don’t know yet what it will all look like! I am excited for the turning of the page. I know that I must step, and then the ground will appear. In my new vision, I won’t be touring as much and I will be building a life in my new home of central Oregon. I am so energized by collaborating, building and serving community, creating, and instigating creativity in others, and I plan to focus on all those things while still writing, recording and performing when it feels right.

There are many things taking shape in 2020 that I am SO EXCITED about! Here are a few…

–A handful of shows in January with my good friend David Stoddard. We always have so much fun and I am inspired by my friend every single time. Dave has promimsed me a warm car at all times so we’ll see if he can deliver! Here’s where we’ll be…these concerts check out my website tour page for details and come see us!

Wed, Jan 15 – House Concert – Fergus Falls, MN

Thu, Jan 16 – Granite City Folk Society – St Cloud, MN

Fri, Jan 17 – Folk House – Golden Valley, MN

Sat, Jan 18 – Old Kitchen Rug Brewery House Concert – St Louis Park, MN

—Sisters Songworks. Sisters Folk Festival’s first annual Sisters Songworks Writing is an intimate and intensive weekend writing retreat in beautiful Sisters, Oregon celebrating and exploring the art of songwriting in community. Sisters Songworks is an immersive songwriting and poetry experience focused on lyric writing and developing songs more deeply. The retreat will take place on April 17-19, 2020. Instructors will be Anna Tivel, Tom Kimmel and lil ol me and I am thrilled to be running this workshop! Tom, Anna and I will do an in-the-round concert at the Belfry on Saturday, April 18. Concert tickets and workshop registration will be available beginning on January 8 at 10:00 a.m. Check it out here!

–Lessons in Sisters/Bend. In January I will begin offering private lessons is Sisters and Bend. I love working on songwriting, performance, singing, and beginning guitar. As of now I am mobile and I’m working on finding a room in Sisters I can use as home base for lessons. If you are interested or you know someone who might be, holler at me at bethwoodmusic@hotmail.com.

—The Lullaby Project. A program of the Oregon Symphony, The Lullaby Project pairs women songwriters with mothers and mothers-to-be who are experiencing housing insecurity to collaborate and write songs for their children. Conceived by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, The Lullaby Project uses the creative process of songwriting to improve maternal health and child bonds with pregnant women and new mothers experiencing housing insecurity and other challenging life situations. We will record the songs with members of the Oregon Symphony and then have a concert performing all of the lullabies at The Old Church in Portland on April 28. Here is a beautiful video of my friend Bre Gregg and her experience with the Lullaby Project.

—Winterfolk. a concert on February 1 hosted by Tom May at the Alberta Rose Theatre to benefit JOIN PDX, an organization pledged to help folks find and maintain housing throughout the Portland metro area. With Tracy Grammer, Kate Power/ Steve Einhorn, Brooks Hill, Jim Page with Billy Oskay, Tom May and Friends, and Kim Stafford – poet laureate of Oregon.

–More poetry! I’ve got poems coming out my ears, y’all. So I’m working on the next book…stay tuned for more juicy details!

—Singtime Frolics – I am so excited to be the guest artist/workshop leader at Portland Folk Music Society’s Singtime Frolics retreat the last weekend in March! Held at Menucha Conference and Retreat Center near Corbett, Oregon, we will enjoy a spring weekend of singing, jamming, learning and sharing.

—Stand and Sway What a wild ride it was for us releasing our debut album and touring all over the place with our duo! We are taking a little breather to figure out what’s next, but we’ve got a couple wonderful shows on the books in 2020: On Feb 21 we will play at the Walters Cultural Arts Center 2019-20 Concert Series in Hillsboro, OR. And in July we are stoked to be a part of the Telluride Songwriters Festival.

–Phenomenal Woman. This collabration show is truly phenomenal and I’m looking forwrad to doing more in 2020! We are playing at the in Lake Oswego in May, and working on other venues.

–Nature of Gratitude. Another beautiful collaboration that keeps expanding and growing in delightful ways. We have an event scheduled in Bend in May and I will share more details as they come. We’re hoping to expand to other regional venues.

—Harris Bridge Songwriting Camp & Folk Festival – We will gather again August 11-14 at beautiful Harris Bridge Vineyard for a week of songwriting fun among the beautiful vines and by the cool river. Clara Baker and I will be co-leading song camp again, and we are thrilled to build on what we started last year with Nathan and Amanda and the Harris Bridge family. This is a week of community, fun, creative exploration, and retreat from the busy world in one of the most beautiful spots in the Willamette Valley!

—Sisters Folk Festival – My favorite week of the year! In September, we will gather at Caldera, one of the most spectacular and inspirational spotsw outside of Sisters for the Americana Song Academy (a/k/a “Song Camp”) for three and a half magical days of music and community making! And then from Sep 11-13 is Sisters Folk Festival, my all-time favorite festival – a three-day celebration of roots music from blues to bluegrass and beyond. I am so honored to be involved as the staff director at song camp and the leader of the Sunday morning Community Celebration at the fest!