Megan Alder & The Woods / Robert Sarazin Blake

Friday, April 25th, 2025

$15 Advance // $20 Day Of Show
6pm Doors / 7pm Show
All Ages

MEGAN ALDER & THE WOODS
Vocal wonder performing original music, classic swing and folk.

Hailing from the Columbia River Gorge, Megan Alder is a vocal powerhouse performing upbeat swing and Americana music.
She delivers her original songs with raw grit and soul.

Influenced by artists like Billie Holiday and Bonnie Raitt, Alder leads her band with fearless flat picking. She performs as a solo artist with live loops and kazoo flare.
Her latest EP, Dark Side, features four original songs recorded live in Parkdale, OR, available on all platforms.

ROBERT SARAZIN BLAKE

Robert Sarazin Blake has been a fixture of the Pacific Northwest folk music scene since 1996 when he released his first cassette of original songs and hit the road. Since then, he’s toured extensively around the U.S. and beyond. He became a well-known presence on the East Coast during his time there from 2001 to 2003 and continued to visit two or three times a year. Annual tours through the midwest and south brought him fans and friends and he was graciously welcomed into the music communities in Milwaukee, St. Louis and Austin. Regular tours of Ireland between 2002 and 2019 culminated in a collaboration with Uilleann piper John McSherry on Blake’s album ‘A Long Series of Memorable Nights Forgotten’. Between 2015 and 2019 Blake toured Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Between these adventures, he continued performing around the Pacific Northwest and in his hometown of Bellingham, WA.

Robert’s latest release and thirteenth full length album, Let the Longing Run Wild & Free, is an investigation and celebration of the human condition. It evokes nostalgia and longing, a sense of remembering where one has been, where one might have gone and the relentless onward thrust. Robert has a gift for expressing complex emotions and ideas in simple terms, quickly drawing listeners in with his evocative storytelling and poetic lyrics. Throughout the album, Robert’s rich baritone shifts from the haunting vibrato of Edith Piaf to the gravelly intensity of Chris Cornell. At times, his tender delivery echoes the quiet depth of early Leonard Cohen while in other moments he finds the resonant power of a young Johnny Cash.

Let the Longing Run Wild & Free features Robert’s longtime collaborators Lee Falco, Brandon Morrison, Will Bryant, and Connor Kennedy (familiar names to Hudson Valley music fans), along with Cindy Cashdollar (featured on Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind). Their textured contributions give the songs depth and dimension. A careful listener might hear echoes of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, Lou Reed’s New York, Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, and Greg Brown’s Poet Game woven throughout.

Robert’s influence in the Pacific Northwest music scene goes far beyond his own performances. His warmth and openness have earned him lasting friendships and strong connections, allowing him to become a true community organizer. His festival, the Subdued Stringband Jamboree, is beloved by Bellingham locals and consistently charms new artists who come to perform. As a musician himself, Robert takes great care to ensure the festival is as enjoyable for the performers as it is for the audience.

In 2020, when the great plague hit, Robert refused to let a hard knock keep him down. Instead, he launched From the Kitchen Table, a livestream series where he hosted a new musical guest each week, featuring notable artists Sierra Ferrell, Aoife O’Donovan, Jolie Holland and others.
Over its two-year run, Robert filmed 100+ episodes and attracted thousands of listeners. With his trademark creativity and resourcefulness, he turned a time of uncertainty into an opportunity, creating a ray of light for himself, fellow musicians, and his fans.

Robert is a true entertainer, deeply invested in storytelling as part of his craft. Like Arlo Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, the songs and the stories blend.
Every moment he shares with the crowd underscores the importance of narrative. It’s in the way he lets the silence linger between songs, inviting the audience into the space with him. It’s in the personal anecdotes and vivid imagery he weaves into his performances, making each song feel like a chapter in a larger story. His connection with the crowd goes beyond music; he makes them a part of the tale, creating a shared experience
in which every note feels intentional and every word carries weight. As Sunset in the Rearview put it, “His ability to turn a moment into a story, one that every audience member is a part of, is one of the best forms of… entertainment.”