It’s a First Friday Artwalk in Portland, and a busy crowd of tourists and students are exploring the chic galleries along Congress St. As they approach the intersection with High St., they feel the warmth of a soulful voice and an acoustic guitar wafting through the air. Curious and somewhat confused, they look up, scanning the storefronts and windows of the surrounding buildings for the music’s origin. Eventually, they find it. High up on the fifth floor of the old brick building across High St. from the Eastland Hotel, a young folk singer with a ponytail and a smile is pouring his heart out to the intersection below through a speaker projecting out of the open window.
“I really enjoy seeing that ‘Aha!’ moment when people find where it is,” says USM Service Learning Coordinator Alicia Sampson. Sampson has been helping to organize the monthly public concert series since she moved to Portland in May 2008.
The series got its start a little bit before that, says Sampson, when her boyfriend Will Ethridge, a grad student in Public Policy at USM, and his roommate Johnny Fountain decided to turn their PA system toward the window of their apartment. “We thought the police would come, and we’d be turned away,” says Ethridge. “But people applauded.” By June 2008, the “Tower of Song” concert series had become formally established, and Sampson and Ethridge had begun inviting their friends and their favorite local artists to come play.
For the first year, the tower team held the concert series in their apartment in the clock tower building across the street from their current venue. They began holding the concerts in the new location, the studio of architecture firm Arcadia designworks, when they moved in summer 2008.
The husband and wife team that runs Arcadia had been fans of the concert series for months. In February, says Sampson, “They put huge signs up in their window that said ‘We love your music’ and drew two thumbs up on it.” While the new venue has been working out well, the new building lacks a clock tower, and Sampson says they have regretfully had to rename the series “Building of Song.”
The concerts have received attention in the Portland Phoenix and Port City Life, but the series is not a money-making venture. For the time being, Sampson and Ethridge are happy simply to provide local songwriters with an opportunity to share their work. “We try to surround ourselves with as many talented people as possible,” says Ethridge.
Although neither of them play instruments, Sampson and Ethridge have a music project called the Panda Bandits in which they sing and play simple percussion with many of the musicians who play at their shows. “We’ve been really fortunate,” says Sampson as she looks out over the confused listeners below and laughs.