Bluegrass Wednesday’s continues April 17  with Michael Shay, Chris Kee and “Spud” Seigel at the Annex of Gastro Mania in Multnomah village. 7-9PM. $5 cover.

Oregon mandolinist Peter “Spud” Siegel and Texas singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Shay join together for an eclectic repertoire of traditional bluegrass and ragtime tunes mixed with original country-folk songs.  Touches of classical, world music, and jazz pulled from years of international touring make theirs a truly eclectic and upbeat show.

Spud Siegel is a longtime fixture on the Portland and PNW music scene.  His participation in bands such as The Floating Glass Balls, The Columbians, Mary Flower’s BBQ Boys, The Freak Mountain Ramblers, and The Jim Kweskin Jug Band, among many others, makes him a familiar face for hundreds of miles around, with or without his mandolin!

Blending the nuance of a classically-trained musician, the twang of a born-and-bred Texan, and a genre-bouncing career spent collaborating with musicians from around the world, Michael Shay’s vision as a singer-songwriter exists comfortably outside any “Americana” box while still evoking his earliest influences: Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, Dylan, and the Dead.   Like those of his longtime songwriting collaborator Jim Harris, Shay’s songs are as likely to touch down in the bars and backroads of cow towns as in the graveyards and parlours of old Europe, dancing with the ghosts of William Blake, Hank Williams, or Sappho… sometimes while you dance too.

Bass player Chris Kee is a classically trained cellist who studied ethnomusicology at Yale.  He was a conscript of long standing in Peter Rowan’s Free Mexican Air Force, performed and recorded with telecaster master Jim Campilongo,and was the original bass player with the Waybacks. Chris is also much in demand as a hired gun, recording and performing with Buddy Miller (including appearances with Buddy, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Shaw Colvin), Jim Lauderdale, Norah Jones, and many others.

The Annex @ Gastro Mania offers a limited dinner menu of Mediterranean food and a fully stocked bar. Come to this great setting and listen to classic  bluegrass and related music and have some good food!

7850 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219