The Willapa Hills – the band, not the geologic formation – will be in Oysterville two weeks from tomorrow and I can hardly wait.  I’m not sure at what point you can call something “an annual event” but I’m pretty sure their house concerts in our living room qualify.
     They were first here in 2005 – same six talented musicians, different group name – and they’ve been here most years since.  For those who don’t know, they are Andrew Emlen, Jessica and Sunrise Fletcher, Kerrie McNally, Fern Fey, and Jennifer Hanigan.  They are folk musicians “known for their vocal harmonies and varied instrumentations” says their publicity.
     And that would be more than enough for me, but their appeal and importance goes far beyond that.  For the past three years they have been developing a body of folk music about our very area – Pacific and Wahkiakum counties.  They have been interviewing old-timers, reading personal histories and accounts, and transforming those stories into a musical lexicon specific to us.
     Their songs are about fishermen and loggers, oysterwomen (yes! women!) and boat captains, shipwrecks and salmon and, in some cases about people we know.  They speak about our relationship to the land and the river and the bay.  Fittingly, their recent album is called “Portrait of Place” and sample songs can be heard or CDs purchased at www.cdbaby.com/cd/willapahills .  They have a Facebook presence as well.
     For this year’s concert, Andrew says:  We have decided to prepare new songs on the same theme – the people of the Columbia-Pacific region. There will be at least six original songs ready by show time. Sunrise, Kerrie and I each have contributed a couple songs.
     One of mine is an instrumental. The other is called “What the Women Left Behind”, based on a lecture of the same title by historian Irene Martin. The title has a few different meanings. When you travel the unroaded sections of the Columbia, one way to find the former river town sites is to go in February or March and look for the daffodils. Though the buildings have long rotted away, the daffodils continue to bloom. Once you are there, you notice the other durable traces, mostly broken dishes … in short, what the women left behind – their gardens and housewares that made these places home. Their story isn’t as visible as that of the men of the same era, but they helped run fishing boats and managed home and business affairs. A second meaning of the title is what they left behind to come here – often famine in Europe.
     One of Kerrie’s songs I’m going to leave as a surprise for you; the other is “Silent Paddles”, her tribute to the Cathlamet.
     Sunrise said that we needed a dairy song to represent Skamokawa; later that evening he took out his ukulele and expressed his desire to play it on at least one song in the show. I suggested that the dairy song should be on the ukulele. He wrote one the next day.
     Also, as we did in Portrait of Place, we are making our own arrangements of local songs by other songwriters, including “Astoria’s Bar” by Mary Garvey and Kate Wolf’s “The Wind Blows Wild”, and we have learned songs representative of immigrant groups – Jennifer will be singing one in Danish! We will throw in a couple tunes from Portrait of Place as well, and are willing to do a couple more if we get a request.
     Did I mention that besides Sunrise’s ukulele, instruments played by various members of the group include cello, fiddle, Jew’s harp, piano, rainstick, autoharp, banjo, guitar and probably others I’ve forgotten?  And did I mention that I can hardly wait?