Zyah Belle’s Full Length Record Yam Grier Has Arrived

As we welcome back the rainy season, the city is starting to feel like its sweet, soggy self again. And nothing says “time to get your hoodie on” like a fall schedule of fantastic music. This week, we’re jazzed about upcoming shows from the Delines, confessional soul singer Moorea Masa opening for Son Little on tour, and Zyah Belle’s smooth self-care / sultry bad bitch album Yam Grier. 

MUST-SEE: 

Can’t miss upcoming events.

The Delines 

Music fans who like Spaghetti Westerns should check out retro country-soul group the Delines, a seven-piece band that’s borderline super group thanks to the name recognition of all of its members: author and musician Willy Vlautin (of Richmond Fontaine), vocalist Amy Boone, pedal steel player Tucker Jackson (also in the Minus 5), Cory Gray on keyboard / trumpet, percussionist Sean Oldham, bassist Freddy Trujillo, and baritone guitarist John Askew. You see what I mean. Their third album, the Sea Drift, which dropped in February, centers on Willy Vlautin’s and singer Amy Boone’s mutual love of the Gulf Coast. It showcases Vlautin’s literary songwriting style on songs like the somber “Surfers in Twilight,” and “Kid Codeine,” in which Boone sings about a “cool and easy” woman who never gets mad: “People call her Kid Codeine/ owns a lounge off Lombard Street/ Stuck by her boxer even when he went punch drunk and broke / hеard just buying milk she wears a full-length fakе fur coat.” (Fri, Oct 21, 8 pm, Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Ct, $15, tickets here, 21+ w/ the Hackles)

MUST LISTEN: 

New music from a Portland-relevant artist.   

Yam Grier, Zyah Belle

It’s been a few weeks since we sang the praises of Portland-based soul singer Zyah Belle. Following up her her 2019 album IX, and highly favored EP Who’s Listening Anyway?, Belle dropped just Yam Grier on Friday September 9. Though Belle’s three previous records clock in at no less than seven songs a-piece, Yam Grier is being lauded as her true debut album. And it contains some excellent, carefully selected features that work really well, like Jordan Hawkins on “Back to Back,” and AJ Claire and Tempest on album highlight “Goofy.” Right from the stunning album opener “Ready Or Not,” the project makes for an impressive and highly enjoyable collection of smooth self-care songs and sultry bad bitch anthems. Have a listen for yourself, and wait patiently for her to announce her next Portland show. 

ADDED TO THE QUEUE: 

Upcoming music buzz to put on your radar.

Son Little, Moorea Masa & the Mood

We love seeing rising, local artists get stellar touring opportunities! Singer-songwriter (and one-time Portlander) Moorea Masa will join Philly R&B crooner Son Little on his fall tour to support his brand new album, Like Neptune. Masa will open more than a dozen of the dates—including one at Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge—giving fans of her 2021 EP, Heart In the Wild: Side A a chance to hear the tracks live. We interviewed Masa about the vulnerable and intimate record, which unpacks her “complicated relationship with her estranged mother, a Black queer woman who suffers from debilitating mental illness.” She’s a real treat to experience live, especially when her thoughtful harmonies are fleshed by her backing band, the Mood. (Wed Nov 9, 8 pm, Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside, $25, tickets here, 21+)