If your Pickathon itch is acting up, the Portland Mercury and our sister paper The Stranger have just the sweet relief you need. Oregon's best music festival is confined to only a few days in highest summertime, but during those precious hours, there's enough musical bounty to tide us over during the cooler months. Because while all the music is happening on the festival's many stages, there's music happening off them as well. To that end, we're the proud hosts for Pickathon's inaugural Slab Sessions, and we'll be posting new, unique videos from the series each month.

Somewhere on Pendarvis Farm—even I'm not sure where exactly—is a concrete slab that, for most of the year, functions however concrete slabs are supposed to function. But during this past Pickathon, selected musicians were invited to perform secret, intimate sessions away from the bustle of the rest of the festival. The very first Slab Session in history is being premiered right here just for you. (Special thanks to the series underwriter, New Belgium Brewing, and to the videographers at Half Stop Sessions.)

It's a performance from the Weather Station, otherwise known as Canadian singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman. In between her regular Pickathon sets, she stole away to lay down this gem of a take of her song "Loyalty," the title track off her 2015 album. Take a look/listen:

There are a bunch of other videos that were shot at various points at this year's Pickathon all premiering today, so head over to their site to check them all out. And we'll be rolling out more intimate videos shot at the Slab in the coming months.