Post by Jordan Lowe
Did you get in on the action this blackberry season? While the hot sun dried our lawns to a prickly brown and baked our garden tomatoes to a brilliant red, blackberry brambles continued their persistent invasion of the side of every road, ripe for the snacking — Pacific Northwest foraging at its finest (or easiest, at least). With Fall descending on us hard, this may seem more like a eulogy for blackberries, but my hope is that you’ll read this, close your eyes, and feel a reminiscent warm sunbeam on your face — perhaps a tartsweet pucker in your cheek.
We’ve all felt the frustration of seeing a perfect clump of blackberries 10 ft off the ground, protected by a thousand “ouches” worth of thorny vines. But, in “Blackberry Song,” Ethan J Perry and the Remedy Band sing about the joy of discovery — a patch of blackberries you could swear have just been waiting for you to come along and pick them. They fall off the vine into your mouth, leaving little drops of violet juice on your fingertips as the only proof of their existence.
Ethan was born in Seattle, but grew up in Colorado until 2007, when he could no longer resist the pull of the Pacific Northwest. The decision to move back to Seattle coincided with his decision to pursue music full-time and he’s grateful to have found, in the Remedy Band, partners in the belief that music can heal and forge strong connections to the Earth. Check out some of their musings on the significance of healing and the word Remedy as it pertains to, well, many things.
In “Blackberry Song,” we hear about a path in the trees, leading down to the ocean, where a mystical blackberry patch lies. Ethan wanted to paint a particular patch he remembered from his time living on Bainbridge Island, but also to capture a story from his childhood. He pictures his grandfather, who used take him for long walks, picking blackberries and bringing baby Ethan home, carefree, covered in berry.
Self-described as Americana Indie Technicolor Jazz, Ethan Perry and the Remedy band bring lush arrangements of guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, and rich horns. If you like Van Morrison and Amos Lee, you’ll love this.
Listen to Blackberry Song here
You can find more of Ethan’s music at www.ethanjperry.com, as well as on Apple Music and Spotify.
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Jordan Lowe
City Fruit Guest Blogger
Jordan grew up in the Pacific Northwest, wandering trails, picking berries, and learning to advocate for the rain. After studying Urban Studies and Sustainability at the University of Pennsylvania, he made his way back to Seattle via a small farm in Pinedale, Wyoming. He is a firm believer in the power of fruits and vegetables as a conduit for environmental and community health and has spent the last year working on food access at farmers markets and on expanding opportunities for home-cooks to participate in the food system through Josephine – a website that helps home-cooks feed their communities. He now lives in South Seattle and when he’s not teaching cooking classes, cooking for his neighbors on Josephine, or trying, unsuccessfully, to climb a tree, you’ll find him playing keyboard and singing somewhere around the city.