I’m still pretty new here. I feel like I’ve just started catching on to a lot of the most fantastic music being made in the Northwest. I commonly ask people I meet what regional bands they love, and a name that came up several times in the fall as a must-see was “Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives,” but I never made it out to a show.
Fast forward to December, when I started to make new friends who are deeply connected to the exciting acoustic music scene around some bands I’ve talked about here on the blog such as The Head and the Heart, Ravenna Woods, and Campfire OK. 2011 came along and I started going to the Conor Byrne open mic every Sunday night. I started going to shows at the Columbia City Theater even if I only knew the opener. I started seeing the same people – some musicians, some not – over and over again. I started to see the thing I’ve been looking for for 9 months here in Seattle – a real community around songwriting-oriented music. Again, with these folks, “Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives” kept coming up when I asked who I needed to see live (actually, they just assumed I already had).
On January 11, Drew was in a really bad car accident while driving the band van, that left him hospitalized with multiple injuries and the van totaled. The next day, my Twitter feed was ablaze with every Seattle music/media hub spreading word about what had happened and starting to mobilize around support and relief for medical bills and van repair. That afternoon, “Drew Grow” was a top-5 trending topic for all of Seattle on Twitter – for the less-savvy, that means that his name was the #5 most tweeted phrase be people who live in Seattle.
Drew Grow & the Pastors’ Wives are a Portland band.
From my peripheral, newbie corner of all of this, I was absolutely blown away. This intense rallying in a time of need, across 175 miles from Portland to Seattle, for what is essentially a local band connected to local people and fans. A Community gets tested, and proves itself with flying colors.
Since then there have been donation buckets all over, and ad-hoc benefit shows, but the big “official” Seattle benefit show in this Saturday night at my new favorite venue, the Columbia City Theater. It will feature acoustic performances by members of The Maldives, Campfire OK, The Moondoggies, Ghosts I’ve Met, Bryan John Appleby, Big Sur, and who knows who else. I just bought my ticket, you should too by clicking here.
Here’s a touching note from Drew, and a great video of the folks this is all about. Many thanks to Abbey Simmons / Sound on the Sound for the photos and video recommendation.
