Porter & Pale Ales play music in Union

Courtesy photo
Porter and the Pale Ales give music their own unique twist.

Go! staff

Porter & the Pale Ales will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at LG Brewskis in Union.

Porter and the Pale Ales, led by Sharon Porter, plays an eclectic array of repertoire including ’20s and ’30s swing and novelty tunes, rock and pop hits of the ’50s and ’60s, and songs by pop artist Jason Mraz and ukulele revivalist Sophie Madeleine.

Porter, who has sung jazz in nightclubs in Cincinnati as a soloist and with vocal jazz ensembles Just Friends and Close Company, has been a fixture on the Northeast Oregon music scene since the early 1990s.

She has sung and played bass with local bluegrass, rock and jazz including the Geritones, Blue Plate Special, the Snook Band and the Matt Cooper X-Tet. She was trained and certified in British Columbia and Nova Scotia, Canada, to teach ukulele through the James Hill “Ukulele in the Classroom Initiative,” and for the past two years has visited ukulele groups and festivals in Belgium and England. She is currently studying mandolin, clawhammer banjo and dulcimer.

When playing standard concert and tenor ukuleles, Porter exclusively performs on Mya Moe brand ukes made in White Salmon, Wash. She also plays various hybrid instruments such as the banjolele, resonator uke and dulcilele.

Porter is backed by keyboardist Matt Cooper, clarinetist Greg Johnson and upright bassist Mike Snider. Bassist Snider, who has played in bands with Porter for more than 20 years, is used to the give and take of a bandmate, and one day suggested she start a band called Porter and the Pale Ales.

When Porter was fretting about how to market this band, her favorite tunes were not fitting into a single category. Sharing this with Johnson, he advised, “Play what you like.”

So, the band plays Cole Porter’s “Putting On The Ritz” next to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy.”

Matt Cooper wraps it all together with lush harmonies and blazing riffs.