The Riflebirds of Portland who reformed 2 years ago and consist of bass player and songwriter Lee Oser, guitarist Kevin Kraft, singer Kate Lieuallen and drummer Kevin Jarvi put out a fabulous folk tinged Americana album last year entitled ‘Windmills on the Moon’.
And now they’re into a huge 2026 with a re-issue of their debut classic (available on cassette-only at the time) release from their late 1980’s hey-day (when they were simply known as ‘The Riflebirds’) called ‘April’ which is released April 3rd and are set to release their third album ‘The Fire Came Down’ this coming June. Be lovely to see them in the UK.
Originally recorded in Los Angeles and now remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London in 2025 by Sean Magee, listening to ‘April’ in 2026 emphatically gives a clue to the band’s Beatles affinity and inspirations. Songwriter Lee Oser explains the inspiration behind each of the tracks here evoking the mid-late 1980’s a fella in his twenties living in a basement in South East Portland prior to the craft beer revolution and with his voice shot to pieces.
‘April’ evokes the 1960’s and that period up to the explosion (or psychic eruption even) of the multiple Pacific Northwest’s music scene’s in the late 80’s and early 90’s. There is certainly place specific orientation to these tracks such as ‘Rain’ (albeit it’s always been very nice and warm when I’ve visited especially the heatwave in August 2017!) and ‘Memory Street’ but also a timeless quality.
There are echoes of Natalie Merchant and at times Siobhan Fahey in the singers voice, a bit of Mama’s and Papa’s indie vibe to a track or two, some fiddle here and there and a full horn section employed on one track. Also imagine Jayhawks but 3 and a half hours further west. Kevin Kraft’s jangly post punk electric guitar alongside Liueallan/Oser’s acoustic strumming and voice marked this out at the time as one of the better releases out of the Pacific Northwest and the claim stands up today. A veritable feast.
Originally recorded in Los Angeles this album was remastered at Abbey Road Studios last year which must have given these Beatles fans a real kick. In the intervening 30 odd years two of the band married and moved to the east coast, one became a children’s librarian and Kevin Jarvis worked with Brian Wilson, Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello.
Various BBC radio programmes played quite a lot of Windmills of the Moon last year and I expect they’ll have April on quite a bit too. It is a delight.
