Arbielle

Once upon a time, two femenist-socialists escaped Oregon’s nose-diving economy of the 80’s and moved north to Kodiak Island, Alaska. There, a baby girl was born. But winters were dark and summers were short, so the family hit the road, traveling the country in a VW Van fondly called “Hannah the Van-ah,” eventually coming back home to the great state of Oregon.

So began the unusual life of Arbielle, a singer-songwriter with wide eyes, a beautiful voice, and plenty of stories to share. Her mama taught her to sing rounds when she was two years old, and she never stopped singing since. Music was her joy through new friendships and discovery of wild places, and solace through the harder things. She began learning piano at age seven, and picked up her first guitar at age fourteen. In middle school she started with the “Young Composer’s Project,” hosted by Portland band Fear No Music, who played her compositions in concert every year until she graduated from high school, with her “Wind on the River” earning 2nd runner up in the Oregon Music Teacher’s Association Composition Contest in 2000. She began adding lyrics as a college student in Walla Walla, Washington, playing with fiddler Shawn Dean of Idaho and guitarist Caleb Kytonen of Washington, to exuberant audiences at the Whitman College Coffeehouse. She also performed, toured, and recorded with the Whitman College Chamber Singers (“Variations on Three American Folk Songs,” 2004) and The Sirens of Swank (“A Day on the Farm,” 2005). After college, Arbielle was recruited to New York City public schools by Teach for America, and lived three years in Brooklyn teaching high-school science, delighting in new people, and playing music in the hip and dirty Lower East Side.

Now she has returned to her home state of Oregon, and dug in as a touring musician. Winter 2010 she recorded and digitally released her first solo demo album (“What I’m From,” 2010), and this January gathered a team of fabulous musician friends to collaborate on a new full-length album at Echo Ridge Music, in Sisters, OR. ”Roots Grow Deep,” is a sweet chronicle of growing pains, alfalfa fields, broken families, faith, funny coincidences, friendships, and coming home. Audiences from Orcas Island to San Francisco come away admiring her honesty, wondering at her perspective, and humming her beautiful tunes. As an artist, she lifts up a universal human experience; even if you are not a small person living a big life, a teacher and a farmer, a sister and a daughter, a lover of Oregon and every person you’ve known, you will know exactly what she means.