Sara Jackson-Holman’s “River Queen” Era Continues With U.S. Tour, Videos, by Steve Stav

She’s demonstrated her Siren’s call on two forays into Europe in recent years, but Portland chanteuse Sara Jackson-Holman has never toured the USA.

Until now, that is.

A six week jaunt of the west and midwest begins Nov. 28 in Bellingham, Wash. She’s supporting both Portland’-based band Horse Feathers and her summer-released River Queen EP (Expunged Records), a six-track effort with the enduring legs of a Rockette.

unnamed5Since her debut with 2010’s When You Dream, Jackson-Holman’s atmospheric offerings have not only often been picked for television placement (including Orange Is The New Black, Hemlock Grove, The Good Wife, Bones and Castle), they’ve been the basis of a string of increasingly remarkable music videos, as well. True to form, the superbly photogenic singer-songwriter’s clip for River Queen‘s title track reaches the new artistic plateau that the song occupies.

Languid and sensual, with silvery injections of Hurrell-style old Hollywood, the video provided Jackson-Holman a chance to let down her fabulous hair – literally and figuratively. However, the presentation doesn’t reveal a new look for Jackson-Holman —just a different one.

“Like anyone else, there’s a lot of things that make up the person that I am,” she explained to EPB. “I felt that it was a really fun way to present a facet of myself… It’s a really romantic, really personal song. Skyler (Norwood, her co-producer/engineer and boyfriend) was with me, and that made it really comfortable.”

The interior footage for “River Queen” was filmed in Eugene, with the gorgeous exteriors captured in a two-day shoot at the Oregon Dunes near Florence (the underwater segments were filmed in her hotel’s swimming pool).

Jackson-Holman – whose lifelong love of water is well-known to fans – instantly fell in love with the Dunes, which were picked for their Sahara-like visual qualities, with an ocean often just offscreen.

“Perhaps it’s reading into it too much, but I thought of it as a metaphor for being a river in the desert,” the pianist said of her onscreen strolls across the sand. “When I write songs, I often thing of them in temperatures, and emotions – ‘River Song’ is warm and dreamy… so, to have someone interpret the feeling I wanted into visual elements was exciting. The director, Ife (Adeniji) and his wife Kelsey, who run Artistic Outlet Media, made it all so easy.”

The singer’s latest cinematic project, “Summer Song,” was purposefully DIY, she says.

“The song always feels nostalgic to me,” Jackson-Hlman explained, “So i wanted it to look like an intimate, home video snapshot of a certain time of life. The summer… and the summer of a relationship, sweetness tinged with the sadness of knowing that it can’t last forever.”

One segment of “Summer Song” was filmed in her front yard; the other, during a camping trip with Norwood at Forlorn Lake in the Gifford Pinchot Forest – a “gorgeous, isolated area,” she recalled.

Unfortunately for fans, “Summer Song” has only been available onscreen – but it’s not exactly a B-side.

“I have always had a fondness for (the track),” Jackson-Holman explained. “I wrote it while I was writing Cardiology — but by the time I had recorded everything, I felt the album didn’t need any more ballads — so i held on to it. I passed over it for River Queen, too, because it didn’t quite fit.

“It felt like it was its own, whimsical entity,” she continued, “And after it played in (the Netflix series) Hemlock Grove this past June, I decided to make a video for it. The editing was not so much fun; it gave me even more respect for people who do that (professionally)!”

Jackson-Holman returns to the River Queen EP with her upcoming video, “Haunt Me,” which is currently in post-production.

Steve Stav

Tour Dates:

10/28 – Bellingham, WA / Wild Buffalo

10/29 – Vancouver, BC / Biltmore Cabaret

10/30 – Seattle, WA / Crocodile Cafe

10/31 – Spokane, WA / The Bartlett

11/1 – Missoula, MT / Top Hat

11/2 – Bozeman, MT / The Filling Station

11/4 – Jackson, WY / Town Square Tavern

11/8 – Denver, CO / Bluebird Theatre

11/9 – Colorado Springs, CO / Ivywild School

11/11 – Albuquerque, NM / Low Spirits

11/13 – Austin, TX / Holy Mountain

11/14 – Dallas, TX / Club Dada

11/15 – Norman, OK / The Opolis

11/16 – Lawrence, KS / The Bottleneck

11/18 – St. Louis, MO / Firebird

11/19 – Madison, WI / Play Circle Theatre

11/20 – Chicago, IL / Lincoln Hall

11/21 – La Crosse, WI / Cavalier Theatre

11/22 – St. Paul, MN / Turf Club

11/23 – Fargo, ND / The Aquarium

12/3 – San Francisco, CA / Great American Music Hall

12/4 – Santa Cruz, CA / The Atrium @ Catalyst

12/5 – Los Angeles, CA / The Satellite

12/6 – San Diego, CA / The Casbah

12/7 – Phoenix, AZ / Crescent Ballroom

12/9 – Flagstaff, AZ / Cococino Center for the Arts

12/11 – Salt Lake City, UT / State Room

12/12 – Boise, ID / Neurolux

12/13 – Eugene, OR / WOW Hall

River Queen EP on iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/river-queen-ep/id881539942

http://www.sarajacksonholman.com/