Back in 1995, Sisters was sleepy. That's exactly what drew Brad Tisdel to this Central Oregon outpost located in the shadows of its namesake trio of mountains.
"It was a pretty quiet place when I arrived in '95, and I took that as a place of solitude, where I cross-country skied and tried to write songs and just sort of create a life here that was quiet and based on nature and music," Tisdel describes. He'd been coming to the area with his family since the late '70s and "always appreciated the community and, more than anything, the land and the mountains. The Black Butte, Sisters, Camp Sherman area always resonated with me."
It was also the same year as the inaugural Sisters Folk Festival, and Tisdel was a song contest finalist in the fest's songwriting competition. A finalist again in '96, his involvement ramped up in 2000 when he formally started working with the nonprofit organization, leading academic endeavors like the Americana Project at Sisters High School and the continuing education program, Americana Song Academy, before ultimately booking the festival and serving as its creative director today.
Over the years, SFF has battled growing pains, smoke from forest fires and a global pandemic as it's built the region's most steadfast, iconic folk music festival. Now in its 27th year with "seven stages throughout town, we can curate different experiences at different stages," Tisdel explains. The majority of artists play multiple sets (up to three or four) over the course of the festival's three-day weekend, which gives them the opportunity to spread their creative wings in new environments. Whether it's a workshop, solo set or something more boisterous, the setting for both artist and audience can vary from the festival's home venue, Sisters Art Works, and the outdoor stage at the public Village Green Park (both of which can host more than 1,000 people) to intimate, 200-cap venues like The Belfry, housed in a former Baptist church, or the Sisters Depot patio stage.
Multiple sets at multiple venues really means "the artists get an opportunity to do some different things," and "you get to see a broader expanse of the artist and their presentation of their music," Tisdel says. "There's a dynamic environment during the festival, where people are moving from venue to venue, and artists are playing on multiple stages. There's excitement in the air, and you're gonna discover and/or see someone perform in a really small venue that just blows your mind."
With 33 acts on this year's bill, many will perform moderated workshop sets on Saturday afternoon, giving audiences the opportunity to hear artists talk about their craft. "You get to see a different side of the human behind the music, and I think the artists appreciate it because they get to spread out a little bit as far as what they share and how they share it," Tisdel says. "And the audience loves it, because you get a peek behind the curtain as far as who this artist is."
In our culture, folk music is often called singer-songwriter, acoustic or Americana, but for the booker of a festival with the word in its name, Tisdel defines it "very broadly." The core of the word is people. Folk is for the people, by the people; something that's passed down through the generations and evolves over time.
"The talent can vary anywhere from singer-songwriter, folk storytelling to duos and trios playing really interesting, perhaps eclectic music that spans genres, to almost any other style of music that's going to be received well by our audience," Tisdel says. "More than anything, it's our goal and my job to bring in artists that will surprise people."
Highlights this year include the Grammy-winning Aoife O'Donovan, repeat performer Chris Smither, West African fusion from Balla Kouyaté & Mike Block Band, Scotland's The Langan Band, Cris Jacobs (who's collaborated with Billy Strings, Phil Lesh and Ivan Neville), the duo Viv & Riley and "encore artist" Fantastic Cat, who filled in for a cancellation last year, and "they just completely delivered," Tisdel says. Regional players to catch include Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms Country Band, the pop rock of Portland's Glitterfox, songwriting duo Jenner Fox and Jeremy Elliot, Olympia banjo slingers The Lowest Pair and Sisters' local Beth Wood. Saturday will also feature a free kids' zone at Fir Street Park with live music and art from 11am to 5pm.
"It continues to be a discovery festival, a super unique social and artistic experience, and pretty low key as far as vibe goes," Tisdel says. "There's opportunities to interact and experience music in a different way than a lot of other festivals, especially larger festivals." This means you can bump into artists schlepping gear from gig to gig and "appreciate artists being around town and eating dinner in the same place other artists are performing. It's just a different vibe that really helps to create a social atmosphere that's really engaging and inspiring."
"I think music is continually evolving, and I think that you need to create space for new and different," types of expression, Tisdel explains. After working with students in local middle and high schools for so many years, he believes that the broader SFF Presents and all the endeavors it represents should take the same tack.
"We've always been about empowering voices of young people to be leaders, both in our programming in the schools and Americana Project [a music and arts education program at Sisters High School], but also in the way that we give them responsibility at an early age, because they can handle it. Then they put their own spin and twist on it, and it evolves and it matures and it grows and develops," Tisdel says.
Just like folk music has been passed from one generation to the next, transforming through the years, so does the festival and its hometown. Since 1995, "Sisters itself has continued to develop in, I think, really cool ways where some of the folks that grew up here are coming back and making it their own," Tisdel says. "There's a movement of young people that are creating what the future of Sisters is going to look like, and I think it's really important for us to sort of get out of the way and allow them to do that because they're smart, self-actualized humans that are really making it a new, dynamic place."