Dave McGraw, Mandy Fer and bassist Thom Lord will perform at Rainshadow Recording at Fort Worden State Park on Saturday. (Laura Totten Photography)

Dave McGraw, Mandy Fer and bassist Thom Lord will perform at Rainshadow Recording at Fort Worden State Park on Saturday. (Laura Totten Photography)

‘Sway Wild’ postpones concert to the spring

PORT TOWNSEND — Saturday’s performance of the trio of Dave McGraw, Mandy Fer and bassist Thom Lord — now performing as Sway Wild — has been rescheduled to March 23 because of bad weather.

Tickets already purchased for the concert will be honored on the future date or refunded.

The show will be at Rainshadow Recording at Building 315 of Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way.

Tickets are $15 at sway wild.brownpapertickets.com.

The group is now transitioning to the new name of Sway Wild.

“Sway Wild is their own unique blend of indie-rock, folk and pop, influenced heavily by all the wild things around and within them — donkeys out the front door, whales out the back,” the group said in a press release.

Their latest self-produced and recorded release, “Off-Grid Lo Fi,” was recorded entirely with solar- and wind-powered electricity on a nearly uninhabited, remote, off-grid island in Washington, they said.

McGraw and Fer were invited to a seaside farm to care for four old donkeys and a flock of chickens for three months on a non-ferry-serviced island with a winter population of fewer than eight people.

Seizing the opportunity for a solitary writing residency, the duo loaded all of their instruments, minimal recording gear and groceries into a 16-foot aluminum boat and crossed the channel towards the U.S.-Canada border for what they called their “feral” adventure.

Pushing wheelbarrows full of provisions in their rubber boots, they made their way to a hand-built cabin where they recorded “Off-Grid Lo-Fi” in a living room overlooking the Pacific inland sea.

The recording setup was basic: no computer screens or editing; no auto-tune. All real takes.

The result is a 12-song album filled with harmonies, poignant songwriting, Fer’s electric guitar playing, acoustic guitars, percussion, cello and newly prominent banjo and piano (all played by Fer and McGraw).

Fer performs an extended guitar solo. McGraw’s songwriting riffs are on natural elements of the world around him.

McGraw spent a decade as a wildlife biologist, studying endangered birds in remote locales from the deserts of Mexico and the Grand Canyon to the mountainous rain forests of Washington.

McGraw and Fer joined forces in Flagstaff, Ariz., in 2010 before relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 2012.

The duo’s 2014 release “Maritime” charted at No. 1 on the EuroAmericana Chart for two consecutive months and was praised by The Telegraph for “… soulful songs, intuitive musicianship, and fine singing.”

The pair has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, sharing stages with such artists as Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, Gregory Alan Isakov, Charlie Hunter Trio, Lake Street Dive and many others.

For information, go to their website at swaywild.com, email centrum recording@gmail.com or call 360-301-0291.

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