PORT ANGELES — Br’er Rabbit, that trickster character from African folklore, is now a folk-stomp-Americana band on its way to Port Angeles.
The foursome, featuring brothers Nathan and Zach Hamer — hence the Br’er — has played across the country at pubs, bars and music festivals, but at 7 p.m. Friday, they will stomp into a quieter spot.
The Port Angeles Library has a party every quarter called the Art Blast, and for this Friday’s event the theme, to play out in art and music, is wilderness.
The library is marking the 50th anniversary of the federal Wilderness Act with an art display, so it put out a call to artists of various kinds.
And Br’er Rabbit, a nationally known, Washington-grown band whose debut album is titled “The Wild North,” turned out to be an apt musical guest.
Main Library Manager Noah Glaude saw them on the poster for the Jungible Festival, an event last month at Sequim’s Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm, and “the band’s name alone caught my attention,” he said.
Glaude found songs and video on www.Brer
Rabbitmusic.com and found it all “fun and boisterous … music you’d want playing as you headed out on an adventure in the mountains.”
“A lot of our songs are inspired by nature, natural places and animals,” said Miranda Zickler, the lead singer who, for her tendency to jump around on stage, is the band’s Rabbit.
Br’er Rabbit’s concert will be in the library’s “living room,” aka the front room, right after a 6:30 p.m. reception with the artists displaying their work in the new wilderness-themed show.
Fifteen artists have contributed to the exhibition, which will stay on display this Friday through Jan. 6.
Admission to everything at the library is free.
The North Olympic Library System — which has branches in Port Angeles, Forks, Clallam Bay and Sequim — seeks to attract people across the age spectrum, and Glaude has said the 20-somethings are among the harder-to-get.
That makes Br’er Rabbit, whose players are age 22 to 25, a fitting choice for the Art Blast, he said.
The members of Br’er Rabbit grew up running around in the woods of Washington state — Zickler went to high school in Mount Vernon with the Hamer brothers — but the three didn’t meet until they had all ended up in New York City.
Now, when they’re not out on tour, they live in Bellingham, where Cascadia Weekly voted them Best Band of 2013.
Last year Br’er Rabbit added cellist Gillian Walker, who like the others is a self-taught musician.
All four had hoped to make music their livelihood, but weren’t sure how that would pan out.
“I’ve always played a lot of instruments. Music was always a joy,” said Walker. “It’s a dream come true that I could make it my job.”
“We all really love what we do, and that really translates on stage … I think we go a little crazy,” Zickler added.
The band is taking things in a more folk direction, she said, as it prepares to release a new CD in 2015.
For more about the North Olympic Library System’s activities, see www.NOLS.org or phone 360-417-8500.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
