Keegan Smith had a show like that in early May at the Mission Theater in Portland. The stage was alight with a cast of Northwest all-stars who kept live music going for hours at a sold-out CD release party for "HYbrid," a project he's calling "urban Americana."
See former Eugene resident Unkle Nancy, dripping sweat, ripping it up left-handed in his wild, percussive guitar style and belting out "you're not my baby" as audience members sing back at the top of their lungs.
See Eugene's young hip-hop wonders Lafa Taylor and Marv+Ellis, dressed in a loose-fitting formal jacket, singing and rapping their parts and those of producer and songwriter Big PZ.
See, stage left, the twins from Acoustic Minds, Jenni and Amanda Price, performing passionate backup vocals and solos, joined by soul singer Kristina Rae.
See the audience clear the way for guest tango dancers, who burn up the dance floor during what many involved in "HYbrid" consider its most "epic" song: "The Gathering."
What a gathering it was. When it was all over, the man who had brought everyone together was visibly excited — and maybe a little relieved.
During a brief conversation, Smith would hint that this triumph could just as easily not have happened.
"I just wanted to make sure every voice was heard," he said after the final song of the night, white button down shirt damp with perspiration.
Project almost didn't happen
The idea came to Smith more than a year ago, but as late as last August he was unsure if he would "pull the trigger" on it.
"A year ago March, I got this great idea to basically create one touring band out of my band, the Acoustic Minds' band and Marv+Ellis' band," Smith said during a recent phone interview. "With this intermixed band, we could maximize our contacts and really keep a crowd super-entertained for a long time."
But to be a band, the group would need material. With so many moving parts, Smith figured the only way to create original music together would be to invite all his favorite people to his family's cabin.
It can take a long time to make music solo, and even longer when there's collaboration, but enough people were intrigued by or available for the project that Smith started planning. The isolation provided by the Mount Hood forest, 45 minutes from Portland's bustle, would provide the focus.
The cabin is where he spent his last days of bachelorhood before marrying his wife, Angela, in 2002. He could invite what he thought of as the "Northwest Fresh All-Stars" — artists from blues, bluegrass, reggae, funk, soul and hip-hop backgrounds.
Smith's almost decadelong relationship with Eugene-based Paul Bustrin, aka Big PZ, known primarily as a hip-hop producer, provided an obvious choice for his right-hand man on the project. Bustrin had introduced Smith to Garrick Bushek, who performs as Marv+Ellis. Smith enjoyed Marv+Ellis' "Underwater Not Underground," which mixed hip-hop vocals with live acoustic music and hip-hop production techniques.
But as the time approached for the retreat, Smith was still unsure if it was the right move. Angela was pregnant with their first child and he faced funding the project on his own while losing income from gigs to be up on the mountain.
Finally, he decided it could be the chance of a lifetime. Most everyone he talked to about the project wanted to participate — and it would be the last time in his life when he was not a father.
Smith offered Bustrin and Bushek a paid opportunity to live in the cabin for the duration of the project. Smith, Bustrin and Bushek each brought his own studio equipment.
They set up computers, instruments and work stations in the 2,000 square-foot cabin that can sleep up to 14. They hung microphones from the ceiling with yarn.
"The first month was rough," Smith said. "It was so rough."
Clashing egos, competitive natures and a need for each musician to figure out his role meant a slow start.
After the first couple of weeks, the only finished tracks were Bustrin's "Saturday Night" and Unkle Nancy's "Not My Baby." Then something happened.
No one can fully explain what took place. Call it a fight or call it a disagreement, "The Gathering" was causing some friction.
Unkle Nancy thought it should be more dark and scary, Smith said. He told Bushek his lyrics weren't about anything. Some of the guys thought Unkle Nancy's parts should be shorter.
" 'The Gathering' was mysteriously deleted," Smith said. "I think it was because of the fight."
The file from the recording session was gone, but they had an mp3. Attempts to rerecord imploded, so the version that ended up on "HYbrid" is derived from that mp3.
A very careful listener might hear a connection between "The Gathering" and "Road Trippin'," a backstory that only contributes to "The Gathering" becoming a microcosm for what went down at the cabin.
The first night Unkle Nancy arrived at the cabin he and Smith, perhaps delirious at the hour, were making Bobby McFerrin-style mouth pops, hand slaps and jamming on guitars.
Bustrin started recording and laid down tracks for each guitar and captured the whimsical a cappella sounds.
The next day, Bustrin and Bushek slapped on their headphones and got to work at their respective stations.
Bushek threw out the guitar and produced drum lines, reusing sounds that worked in the beat he was creating.
"The Gathering" is a story. Unkle Nancy's Spanish-style guitar parts add to the drama.
On the flip side, Bustrin kept both percussive sounds and guitar parts and came up with a hook-oriented and lighthearted driving song, "Road Trippin.'"
"There were so many little pieces," Bushek said. "It was just a collaboration with everyone."
All told, the all-stars occupied the cabin for two months. They laid down 50 songs pretty much from scratch. Most of them will forever be B sides. Others could show up on projects involved artists put out in the future.
When some of the artists heard "HYbrid," they were upset. Naturally, the people who were at the cabin most were featured on the most tracks, but some felt left out.
In the six months between the time they pulled the microphones from the ceiling at the cabin, those hard feelings had softened. Smith noted that everyone but Paul Creighton from Intervision and Bustrin (who both had scheduling conflicts) performed at the CD release show.
"There were times where all those artists up there really created something special," Bustrin said. "The songs that sound very alive and fresh, those are the ones you can tell there was a lot of camaraderie going on.
"It's kind of cool to see the level of this album. It was such a creative fiesta going on. ...
"When you get a bunch of starters trying to be teammates, you get a bunch of tension. But I think we turned that tension into a positive force."
Style has its roots in Eugene
That force is "Keegan Smith's HYbrid," 15 songs from about that many musicians. As a general rule, the person singing the lines is the person who wrote the lines.
Before Smith started tapping the roots of hip-hop, he worked reggae rhythms, guitars and vocal stylings into his songs. During the CD release show in May, his most prominent performances were on songs from his solo days.
But when people tell him that he doesn't seem to be the focus of "HYbrid," he explains his intention never was for it to be about his music. The idea was for a group of people he respected and admired to do something new.
"Basically, it is me taking genres of all these different people and putting it in my bowl and mixing it up," Smith said.
Bustrin pointed out that what Smith is calling "urban Americana" has been brewing in the Northwest for years. He cited the Eugene scene 10 years ago, when such performers as singer-songwriter Shawn McDonald and Paul Wright were experimenting with it.
Acoustic singer-songwriter Mat Kearney was performing with those guys during that era.
Kearney is at his best when he eschews the rapping, but his efforts as an MC were documented on recordings, witnessed at shows here and even captured a little on his major label debut, "Nothing Left to Lose."
"When it comes down to it, we basically did something no one in Portland or Eugene probably has ever done," Bustrin said. "Indie artists roll up in the middle of nowhere in Mount Hood and create something.
"Of course it's not going to be perfect, but it's great."