Best known to Australian audiences for their radio (& now TV) fave I Woke Up Today, Alaska’s Port O’Brien have also delivered one of the stand-out debut albums of 2008 in All We Could Do Was Sing. Lush string arrangements, raw electric guitar, percussive banjo, pots & pans, & group chants provide a wonderfully diverse yet cohesive album of rambling, ramshackle delights, all delivered in an even more exhilarating fashion in the live setting.Based around the talents of Van Pierszalowski & Cambria Goodwin, Port O’Brien drew their inspiration in the long hours spent out to sea & baking bread. Literally. Every summer, Van worked on his father’s fishing boat, the Shawnee, on Kodiak Island in Alaska. The work was exhausting & the weather could have been better, but the contrast between the serenity of the wilderness & the rigourous labour generated quite a bit of musical inspiration. Meanwhile, back on land, Cambria also wrote music while maintaining her position as Head Baker at Larsen Bay, Alaska. Her days were often longer & just as tiresome. The culmination of all this toil resulted in All We Could Do Was Sing, because let’s face it when you are stuck out at sea or in front of a hot oven, what else is there to do?

Port O’Brien play Australia for the first time this summer, appearing on the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival nationally & also at two club shows in Sydney & Melbourne.

Dates Played

MELBOURNE
When: Tue 03-02-09
Where: Corner Hotel

SYDNEY
When: Wed 04-02-09
Where: Manning Bar

Port O’Brien Website