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Wordless Solstice

Texas-Oregon folk musician, masterful wordsmith, and all-around cool person, Brian QTN. Photo by Erik Stalheim

Wordless Solstice

Brian QTN hosts an evening of musical mindfulness, holding space for the longest night of an impossible year
Sunday, December 20, 2020

Though Brian QTN makes his home in Eugene, Ore., these days, the long-time Texas folk musician will host a virtual Wordless Solstice event this Sunday to commemorate the passage of what feels to many people like the longest year in history.

“It’s a golden opportunity to celebrate the Winter Solstice 2020 with a bunch of wonderful people and all accompanied by live spontenacious QTN guitar music without all those pesky words,” said QTN.

Sunday's event begins at 9 p.m. and will be streamed live from the Tsunami Books stage to their Facebook and Youtube pages simultaneously. Because it’s a free remote event, people can attend from all over the world without ever leaving their homes.

“Take a trip and never leave the farm,” QTN said. “Text your friend on the other side of the planet and experience it together.”

This year’s Winter Solstice, which will occur on Monday, Dec. 21 at 4:02 a.m. CST, will also feature the rare planetary conjunction, “something that hasn’t occurred in Aquarius since the 13th century,” said QTN. “We’ll turn the lights down and light candles. It’s a heart toast to the longest night, and early enough so you can still go outside and watch Jupiter and Saturn dance, too.”

Brian QTN moved to Austin from the Chicago midwest in 1976, where during his youth, he played in a lot of local clubs. “(I) stayed until the Harmonica Virgins of 1987, and then I bought the Irish band, Grimalkin’s, touring van and took off for parts unknown on a never-ending tour.”

QTN lived and played all over the country before landing in Portland, where he lived until 1992. At thta time, he returned to settle in San Marcos for a while.

“Each year, I would tour the west and add a month or two to the tour,” QTN said. “After six or seven years of that, I was spending more time in the Northwest than anywhere else.” Over time, though he still loves Texas, QTN said he came to call the Pacific Northwest home.

“One of the things I learned while touring was that I could often make spontaneous gigs happen as background music for coffeehouses, wine places, etc., with the wordless guitar music I have always written. Living in my van on the streets of Seattle, I began to present an evening’s worth of tunes to keep myself in food and gas money.”

Moving to Eugene, QTN found many venues where he could play the kind of guitar music he enjoyed without him being the focal point of the show. “I got to play with little promotion and expectation to a roomful of crowded people who became delighted enough by the music that they listened and made space for it.”

This encouraged QTN to add instrumentals to other presentations, going from many words in a composition to none. This is a sharp contrast from his earlier albums, such as the 1994 release Is As Does Is, which features an outpouring of whimsical, clever wordplay paired with his adept guitar work and warm, folksy baritone vocals.

The common thread, or in this case, string, is QTN’s guitar music, which has kept him connected to music all this time. “In 2010, I recorded Guitarred and Feathered,” QTN said. “Ten songs on one guitar played by 10 fingers, recorded by eight mics.”

QTN has been playing vocal concerts at Tsunami Books since the mid-90s, but the solstice event, which the bookstore ha been hosting for nearly 10 years now, has always been performed without words.

“To me, the winter solstice is the great turning point of the old year into the new and the idea of a community holding space together with guitar music streamin for an hour with no talking between pieces, and no words to hang concepts on embracing the darkness together with the quiet flickering of candles like an ancient vampire, was perfect for the creative, eccentric mind of Eugene,” QTN said. “Tsunami loved the idea, too, and the event began. A local candlemaker donates sweet beeswax candles to the event, and it became my favorite gig of the year.”

This year, being one of the most gruelin years in recent memory, the Wordless Solstice event bears even more significance as a way for people to connect virtually through music.

“Music has always been the pulse of life and helps us deal with daily challenges, whether we know it or not,” QTN said. “I know so many folks who have given their entire lifetimes to composing and presenting music, and this last year has come as a total shock. Even though performance and live music are paused, people still depend on music to get them through. It is a good time to consider the people who make the music you love, mostly all out-of-work or finding creative ways to use technology to continue.”

Quoting Nietzche who said, “Without music, life would be a mistake,” QTN explained that making music is a way of life that helps people process what is going on around them.

“I called my first album Lubricating the Species because that is what music and other creative expression does,” QTN said. “To me (and many others), it’s never been about being larger-than-life or famous. Sharing music and stories is older than time. It is an unbroken thread that shows us who we are.”

QTN went on to connect this year’s events with those from a century ago in relation to music.

“If we look at the years following the 1918 flu epidemic a hundred years ago, music exploded, and American jazz was at the forefront,” QTN said. “Look what came out of that. After the epidemic in 1922, Louis Armstrong joined King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, and his Hot Five came after, changing the world forever. I have a lot of hope that we will see a creative surge and renaissance after this passes, too.”

Keeping to that perspective of creative connection and rebirth, QTN went on to speak about the unexpected and sometimes positive changes this impossible year has brought about. “I think this year is a catalyst for us all to assess what is working in life and what isn’t,” he said. “Already when we think of what life was like ‘before,’ it is amazing to consider all we neglected.”

With 2020 waning to its close, Brian QTN encourages us to wordlessly contemplate the way the world has changed while setting intentions for 2021.

“My wish is for us all to remain healthy, safe and sound,” QTN said. “Speedy healing to those I know struggling with this COVID mess, and kindness and heartpeace to remember what we can do working together. There is so much that needs to be changed to repair our dysfunctional social mess, and it really does begin inside, so it can continue to radiate outward.”

To attend the Wordless Solstice event, check out the Tsunami Books Facebook page at facebook.com/tsunamibookseugene or on YouTube at Tsunami Books. The event is free, but donations are welcome.

To listen to Brian QTN’s music, check him out on at brianQTN.bandcamp. com and on Facebook at facebook.com/ BrianQTN

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