Ryan of The Builders & The Butchers ::: portrait by Dylan Priest

Sometimes, things go terribly wrong. Such is the theme central to many of The Builders & The Butchers tales of woe, blood lust, just regular old lust, ghosts, curses, disaster and death. Ryan Sollee, lead singer and songwriter of the rowdy Portland crew, spins stories that seem to belong in dusty leather bound books. Where the average Pacific Northwest band with a banjo is singing sweet, harmony-laden songs, The Builders & The Butchers are the punk-rock Poe to those bands flowery prose. They sing songs about trips to hell, not bucolic valleys and their brashness and dark storytelling is a welcome respite from Pacific Northwest preciousness.

Sometimes, things go terribly wrong. Such was the case with our Doe Bay Session with The Builders & The Butchers. After Sollee performed three of my favorite Builders & Butchers tracks with a fieriness which threatened to spontaneously light the log-pile behind him aflame, we discovered none of it had been recorded. Sollee was a gentleman and a champ and agreed to record a few new songs for us, with tape rolling, and delivered powerful performances of “Family Tree” and “Black Dresses.”

Sometimes, things go terribly wrong and something beautiful comes out of it all the same. A little darker, a little more ragged, but no less wonderful. Such is the case with this week’s Doe Bay Session with The Builders & The Butchers. Enjoy: