Winterfolk

Our Story

Now in its 32nd year, Winterfolk is the annual Portland folk festival benefiting JOIN PDX. Winterfolk 31 was held February 2, 2019 at the wonderful Alberta Rose Theatre. Concert headliner was the east coast Celtic group, Josephine County.

Winterfolk 32, Saturday, February 1, 2020 featuring the legendary Tracy Grammer is sure to put on a world-class show!

JOIN exists to support the efforts of homeless individuals and families to transition out of homelessness into permanent housing. Our efforts are directed at individuals sleeping outside or in their car in the Portland Metro area. Our service provision is not dependent on age, gender, race, ethnicity, faith, culture, language, sexual identity, specific diagnosis, or identifiable issue.
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The History of Winterfolk

In January of 1988, Mary Barclay in Portland, Oregon decided to fly her favorite folksinger, Tom May, out to Portland from Omaha, Nebraska for her significant birthday party at the Horse Brass Pub, where she had first heard and met him. Tom asked some of his Portland musical pals, such as Terry Prohaska, to join him. A collection was taken up for the homeless of Portland, and Winterfolk was born.

The next few years Tom came out every winter and again ask fellow musicians to join him at the event, which would take place at the Horse Brass Pub until 1994 when it moved to the Aladdin Theatre, where it has resided ever since. Don Younger, owner of the Horse Brass, and subsequently JoEllen Piluso, have been ongoing patrons and sponsors of Winterfolk and Sisters of the Road since its beginnings. In 1991, Sisters of the Road Café became the beneficiary organization of the musical celebration. Genny Nelson, one of the co-founders of Sisters of the Road, was good friends with legendary singer/songwriter/ activist Utah Phillips; at her request, he began to perform at Winterfolk in 1991, and would do so almost every year until his passing in 2008. In 2018, JOIN PDX became Winterfolk’s beneficiary organization, and we look forward to a long and prosperous partnership into the future.

Tom May has worked at blending both the Northwest and National folk communities in making "Winterfolk" the success it has been. Over the years, Tom Paxton, Anne Hills, Michael Johnson and Peter Yarrow, to name just a few, have graced the Aladdin Stage to play for Sisters of the Road and Winterfolk. Other notable regional artists, such as Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Dan Crary, Kevin Burke, and dozens of others, have joined Tom May on stage to make a difference through song. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised over the past 25 years!

Tom has been assisted through the years by terrific network of generous sponsors and gifted assistants. Scott Docherty came aboard in 2012, to help Tom with promotion and other administration tasks of what has become Portland, Oregon's largest annual Folk Music event.