Singer-songwriter “Doc” Ryan will perform at Sunriver Brewing Eastside Pub on Thursday.

Central Oregon’s music scene is in an odd spot, caught between streaming and real-life shows as the state moves into Phase 2 of reopening.

In Phase 2, indoor and outdoor venues “including churches, faith-based organizations, and theaters” can host events with up to 250 people with proper social distancing in place, per the guidelines on Deschutes County’s website. Bend has seen some venues reopen and host live music with success, including River’s Place and, just last weekend, Volcanic Theatre Pub.

Volcanic will continue its soft reopening at 8 p.m. Friday with another socially distanced open house. Featuring art rocker This Island Earth and a stripped-down Guardian of the Underdog, the night will benefit Volcanic to help recover losses sustained through the pandemic. Tickets cost $10 and are available at volcanictheatre.com. Also, Bend indie rock group Cosmonautical will play VTP at 8 p.m. Saturday; this show will also cost $10.

Two of Central Oregon’s busiest musicians are getting back into the swing of shows. Eric Leadbetter will bring his eponymous blues-rock band to Cabin 22 on Saturday. Leadbetter also will join singer-songwriter Pete Kartsounes at On Tap on June 19.

Keep your eyes peeled for more shows as we continue to march toward some degree of economic normalcy.

Nonprofit streamsAn item I neglected to mention last week: Every month for many years now, the Non Profit Tunes benefit concerts have featured local songwriters performing “in the round” to help raise funds for Central Oregon charities and nonprofit organizations. In recent years, the event moved from venue to venue, eventually finding homes at The Commons and Worthy Brewing.

Of course with the pandemic, the benefits were put on hold. But organizer Thomas Hudson started sharing video of NPT performances from past years to a new Facebook page, NPT Benefit Performances. Videos release on the page at 9 a.m. daily, alongside links to the featured artist’s PayPal or Venmo accounts so that people can donate.

After years of helping out nonprofits in Central Oregon — and with the pandemic wiping out many artists’ incomes — these musicians deserve all the support they can get. So go give it.

Wading into the stream

Even with Phase 2 in effect, streaming isn’t going away anytime soon. And more and more studios and other music industry players are getting involved.

Bend sound, lighting and event company Flip Flop Sounds recently constructed a streaming stage inside Riverhouse on the Deschutes. After some test runs in the last few weeks, the stage will host its first official streaming show with local reggae-roots band Strive Roots at 8:15 p.m. Thursday.

“We were fortunate the Riverhouse allowed us take over some of their downstairs and build it out,” Flip Flop Sounds founder and owner Courtney Latham said. “Lighting and things I have that were meant for this year’s concert season, I just moved down there and we rigged up a truss. … We’ve got four cameras — three to four cameras, we’ll see how many we end up doing. I’m going to try to record the concerts for the bands to use and stream it out and get them a little bit of practice and maybe some money, and have a little bit of fun. I’ve got a lighting designer that will be working running lights and a couple of engineers to make it sound good.”

If all goes well with Strive Roots, Latham hopes to host another stream June 19. Stay tuned to Flip Flop Sounds’ Facebook and website for more information.

Analog recording studio Parkway Sounds has been quietly streaming test shows for the past few weeks, including performances from former Trailer 31 singer-songwriter Joel Chadd and Guardian of the Underdog. The tests are in preparation for a couple of Central Oregon album release parties that were scuttled (in real life) due to the pandemic.

“We can’t go play in packed clubs, which sucks,” Parkway owner Scott Oliphant said. “But it’s like, how can we make the best live concert that we can given the parameters we have to work within? So it started out of that, and I have a whole studio full of gear. So I just was trying to figure out how to marry that to something that would be a better streaming experience — so multiple camera angles and multiple cameras and better cameras, try to automate the whole thing. It’s been an insanely deep rabbit whole; it’s pretty nerdy.”

The first album release party will be for Oliphant’s art rock powerhouse The Color Study. The band will release the vinyl version of its self-titled debut album with a live stream from Parkway at 7 p.m. June 18.

“I’ve been playing music since I was 13, so it’s been a long time — 25 years or so, or whatever the math works out, 28 years,” Oliphant said. “But I’ve never had my own album; I’ve never written my own album of stuff. So I think it was, if I’m gonna do this — it’s almost like self-serving. I was like, I want to put it out on vinyl. We are gonna make a second album, but I was like, if I only make one album, it’s gonna be on vinyl and it’s gonna be the best thing I can possibly do.”

Singer-songwriter Alicia Viani will play the next album-release stream for her self-titled debut at Parkway at 7 p.m. June 26. Oliphant also plays in Viani’s band.

“She’s so freaking talented, it’s insane,” Oliphant said. “… It’s one of those bands where I’m you’re like a fan and you get to play in the band.”

Also, Chadd’s Worthy Roots Relief Fund stream at 6 p.m. Saturday will be broadcast from the studio; check the Worthy Brewing and Bend Roots Revival Facebook pages for links.

Get in the studio

Central Oregon Recording in Bend and Grange Recorders in Sisters were early traversers of local live streams. The two studios continue to support local musicians with beefed-up audio and video quality, and are experimenting with new options.

Grange Recorders owner Keith Banning set up a socially distanced spot for streaming in the airplane hangar on his property, but had to shut it down almost immediately after. He has now teamed with Angeline Rhett and The Belfry to offer streaming concerts.

Last weekend, The Belfry and Grange Recorders hosted the Doc Ryan Trio’s Worthy Roots Relief Fund live stream. Eugene blues/roots musician and Belfry favorite David Jacobs-Strain also recorded a couple of streams.

“I’m also doing recording in there now,” Banning said. “It’s large enough to where distance can be maintained, and plus it sounds awesome.”

The Belfry and Grange next will host Jenner Fox’s live stream at 4:30 p.m. June 20.

Central Oregon Recording previously hosted Worthy Roots Relief Fund live streams from Greg Botsford of G-Bots and the Journeymen and country-folk band Appaloosa.

“One of our main goals is to always offer the best quality that we can provide for whatever it is, whether it’s recording or anything like that,” studio co-owner Scott Baber said. “We ended up purchasing a bunch of equipment. So in our studio we have three rooms that we can put musicians into: our main room, our little bit smaller room and then the smallest room. So we actually put in cameras in all of the rooms, so we have multiple angles (and) multiple shots in the studio to basically try and give an audience member, somebody watching on the other side of the screen, a little bit more of an immersive experience and actually make it feel like an actual production.”

Since the shutdown started, COR has offered video tutorials on Youtube for how to get the best at-home live streaming sound. The studio has also helped support musicians looking to live stream with equipment rentals, Baber said.

Expect more streams from the studio in the future. Baber also mentioned possibly working with sponsors to set up live streams for bars and nightclubs that are reopening.

The studio also teamed with the new Bend Music Collective on a contest for the collective’s upcoming local music compilation, “High Desert Calling.” The winners — Mark Quon and Drift with the song “Anvil,” and up-and-comer Emily Rajcic with her song, “With a Ghost” — received free COR studio time to record the songs for the compilation, Baber said. Every artist who submitted will also get discounted studio time.