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1. Bend Roots Revival schedule, streaming and more

For many musicians, COVID-19 brought performance work to a near-standstill, or at least a slowdown. But for 17-year-old singer-songwriter and Bend High School senior Olivia Knox, it brought about a surge. Part of that is due to circumstance: Bend has been open for smaller, outdoor gatherings for most of the summer. Knox, who has been performing live since she was 11, was able to take advantage of the situation with a new band featuring her father, James Knox, on keyboards, bassist/guitarist Neal Marks and drummer Nole Kennedy.

This summer, she performed Redmond’s Music on the Green livestream series; a drive-in concert at Cascade Relays Warehouse and was recently a spotlight artist for the month of October with the High Desert Music Collective.

“It is different (with) more rules to follow and things like that that are good,” Knox said. “And more live streaming so that people can watch from home, which I think is very cool because maybe people who wouldn’t be able to see it without COVID get a chance to see it now.”

And going digital has also opened up some pretty big collaborations for Knox. Since joining TikTok, she has gone viral thanks to virtual duets with Grammy-nominated singer Charlie Puth and Andy Grammer; the latter collaboration was featured on the “Today” show last month.

“I first dueted Charlie Puth’s video out of just, not expecting it to blow up at all, just doing it because I thought, ‘I have a verse for this, might as well try it,’” Knox said. “And once that blew up I thought, ‘OK, I might as well go ahead and try Andy Grammer’s.’ And when Andy Grammer dueted mine, I was just blown away at the fact that he liked my songwriting choices and really liked what I was doing with his demo that he put out there.”

Knox will will continue her musical ascent when she performs on the BIGS stage at Silver Moon Brewing on Friday as part of the virtual Bend Roots Revival. The virtual edition of the annual, local music-centric festival will take place Friday through Saturday on seven stages spread out at five venues around town, including Silver Moon, Spoken Moto, Worthy Brewing, AVID Cider Company and Cosmic Depot.

Central Oregon Recording will help Roots stream all the performances at its website, bendroots.net. Local music promoter Ian Egan helped book the acts, and others such as the High Desert Music Collective have helped curate stages. As always, the festival is free, but donations to help support Rise Up and its arts and music programs in local schools will be accepted. (Visit bendroots.net for the full schedule, as well as streaming, donations and more information.)

“It actually goes back to the roots of the Roots at the corner of 14th and Galveston with Parrilla Grill,” Roots co-founder, musician and educator Mark Ransom said. “… The vision for it has actually always been to be more like South by Southwest, where we have venues all over town, a little more like Sisters (Folk Festival) but more focused on the venues themselves. I got to go to the (New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival) last year, and it was just cool how each venue puts their own spin on it.”

COVID-19, of course, made this a necessity, but Ransom was already planning changes to Roots with this year’s event. The festival was originally going to return to the former Pakit Liquidators location, which now houses Bevel Craft Brewing and the DIYcave.

To comply with COVID-19 protocols, most venues will wrap up performances before 9:15 p.m. each night. There are about 80 musicians and bands performing this year, about 20 fewer than in previous years. Space will be limited at each venue for in-person attendees, but organizers are urging folks to stream online.

“We’re not really inviting you out to the show,” Ransom said. “… We just want everyone to take responsibility for themselves. … It’s really important especially for everybody that’s going to come down, but especially for the bands and their families who we’ve created an outdoor space (for) that’s distanced and what we think is safe. We need for everyone to not crowd the stage areas and basically do nothing more than they’ve been asked to do.”

Moving forward, Roots could retain a model of multiple venues spread out across town. Ransom suggested a day festival at Bevel spreading into multiple venues at night, similar to how the New Orleans jazz festival operates. Streaming will probably remain a component in the future as well, Ransom said.

“Being kind of on the cusp in the age of old generation, new generation and the digital age, I’ve never considered live stream before in my life for any reason, or even thinking about it; I just want to play guitar and sing,” Ransom said. “… But I now see the value in it. Where once I was getting 300 views, I’m getting 3,000 views, and people, my friends and family and acquaintances all across the land, all across the world, can tune in.”

This year will be Knox’s third Roots festival in a row, and first with her full band. She’s looking forward to performing original songs and covers, and has a new song she debuted at the High Desert Music Collective showcase this month, “Bittersweet Heart,” that she recently arranged with the band.

Knox grew up in a musical household. Her father, a fan of choral music and jazz, has performed with her since her first live performance at First Friday in Bend, and her brother plays saxophone.

“If you walk into our house, you’re going to hear some sort of singing, dancing, music, saxophone playing, whatever, and I love it,” she said. “The fact that I get to grow up in a musical home, it’s just really incredible.”

She wrote her first song at age 8 for a family talent show.

“I’m a triplet, so I have two other brothers, and I also have a younger sister, so there’s a lot of us,” Knox said. “And (my mom) told us to do a talent show because she was probably just trying to get us together; we were crazy kids. And I said, OK, and so I wrote a song and I sang it for my mom. And that’s when she realized, ‘Oh, OK, she can write stuff.’”

After receiving an ukulele for her 14th birthday, she started writing songs in earnest, drawing inspiration from her own experiences as well as other people’s stories.

She cites singer-songwriters such as Maggie Rogers, Beni and Sigrid among her favorite artists.

“It could be about my clothing; it could be a cloud in the sky. It could be anything that catches my attention, and I think, ‘Oh, I’ve got a lyric for that’ or ‘Oh, I’ve got a melody for that,’” she said. “It just comes to me in a way. It’s hard to explain. It comes to me, and then I just have to write it down, and I have to play it.”