On Saturday, July 11, I’ll be taking the stage at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland for the first-ever Strong Songs LIVE. Accompanying me will be a bunch of my favorite musician friends, a collection of guest vocalists, and all of the cool and attractive people who have already bought tickets.

And hey, you could be one of those cool and attractive people, so buy your tickets now! Come to the show! I promise you will be glad you did.

Strong Songs Live is going to cover a lot of ground, but a big part of it will center around performances of songs that I’ve covered on the show in the past. I realized there might be some folks out there who would like to check out the relevant episodes in advance of the show, so I put together the following reference list.

(I also realize that there are likely some people who won’t want to know any of the songs we’ll be covering, since they want to be surprised the night of the show. If you fall into that camp, stop reading!)

This isn’t a complete setlist by any means; it’s just some of the songs that will come up during the show. They’re in no particular order. You can listen to each episode by clicking on the title.

A song that proves once and for all that if the writing is good enough, you don’t need a bridge. I’m deciding whether or not I want to switch to baritone guitar just for the solo or not - it’s like four bars, but they’re such good bars. I’m also having a good time reworking the horn arrangement to cover for the strings that are on the original record.

It wouldn’t be a Strong Songs show without some blues, and Prince’s “Kiss” is going to give us what we need. This one will be an instrumental, and will feature a certain local guitar hero in the lead role. The arranging challenge will be how to capture the spirit of the original with a live band. Which is to say, will we be bold enough to do it without any bass?

The moment I decided to do a live show, I knew that I wanted to play “The Waters of March.” It’ll feature two well-known local singers I’ve never collaborated with before, and who I’m excited to have on the bill. I believe they’re planning to combine Jobim’s English and Portuguese lyrics. I’ve never played in the rhythm section for this tune, and it’s so spiraling that I’ll have to be careful not to lose my place.

This will be the moment in the show when we ask the horns what they think. “Moanin’” will feature all three horn players as well as our pianist, and should be a good opportunity for everyone to deploy their favorite licks. Hopefully our trumpet player will include The Quote in his solo, but I’m not gonna tell him he has to.

I’m very excited about this one - it’ll feature a terrific guest vocalist, playing a fantastic arrangement that’s pretty different from the original. However, I do think it’d be worth familiarizing yourself with the original, and my Elton episode is a good way to do that.

One of the core ideas of my “Jesus, Etc.” episode is something songwriter Jeff Tweedy articulated in his book on songwriting: that a song finds its meaning in the moment you sing it. I’m looking forward to testing that theory IRL, and also looking forward to how it’ll sound with horns taking over for the original recording’s strings.

Every show needs a straightforward banger ballad, and this will be ours. I’m having a good time writing a sort of chamber wind accompaniment for it.

This is probably the most challenging of the songs we’ll be taking on, but will also be the most rewarding. I don’t want to say too much about it, other than that it will feature another fantastic guest vocalist, with an arrangement that will be distinct from the original without straying too far from what makes the song work.

The songs above are just a taste of what we’ll be doing at the full show, and there’ll be plenty of surprises over the course of the night. But if you’re looking to come in prepared, those are the episodes you’ll want to listen to. Also, you can just show up without having listened to any of that—or any episodes of of the show at all!—and you’ll still have a good time.

Buy your tickets! Help spread the word! Let’s pack this place, so that we can tear it up. Metaphorically, of course.

That’ll do it for now. I posted a video version of my recent Sonny Rollins tribute to YouTube, if that sounds like something you might be interested in. It opens with a little arrangement of “St. Thomas” that I had a lot of fun recording.

I have so much work to do before the show! Phew. I’m basically just going one step at a time, and trying to remain fluid - willing to embrace new ideas, drop things that aren’t working, and rearrange each piece in rehearsal until it features the musicians in the best possible way. All that, and I still gotta choose an outfit.

I’ll leave you with this pic of Appa who, when she’s about to get food, is able to sit with such silent poise that you’d swear she was a statue. A very hungry statue.

Take care, and keep listening-
~KH
6/5/2026 - Portland, Oregon