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No matter the weather, Mojo Holler brings the swamp. The husband-and-wife duo have been making their particular brand of folk-roots music since 2012. They sing about Mississippi boat queens, trains, juke joints, church bells—all things backwoods—with devotion, delicacy and a knack for taking you places where there’s a dog under the porch and the moon shimmers behind the cottonwood trees. (Full disclosure: This writer wouldn’t know a cottonwood tree if it fell on her.) Singer Missi Hasting made the move to Portland from Austin in 2011, but remains true to her East Tennessee upbringing with a voice that’s robust, raspy, lusty and, at times, full of heartbreak, always with more than a hint of Southern drawl. And that washboard she plays is a helluva thing—hats off to whomever came up with that clangy, recycled rhythmic genius of an idea. Hubby Mister Baker is nimble on the lap steel and provides woodsy harmonies. It all adds up to a muggy, moving sound of hardship stuff, Lord stuff, and lots of eerie stuff. They play all over the Portland area, where you can pretend your swanky IPA is a glass of moonshine.
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2023 here!