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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Mail Tribune 100, Feb. 9, 1916 ... Oregon and Alaska lift suspension of troubled insurance carrier Moda ... Oregon refuge occupier releases videos mocking FBI ... Mail Tribune 100, Feb. 9, 1916 ... Oregon and Alaska lift suspension of troubled insurance carrier Moda ... Oregon refuge occupier releases videos mocking FBI ... MUSIC Steve Poltz, Grant-Lee Phillips at Old Ashland Armory Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted May. 14, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated May 14, 2015 at 1:09 PM Posted May. 14, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated May 14, 2015 at 1:09 PM » Social News Grant-Lee Phillips' and Steve Poltz' intrinsic natures make them great songwriters in their own right. Poltz — born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and raised in San Diego, Calif. — is an unhinged genius and a master of improvisational songwriting. He works without a set list to be free to react instantly to the mood of a room. Phillips is a more subdued songsmith, a writer of reflective lyrics and music that explore history, legend and his Muskogee, or Creek, lineage. A seemingly unlikely pair, Phillips and Poltz co-headline a tour that kicked off Wednesday in Hermosa Beach, and the SoCal songwriters will make a stop Friday, May 15, at the Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., Ashland. The show — featuring solo performances by each artist — is at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $15 in advance and can be purchased online at liveatthearmory.com . Tickets cost $20 the day of the show. The show is open to ages 21 and older. A full bar and food will be available. As a recording artist, Poltz founded the independent rock band The Rugburns in 1992 and is known for his collaborations with singer Jewel, especially the 1996 single "You Were Meant for Me." As a solo artist, he often performs old-fashioned, acoustic sing-along shows with simple, poetic medleys in which follies and stupidities are held up to ridicule and derision. Poltz' prolific body of work includes "One Left Shoe," "Chinese Vacation," "Answering Machine," children's album "The Barn," performance DVD "Tales From the Tavern," "Traveling," "Dreamhouse," "Noineen Noiny Noin," and, in 2014, "The Accident." As good as his albums are, Poltz owns a crowd when he's on stage. No two shows are alike and can take unsuspecting audiences from laughter to tears and back again in the space of a single song. "Walking in the Green Corn" is the newest album from Grant-Lee Phillips. It’s 10 songs drawn from Phillips’ investigation of his native lineage and explore the intersection of past and present, personal and political. With the exception of violin and vocals by Sara Watkins — formerly of Nickel Creek — and an understated vibraphone part by Alexander Burke, everything on "Walking in the Green Corn" was performed, sung and engineered by Phillips. A mix of euphoria, wonder and caution brought about by fatherhood — the heady cocktail that fueled Phillips last album "Little Moon" — also played a hand in this project, as his thoughts turned to his own mixed heritage. He has always found his ancestry, which encompasses both Native American peoples European settlers, to be fertile ground. Since first emerging in the early ‘90s as the front man and songwriter of trio Grant Lee Buffalo, Phillips has been drawn to the conflicts at the heart of the American experience. His body of work — consisting of solo and full accompaniment albums — has placed Phillips among the most admired songwriters of his generation. ”If Los Angeles has a quiet musical hero the past quarter century, let it be Grant-Lee Phillips," writes music industry veteran Bill Bentley. "In the mid-’80s he arrived with his band Grant Lee Buffalo, and over the course of several albums fashioned a sound that refuses to fit into any genre except the catch-all alternative bin, never wavering from the devotion to chase the muse. Today Phillips is still tapped into the cosmos and sounds like he’s got real secrets to share." MailTribune.com Writer Posted May. 14, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated May 14, 2015 at 1:09 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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