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Justin Gordon celebrates 'Home Fires' Thursday Dec 8, 2016 at 2:00 AM Dec 8, 2016 at 11:28 AM Justin Gordon draws inspiration for songs on his new release, "Homes Fires," from some unlikely recording spots. Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune Justin Gordon draws inspiration for songs on his new release, "Homes Fires," from some unlikely recording spots. "I've lived without electricity and water since I was 19 or 20," Gordon says. "Cabins, garages in the country. I've done lots of recording in places like those. This album carries on my tradition of recording in places where I feel comfortable, where I feel I can focus on a song and not think about who's standing behind the glass or whether the take is perfect or not. "When I moved to Greensprings eight years ago, I lived in a cabin built in the '70s with simple tools," he says. "I did a good deal of recording there. I have a friend with a solar-charged battery pack with an inverter that can run 110 volts." While Gordon, his wife, Ellen Williamson, and their two sons now live with hot and cold running water and electricity in Ashland, the songs on "Home Fires" were recorded in garages, cabins, a barn, abandoned ranches, on the side of Interstate 5 — even a concrete room in Guatamala. "The trade-off, of course, is that many of the recordings don't sound as good as something that is done in a professional studio. But that's my sound. It's on all of the albums I've made." "Home Fires" gives Gordon the fifth album to his credit. Hear them online at justingordon.bandcamp.com. The singer and songwriter will celebrate the new release with a show at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, in the Headwaters Room at The Geos Institute, 84 Fourth St., Ashland. He'll be joined by his wife, whose backup vocals appear on the album's "Three Day Weekend" and "Love's Debt." Admission is free. CDs, vinyl and download cards will be available, along with copies of Gordon's past albums. Fellow Ashland musicians share the limelight on "Home Fires." Look for a drum track by Dave Hampton on "Nowhere Blues," pedal-steel guitar by Craig Martin on "Love's Debt" and "Me and Chuckles," keys by Mysha Caruso on "No Progress," and Hampton's bass and vocals on "On the Beltway." Gordon was born in Atlanta, grew up in Georgia and Ohio, lived on and off around Wales, England, France, Spain and the Czech Republic, moved to Colorado and spent winters in Guatamala before he moved to Oregon. He joined rock 'n' roll band Supernobody in Athens, Ohio, and maintains close relationships with several of its members, who also lend tracks to "Home Fires." "Chris Biester plays the guitar break at the end of 'Nowhere Blues,' " Gordon says. "He's been a friend for 25 years. Matt Box plays bass on 'Me and Chuckles' and 'Nowhere Blues.' Mike Elliot, the principal songwriter, is my first muse. His wife, Shannon Grogan, plays keys on the album." Others are Phil Bronchtein, a member of Portland band Quiet Life; Kyle Coroneos, who played in Gordon's earlier Ashland band, Justin Gordon and the Wrecking Ball; vocalist and close friend Zeb Dewar; jazz bassist Garrett Baxter, an Ashland High School alumnus now enrolled in the music program at the University of Oregon; and cellist Joe Kwon of The Avett Brothers. One song, "For Nita," showcases a lovely melody and Gordon's fingerpicking and chant-like vocals. It has a mournful yet hopeful sound, written for Greensprings friend and neighbor Nita Day before she succumbed to breast cancer. "I recorded the music at an abandoned ranch east of Lakeview, and the vocal inside a big metal cistern," Gordon says. "There's no effect or reverb, it's just what the mic picked up in that environment. The music I've written comes from a place that looks to comfort feelings of displacement in the culture we live in. That may give it a certain darkness, but writing and recording songs lets me feel as though the dark thoughts are processed. It's like journaling." Gordon says he feels a bit uncertain about the opening song, "Nowhere Blues." "It starts the album on a pretty dark note," he says. "It's not really a blues song. It's just something I came up with that I liked. It's really about being uncertain about religion. I felt suffocated by my Southern Baptist upbringing in the South. That song allows me to vent how I feel. It's also about my life changing, getting married, building the cabin, having children and saying goodbye to the wandering life I've had for the last 15 years."