When I was growing up, in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, my days were metered by a crossstitch piece that my mother had made that was hanging in the hall. It read, “Thank God I’m a Buckeye and not just some nut.” I always – always – think of that saying when I meet someone else from Columbus. Aaron Lee Tasjan is no exception. For example, he was once arrested for stealing his own van. He is another nut that escaped the Midwest — and then returned.
Aaron migrated from Ohio to Nashville, Tenn., via New York City. Tasjan will be completing a week-long residency in Portland that will kick off at Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel in downtown Portland. He will be headlining a free show each evening with some of Portland’s finest will be joining him, including artists Casey Neill, Ashleigh Flynn and Tony Furtado.
He will be passing the hat all week and donating the proceeds to Street Roots to go weekly at the end of the year. I asked him about his experience with poverty.
“When I come home from the road, I volunteer to serve food to folks who can’t afford to eat, right down the street from my house in East Nashville,” Tasjan said.
Tasjan is promoting his new album, “Crooked Burning River” (a reference to the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio) The river is infamous for catching on fire and helping to spur the environmental movement in the late 1960s.
Of the album, Tasjan says, “It is a collection of songs about living in America in the underground. These songs are my survival tactics and my message of hope to myself and all my friends.”
Aaron Lee Tasjan will play free shows all week at Al’s Den, 303 S.W. 12th Ave. Portland at 7 p.m., July 20-25.