Culture
Gladden House Sessions 2018: Larry Yes
By: Xan Spalding
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Native Oregonian Larry Yes brought love, positivity, and some genuinely life-affirming music to the Gladden House stage on Saturday, June 2, the third day of the 2018 Nelsonville Music Festival.
For many years Yes has been playing music and making visual art, organizing his “Free Art in the Park” event in Portland and recently bringing his talents to SXSW Austin, TX. Yes has also collaborated with many artists, including re-occurring Nelsonville Music Festival performer Michael Hurley. Yes’ artistic mission is to spread a message of love, positivity, and human connection.
Larry Yes began his appearance by exclaiming “I’m so gladden to be here!” setting a warm and relaxed tone for the performance. The first song he pulled out was “Love is the Reason,” a warm, inviting ukulele number off his 2018 self-released album Love Vibes For All the Creatures of the Universe.
The next song he performed was the meditative, titular number from the aforementioned 2018 album, showcasing Yes’ ability to utilize his vocals for highly percussive, kinetic sonic effects.
Yes’s last tune of the set was “Time Doesn’t Exist, Love is All There Is,” another song from his most recent release. Yes had the audience head-bobbing to the soulful pulse and singing along to the melancholy chorus: “Time, time, time, doesn’t exist…”
True to Yes’ life-affirming musical mission, he ended the set with a short message in Italian that translates to the ‘60s anti-war counterculture slogan “Make love, not war.”