Seattle Folk-Rock Band Jessie Thoreson Brings New Album Tour to Freeland Vineyard

Jessie Thoreson & The Crown Fire, the Seattle folk-rock quartet whose album "Return To The Ground" dropped Friday, will bring their Washington tour to Dancing Fish Vineyard in Freeland on May 1, one of just five state stops on the run.

The record, described in a press release as "a bold evolution in sound and scope," leans into collaboration and sonic experimentation with themes of decomposition, renewal, and rebirth. Those themes weren't assembled at a studio desk: Thoreson spent extended stretches studying wildfire ecology, writing during long days in the field and returning each evening to a small trailer or tent with only her guitar.

That immersion produced much of the album's material in literal open air. Tracks including "Ivory Closet," "Tides," "Multiplicity," and "Worse For Wear" were written outdoors, grounding the record's ecological preoccupations in something beyond metaphor.

The band around Thoreson includes Pete Bush on upright bass, Paul Rhoads on drums, and Erik Anders on electric guitar and keys, a lineup that gives the folk-rock sound both acoustic texture and range.

Dancing Fish Vineyard, the family-owned winery, tasting room, and event venue in Freeland, has built a consistent reputation for bringing touring musicians to Whidbey Island. A Seattle artist whose songwriting draws on time in wildfire country fits the venue's programming sensibility: the Salish Sea setting and the album's field-shaped origins share a concern for what the land does and undoes over time.

With only five Washington dates on the tour, the May 1 show is among the more exclusive bookings the island will see this season. Ticket availability and logistics are listed through the Dancing Fish Vineyard event page and the band's own channels.