The Delines are a retro country band from Portland led by vocalist Amy Boone (The Damnations TX), alongside the keyboard work of Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists) as well as fellow Portlanders Sean Oldham and songwriter/novelist Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine) and on pedal steel, Tucker Jackson (Minus 5) founded in 2012. The name “The Delines” came to Willy in a dream. He claims we were playing a nice venue somewhere and it was written across the kick drum. The idea for the band itself came long before on a tour with Richmond Fontaine. Amy was singing the female roles from the High Country and Post to Wire, originally sung by her sister Deborah. Backstage Amy would sing soul and opera numbers to warm up and get her mind off the psycho logger tunes and a-holes she was locked in a van with. Some of the soul singing must have found its way into Willy's consciousness however and upon returning home he penned several songs he hoped Amy would sing. Willy sneaked over to John's studio and whipped out some demos to share with Amy and Sean. They dug em! Amy chose her keys and Tucker came over to work out parts in the basement. We called Freddy in to lay down the bass and Jenny to play rhodes and organ. Finally we got Amy up from Austin and after some quality time in the basement hit the studio. Collin put down a little cello and John some baritone guitar. Crow sent us up backing vocals that Amy and Deb had done down in Austin. John mixed them all up nice here in Portland and voilà “Colfax” was born. We are planning to release May 2014 on Decor and El Cortez Records.
