The morning of the Camp Fire, Paradise resident Larry Sawyer (front man for the band Stoning Giants) woke to what he first thought was a big, dark rain cloud in the sky.
“There were literally ashes falling down and we thought it was raining,” Sawyer said. When he and his wife realized it was ashes, they started packing.
A few weeks later, after he was able to process some of what he was feeling, Sawyer wrote a song about his experience fleeing the fire. The song, “Sifting Through Ashes,” was written as a timeline of he and his wife’s escape and what was going through their minds during the experience.
“The message is to keep your chin up and keep on going ’cause we’re going to make it through this,” Sawyer said. This is a message he held onto as they were stuck in gridlock with things exploding around them. He said they saw deer walking through the stopped cars, not knowing where to go.
Although most of his band mates from Stoning Giants live in the Portland area, they still meet for practice at the bassist’s house in Grants Pass, Oregon, and the band plays together all along the west coast. Catch Sawyer live at La Salles Jan. 18 from 10 p.m.-midnight. There is no cover.
For more on Stoning Giants: http://stoninggiants.com/.
