Washougal Songcraft Festival to showcase 20 musicians

Laura May is a boat captain. She’s a luthier. She’s a forklift driver. She also has been called one of Southwest Washington’s most promising musical artists.

“She’s fun to talk to, and has quite a variety of experiences, both in music and with her various day jobs,” said Washougal Songcraft Festival co-founder Christopher Corbell said of May. “She’s a really talented but down-to-earth artist who connects easily with the audience. We’re really looking forward to hearing her with her full band at the festival.”

May and her band, GOOSE! (don’t be frightened), will perform at the 2025 Washougal Songcraft Festival later this month.

The festival, with its lineup of 20 regional singer-songwriter acts, will be held Aug. 9, 15 and 16 at Reflection Plaza in downtown Washougal.

May has performed in small coffee shops, large festivals and everything in between. She’s toured the United States; released four albums, including three solo albums; and is now working on a fifth record with her bandmates Gabe Fischer, Matt Mena, Marvin Oceguerra and Aidan Jacobs.

After May of Vancouver performed at two of the Washougal Songcraft Festival’s “song circle” events in December and January, Corbell and his wife, festival co-founder Stephanie Corbell, asked her to perform at the 2025 festival.

May said she liked the Corbells’ community oriented mindset and “the idea of doing a songwriter-in-the-round kind of thing.”

May describes her band as an “indie rock project,” but said Jacobs’ father once described GOOSE! (don’t be frightened) as “millennial mood music.”

“Matt and I are both classically trained musicians, so we are very technical, and so is Aidan,” May said. “But myself and our other guitarist are both really big emo-Midwestern pop-punk fans, so that comes in all the time, and all of us really love metal, so there’s all these little bits and pieces that kind of fall into it.”

Her solo work, however, leans heavily toward the acoustic side.

“I perform all of our band’s songs acoustically, and it’s completely different,” she said. “It’s still the same song, but it’s different music. Being able to strip the songs down and play them how they were created initially is really cool.”

May, who grew up in Yacolt, took up the guitar as a young girl and began playing in bars, wineries and other public spaces when she was 14.

“When I was 6 years old, my parents asked me, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ and I was like, ‘I want to be Britney Spears,’ and I just didn’t really deviate from it,” she said.

May has worked a variety of day jobs over the years to support her passion for music. She has been a barista and a bartender. She’s also a licensed boat captain and periodically takes a gig transporting boats from the Puget Sound to Portland.

“My dad enlisted me as a teenager; he was a Coast Guard guy,” May said. “I grew up around boats. I love water. I like driving stuff, and I like going fast. I got my boat license when I was 14 because I wasn’t allowed to drive a car yet, but I think my dad had me driving a boat by the time I was 11.”

May’s love of water follows her home. She and her husband live on a Chris-Craft Commander boat at a Vancouver-area marina along the Columbia River.

“I love it so much,” she said of living on a boat. “(It started) when I crashed on my friend’s sailboat while recording in Oakland. I spent all my childhood on the water, so I was already kind of familiar with it, but I never thought about living on one. And then it just didn’t feel natural to be on land anymore. So I got rid of my house and went into a boat, and I have not turned back.”

Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; [email protected]

If You Go

What: 2025 Washougal Songcraft Festival

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; 4-8 p.m. Aug. 15; 2-8 p.m. Aug. 16

Where: Reflection Plaza, downtown Washougal

Performers: Jim Warford, David Pollack, Captain’s Audio Project, Slacker Key, Jet Black Pearl, Jay Ringer, Lukas Johnson, Dumpster Joe, Valdoria, GOOSE! (don’t be frightened), LASKA, Kendall Lujan, Jack Maybe Project, Karyn Ann, David E. Lane, Tevis Hodge Jr., James Rossi, Leo Moon Trio, Raven Fables, Lucas Warford and Pythias Braswell.

Songwriting workshops: 1-4 p.m. Aug. 17, at the Washougal Community Center, 1681 C St.

Community open mic: 5-7 p.m. Aug. 17, at the Washougal Community Center, 1681 C St.

More information: washougal-songcraft.org