The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Jim Goodwin is a pillar of the Central Oregon music scene - hosting a radio show on Jive Radio, running venues for the Sisters Folk Festival and, of course, playing music. In the 1980s and '90s, Goodwin was the keyboardist for the cult favorite band The Call.

Members of the band are in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign that will put their music back in front of audiences - including previously unreleased tracks.

"We found 11 songs that had never come out," Goodwin told The Nugget.

Some were songs from the 1970s, before the players had gelled into The Call, and some were demos that were cut after Goodwin left the band.

"The sonic quality is great, but none of them had keyboards on it," Goodwin said.

Goodwin laid keyboard and organ into the mixes.

"It was super fun for me to play the keys on songs I'd never gotten to play on," the musician said.

Lead singer and lyricist Michael Been died of a heart attack in 2010. The new releases offer the opportunity for fans to hear him anew. As the Kickstarter page states: "Fans are going to be blown away, especially to hear Michael Been's incredible voice once again!"

Kickstarter supporters can get the "new songs," available as "The Lost Tapes," along with remastered versions of the albums "Reconciled" and "Into the Woods." Additionally, there are two albums of live recordings from 1983 and 1989 to be made available as digital downloads.

The story of The Call is the story of a band that made a name for itself, but didn't quite break through to the elite status its fans and many critics thought it deserved. As the Kickstarter page notes:

"Adjectives that one often hears when describing The Call include powerful, moving, indispensable, emotional, passionate, spiritual, the list goes on. Some called them America's U2."

Photo provided

Jim Goodwin is an important part of the Sisters music scene.

When Goodwin joined the band, they were just about to go out on tour opening for superstar Peter Gabriel in Europe.

"It was the most dream gig I could ever have possibly imagined at the time," Goodwin recalled.

For all their acclaim from fellow musicians and hardcore fans, the big break eluded them - and the music industry was hard on them.

"The band never made any money," Goodwin said.

Regardless, Goodwin looks back fondly on what he said was "a great run."

"The whole thing was like a dream," he said.

The new project has allowed him to reconnect with that dream. Goodwin wrote three songs with Michael Been, and he plans to perform them on March 14 at a show at Frankie's (the new listening room at Sisters Depot).

The Kickstarter can be accessed at https://kck.st/47TSxbN.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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