The original Riflebirds formed in 1985 in Portland, Oregon. The nucleus was bass player and songwriter Lee Oser and guitarist Kevin Kraft, later joined by singer Kate Lieuallen and drummer Kevin Jarvis. The band’s heyday, from 1985 to 1989, saw the release of two singles and a cassette LP, April, produced by Marvin Etzioni (Grammy winner and founding member of alt-country legends Lone Justice). The single “Pieces of Time” was included on the highly coveted College Music Journal CD. Columbia Records expressed interest. However, before things could move forward, the Riflebirds broke up.
Lee and Kate married in 1988, and soon after moved east, Lee becoming a professor of English literature and author, and Kate working as a children’s librarian. Kevin Kraft ended up in Silicon Valley. Kevin Jarvis went on to enjoy a successful career in Los Angeles as a session drummer, engineer, and producer, working with Brian Wilson, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello and many more.
Eventually Lee and Marvin reconnected and, in 2024, the original band regrouped as The Riflebirds of Portland (due to a name clash with an Australian band, and reflecting their Portland roots). With Marvin Etzioni back in the producer’s chair, they spent two weeks recording at Kevin Jarvis’s studio, the Sonic Boom Room, in Venice, California.
The resulting album, Windmills on the Moon (released in 2025 on Regional Records), met with glowing praise from the international music press (see below) and ranked in the top 100 Americana Country albums of 2025 according to Roots Music Report. The singles “Sometime Somewhere,” “It Doesn’t Matter Much to Me,” and “You Win” received substantial FM airplay in the US and throughout Europe, as well as numerous spins on the BBC in the UK and on public radio in the US. “It Doesn’t Matter Much to Me” reached number one on the Radio Indie Alliance Top 100 Songs. “Sometime Somewhere” saw numerous spins on Dwight Yoakam’s “Bakersfield Beat” channel (Channel 349) on Sirius XM. Every track on the record received airplay on terrestrial FM radio in the US.
The Riflebirds of Portland are joined on backing vocals by The Mermaids, a next generation of family musical talent, featuring Grace Kraft (Kevin’s daughter), Branigan Lieuallen (Kate’s niece), and Briana Oser (Lee and Kate’s daughter).
Regional Records is re-releasing the band’s debut album, April, on April 3rd, 2026. In June 2026, The Riflebirds of Portland will return to the Sonic Boom Room with Marvin Etzioni to record their third album, The Fire Came Down.
Album Liner Notes from Windmills on the Moon
This album is a coda to a music scene from a town that now inhabits the mists of memory. Once upon a time the musical heart of Portland, Oregon was a club called the Long Goodbye. It was there in the early 80s a cluster of young talents converged. Kevin Jarvis performed on the upstairs stage with his late brother Duane in The Odds, while I took part in various mop-up operations, from playing after hours on the downstairs stage with my first band, The Running Colours (British spelling), to literally mopping the floor.
Other local bands included The Malchicks, with brothers Billy and Lenny Rancher, as well as touring bands from San Francisco like The Dead Kennedys. The local punk scene was strong, but I think what distinguished the bands at the Long Goodbye was the songwriting. I met Kevin Kraft in 1982. He was a skinny, nerdy kid who played great guitar. He dated Kate first, but I managed to steal her away without ruining our friendship. The Riflebirds formed in the summer of 1985, and when Kevin Jarvis joined us, our local success was immediate. We worked with Marvin Etzioni for the first time in 1988. Whether it was wise or foolish to trade in my bass guitar for the works of Shakespeare and T. S. Eliot, who knows. But the music was still flowing beneath it all, and when Marvin and I reconnected in 2015, it poured from lost springs and played such tricks with time that past and future touched. I owe a lot to that faraway gang of Portland songwriters.
Thank you for listening.
– Lee Oser