Staff Report – PORTLAND – Nearly four decades after first taking flight, The Riflebirds of Portland return to their origins with the reissue of “April,” their long-out-of-print debut album, set for an April 3, 2026, release on Regional Records.
Produced in 1988 and newly re-imagined in 2025 by Marvin Etzioni (Grammy winner and founding member of Lone Justice), “April” captures a young band at full emotional stride, its folk-rooted melodies, literate songwriting, and understated power sounding as vital now as they did at the dawn of their story.
Originally released only on cassette in 1989 and mastered by Brian Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering, “April” has long been a whispered cult favorite among those who encountered it during the band’s brief but promising late-’80s run. Now fully restored and reintroduced, the album stands as both a time capsule and a revelation.
Formed in Portland, Oregon in 1985, the original Riflebirds centered on songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lee Oser and guitarist Kevin Kraft, later joined by vocalist Kate Lieuallen and drummer Kevin Jarvis. Their initial run (1985–1989) yielded two singles and “April” produced by Etzioni, with the song “Pieces of Time” earning placement on the coveted “College Music Journal” CD and early interest from Columbia Records. Before momentum could fully build, the band dissolved.
Life carried the members in different directions. Lee and Kate married in 1988 and moved east, where Lee became a professor of English literature and author, and Kate a children’s librarian. Kevin Kraft settled in Silicon Valley. Kevin Jarvis built a successful career in Los Angeles as a session drummer, engineer, and producer, working with artists including Brian Wilson, Lucinda Williams, and Elvis Costello.
Decades later, Lee reconnected with Etzioni, and in 2024 the original lineup reunited as The Riflebirds of Portland, adopting the new name to reflect both their roots and a naming conflict abroad. With Etzioni once again producing, the band reconvened at Jarvis’s Sonic Boom Room studio in Venice, California.
Their 2025 comeback album, “Windmills on the Moon,” (Regional Records) drew international acclaim, landed in the Roots Music Report’s Top 100 Americana Country Albums of the Year, and generated widespread airplay across U.S. FM radio, BBC programming in the UK, and European outlets. Singles including “Sometime Somewhere,” “It Doesn’t Matter Much to Me,” and “You Win” introduced a new generation of listeners to the band’s graceful blend of folk, Americana, and indie sensibilities, ultimately seeing every track on the album receive terrestrial radio airplay in the U.S.
That success opened the door to revisiting “April.”
“After ‘Windmills on the Moon,’ we listened to ‘April’ again for the first time in a long time,” Oser said. “Before then, no one wanted to revisit it because the memories were too painful—the old loyalties, the dreams of youth, the final effort that failed. But after all this time, ‘April’ met us and said simply ‘Hello.’ We had made it and forgotten, and there it was, speaking in our own mother tongue. We needed to say ‘hello’ back.”
“April” features the core band: Lee Oser (bass, guitar, songwriting), Kate Oser (vocals), Kevin Kraft (guitar), and Kevin Jarvis (drums)—alongside special guest appearances from Greg Leisz (Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne), Phil Parlapiano (John Prine, Rod Stewart), Jerry Donahue (Fairport Convention), and Andrew Williams (The Williams Brothers). Several songs are co-written with Etzioni, whose production once again emphasizes emotional clarity over studio gloss.
The album’s songs move gracefully through themes of time, memory, desire, and endurance: from the opening meditation “Pieces of Time,” to Etzioni’s reflective “Memory Street,” to the longing of “Dreaming of a Kiss,” the elegiac “Michael,” and a Beatles homage in “And Your Bird Can Sing.” Throughout, Kate Oser’s voice serves as a steady emotional compass, grounding Lee Oser’s literary lyrics in warmth and immediacy.
The modern incarnation of the Riflebirds also includes backing vocals from The Mermaids, a next generation of family musicians featuring Grace Kraft (Kevin Kraft’s daughter), Branigan Lieuallen (Kate’s niece), and Briana Oser (Lee and Kate’s daughter).
“We want people to know that ‘April’ is the work of a true band, not a product of a corporate assembly line,” the group said. “You are listening to four close friends playing music together. It’s who we are and what we sound like.”
Check out the website for The Riflebirds of Portland here.
Following the release of “April” on April 3, 2026, The Riflebirds of Portland will return to the Sonic Boom Room with Marvin Etzioni in June to record their third album, “The Fire Came Down.”
Some albums wait patiently for their moment. “April” has waited 36 years, and arrives now not as a relic, but as a living, breathing chapter in a story still being written.
Listen to The Riflebirds of Portland here:
