Alela Diane is keenly aware of time passing, the unrelenting flow of seasons, the flower’s fleeting bloom—but what she cares about most deeply, is now. Don’t forget to go outside / To feel the wind / To breathe the cold air / The winter branches in these bones / Know when to bloom / Know when to bear, she sings on album standout “In My Own Time.” More than a decade into one of contemporary folk’s most quietly extraordinary careers, and emerging from her own kind of artistic winter, Alela returns rich with fruit. The Portland songwriter’s seventh full-length album, ‘Who’s Keeping Time?’ came as the consequence of intuition, coincidence, and community. “I came to the end of a season last year,” Alela shares. “My daughters had grown a bit. I no longer had babies waking me in the middle of the night. I could hear myself think again.” More and more, those thoughts circled music. On the first of April that year, Michael Hurley, folk legend and indispensable presence in the Portland music scene, died at the age of eighty-three. “I was absolutely gutted,” says Alela, who didn’t just revere Hurley but knew him well. “I had a conversation with a friend who is a florist, and she talked about how spring is the most beautiful time to pass. How all the flowers are blooming and the light returns, how it’s a better time to grieve when rebirth is all around.” Alela wrote album track “Spring Is A Fine Time To Die” in response, a plucky homage to her dear friend, a whistling work of playful wit fit to honor his catalogue: Magnolia, Tulip, and Daphne, too / Flesh is temporary but your songs will carry on forever. Alela performed in a tribute show for Hurley, and in that collective mourning, found solace and inspiration. “It was an epiphany to realize how much I missed my community. I felt very clear about what I wanted in that moment—I want to be alive. I want to see live music. I want to play it.”
