'You're just kind of following threads'
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Dec. 14—It's fitting that Colin Meloy, frontman and maritime lyricist of the Portland-based folk-rock band The Decemberists, would find himself in Astoria for a year-end solo set.
The author of more than a half-dozen books aimed at middle-grade readers, he's woven the town's history and folklore into "The Stars Did Wander Darkling," a 336-page suspense volume released in September.
So when the Liberty Theatre extended him an invite, a chance to share his music and book, Meloy agreed. "I had always loved the theater and had always loved Astoria," he said.
The set is also something of a housewarming. "A bit of our heart has always been in Astoria," Meloy said.
Though he and his wife, artist and illustrator Carson Ellis, primarily live in Portland with their two sons, the pair recently bought a house in Astoria. "We get out there a couple of times a month," he said. "In that sense, it felt like now that we have a kind of foothold there, maybe play a show, make it feel a little bit more like home."
A fifth-generation Montanan, Meloy's first encounter with the North Coast came at the age of 12. "We went down the coast, all the way down," he said, recalling a family road trip southward from Astoria to visit grandparents who had retired to Ashland.
"It was actually the summer that 'The Goonies' had come out, so not only was I the prime 'Goonies' demographic age, but I was traveling through Astoria. I think that, and the drama of the Oregon Coast captured my imagination in a really profound way."
Later studying for some time at the University of Oregon before transferring back to Montana, Meloy moved to Portland in 1999, meeting bandmates that would later form The Decemberists. The group's first record, 2002's "Castaways and Cutouts," lays its musical groundwork, an acoustic haze of history-informed folk tales, packaged in one of Ellis' illustrations of a sailing ship.
In the two decades since, Meloy has remained the Decemberists' primary songwriter, weaving imagery of seaport towns, jetties and tides — whether tranquil or hostile — into the band's albums. He also produced solo musical projects over the years, including four albums of covers.
All the while, he's been writing, calling back those childhood days on the Oregon Coast. "The Stars Did Wander Darkling," his latest release aimed at readers ages 8 to 12, tells the story of young Archie Coombs, who, with his three friends, discovers a cave revealed by the construction of a cliffside hotel. The setting is Seaham, a fictional town Meloy compares to Astoria and Manzanita.
"I wanted it to be right on the ocean, and in that sense, it's more Manzanita-like and probably smaller than Astoria, but still has that kind of history that Astoria has," Meloy said of the book. "There's a very prominent family that has an outsized influence on the development of the city," he continued, comparing a family in the book to the Flavels of Astoria.
The book adds to Meloy's growing collection, including a tribute to folk singer Pete Seeger aimed at readers aged 4 to 6, an ode to The Replacements' "Let it Be" and "The Wildwood Chronicles," a series of three fantasy novels, now in production as a stop-motion animation film, inspired by the 5,200-acre Forest Park in Portland.
Balancing music and writing, Meloy anticipates the Liberty show will be his last before taking a pause as a new project begins, "a book for adults, which will be my first," he said. "I started writing it and felt good about the voice."
That voice, in song, illustration or written word, he said, creates stories told in very different ways. "But essentially, I feel like they kind of come from the same place," he said. "You're just kind of following threads, and then eventually you start to figure out that you're weaving them together."
Colin Meloy
Liberty Theatre, 1203 Commercial St., Astoria
7:30 p.m. Saturday; Meloy's book "The Stars Did Wander Darkling" will be available in the theater lobby from Lucy's Books
General admission is $35 or $40 on the day of the show. A limited number of discounted tickets will be reserved for residents of Clatsop and Pacific counties
