...Awake O Zion

From the Beaverton Valley Times: Eleven hours of waiting for a 2-minute audition for “America’s Got Talent” didn’t get Beaverton’s Amanda Pewonka on a television show. But it did get her a band. “The Cashmeres were born out of this terrible thing,” said Clackamas native Jon Ransom, the other half of the contemporary folk duo. Pewonka recruited Ransom, a friend from college, to back her up for the unsuccessful tryout, and after the audition, they stayed together as the Cashmeres. At their TV audition, the Cashmeres played “I’ll Fly Away,” a popular hymn. The song is spiritual, but it’s not something you just hear in church. That’s what the Cashmeres hope their songs will do as well. “My hope is that even if someone doesn’t ever believe in God, they will listen to (our music) and still relate,” Pewonka said. Many of the Cashmeres’ lyrics come straight from scriptures. Others use a story from the Bible to tell about a personal feeling and experience. One of Pewonka’s songs, “Beloved,” uses this form. “I took the idea of what the Song of Solomon is about, and switched it to me writing a song about my husband,” she said. Ransom and Pewonka started their group in early 2010. By the summer, they had stepped into the recording studio with Portland producer Eric Olson. Ransom and Pewonka wrote five songs each and printed 200 copies of their CD, “...Awake O Zion.” The album tells a story of destruction and regeneration, starting with the tearing down of Jericho’s walls, and ending with preparing for Zion. Musically, the album pulls influences from old-timey folk and rock, with unplugged tracks featuring piano and acoustic guitar, and some bigger sound songs with electric guitar, drums and trumpet.