“Back O’Er Oregon” – A Musician’s Journey through Oregon’s State Parks

 Musician Slater Smith Embarks on a Quest to Visit all of Oregon’s State Parks While Shooting His Music Video

Slater Smith, frontman for the band The Weather Machine, began his quest to visit every state park in Oregon over the summer while shooting his music video for the band’s song “Back O’Er Oregon”.  The video will be a cinematic homage to Oregon’s beautiful and diverse state parks.  While planning this project Slater connected with Oregon’s Governor’s Office of Film and Television (Oregon Film) and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and explored how to expand the project beyond just the music video.  “I’ve lived in Oregon my whole life, but I’ve never seen the entire state. After I wrote the song I made a deal with myself that I’d go see Oregon’s big backyard, and that’s where the idea for the video came from. I am beyond excited to bring this project to life” says Slater.  

Oregon Film encouraged Slater to consider working with the recently formed Oregon Story Board and build out a digital component to the project while he was on the road.  Slater quickly responded and created a tumblr blog http://overoregon.tumblr.com/.  The blog will be a venue for Slater to collect images, videos, sound bytes, and written blog entries so that fans of the Weather Machine and the project may follow the summer-long journey.  “We’re really excited to see if Slater and those who follow the project can explore the larger story of the project on a digital platform.  Along the way we hope we’ll be able to collect images from the parks demonstrating Oregon’s rich diversity of locations” says Vince Porter Executive Director of Oregon Film. Read about the behind the scenes young Oregon talent who edited the music video and created the new, interactive website.

Oregon State Parks has worked with Slater and signed him up as a volunteer for the summer.  “Slater and The Weather Machine are Oregon originals. It’s inspiring to see this kind of creativity in our own backyard,” says Chris Havel, spokesman for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. “Not everyone has a chance to enjoy so many state parks, but maybe Slater’s journey will inspire a few people to try.”

Slater has begun the project already by visiting several of the Portland based state parks as well as a few in Central Oregon and the coast.  The digital video camera company GoPro has donated two of their GoPro 3 cameras for the project and pledged promotional support as well. The music video premiered early in September.

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