On The Verge

Field Report

Milwaukee, Wis.
Lost & Found
www.field-report.org

For a minute, it looked like Chris Porterfield might end up as the modern psych-folk/indie scene’s Pete Best. The Midwest-native played pedal steel in the early-aughts roots group DeYarmond Edison, but split with the band before they moved to Raleigh, N.C. and laid the seeds for both Bon Iver and Megafaun. After relocating to Milwaukee, Porterfield took a job working for Marquette University’s office of student affairs and eventually started to write in his spare time. But things changed when his former bandmate Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver fame) rolled into town for a show. “He said, ‘I hear you’re getting your song songs together,’ and offered me his studio,” Poterfield says. “I don’t want to ride anyone’s coattails but that’s one way people have come in our tent.” Recording under the name Field Report, Porterfield put together a band and honed in on his own gentle, lyric-driven, homegrown Americana sound. Things fell into place quickly and, in a matter of months, Field Report had already played SXSW, toured with both Counting Crows and Emmylou Harris and released a self-titled album with roots-purvey record label Partisan. “I’ve always been a sideman so this is the first time I’ve written my own songs,” he says.