Singer enjoys being back in the scene

Kim Wescott was a regular in the Spokane music scene in the mid-2000s, playing acoustic sets at places like the Rocket Market and the now-defunct Caterina Winery. But six years ago, Wescott decided to put down her guitar and take a break from creating music.

“I stopped playing for awhile, had a baby, was out of the scene for a long time,” Wescott said. “I might have occasionally picked up a guitar. I also play viola and violin, and I sort of picked those up here and there. But there was kind of no music going on at all.”

But she started performing and writing again in May when she was invited to play viola with local folk duo Feral Anthem. The songwriting bug returned, and Wescott’s new project Pérenne came together shortly thereafter.

Pérenne is currently functioning as a quartet (the band’s Facebook page describes the lineup as “a rotating band of hooligans”): Wescott, who plays guitar and sings, is accompanied by Caroline Francis Schibel, who sings and plays the occasional keyboard, Morgan Lynch, who plays glockenspiel and kick drum and Ashley Lewan, who provides vocals and additional percussion.

“I originally thought, ‘I’ll start this thing, I’ll put it in motion and if you want to come play, come play,’ ” Wescott said. “I just wanted to open it up to any of my friends who were itching to play music. It sort of just settled into this group. … We just love singing together and playing music.”

Wescott is Pérenne’s primary songwriter, and she points to artists both nationally recognized (Josh Ritter, First Aid Kit) and local (Jacob Butcher, Joel Smith, Karli Ingersoll) as musical inspirations. The project’s first recorded song was titled “Come Find Me,” a demo on the band’s Bandcamp profile that features just Wescott and her guitar, and it’s the kind of lilting, airy and sweetly melancholic song that clearly displays Pérenne’s stylistic influences.

“So far I’ve written all of our songs,” Wescott said. “We plan on maybe collaborating a bit more on that. Caroline has written a song for her previous band Mon Chéri, so she’s also a songwriter. But we just haven’t had the chance to sit down and really have a group writing session. But for now, I bring the songs to the table and they add their parts.”

Pérenne’s next show is at Friday’s Bartlett Christmas Special, which features local bands performing holiday standards alongside their original material. Those artists have also contributed Christmas tunes to an exclusive EP, and Pérenne’s holiday original is titled “Another Christmas Song.” It’s the only song that the full four-piece has recorded together, though Wescott hopes to head back into the studio.

“We don’t really have plans to record yet, but I’m sure that we will,” she said. “A full length album is definitely on my bucket list. I’ve got some songs that mean something to me. … We’re interested in maybe doing a split single with (Feral Anthem), but there’s nothing official.”

Wescott says that returning to the local music scene this year has been an overwhelmingly encouraging experience. With stalwart venues like Caterina and the Empyrean being replaced by the likes of the Bartlett and the Big Dipper, the emergence of new songwriters is something of an inevitability.

“I think (the scene) is coming back. We’ve got a lot of great acts coming out of the woodwork,” she said. “I love seeing the younger crowd; I really feel like one of the older people in the scene now. I’m hoping that people get inspired and motivated and that more of the younger kids start writing songs.”