Portland’5 is pleased to host a book release party and signing by Portland author and sound engineer Dave Cutter, who has left his mark on the concert and live entertainment industry throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Please join us in celebrating his distinguished career and many contributions to the industry, plus hear some of the amusing backstage stories from Dave’s book about artists he’s worked with including Hoyt Axton, Neil Diamond, Heart, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Garcia and Jimmy Buffett.

Dave’s company Sundown Sound provided professional sound for events and venues throughout the region, including the Portland Paramount Theatre (now Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall), Civic Auditorium (now Keller Auditorium), numerous fairs and festivals, plus art events and grand openings, such as the Oregon Convention Center, Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland’s light rail, and the 1982 Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz. He was involved in the sound system installation during construction of the New Theatre Building (now Antoinette Hatfield Hall), and has worked with, and is well known by, many clients of Portland’5.  A 2016 inductee into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, Dave mentored sound engineers who would go on to build their own careers as sound engineers and stage supervisors, including some who went on to engineer sound for the Robert Cray Band, Sting, J.Lo, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dave can still be seen working shows today as a stage door attendant at the Portland’5 venues.

About Asleep at the Wheel:
A Rock & Roll Autobiography - AKA The Tale of Two Daves and How One Thing Leads to Another
by Dave Cutter and R.G. Ryan

In this book, an aspirational young guitar player turned sound industry business leader reveals the underlying forces that propelled both his sound company's efforts from its base in the Pacific Northwest, and his personal journey to not just “get satisfaction”, but to find purpose in life.

Dave Cutter did not just skate on the surface of the entertainment industry and the sound business that he came to understand so well. He moved deeply into, and beyond them. Eventually he undertook an even more intensely personal and spiritual journey to better understand himself and his deeper, underlying motivations.

 

About Dave Cutter:

In the 1960's & 1970's the growing need for reliable concert sound systems and capable regional rental companies to supply them led to the establishment of hundreds of new entrepreneurial companies nationwide. Some survived, but most did not. Some were more competent than others. Dave Cutter's Sundown Sound was one that thrived, due in no small part to Dave's driving ambition, creative spirit and the practical approach he took as its owner and founder.