Porlolo is a true labor of love, a collaborative and ever-evolving project formed in 2002 by the eccentric and prolific Erin Roberts. At once deeply pensive and thoroughly irreverent, Porlolo is a powerful songwriting force, cranking out grungy, sometimes twangy, pure pop hits.

No Praise, No Blame was recorded and mastered in early 2020, just before the world shut down and the inequity of our many systems was highlighted in technicolor. Distanced from friends and family and horrified by the pervasive injustice permeating seemingly every system in society, Roberts contemplated how we're connected to each other in thoroughly incomplete ways. This album examines the staggering pace at which we try to keep cadence with those dear to us and our persistent desire to realign and make right.

The title of the album was inspired by the poem of the same title by William Stafford, and perfectly embodies the ever-changing nature of Porlolo - carved by the influence of collaborators and friends, humble yet unapologetic, a true and irresistible presence in today’s musical landscape.

No Praise, No Blame

What have the clouds been up to today? You can't
blame them, you know. Their edges just
happen, and where they go is the fault of the wind.
I'd like my arrival to be like that, alone and
quiet, really present but never to blame.

And I'd never presume or apologize, and if anyone
pressed me I'd be gone, and come back there
only some harmless, irresistible presence
all around you, like the truth, something you need,
like the air.

From “The Way It Is” by William Stafford, published by Graywolf Press, 1998.
www.graywolfpress.org

Porlolo discography includes What Would This Be For (2002), Storm and Season (2004), Meadows (2006), Pony Trekk (split EP with Kate Magnus, 2009), Everything, Barely (2014), Awards (2016), “I QUIT” (single, 2019), “Christmas in Hollis” (single, 2020) and “Are We There Yet?” (single, 2021). Erin Roberts also released Fill Your Lungs (2012) with the Denver-based band Ending People.

Porlolo has extensively toured the US, playing alongside Jessica Lea Mayfield, Cass McCombs, Destroyer, Magnolia Electric Company, Fleet Foxes, Phosphorescent, Two Gallants and more.

BE COOL, FIND YOURSELF, FIND YOUR PEOPLE, BE TRUE TO WHAT YOU ARE, HAVE PARTIES, JUMP AROUND, CARE LESS WHILE CARING BETTER

AUDIO