Mixtape #5 - Sufjan Stevens – Made In Oregon

Early on in his career, folk hero Sufjan Stevens made a name for himself with the fabled “50 States Project.” After releasing one of my favorite albums of all time with Michigan, Stevens gained attention by making a far-fetched promise to write an equally detailed record about every remaining state. While Illinois came out two years later, it quickly became apparent that this proposal was little more than a PR hook, but that didn’t stop people from wondering what the rest of the state’s albums would sound like. 

Today, I present you with “Made In Oregon,” a would-be album about the Beaver State pulling from the Carrie & Lowell era and structured similarly to both Michigan and Illinois with a sprawling hour-plus runtime and intentional “sides.” Because every song on C&L references Oregon in some way, I had no shortage of material to pull from. Still, I wanted to mirror the listening experience of those two records as closely as possible, jumping from local landmarks and historical events to famous figures in Oregon’s history. Not to toot my own horn, but as a native Oregonian, I love this little fake album, and it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to another States album.