Reviews
When a legendary reggae band tours with the hottest new reggae act on the touring circuit the result is a sweaty dance party with a lot of chucking going on. After touring for 40 years, Steel Pulse knows how to do it, and they also know how to seek out other talented musicians because Satsang was coming in hot.
Every time that I have seen Random Rab or saQi it has been an incredible memory. Therefore, when I heard they were both coming to the Fox Theater, amongst other stops in the state, I had to make sure that I was in attendance.
Taarka is a little (although sometimes bigger) indie folk / gypsy-jazz / bluegrass band from Lyons, Colorado. And if you lived here through the tragic floods of 2013, you know that the town of Lyons was ravaged by the unrelenting waters. It has been a long road to rebuild, and David Tiller and Enion Pelta-Tiller, the leads in this 5-piece string band, lost their home in the devastation. So, fittingly, Taarka’s most recent album, released on March 24th, is titled Making Tracks Home.
Keith Richards’ blending of rhythm and lead guitars, the “ancient art of weaving,” is nothing new. In fact, it’s relatively common. It doesn’t take a trained ear to recognize, but one night with the southern guitars of The North Mississippi Allstars and Anders Osborne is enough of a case study in showing how to do it properly. Their combined recording effort under the moniker N.M.O. (North Mississippi Osborne), “Freedom and Dreams,” sparked an extensive trek across the states and included a night at The Ogden Theatre in Denver, Colorado.
#nevermissasundayshow
Sounded a general advisory from the official Yonder Mountain String Band's official Facebook page. Kinfolk swarmed from as far as 250 miles away to fill George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville, Arkansas last Sunday in anticipation for the country’s premier bluegrass/jam sensation.
When relating to the Grateful Dead, the term cover band is a sticky one. Some joked that the Dead were the best cover band in the world. Close fans and family understood their powers more clearly. Rather than a cover band they were more of a snowball collecting remnants of America’s musical past. So the idea of covers has always been different when relating to the Dead. The bottom line is nobody in rock approached music the way they did, so cover or not, every tune became an original.
This year slamgrass pioneers Leftover Salmon celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary. Beyond the musical splendor, a blend of Cajun, bluegrass, zydeco, and hard psychedelic rock, is a lovable raucousness. Their triumphant resurgence into fulltime touring has been strengthened by the presence of founding Little Feat pianist Bill Payne.
Although this night did not turn out exactly how it was intended, it was still a beautiful night of sweaty blues. It was supposed to be a double bill of John Hammond and Charlie Musselwhite, two members of the blues hall. Unfortunately, John Hammond had to cancel due to the sickness of his wife. As Musselwhite would later tell us, it was the first time Hammond had canceled a gig in over 50 years.
Few eastern musicians have made a stronger connection to the west than Zakir Hussain. It is fitting since his father; legendary tabla virtuoso Allah Rakha, popularized the instrument worldwide and pioneered North Indian traditional music to England and the Americas.
They say you’ve got to crawl before you walk, so I guess you have to walk before you dance. The occasionally cooperative early-spring evening presented itself this past Friday in Denver, so I said why not. The near-mile trek from River North Brewery to Cervantes procured flashbacks to the Five Points Jazz Festival as I rounded the corner of Welton and Will Call and made my way into the Other Side for the New Orleans Suspects.
