This February, Widespread Panic proved that you can still get a lot done while sitting on the job, as they celebrated 25 years of southern rock improvisation with the Wood Tour.  Dave Schools said, “I think that most people don’t have a preconceived notion and they like the air of mystery.  I know we do.”  He could have easily been speaking about the Wood Tour.  For an all-acoustic set-list, Panic r

By the fall of 1994, the Grateful Dead scene was growing unmanageably large. Even large mainstay venues that the boys have been performing at for decades were too small anymore. The performance that used to be a not-so-well-kept secret had grown to sell out the largest football and soccer stadiums.

On such an amazing weekend of music around Boulder, Colorado, there were many tough decisions to make regarding what to see this weekend. The decision to see moe. at the Boulder Theater was an easy one. They always kill it, and the Boulder Theater is the perfect venue for them to play.

Specific aromas have the power to transport me back to an earlier, more youthful time: the earthy redolence of decaying leaves, mesquite smoke wafting from a neighbor’s barbeque, and even the gamy stench of a hockey locker room. I also have triggers for my ocular, haptic, gustatory, and aural senses. All of us do. And I thought sensory recall was the closest thing I would ever have to a time machine. But on Friday night, Phil and Friends changed that – not once, but twice.

Ruthie Foster and her band put on an interesting show at the L2 Center in Denver this past Saturday. Foster came on the music scene in the 1990s with a powerful and soulful gospel voice, often compared to that of Ella Fitzgerald. Her solo material combines her gospel roots with elements of jazz, blues fusion, and what some may call "adult alternative."

Soulive was in Boulder, at the Fox Theatre, all weekend long! "Snowlive," a three-day event, presented by KGNU, KGNC, and The Colorado Daily, featured mid-day workshops and three nights of shows. The workshops were run by the members of Soulive and focused on songwriting, expanding musical vocabulary, sound engineering, and the art of being a band.

Expecting an opening act, we arrived at the venue an hour after the doors were to open. There turned out to be no opening act, and the wait for the band went on for a seemingly endless  2++ hours. There was little entertainment aside from an unruly hula hooper among the large, otherwise well behaved Broward County crowd.

Going to see Yonder Mountain String Band in your t-shirt and shorts in February is pretty special, especially when you’re from Boulder. I was lucky enough to catch YMSB last night, which for me is fortuitous timing considering I am in town visiting my mom (and planning a monster trip to The Galapagos next week).

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair.

Saturday night, I had the privilege of catching an up and coming Boulder folk band called Gipsy Moon. They combine bluegrass, soul, alternative rock, and a little bit of gipsy jazz, weaving an intricate aura of acoustic song. A friend of mine called me up, telling me that the group was playing at the Lazy Dog on Pearl Street and it was not to be missed. He was right.