Teeny-boppers made a comeback on Tuesday night at the Fox Theatre in Boulder for Rooney's 2008 tour, Calling the World. Rooney's all ages show brought in an eclectic mix of concert-goers: teenagers, college students, parents, and those oh so young pre-teens. Alabama band The Bridges, consisting of four girls and one guy, kicked off the night with a short set of folk, Dixie rock. Brooklyn boys Locksley followed up with a high energy, charismatic set. Fast paced songs with audience participation and a strong stage presence from Locksley led up to a lively, up-beat performance from California headliners', Rooney.

At the instant frontman Robert Schwartzman placed foot on stage in the presence of a majority female audience, the place turned into The Beatles concert on the Ed Sullivan Show. Each time any musician came downstage to play nearly in the audience, shrill screams cut through the air as hands strove to make even the slightest of contact. Between outbursts of screams and the whining solos of lead guitarist Taylor Locke, Schwartzman's lyrics were a struggle to decipher. Bassist Matthew Winter, drummer Ned Brower, and keyboardist Louis Stephens were set more in the background during Rooney's set, as Schwartzman and Taylor seemed to be the biggest attractions among the female crowd.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the show was the virtuosic presentation by Locke. While he did not have many solos of significant length, Locke's performance resembled that of one not so often found of an alternative rock or pop band guitarist in this day. Great speed in dexterity and strikingly high chords accented with slides, feedback, and various distortion pedals combined with tight jeans, a low-buttoned shirt, tan boots, and dark shaggy hair created in Locke a spin-off image of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. However, though Locke's artistry proved impressive for those not drooling over Schwartzman, the sheer literal volume of his performance was excessively powerful and even a bit overwhelming. While Locke held his wide leg stance with guitar tilted up, Schwartzman was at center stage, his voice obliterated by Locke's high tension notes played towards the bridge of his guitar. As a guitarist, Schwartzman displayed a good sense of talent, but his vocals are his main appeal as frontman, and on Tuesday night that was lost as audience members strove to read his lips in desire of singing along.

High energy stage presence and alternative rock songs with an up-beat pop sound about them drew each and every person in, making for an exciting atmosphere with strong audience involvement. What was lost through high pitched screaming and high voltage amplifiers was made up for in an overall performance that incited all members of the audience to dance and sing along. Plenty of floor space was still available by the end of the show, lending to a presumably not sold out event, attracting pre-teens and their parents as well as boyfriends dragged along by their girlfriends. Cover songs "Movin' Out" by Billy Joel and "The Weight" by The Band were interdispersed with a balance of songs off of Rooney's 2003 self-titled album and their 2007 album, "Calling the World," making for an entertaining and crowd pleasing set for the seemingly small, yet dedicated, audience.

It may not have been quite the British invasion like those of the Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, or The Who, but The Kooks made quite an appearance at Thursday night's show in downtown Denver at the Ogden Theatre. Presented by 97.3 KBCO, the station of "World Class Rock," an older crowd of college students and middle-aged adults was drawn in, though a significant amount of younger high schoolers too had presence in the tightly packed theatre. California band the Morning Benders took to the stage warming up for The Kooks with an energetic set that got the crowd moving as a continuous flow of people made their way in from the streets, the younger of the audience filling in the floor as the adults made their way up the the balcony area, alcoholic beverages in hand. A strong tension of energy and excitement among the audience could be felt in the air even before the Morning Benders played their set, and that only increased as The Kooks took over the stage for an outstanding performance of charismatic stage entertainment and extreme musical talent.

Just as soon as the lights went out and the first musician walked out as a mere black silhouette, the full audience burst into an outrageous flood of clapping and yelling. As the lights slowly moved up unveiling the young and scrawny, yet attractive, frontman Luke Pritchard, the female dominated audience sufficed to bring the decibel level up a few more notches at the sight of his new found presence. A short looking stature on a slim frame with curly locks of hair, a white wife beater under a open denim shirt, and tight dark jeans with brown boots made up Pritchard to strikingly resemble a young Jim Morrison. Adding to his physical resemblance of the Lizard King was the explosive stage presence of Pritchard. While there was no rolling around on the stage or hypnotic moments of euphoria for Pritchard, he did display such pinnacles of emotion as having a slight bounce as he sang into and danced freely in step to the music over every inch of stage. Whether it was an upbeat song or one more mellow, and no matter if he had his guitar in hand or was obliged only to his lyrics, with a sway in his walk, an innocent bow of the head, and a flip of the microphone stand, Pritchard embodied a stage presence greatly similar to the image the public today holds of "American Poet" Jim Morrison.

Though it was Pritchard that really made the show as far as stage performance is concerned, the band as a whole played with such cohesiveness and accuracy as to make for a stunningly impressive presentation. The remaining members of the band may not have caught the fancy of the ladies in the audience as did Pritchard with his looks and British accent, but their performance as musicians was as successful as Pritchard's, both as a musician and entertainer. Song after song, not once did any musician individually or taken together as a whole play to a standard less than that of the actual recorded song. Drums, lead guitar, bass, and lyrics all came together magnificently and made for a show that sounded most nearly identical to the album, from every distinctive guitar riff to those subtle little grunts and accents in the vocals. Most impressive in their replication of their studio recorded sound was Pritchard's great success as a vocalist in reaching the high frequency pitches frequent among their newest album. Konk, The Kooks' new album released only recently in April 2008, may only be the band's second album, but displays a sound much different from their first 2006 album, Inside In/Inside Out. Prevalent among the differences in their style, though there are many, is the vocals. On their new album Pritchard takes his vocals to a new level, having grown greatly as a musician. Emotion and expression were always present in Pritchard's voice, but by taking is voice to fanatic levels of the highest pitches, he has created on their second album a new sense of feeling put into their songs that is most poignant to listen to. It is the success of pulling off these high notes in perfect pitch live on stage that really proved Pritchard talented as a musician and what put the cherry on top of their performance.

As The Kooks' seemingly longer than average set list came to a close, the audience showed no signs of fatigue from excessive amounts of dancing and singing along with every song. From older songs such as "She Moves In Her Own Way" and "Naive," to an abundance of songs off of their new album, including "Sway," "Shine On," and "One Last Time," the show consisted of a great mix of songs from the most upbeat to the slower, acoustic songs. If The Kooks had truly ended the show without an encore, fans and new listeners alike would have been fully satisfied, but their encore is was made the show end with an explosive bang. Two acoustic songs with only Pritchard on stage and the audience singing along was followed up by another couple of songs with the full band. Having performed in a packed theatre with not one person standing still during their full performance, each member of the band had to have been exhausted, but the way they pulled through on their last song of the encore was astounding. The audience too, though they'd been yelling, clapping, singing, and dancing along the whole night, showed great energy during that last bit of enthralling performance as well. Hands crowded the air and bodies swayed as Pritchard jumped on amps, flipped his mic stand, and nearly lunged into the audience with unbelievable energy and enthusiasm, ending the show with an incandescent finale that left every member of the audience wide-eyed and stupefied with astonishment.

Sure, the bands may be old and the music not quite up to date by the standards of today's young teens and adults, but Chicago and The Doobie Brothers showed that even in the millennium they can still draw in a crowd. Wednesday nights show at Fiddler's Green Amphitheater didn't quite sell out, though the majority of seats were packed and the lawn area was crawling with numerous more fans with blankets and picnic baskets in tote. While one may have guessed that with the more mellow, jazzy sound of Chicago and the jam band, folk persona of The Doobie Brothers that the audience would be a nice split between older couples and young neo-hippies, the gathering of people proved to be anything but. Middle aged adults significantly outnumbered the surprisingly miniscule amount of teens and young adults that could be spotted throughout the crowd with a keen eye. Age difference and a generation gap between the old fans and the new however was of little significance when The Doobies and Chicago both took the stage for an hour each of pure entertainment, ending the show with an unforgettable jam between the two bands whose music continues this day to be played on the radio and remains a part of our record collections.

Starting the night off with a shockingly short twenty minute set was Italian musician Nicola Congui. As more and more people trickled into the venue, filling the seats and slowly turning the lawn area into a picnic area, Congui performed a set of four or five love songs to a chattering, garrulous audience. Performing in black tux-like attire with a low voice and an Italian accent, Congui had the appearance and sound of someone that would seem more fitting for an opera than at a 70's theme concert. After an unusually quick set change and only half an hour after the concert started, The Doobie Brothers took over the stage with an outstanding set of their most accomplished hits that had everybody on their feet and dancing by the time they were done. "Jesus Is Just Alright" and "Black Water" kicked off their set early on, only to be followed by several more of their greatest hits including "Long Train Runnin'" and "South City Midnight Lady," as well as a long blues piece about half way through their performance that really allowed the versatility and virtuosity of the band to shine through. While their harmonics were not as pure and strong as they perhaps were in their younger years, and the sound of their music not quite as full sounding as the recorded versions, The Doobies played an energetic set that got the people out of their seats and singing along to every word at what otherwise might have been considered to some as a "sit down" concert.

Following The Doobies as second headliner of the tour with an hour set of classic, best of songs in a show that proved not to be quite as strong as the far to seemingly short performance by The Doobie Brothers was Chicago. Perhaps it was the cold wind that took over as the night passed or the more mellow music of Chicago that during their time on stage did for the most part turn the show into a "sit down" one. With a set comprised of such songs as "Make Me Smile," "Beginning," and "Just You N Me," the band got the audience singing along and swaying in their seats, but for the most part the crowd simply enjoyed the concert without too much outward excitement or enthusiasm. As was the case with The Doobie Brothers, the years passed seemed to have taken a tull on the guys of Chicago, their vocals and overall sound not quite what it used to be, though still an impressive performance of their most popular recorded songs. By far, what made Chicago's show shine and brought took it to a whole new level was an incredible ten minute drum solo that grasped every member of the audience and held their attention at the stage. With a light show following the music and the drum set upstage center on a raise, Chicago's drum solo displayed an everlasting talent that truly bewildered the audience with its outright impressiveness and was received with a wild applause of satisfaction. After this climatic point of their performance, the audience slowly got more into the show as individuals around the arena started to pop up and Chicago began to play more of the songs the audience wanted to hear. By the time Chicago had come around to their last song of an hour set that felt anything but, again the whole theatre was up chanting and grooving along together.

While both bands played great sets that seemed to go by so much faster than the hour they each played on stage, the half hour encore jam session between the two classic rock groups was the highlight of the show that immediately brought the full crowd to their feet where they would remain until the lights came up. With both Chicago and The Doobies having a larger number of group members as compared to today's standard 4-piece band, the stage quickly filled up as the four guitarists, three drummers, two keyboardists, and seemingly one bassist filed out to play all their remaining best and biggest songs together. Moments of guitar and saxophone duels between opposing band members accented the show with yet another burst of talent and made for a performance that showed that the musicians were truly enjoying themselves just as much the freely dancing, singing audience. An amazing and extremely enjoyable performance of "Listen to the Music" followed by a just as outstanding and solid play of "25 or 6 to 4" ended the night on a strong note that left the audience sighing at the concerts ending and yearning for more as the house lights un-wishfully came up.

Second in radio station Kool 105's summer concert series, Tuesday night's HippieFest at Fiddler's Green drew less of a crowd than the preceding Chicago/The Doobie Brothers show, but boasted a more lively audience with a far greater mix among age groups. Though older adults and some true old hippies made up the majority of the shockingly small audience, small children with their parents and small packs of teens, young adults, and neo-hippies too made up a fair portion of the crowd. With such acts as Jack Bruce of Cream and Eric Burdon and The Animals headlining the festival, it would be expected that an evening of music from such artists would draw in a good amount of people, or at least enough to fill the venue. At 6:30 though, when the show was scheduled to start, an abundance of seats across the entire venue remained empty, many of which would stay in that condition for the remainder of the night. As the main acts of the concert approached as the sun further set and night began to blanket the sky, more seats slowly were being filled, though overall the show did not attract anywhere near a full audience. With the general admission lawn area being closed off and it becoming more apparent that the audience would grow no more, many people in the audience freely meandered about the venue, moving to open seats rather than their ticket designated ones, making for a better seat and a closer look at the 60's decorated stage. For those in attendance, dancing, alcohol, singing along, and occasional puffs of the thick white smoke that so was a part of defining the hippie generation, created an atmosphere and scene of a good time. Good times aside though, the musical entertainment of the evening was centered on those popular classics everyone knows and loves, but with far too short of a performance from each band, ending the night with a sense of disappointment and a feeling of un-completeness.

Kicking the evening off even before the sun was fully set behind the stage was Jonathan Edwards. Dressed in orange pants, Edwards came onto stage with nothing else than a harmonica and acoustic guitar. His vocals the third piece of his instrumentation, Edwards performed the majority of his set simply as such - vocals backed with guitar and harmonica. Making a comment along the lines of how he had written one of the songs during the first time a war was brought to us through lies and deception, and making slight drug references the majority of the audience could relate to, Edwards got his audience laughing and enjoying themselves. Ending his set with an a capella song, Edwards' set was much enjoyable and showed that still today he holds talent as a musician and finds joy in what he does. After Edwards' too short performance of around twenty-five, Badfinger took to the stage for a set of the majority of their most successful singles.

What started out as sounding too heavy with the bass and not enough action from the lead guitar, Badfinger's set took a turn after their first song, improving the sound among the guitar and the band as a whole. Though their sound and performance greatly improved, making their set more enjoyable and the music sounding ever more like the original recordings, Badfinger's time on stage too flew by with amazing speed, immediately making way for the next set. By the time Jonathan Edwards and Badfinger had finished their sets, the energy level among the audience had slowly began to pick up after each song and performance. When Woodstock performer Melanie came on stage after Badfinger though, that energy level again dropped and audience focus was taken away from the stage and instead put on personal conversation.

A little old woman with gray hair, Melanie's performance was appreciative and admirable for her touring and playing her music still today. However, with what seemed to be random stories and bits of information during and in-between songs, and slightly whinny vocals, Melanie's performance was all together slightly bizarre and failed musically to grab the audience and draw them in. At one point, Melanie took notice to this, commenting that there was much talking, people walking about, and that the audience needed to get refocused, something that never was really fully achieved during her time on stage. Getting more near the main acts of the evening, The Turtles followed up Melanie's set, having greatly picked up the energy level and brought the audience to their feet for the first time that night.

Filling in for the missing radio DJ's at the beginning of the evening, the two lead vocalists of The Turtles had already met with the audience before their set. The humor the two displayed in entertaining the audience before acts and during set changes carried over during their set as they talked back and forth between songs. This in combination with their catchy, upbeat, sing along music, The Turtles' performance proved fun and enjoyable among the greater majority of the crowd as people freely rose to their feet and danced as lights panned over them and across the stage. With the energy level again raised and the audience size at its fullest, much conversation and excitement filled the air after The Turtle's set as anticipation mounted for Jack Bruce to take the stage.

Having done much solo work after his time with Cream, Jack Bruce has a large repertory of songs behind his name and still today achieves great success in his name as a bass player. As part of HippieFest though, Bruce's set stuck to classic Cream songs and left his solo act behind for the night. With as many hits as Cream had, it would be easy for Bruce to have played over an hour set. However, to the disappointment to of the audience, Bruce's set lasted no where near as long as many would have liked for it to and only consisted of about four or five of Cream's biggest songs. His set may have been short, but what Bruce made of it as bassist and vocalist reaffirmed his notoriety as a bass player and gave a performance that put forward everything he had to offer. Opening with "Sunshine of Your Love," Bruce easily got the audience up and moving immediately with the song's all too familiar bass and guitar introduction melody. Another great song, "I Feel Free" was performed with great interaction between vocals as Bruce and a backup vocalist recreated exactly the upbeat intro to the song. The replication of the recorded version of the song only continued as the song carried on, the audience still singing and swaying along. Displaying his talent and success as a bassist, Bruce played an extended introduction to "Politician," circling over the hypnotic, re-memorable bass line many times before getting into the vocals of the song. With lights on the stage, psychedelic patterns moving across the large backdrop, floods of color moving across the audience, and the slow, heavy bass sound of the song, an atmosphere straight out of a 60's concert was then created for a near five minutes in the modern world we live in. Already having played a great set, Bruce further established his musicianship with a fantastic, extended version of "White Room." Great instrumental breaks filled the song as still the audience was on their feet and Bruce was playing just the same and as great as ever before. Ending with this song, as the house lights came up for a set change, a slight silence fell over the audience. Bruce's set acknowledged some of the greatest Cream songs and were played with the highest enjoyment and talent, but his performance felt anything but complete, leaving his audience in a mixed state of excitement, bewilderment, and disappointment.

After a fair amount of the audience left for the night and a quick set change, Eric Burdon and The Animals came out as both the second headlining band and the last band of the night. Now an old man with white hair and a changed body shape, Eric Burdon and The Animals played a great number of their biggest songs, and they didn't let their age slow them down the slightest bit. Though years of performance and lifestyle have taken a toll on Burdon's voice, it no longer being distinctive as it was before nor being as low pitched, his vocals displayed great power and variation. Among every song, from "Don't Bring Me Down" to "When I Was Young," Burdon at points let his vocals go with yells of excitement and passion in his singing. At other times, Burdon would simply make smaller changes in the tone, inflection, or dynamics of his voice and singing, giving the songs a slightly different sound, feel, and meaning than their original recorded versions. Among other changes in their live performance was the absence of an acoustic guitar in "San Franciscan Nights." Making up much of the original song, especially during the chorus, and its use in the addition of accents and ornamentation in giving the song a more down-to-earth feel about it, the acoustic guitar instrumentation in absence was instead played by the keyboards. Unlike the more slight changes in Burdon's vocals, this change in live performance of musical instruments gave the classic old song a more Eastern musical sound. In addition to more of their big songs such as "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," The Animals too did a unique cover of Rolling Stones song "Paint it Black." As was the case with Jack Bruce, The Animals had played a great selection of their biggest and best songs, though so many more could have been played, and they ended their set with one of their most successful songs of all: "House of the Rising Sun." As a spotlight went down over the keyboardist and the rest of the stage fell black, the song started off with a short piece on the keyboards of old blues music rooted in the South. A short tale unfolded as Burdon stepped into the spotlight and both the keyboardist and Burdon wove their way with the rest of the band into a passionate, high energy performance of the song. During the whole of The Animals' set the full audience was again out of their seats having nothing but good times. The people in the audience weren't the only ones though, for up on stage Burdon too was running, jumping, and dancing about the stage. Though their's too was a short performance, Eric Burdon and The Animals played with a strong enthusiasm and passion that drew and connected the audience into their groove.

Known for his hip-hop and reggae style, Jewish musician Matisyahu's sold out show Sunday night at Boulder's Fox Theatre proved to have attracted far beyond the religious folk of his faith. While a considerable amount of Jewish families with women in their head dresses and men in their customary yarmulke could be spotted from among the crowd, the greater majority of the audience showed to be just as diverse as the musical genres in performance. The music performed by Matisyahu and opening acts Trevor Hall and K'Naan did in fact all hold aspects of hip-hop and reggae, yet among these artists there was diversity. From acoustic guitar and vocals to bongo drums and keyboards, set after set, even song after song, the music was alive with world influences, sound, and meaning.

Opening the night with a more grounded yet exalting set was acoustic/alternative South Carolina native artist Trevor Hall, accompanied on percussion by Chris Steele. Poetic lyrics backed by simple melodies picked and strummed on acoustic guitar, Hall's sound is greatly embodied in his unique voice. A difficult one to characterize, at times carrying the drone of Dave Matthews and at others the choked sound of Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse, Hall's voice is ornamented with fluxuations in pitch, giving his vocals a soulful, reggae sound. While this alone lends for a grasping show, it was the intense percussion accompaniment by Steele that really gave depth to Hall's set, making for a yet stronger, world sound. With a more exotic, African beat, Steele's percussion worked beautifully with the basic simplicity of Hall's guitar and accented vocals. A change of pace was thrown into the set when Matisyahu stepped on stage and encouraged Hall to read a poem only recently written. Strumming on his guitar, Hall recited the poem with eyes closed and not one person stirred for those couple of minutes, but instead kept in silence with a fixation on the stage. Following, Hall and Steele again picked up the remainder of the forty minute set, closing with a song of amazing climatic tension of rising tempo that only increased the crowd's awe and appreciation, earning Hall and Steele a wild applause equal to that received by Matisyahu.

Maintaining the energy and interaction of the audience, though with a more hip-hop, afro-beat sound, following Hall's set was K'Naan, a native of Somalia. With the sound turned up, the bass of the band's music was carried alternately in the large bongo drums and standard drum set. His vocals expressed more in a hip-hop style, K'Naan's set musically held more up-beat with heavy bass and rhythm. As this may be so, the influence and incorporation of other cultures' music shows to have been just as prominent. Mixing musical styles with a great talent and understanding of it, K'Naan's set varied from song to song, from old school hip-hop, to modern hip-hop vocals with an Ethiopian musical basis, to a very personal a'cappella sharing his story. In this short solo performance and in so many other songs, K'Naan's lyrics take a focus on his growing up in Somalia, his life in America. Combined with his smiling, dancing, and just simple feel good demeanor throughout the entirety of his forty minute set, K'Naan's performance built on a connection with the audience that made for a fun, moving atmosphere. Getting the whole crowd involved as one mass group in singing the chorus "When I get older I will be stronger. They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag," K'Naan's set ended with a sense of unity and elation that too was brought to a close with an equally excited, energy packed applause.

Anxiousness and excitement followed during the long wait through the set change as the theatre packed to its capacity. Shortly after ten o'clock, Matisyahu at last took the stage for an unexpectedly long jam-packed set of special guests and musical improvisation. Aside from Matisyahu himself, dressed in an open black blazer with white Nike's, a yarmulke, and prayer tassels, the remaining three members of his band looked like a group of average guys, just walked off the street in their everyday attire. Regardless of their dress, the show was about the music, and the instant they hit the stage, the crowd met their performance with lively dancing and singing as the temperature rose. During the second half of the first hour of his set, Matisyahu surprised the audience, bringing out guests Mackenzie Roberts and Jonny 5 from local rising band, Flobots. For almost the full length of the song played together, Roberts accompanied on viola, while for only a portion of it did Jonny 5 join in with improvised vocals. An unexpected treat, the crowd welcomed the Colorado musicians, keeping up the energy and enthusiasm. This atmosphere reached pinnacle heights when, at the end of the first hour of his set, during the song "Jerusalem" Matisyahu started pulling kids in front of the stage up onto the stage with him. After the first three were up, Matisyahu needn't say or do more - kids just started storming the stage on their own. One after another, the stage filled with a good 20-30 dancing bodies surrounding Matisyahu, himself downstage center singing and dancing along.

If that wasn't enough, after an announced five minute break, Matisyahu and the band came back on stage, ready as ever to pick up where they left off. Again, more towards the end of this second part of his set, Matisyahu brought another guest out, this time around it being opening act Trevor Hall. Playing a song they had written together, Hall's time on stage with the band, like so much of Matisyahu's performance, was largely improvised. While at one point the music stopped to take care of some technical sound problems, the audience strongly convinced Matisyahu into beat-boxing. At this request, the band left the stage, leaving Hall on his guitar, playing as support, and Matisyahu, beat-boxing to whatever Hall put out. For a good five minutes this session went on, ending with a climbing tempo back and forth between Hall's guitar and Matisyahu's vocals moving as fast as both could entertain. Bringing the band back on stage, the set continued, ending with a drawn out, extended jam session of "King Without a Crown," only to be followed up by yet one more song in the final encore.

By the time the show ended shortly after one in the morning, the audience had nearly cut in half as people slowly left sometime during Matisyahu's immense three hour set. With improvisation making up a large portion of every song, the performance on a whole took on a very jam-band like stylization, bringing to light a respectable virtuosity, connection, and understanding among each musician. Five hours after the show started, those left in the crowd and the musicians on stage were indeed looking tired and beat. But for all that is was worth, the show put on not only by Matisyahu, but just as much so by Trevor Hall and K'Naan was of the most passion, fun, and zeal, leaving their audience simply sublime.

Just looking at them, the five members making up the current line up of 1970's band Head East may look like a bunch of older guys with long hair and guitars. Get them plugged in and playing though, and they give a performance just as impressive and rocking as ever before. The audience collected at Denver's Grizzly Rose for the band's show this Friday night surely didn't pack the bar, though it did represent old time fans and people simply looking for a good time. Aside from the Motley Crue look-alike members of opening metal band Angels & Bullets and a table of young couples in their twenties, the main body of the crowd was middle age spouses and singles. Ages among the crowd may have been more confined, but styles varied greatly, from cowboys and cowgirls to aged hippies and bar flies. Lifestyles, age, and dress aside, an endless flow of liquor and beer got the audience loose and dancing to Head East's flat out well performed set in an enjoyable atmosphere of fun and enjoyment.

To the less dedicated of followers of Head East, the highlights of the one and one half to two hour set was the group's two most commercial tunes: "Since You Been Gone" and "Never Been Any Reason." For those bigger fans however, it was a night to remember with a performance of the band's collection of greatest hits and newly recorded songs. Whether the songs were new, old, known, or unknown didn't make a difference though when it came to the music itself and the good time both the band had playing it and the people had listening to it. Classic, old songs remained true to their sound while new songs took on fresh subject matter with various musical styles that, even though written and recorded more than thirty years after their prime, carried on elements that too convey their original sound. Among such elements standing out in performance was ongoing instrumental solos, vocal harmony, and show of diverse musical styles.

In no particular songs did the main solos on lead guitar, keyboards, and drums come to the front line in performance. Rather, nearly each song, followed one after the other, had some bearing of solo work. With this was there an aspect of collectivity in the sound of playing between each musician; individual members brought their personal elemental style of playing into the greater sound of the group as one unit. Drummer Eddy Jones not only supplied the driving rhythm and strong backbeat, but impressed the audience with a short but intense solo stint that showed he knows how to work the drums and has a good time doing it. Jones' role and importance should not be underestimated, nor should the imperative position of bassist Greg Manahan, however it was the timbre of keyboard player and band leader Roger Boyd and guitarist Glen Bridger that more so stood in the forefront. Pounding it out on multiple sets of keyboards, Boyd played with such power and intensity that added depth and clearly apparent passion to the music, most notably in his highly energized performance of "Never Been Any Reason." Playing lasting riffs with a hook to them and consonant melodies to excellence was Bridger on guitar, with shrill, high tension solos of speed and agility that reflected where his abilities and excitement as a musician lie. Fronting the group with high rang vocals and a distinctive voice was Darren Walker. A cross between the singing voices of Geddy Lee of Rush and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden in their classic song, "Run to the Hills," Walker's vocal range showed to be very dynamic. Making use of such pitches can be disastrous, but Walker showed control and used his vocals in a beneficial way that formed with the music rather than having contradicted it. Walker's vocals were not alone though, for it was in such songs as "Brother Jacob" that everyone banded together in a smooth, impressive harmonic texture.

Against this backdrop of solos and vocal instrumentation the band played across a variation of musical styles. Their classic songs gave a taste of their archetypal sound, while new songs such as "Me and My Whiskey" reflected a much heavier rock style and others as "Prisoner" (written by Walker) took the tempo down to reflect more of a ballad. For as well as both the old and new songs were received, it was only a small group of people that gathered on the dance floor in front of the stage to be part of the intimate performance. As for the rest, the show was just as well viewed from the bar and small side tables. It was only during the performances of a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride and Joy" and the band's own "Never Been Any Reason" that the dance floor temporarily packed in more of a standing audience. Having drawn a greater part of the crowd with their biggest hit of the 70's, Head East's performance easily may have taken on the image of a group of old one hit wonders. Even as such, heart felt performances from each musician and a tight (though not eminent) set from the group as a whole made for a fun atmosphere that showed Head East's pure, honest joy in what they do regardless of their measure of fame.

In the late sixties and early seventies they had Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but they didn't quite have in sound and performance what Bill Kreutzmann's power trio has today. The Grateful Dead drummer was joined on stage Saturday night at the Fox Theater with the Allman Brothers Band's Oteil Burbridge on bass and Max Creek's Scott Murawski on lead guitar. For the older Deadheads and hippies from the Haight Ashbury days, the two and a half hour set may well have been a drug induced flashback. Pent up in one area off stage right of the theater where the drinking minors were secluded, the concert in contrast may well have been a wide-eyed, crazy experience. Not one person was standing still as the group played like it was the last show they would ever disport. The show had it all: drugs, liquor, dancing, and of course above all, a long night jam session that, in its range, sound, speed, and overall presentation, was in the most simple terms, impressive.

With his widely known membership and role in the Grateful Dead and the one to have brought this impeccable band together, it is no surprise that the group's tour is billed as Bill Kreutzmann, featuring Burbridge and Murawski. Despite Kreutzmann being "the man" as Scott introduced him at Saturday's Boulder show, the music put no focus on him in particular and the audience wasn't fixated on only his presence. Of course there was a good amount of people who were in fact Grateful Dead fans, their appreciation for the acid rock band made known with patches, hats, t-shirts, bandannas, and the like with the steal your face skull, dancing bears, and skeletons and roses of the Dead. With no formal introduction, little talking between songs, and the mesmerizing music, Kreutzmann's presence and performance was equal to that of the selfsame extremely talented Burbridge and Murawski. The truly amazing music created by each of these musicians individually and together was the epicenter of the performance, and its power was felt throughout the entire venue.

From more heavy rock to psychedelic, Cuban beat to Southern folk, various musical styles and characteristics surfaced throughout the entirety of the set. Most prominent in such range of styles was the changes in rhythm and vocal timbre. While this range showed the band's ability and understanding of how to play different music, their sound more exclusively reflected their knowledge and use of instruments. Passion and fervor were pounded out on drums from Kreutzmann, one of the strongest deciding factors of rhythmic atmosphere. Finger tapping, distortion, feedback, scales, solos, and melodic vocal impressions by Murawski on lead guitar created sounds it wouldn't be expected to come out of a guitar. Rising above them all was Burbridge on his six string bass, with not the slightest hint of restriction or boundaries in his playing. Freeing it from any strict or conventional role commonly assigned to the bass, Burbridge tapped, slapped, shook, strummed, and moved all over the seemingly simple instrument. His speed, dexterity, and coverage on bass could be matched to the likes of Jimmy Page on guitar. Burbridge, Murawski, and Kreutzmann's individual expressive showmanship was solidified in their playing as a trio. Each song and jam was met with close unspoken communication and unprecedented playing between them that often times concluded in an explosive face-off of overwhelming speed and power that could only be received with awe and bewilderment.

Perhaps Muraswki captured the essence of the concert most accurately when he said, pushing aside the complexities of musical elements, it was nothing but "just a good time." By the time one thirty in the morning rolled around when the show ended, only a small portion of the decently packed audience had cleared out. In their two part set, Kreutzmann and friends put on a show that was truly about the music. Little emphasis on lyrical content and the images and names of the musicians themselves put the limelight on the musical art form. For a group of older guys, the trio gave a highly supreme performance that embraced music's potential and showed the audience what true music of the rock era is all about.

They weren't the biggest band back in the late 60's and 70's, yet Grand Funk Railroad did meet their prime with top singles such as "We're an American Band" and "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home." Forty years later the band still comes through town on the occasional tour, but as Saturday's concert at Elitch Gardens showed, the Grand Funk's train appears to be coming to a halt.

While their relatively short show did prove that the band still can turn out some of those classic jams, the long hair and leather apparel dawned by some of the members couldn't hide the fact that they're just getting old. Nevertheless, the musicians seemed to have enjoyed themselves on stage, as did the overwhelmingly small crowd that flowed in an out of attendance. The greater majority of the audience was made up of parents who endured a day of heat, rides, and rampant kids just to go to the show. Then, of course, were there all of those kids, dragged along to see some band they probably scarcely knew, if they knew them at all. Parents, kids, and devoted fans up front by the stage did however collectively have a good time as they danced to "The Loco-Motion" and sang along to "Some Kind of Wonderful." As the show moved along the venue seating slowly became more and more empty, while the open floor standing area began to accumulate more groups of people. By the time guitarist Bruce Kulick's heavily distorted rendition of the American anthem came around though, the theater had significantly cleared out in comparison to what it looked like at the kick off of the show. However, those that did stick around got a respectable performance of many of the groups' greatest hits and cover songs.

As often is, the focus of performance was between lead vocalist Max Carl, lead guitarist Bruce Kulick, and drummer Don Brewer, though Tim Cashion and Mel Schacher (introduced as "the God of Thunder") undoubtedly provided much of the support that contributes to the sound of Grand Funk Railroad on keyboards and bass, respectively. In what would be the second half of their set, Brewer had a decent length segment that allowed for a drum solo that reflected more of a control of dynamics and tempo than of depth. Contrasting to this portion of a solo focus, Kulick met the peak of nearly every song with a guitar solo. Cashion, Schacher, and Carl did not get the same touch of limelight, though Carl naturally led much of the show, given his role as main vocalist and second guitarist. A listen to the groups greatest hits record would confirm a wide range of styles, though most still embodying that "American band" flavor, and they made solid this variety in performance. From a cover of The Animals' "Inside Looking Out" to the more bluesy song "Time Machine," to the more straight forward, American sounding "Walk Like a Man (You Can Call Me Your Man)," a significant range of music was covered. Then of course the night was rounded off with "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" followed by "We're an American Band," the two songs that continue to make their name known today.

Considering the range they covered, the overall show was not bad, yet the performance was not unique or one that significantly stood out. Dressed in leather vests, cowboy hats, studded vests, and bandanas between them, it appeared that they were trying too hard. In combination with a few too many whoops and screams and the repetitive guitar solo in nearly every song, the performance seemed to be more for show and affect. Add to this an amusement park backdrop with park associates walking through with popcorn and light-up gadgets for sale, and Grand Funk Railroad was portrayed just as the atmosphere would suggest them to be: an older band hitting the road another year with their big tunes, playing for parents and their kids at small town festivals and amusement parks.

This Wednesday, July 1st, will mark an important one year point for Fort Collins band Tickle Me Pink. Just short of twelve months ago on this date in 2008, Tickle Me Pink were to celebrate the release of their first album on Indie label Wind-Up Records, but instead found themselves alongside many fans mourning the sudden death of 22 year old guitarist/bassist Johnny Schou. While it can only be imagined the stress and emotional struggles the band endured at this time meant for celebration but met instead with sorrow, Tickle Me Pink a year later is finding themselves climbing to greater success, if even only on a local basis. Support from the locals in hand with Colorado alternative rock radio station Area 93.3 giving air-play to "Typical" and "Madeline" and the group's touring collectively have been bringing the band to the forefront of the bands to come out of Colorado, The Fray, Flobots, and Meese being among the others. Power driven shows jam-packed with raw feeling and a well represented span of styles, just as Saturday's show at the Gothic Theater, make it no mystery as to why Tickle Me Pink is building success only a year after the tragic loss of a friend and band mate, and the release of their first record.

Supporting Tickle Me Pink on stage, the show represented opening bands Hearts Like Lions, Life In Electric, and I Hate Kate. Denver band Hearts Like Lions started the night with a fun set that got their musical style across, though their vocals proved to be a weakness as they became lost in the music with a lack of power and depth. Fellow local band Life In Electric followed, with a set far more heavy in comparison to Hearts Like Lions with more volume, distortion, and more "screamed" vocals accompanying a visually formed performance. After being thrown into a shock in the change of musical styles, the audience seemed to find itself more at home with the significantly more calm and alternative sound of I Hate Kate. Of the three I Hate Kate, the only of the opening bands to be from out of state, most brought energy and excitement to the audience with their repetitive yet catchy dance tunes and crowd interaction. Dancing and excitement rose with their vivacious set as the crowd slightly packed in more and the temperature inside climbed with anticipation for the main act.

The crowd hit its maximum for the night during I Hate Kate's set and for the greater portion of Tickle Me Pink's, with the young pre-teens and teens right up front at the stage, the age getting gradually older as it moved away from the stage and towards the bar. The hot, active atmosphere established during I Hate Kate's set only carried over and amplified for Tickle Me Pink's. Surprisingly early on in their set, Tickle Me Pink played their first single "Typical" with much fan frenzy and response from the audience. Possibly more surprising was their driven performance of their second single "Madeline" at the end of their set rather than as an encore song, as may have easily been expected. For the band to have played their two biggest hits and only singles at the begging and end of their set, leaving neither for an encore performance, was an offbeat move. Each musician's extremely high spirit and emotion through entire set though made each song into its own little performance. Even during the couple of acoustic song played, including "Tomorrow's Ending" in memory of Johnny Schou, expressions of gradification were subdued yet nonetheless felt. Aside from much of the driving, pounding rhythm and rock n' roll stage antics, the remaining power to come out Tickle Me Pink's performance was found in Sean Kennedy's vocals. Kennedy's unique voice not only captured the emotion of the songs, but remained impressively true to his vocal sound on recording. To put so much into the vocals it would be imagined would put a strain Kennedy's voice. However the front man managed to push trough for the two-song encore. In these songs, each completely different from one another in style and message, Kennedy did not only push his voice further, but took it to a different level, first on a cover of The Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" only to be followed by Rage Against the Machine's "Killing In The Name Of." Kennedy's soaring, high pitched vocals full of vibrato and all those little vocal nuances in "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" easily switched gears into the less melodic, anger laden vocals in accompaniment of "Killing In The Name Of." Despite the rather opposite styles in song choice, the audience ate it up. On each song the crowd were just as excited, if not more loud and moving than during their entire set. With the whole crowd dancing and singing along and the joining of members from the opening acts on stage, chanting together with the crowd "fuck you I won't do what you tell me," the show ended with an encore set that gave the audience it's final burst of a surprisingly highly enjoyable performance from a once unknown Denver band. 

When spirituality comes to mind, it seems most often images and associations with well practiced religions such as Christianity and Judaism are the first to surface. With his thoughtful lyrics though, set to a musical style at it's most basic classified as a fusion of reggae and rock, Trevor Hall embraces a different meaning of spirituality. A prominently young audience gathered at the Soiled Dove Underground on Friday night to get an experience of Hall's inspiring live performance with a near two hour set that washed the crowd over with songs of love, unity, appreciation, and understanding.

Friday night's gig jump-started the tour for Hall and his band, bassist "Super" Mario and the extraordinarily talented percussionist Chris Steele, after multiple shows prior to Denver's were canceled due to the of loss of Hall's voice. In speech it was apparent that Hall's voice still required healing, while his vocal performance exceeded expectation, showing no signs of loss or sickness. Rising above and influencing his vocals was Hall's radiant attitude throughout the entirety of the show. Numerous times were songs cut into very briefly with small laughs and chuckles form Hall, his unique singing expression momentarily broken. One song found Hall lightly jumping off of the stage into the crowd with his guitar to jam and dance with the people, while "Om Shakti Om" brought Hall's father out on stage with the band, sharing a mic and singing alongside his song. The audience shared in laughter as Hall told the personal story behind the song "31 Flavors," and later shared more of a bonding moment as together everyone sang in repetition the chorus of "The Lime Tree," both with and without musical accompaniment. If it was no yet clear that each person was absorbed into the music, it became undeniable during a recital of one of Hall's new works in progress, the words complete but not yet put to music. The silence of the audience was impressive as not a soul stirred and the only sound was Hall's words. An encore solo performance of "Liquor Store" was met with the same stunning silence and avid attention as Hall sang along with his acoustic guitar. With such audience interaction and the power it lent to the atmosphere, it is no wonder Hall was all smiles. His already elated mood right from the start only fed off of the crowd, a true happiness showing on his face and in his performance.

Equal to the joy expressed in performance was the honesty and truthful meaning of Hall's lyrics and their presentation. The spirituality by which Hall apparently lives his life comes alive in his lyrics, the belief in them he holds exposed to the audience through his singing. Much of what Hall relates in his songs revolves around interests of peace, love, unity, and the likes. Ideas of togetherness and equality appear in his lyrics often times through the use of streams and rivers, as they are a part of each other, all of the same water. Other songs such as "Unity," written with reggae/rock musician Matisyahu, take a more face value approach to relating these ideas with the chorus "No more you and me, no more they an we, just unity." In nearly all of his lyrics does Hall touch upon these topics, bringing about that sense of spirituality. As the songs unfold though, it seems that the spirituality to which Hall speaks is not that in the Christian sense of God. Rather, through his words Hall brings about a sense of being at one with the world around him and appreciating and respecting it and its people for what they are. With this mind set, as it is expressed in "Internal Heights," Hall strives to "maintain internal heights" and live with an eternal high, one that never dies off. The happiness and passion with which Hall performed in balance with the truth he feels and tells in his lyrics, at the very least for this one night, brought the entire audience to that natural high. Being able to convey these expressions through his words and music, Trevor Hall stands as an inspiration to do all that you can in this world and live, and to learn to achieve that exhilarated love for life.

It started in a bedroom studio as a solo project, writing, playing and self-recording as a one-man-band. After the release of two solo albums under the name The Antlers, "Uprooted" and "In the Attic of the Universe," founder Peter Silberman started the recording of "Hospice." During the two year process, Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci joined the band as permanent members, and now the trio is on an American tour with British band the Editors.

Saturday night saw the small but resonant group at Denver's Ogden Theatre, playing after a brisk, bass-driven set from New York's The Dig. Unfortunately for some, the show started thirty minutes early, with both The Dig and The Antlers' sets over shortly after 9:30, only half an hour after the show was scheduled to start.

Half an hour is little time for any band to get their songs out there and establish themselves in performance, yet The Antlers were able to reflect their favorable transformation from Silberman as a solo artist to a three-piece band just three years ago in 2007.

"We've become a lot more cohesive as a band," said drummer Michael Lerner in a phone interview two days prior to The Antlers' Colorado show. Lerner said he is excited about the direction the band is going and to see it as a unit, not three separate people.

Listeners and concert-goers were excited too, taking part in the vocals for most if not all songs, a stately  presentation considering the band self-released "Hospice" just in March of last year, then again in August 2009 under Frechkiss Records.

Signing to a record label means a lot, not only by way of success but creativity. Frenchkiss, notwithstanding, is a record label with perspective, Lerner said. Recording in a commercial studio is a lot more costly and it "requires you to be more expedient with time," Lerner said.

The Antlers haven't had any lack of support though, and moving from a tight-fit bedroom studio to fully adorned commercial studio clearly has its benefits.

"We find it fun, it's another thing to geek out with the equipment," Lerner said.

And geek out they have. Their live set included Lerner on drums, Cicci on keys and Silberman on main vocals, guitar and keyboard. Seeing and hearing all the sound coming out of these three guys, it's notable to recognize that Silberman started all of this on his own, the driving force behind the concept and, in the beginning, the sole musician in recording.

Lerner and Cicci were not left out of the creative process, however. Silberman had an idea of the direction he wanted to take "Hospice," but everyone contributed their opinions, Lerner said.

"Everyone had a platform for ideas," he said, and Lerner expects that the writing and recording of the band's next album will be just as much of a collaborative process.

New material is pulling together, but in the mean time the tour they started in October 2008 doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon, with each night offering up an exclusive show.

There is little fun in playing the same stuff every night and in that way becoming robotic, Lerner said. Personally, he doesn't like to sit still--it's good to get away from the usual and challenge yourself, he said, even if that means it's not always a success.

"It's a little more living on the edge," said Lerner, talking about why the band likes to allow some freedom in their live performance rather than strictly replicating the record. "It's those little things that we're always trying to pay attention to new ideas."

Sets are not drastically different night to night, Lerner said, but Saturday's audience did indeed get a taste of this liberty The Antlers like to explore through improvisation and the like. "Two," "Bear," "Shiva" and "Sylvia," all off of "Hospice," were included in the set. Variations and extensions of the songs were habitual, though not so radical as to lose the sound of The Antlers. Still the unique static, almost cacophony of their sound was there, a foil to Silberman's strident, bewailing voice.

They only had half an hour, but The Antlers brought a moving set, the music lurching back and forth between mellow and aggressive tones with much of the atmosphere being set by Cicci on the keys. Lullaby-like tunes built up to a clamorous rhythmic drive and back down again with whining and emphatic vocals all the way through, all coming together from just three guys in a band that started as a solo project in a New York bedroom studio.

"Boulder, CO, Fox Theatre. Giant Panda at 9. JBB at 10. TK at 11:30. Bring your dancing attire, dr." Not the most clear posting on Twitter, perhaps, but for fans of Toubab Krewe--the "TK" in the tweet--the message was rather plain. Thursday's show was going to be one with jams so moving, you had better come ready to dance. And they were right.

Toubab Krewe's eclectic mixture of music and en-trapping sound, bringing to together aspects of driving African rhythms and Southern classic rock, tapped into every body at the Fox that night.

Nearly an hour on stage with a two-song encore, Toubab's set included only one song with vocals. A reflection of the band members' Asheville, North Carolina roots, the song had a more southern folk sound. Kamel ngoni, kora and electric guitar player Justin Perkins's subtle drawl, accented with the occasional whoop and holler from electric bassist David Pransky, no doubt gave the song a southern timbre.

The tin-like sound produced by the kamel ngoni also added to this atmosphere, while at the same time giving off a vibe of the African, Mali culture from which it comes. Then add in the jamming quality of Pransky on bass, Teal Brown on the drumset, Drew Heller on electric guitar and Luke Quaranta on percussion, and yet another face is added to the music--that of the 60s and 70s rock era.

Densely layered into individual artistic songs, it becomes clear that such a package of musical backgrounds, in their nature and origins, incites dancing. Numerous trips to Mali, Guinea and Ivory Coast helped the band develop this unique sound, says Toubab's website.

"They immersed themselves in the local culture and studied and performed with luminaries," says the band's biography. And this, in performance, has translated itself into a care-free, fun atmosphere full of movement.

Aside from songs off of the band's self titled 2005 record, released on indie label Upstream Records, Toubab's set included multiple synchronized drum and percussion solos. The first of these featured drummer Teal Brown and percussionist Luke Quaranta, while the second featured both these two with the addition of Justin Perkins.

Later songs in the set had Heller behind a set of keyboards and off of the guitar, while Perkins put down the the kamel ngoni and, for only a few songs, picked up the comparatively larger kora. As for their encore, Pransky, Perkins and Heller all sat in chairs along the front of the stage for their final songs. And, in case there weren't enough diverse instruments on the stage as it was, Pransky and Heller played on bass and guitar instruments, respectively, made out of wooden cigar boxes.

It was a quarter after one in the morning when the theatre finally emptied onto the streets of CU Boulder's campus Hill. As Toubab kept throwing out the tunes, however, the audience slowly began to trickle out and thin before the show came to its final end. Surely, dancing out the full night since reggae band Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad opened at 9 p.m. makes for a tiring outing.

The fifth stop on their 15 city tour, it would be no surprise to find the quintet themselves also physically exhausted. Yet, while it may be so, there were no such signs of the late hour and touring weighing down on the guys. From start to finish, Toubab Krewe filled the Fox with their blend of American and West African music, offering a new presentation of African instruments and, living up to their Twitter post, ensured that everyone be ready to dance.

John Brown’s Body co-headlined the show alongside Toubab with a set of soulful vocals, in the sense of the power and drive behind them, and free reggae grooves. Anybody that enjoys the rapping and Jamaican influence of Matisyahu's music would benefit from checking out John Brown's Body, similar in their vocal presentation but with more outright reggae instrumentals.

Toubab fans will have to wait months yet for the band's next album to be released, but in the mean time can hear their song "Hang Tan" featured on Surfing Medicine Volume II.

John Brown’s Body also has a song on the compilation disk, the proceeds of which benefit Surfing Medicine International, dedicated to the education of sustainable medicinal plants and their provision free of charge to people with cancer and HIV/AIDS, says Toubab's website.

Live at the Orange Peel, released in January 2009, is also available on Upstream Records.

In most cases, being called dense is not something to be taken lightly and is certainly a far cry from what most would like to hear about themselves. When it comes to music though, and in particular that crafted by Here We Go Magic, being called dense may very well be one of the best comments the quintet could receive.

What started as a solo project out of New York, Here We Go Magic has within just over a year's time evolved into a cohesive group with a unique sound and idea that all began with guitarist and vocalist Luke Temple.

Prior to the release of the first record under this name, Temple released several self-titled EPs, was then picked up by Mill Pond Records and released two albums on this label. In 2009 Temple signed with Western Vinyl and in February of that year released the self-titled Here We Go Magic record.

As it grew in favor Temple formed a band and, in September of last year, what would become Here We Go Magic as they are known today--Luke Temple, Michael Bloch, Kristina Lieberson, Peter Hale and Jen Turner--signed with Secretly Canadian, with whom they will be releasing their sophomore album "Pigeons" this June.

An unusually small audience got a taste of the band's brilliantly chaotic sound Wednesday night at the Fox Theatre as Here We Go Magic opened for another New York band, White Rabbits.

Feeding off of each other and the atmosphere around them, the guys and gals of Here We Go Magic built up each song with some variation from the album, extending them out and pounding out each with intense layers of five part vocals, driving bass and heavy drums.

Allowing their songs to unfold organically, improvising off of one another with eye contact and subtle gestures, Here We Go Magic's set pulled tracks from their self-titled album and turned them into a grounds for experimentation, playing out every song to its fullest extent with raw power and climatic tempos.

Mixing it up is what the band likes to make their live performances about, said bassist and vocalist Jen Turner in a phone interview last month. Their sets are not about trying to recreate anything in particular, she said, but being involved with everyone's process in that moment.

"It's not about doing something, it's about just doing," Turner said. "Allowing yourself to be whatever, whatever the song calls for."

Vocals from each wove in and out of the music, overlaid on a resonating bass drum and strong electric bass lines. Clear, cohesive songs crescendoed into a whirlwind of separate, distinct voices wrapped up in synth drones and both lead and rhythm guitar.

As sound piled atop itself, bass over drums, synths over bass, Here We Go Magic worked up a thick wall of sound, an aspect that Turner said she likes about performing in smaller venues.

"There's a certain heat that can be harnessed," Turner said. It allows for a personal experience with the audience and building up a dense sound, she said, making for the likes of an almost sexual experience.

Capturing this "hypnosis of the moment," as Turner called it, is not an easy thing to do. "It's hard to discover it," Turner said. "The fear inside of it is not knowing if you'll find it."

Advancing this idea into the recording studio, it becomes even more difficult. Taking the band from a solo "joy" that Temple had--rather than a vision, Turner said--to a full band process, Here We Go Magic has been recording as a crew, Turner said. It starts with a loose concept of a song, then put together as a band and recorded as soon as possible.

"What you're actually trying to record is feeling, and that's a lot tricker," Turner said. There's an integrity missing when trying to reflect that emotion from a live performance on tape, Turner said, such that the music is a coincidence and reflection of the moment.

Generating this excitement, playfulness and fusion among a band in this regard often requires much practice, repetition of trial and error, learning and experience. In the year and half that Here We Go Magic has been together however, already such cohesiveness is evident.

Coupled with their full, rich sound, decorated with subtle vocal and instrumental nuances and packaged together with a sense of grounded chaos, Here We Go Magic's set invigorated the senses and displayed the awareness they have for each other on stage.

"It's so effortless the way we play together," Turner said. As they continue to learn and feed upon each other they come to anticipate each other's rhythms, and as a result, said Turner, "I suppose we have no choice but to get better."

Check out more of Angela's photos from the show.

When small coffee house performances come to memory, a picture develops within the mind’s a eye that often seems to call up images of a simple set with acoustic guitar, wooden bar stools, a soft pool of light, and the gentle murmuring of an audience.

Such a setting would fit well the music of English musician Bobby Long, and indeed is where he started as a musician performing his material. The crowd he played before on Wednesday night at the Fox Theater however was one that, though responsive to Long’s ragged voice and powerful acoustics, did not share the emotion emitted from the stage.

Atmosphere lacked for Long’s full one hour set opening for New York band Matt Pond PA as a small gaggle gathered around the front of the stage, drawing in the greater part of the crowd that the theatre would see for the night. All applauded and younger females yelped for the English musician, but the audience present was one too astoundingly small and ill-appreciative of Long’s simple yet forceful and well bridled set.

Colorado last saw Long in August 2009 when he played at the Hi-Dive in Denver, a venue presumably more attuned to his music and a stronger atmosphere. Before he started The Dangerous Summer Tour in the U.S. last year however, Long was developing a name for himself among London’s open mic night scene.

Long’s prominence within this circuit grew, and to support his shows both live and online, he put together a collection of 10 song recorded in his bedroom. What Long refers to as “the big EP,” this compilation titled Dirty Pond Songs is a bootleg-like record sold only at Long’s live performances.

Up until now these shows have been solo acts for Long, and indeed the remainder of his 2010 summer should be in the same manner as he continues to travel across the country. With the release of his first full length CD though, recorded with an entire band rather than just Long and his guitar, he said he hopes to change this up and bring that band on the road with him.

“As soon as my album comes out this summer, like probably in August or September, I want, because I record a lot of songs with the band, I want that to be represented in the live show,” said Long in a telephone interview a month prior to his Boulder show. “I’m just kind of going through the process of putting the band together and yeah, definitely in the future would love to play on tour with the band.”

Adding musicians to the setting means for a more full, thick sound, both in recording and performance. Long’s solo show on Wednesday however proved him to be a musician both loud and powerful enough to support himself on stage.

Songs off of both Dirty Pond Songs and Dangerous Summer Tour, a an 11 song collection of live recordings from that tour, made up Long’s pleasantly unexpected 60 minute set. “Penance Fire Blues,” opened with a brief interlude and a slower tempo than the recording, showed Long at one of his best moments, starting the song slow with a more bluesy vocal style and rapidly gaining strength as it built up with hard, rapid strumming with subtle buzzing and whining bent strings.

Ending on a slower note at the avid request of a fan from the audience, Long closed his set with the simple but easily lilting “Two Tone Lover,” keeping the atmosphere quiet but for those moments of depth in vocals paired with more dynamics in the acoustics. In between were similar performances of “The Borough Mill,” “Who Have You Been Loving,” and “Into The Frost,” which Long dedicated to his audience on behalf of the wet, snowy night.

The slightest hint of roughed up vocals and the obvious setting of only Long and his guitar make his influences from blues and folk musicians clear, especially on “Dead And Done,” for which Long pulled out the harmonica. While Long has been lumped into this category of musicians, in a time where music can be enhanced or even fully created by the use of technology, Long said this is just the route he has chosen to take.

“I think it’s each to their own, you know...it’s nice it’s all varied in that, you know, whatever works for different people,” Long said. “That’s just who I chose to be...In the future it’s going to be me with a band and several musicians as well. It’s going to be nice to just shake it up a little bit. I’m not against anything,  you know, whatever works is whatever works for different people.”

Long’s approach and control of his live performance made him at home with the folk genre he has fallen into at present. Kicking back his leg and clenching his jaw as he let himself go, Long appeared uninhibited on stage as he varied his songs, speeding them up and slowing them down, but always with the control to reel them back in.

Not only an aspect of being a good musician, Long’s freedom with awareness for restraint could also have been reflective of his options as an opening act. "When you’re not the main band people are coming to see there is more of an opportunity to do what you want," said Long.

“When you headline the show you’ve got a lot more pressure with you and you’ve got to kind of give the crowd what they want,” said Long, who until now has never gone on tour as a support artist. “With being a support artist I think you’re kind of free to muck around a little bit and the main purpose is to pick up fans...It’s a different kind of show and I’m really looking forward to it cause it’s just going to be a new experience for me. I’m looking forward to playing in front of new people and playing in front of a bigger crowd.”

For Boulder that audience may well not have been a bigger one, making for a bizarre atmosphere that lacked in the excitement and emotion that Long showed through his music. Whatever force it was that kept people away, the biggest let down of the night was how few people were there to see Long’s set and the void their absence left in the collective body, often a well of emotions and responses to feed off of.

Long seemed ill-affected by the quiet audience before him though and gave a performance that highlighted the night greater than the first opening act, Denver based Hello Kavita, and Matt Pond himself.

Fans of Long and the folk realm of music to which he is a part of should be happy to hear that, in Long’s point of view, it is a blooming style that both in England and America has really started to gain popularity within only the last five years.

“It’s never going to go away, that kind of music,” Long said, noting Johnny Flynn and Mumford and Sons in England and Bright Eyes here in America. “I think it’s really kind of flourishing at the moment.”

And, with Long’s steady set of unhampered songs, each exploring it’s outer limit with deep ardent vocals and cresting guitar, to be carried back in to a softer but still coarse vocal and more dulcet instrumental lines, it is certainly in good hope that Long continues to write and perform his music across the country well into the future as this style should prosper.

There’s something homey feeling about the idea of a man sitting out on his porch as the sun sets, plucking away at his guitar as he moves forward and back in a rocking chair. And it was just that image and sensation that Langhorne Slim brought to the stage, rocking chair and all, as he sang his songs of love lost and love found to an audience more than eager to share in his musical story telling.

Steady clapping, stomping, dancing and singing from the audience at Thursday night’s show at the Fox reflected Langhorne’s music to be more than just plucking strings and a blues chord progression however, as this image calls to mind. Supported by an upright bass, drums and interchanging keyboards and banjo, Langhorne’s subtle gravely voice and acoustic guitar wove themselves into lyrics about the joys and losses in life, igniting Langhorne’s soulful blend of blues, folk, and Southern comfort.

Stepping out with his signature fedora pushed low on his brow, Langhorne and his band took to the stage with immediate energy, though they opened with the more mellow title track off of their newest record, “Be Set Free.”

For newer fans of Langhorne Slim the opening song may well have been a moment of both excitement and disappointment. While tracks from the less bluegrass, Southern feeling 2009 album were played, they were only spotted throughout Langhorne’s hour and a half long set, the greater part of it dedicated to songs off of the two previously released records under his name.

Yet it is hard to image disappointment, for what followed in the entirety of the set developed into a small venue hoedown, sans the square dancing and hillbilly fiddle music. But still it is hard to not make such associations with David Moore standing up from the keys to pick up the banjo right alongside Jeff Ratner slapping and plucking the heavy strings of the upright bass with older songs off of both Langhorne’s earlier records, “When the Sun’s Gone Down” and “Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles,” also lending to this more prominent country, Southern feel than the more folk, bluesy sound of “Be Set Free.”

This blending of musical styles and scratchy vocals has garnered the main band behind the name of Langhorne Slim more attention, along with a  performance of “Restless” on the David Letterman show and numerous festival performances including Austin City Limits Festival and SXSW, all pointing to Langhonre’s growing success.

Bringing together folk, soul and blues into one with heartfelt lyrics is only accountable for a portion of Langhorne’s growing listener base, however, Colorado having seen Langhonre move from shows at the Hi-Dive to the Fox in just under 10 months.

If his lives shows hold to the caliber he set Thursday night, it would be no surprise to see his audience grow, if not to at least maintain the excitement the crowd in Boulder shared. Langhorne’s persistent energy across the stage, getting down onto his knees and up on the drum set, coupled with a fast-paced, uplifting musical performance created more color and vividness than his studio recordings are able to communicate. Impromptu made up stories told to the strumming of Langhorne’s guitar made for a greater bond with the audience, all sharing in Lanhgorne’s lighthearted humor and fun.

Always a treat for the audience, one highlight of the night aside from Langhorne’s overall energy and fervent vocals included four or so songs scattered throughout the set played solo acoustic, just Langhorne and his guitar. Ending the show with where it started, the most notable of this broken up acoustic set was a again both a newer and slower song.

Pulling his rocking chair center stage, Langhorne sat down to an audience perfectly silent for one of few times that night, the guys and gals that filled the floor having sang and danced along for every other song of the set. Laughing with the audience about his fumbling of the lyrics, with some help from the crowd and a couple of times starting the song over, Langhorne got the song going and ended the encore with a performance of “Boots Boy” that allowed his vocals to be free, showing the depth that his voice holds, briefly peaking to higher pitches yet still with that hint of a gentle yet rough feeling sound of grit.

Leaning back in the chair with his legs crossed, Langhorne belted out the last few verses of the song with enough power and raw inflection in his voice so as to have no real need for a microphone. But after all, who needs a microphone when they’re feeling at home, sitting there on a rocking chair, moving forward and back, plucking away at their guitar singing love songs to eager ears.

In America, pissed means angry. In England, pissed means drunk. Yannis Philippakis, front man of Oxford’s dance-rock band Foals, was both, a potentially dangerous combination that worked to his benefit. Sticking firm to the set list, Foals either gave their despondent audience the middle finger or fed off it its rude anxiousness for the songs they wanted to hear, expelled through the group’s music with more intensity than either album lends itself to on record and through their bodies and movement with convulsive twitches that made the night and marked them as primo, adept performers.

Pulling songs from each of their two records, the set was torn in opposing directions. Between the two years that “Antidotes” and “Total Life Forever” were released, the band changed and developed their sound, moving away from the somewhat chaotic, fast tempo dance-rock to a more pop-trend. Building a 13 song set with songs from each conflicted the performance, butting the more drawn-out and comparatively more simple (but with distinct nuances throughout that make the songs great as each is) “Spanish Sahara,” “Afterglow,” and “Miami” against the heavier bass-laden, up tempo timbre of “Cassius” and “Red Socks Pugie” that put Foals onto the indie scene.

Picking between them which record is better is quite a contemplative choice, each standing apart from the other but each great musical achievements in their own regards that find themselves permanently fixed into the CD player. Foals’ live performance, however, confirms the success they attained with “Antidotes,” the bass being the backbone of the intensity and force of the rest of the instruments, driving their music to its utmost capacity of energy. Songs from “Total Life Forever” should lest not be forgotten or ignored, “This Orient” and “Alabaster” among those of the entire record that show that Foals has done it again, they have created a new brilliance within the indie genre.

“Electric Bloom” and “Balloons,” with short but power-packed guitar breaks throughout, brought out the band’s maximum retention of vigor. Spasms of hard-hit strings and drums transferred through to the body, Philippakis and guitarist Jimmy Smith especially shuddering and jerking their limbs into brief instances of fragility and deformation as the music was met with the same potential.

The night could have finished off with “Electric Bloom,” Philippakis picking up drum sticks and beating on a single drum with incredible angst. And yet the encore remained, to be fulfilled with two more older tracks. Following “The French Open,” the set ended with an anticipatory build up of “Two Steps, Twice.” Philippakis made his way through the crowd as the band slowly brought the intro of the song to its climax before breaking into the vocals. Once more the band burst into fitful seizures, ending with Philippakis pushing up against his amp, legs kicking back and fully letting his vocals go as the song peaked to its complete crest.

Bringing songs together from each record, jumping sound and genre, and an audience not fully enough aware or appreciative were their only down falls. “Antidotes” and “Total Life Forever” are separate records with different sounds. As independent pieces of work each can be considered a master stroke, but put together in performance they clash, the dance-rock genre of “Antidotes” rising above. For those less anxious to hear the singles and listen to each song as distinct, Foals performed with a power and aggression that unearthed the dense layers of instrumentation only to make it all the more raw and intense. It was clear that the group of British musicians are good performers, but if being pissed makes for more aggression and force, by all means, please do carry on.

Check out some more photos from the show.

Before the luxury of pushing a button or selecting a setting to fabricate a sound or sound effect, musicians had to create the sounds they wanted themselves. Portland’s indie folk quartet Horse Feathers maintains these older standards, bringing a household hand saw to the instrumental line up and introducing violin bows and drum sticks to surfaces other than those intended. Switching among various instruments in live performance to reproduce those sound qualities from the record, Horse Feathers put on a show that was a treat for the eyes and, aside from a cloak of lethargy that covered the band, an always enjoyable and gratifying listen for the ears.

Made up largely of strings with little use of much percussion and piano, the band lends itself both on stage and in the studio to a very quiet, acoustic sound. Though dependant on the weaving together of each instrument, much of the depth Horse Feathers achieves in their folk sound owes to multi-instrumentalist Sam Cooper. While some songs feature Cooper on violin alongside Nathan Crockett and Catherine Odell on cello, the greater part of his playing, and what contributes to the blue-grassy sound of the band, takes place on the banjo. Played next to a violin, cello, and acoustic guitar, the banjo makes for the twang that gives Horse Feathers a stronger, more full sound that adds not only flavor, but support.

Cooper is also the man behind the bits of percussion and piano that come intermittently into their songs, making for a fun juggling act to see in live performance that is also revealing of how the band makes and achieves those little nuanced sounds. Bringing quips of banjo and violin into multiple songs, Cooper was often sitting behind his drums gripping a drum stick between his teeth or holding tight to a violin underneath his chin as he changed back and forth between piano, banjo, violin and drums.

Aside from his teeth, Cooper’s drum sticks also met the metal stands of the drum set that hold it together. Next to the bass drum, cymbals, and some tambourine, the thin poles supporting the drum set were the only other percussion, Cooper hitting the sticks against their hollowed out bodies. Steadying a cymbal and running a violin bow across its thin edge, Cooper brought a more eerie sound to the otherwise mellow, calming set. Crockett added a more solemn sound to the atmosphere, using a violin bow on a simple hand saw. Bending the saw while simultaneously pulling the bow across its edge, as done on “Cascades," Crockett produced an even more eerie sound not unlike that of the theremin.

Though by way of these techniques Horse Feathers brought to life the cold, grave sound of “House With No Home” and the light, jaunty timbre of “Thistled Spring,” they did so with a lackluster quality of energy. Technical difficulties with the violin got the show off to a slow start, after which the music came into full swing, but not with its ample potential. Not only was the instrumentation deficient of force, but so too were Justin Ringle’s soft vocals in the same way not met with a sense of vigor. The quartet did their parts and played them well, but lacked a drive that, in its absence, made for a hollow performance that was wholly delightful overall, but neglected the feeling of fullness and depth. Potential energy gave way to climatic points in each song, but lost that excitement with each verse leading to and coming down from that peak. Emotion that was missing from the show reared its head during the encore, only to be unfortunately dismissed by two broken guitar strings in a row, yielding that song unable to be performed and forcing the band to pick up instead with an unexpected cover of Nirvana’s “Drain You.”

The last Colorado saw of Horse Feathers prior was at the Hi-Dive last March, where the group walked through the crowd to get onto the tightly packed stage barley large enough to fit them all plus their instruments. Fox Theatre heard those same songs Friday night, only in the absence of the spark behind it that made their Denver performance last spring so arousing. Live performance is changed and varied in this regard, but the music created is not. Despite the cloud of listlessness that held them down, Horse Feathers brought their folk melodies and a warm home atmosphere to their set, creating and reproducing sound by their own means with clever of objects and their surroundings.

Check out some more photos from the show.

Straddling a fence is a position few if any people like to find themselves in, each foot planted in opposition. Bobby Long has found himself a flourishing home in this middle ground however, a point not of indecision but of movement and change from a solo musician to recording and performing with a full band. Rather than dropping the acoustic, bluesy atmosphere of his nights playing open-mic shows and jumping into an electric, amped-up band, it is betwixt these two sides of the fence that Long has made a new sound for himself. Support from three other musicians gave Long’s stage performance more of a polished, finished quality, while pedal steel and acoustic guitars maintained that more rustic, raw feel with a new bit of country flair.

Piano and backing female vocals on Long’s newly released album A Winter Tale were absent in live performance alongside various changes in instrumentation, giving a thriving variant character to his Denver show at the Bluebird. Forcefully prevalent in some songs while only ornamentally present in others, the percussion jolted the atmosphere of Long’s performance from the feel of an artsy coffee house to a small city venue. Take that as a foundation and build up with an electric base and second guitar alongside Long’s own acoustic guitar and vocals, and the music gave a distinguishably glossed-over finish to what Long was before performing solo with no more than his guitar and voice.

Rising up through that polished surface was a strong reminiscence and call back to the gritty, rough blues quality that put Long on the map just two years ago with his unsigned record, Dirty Pond Songs. Long’s expressive vocals, while still strong, lost a sense of their power and presence amid the louder, weighted envelope of sound created by the rest of the band. Short but expressive moments that added emotion by way of vocal phrasing were sometimes lost or turned over to the band, such as deep drones from mallets on the drums that substituted in for some of melisma and humming in “The Bounty of Mary Jane.” And yet this same quality simultaneously added to this and other tracks, setting up for a dense and much more intense rendition of songs such as “Penance Fire Blues," an already driven, calculous recording of which can also be heard on Dirty Pond Songs.

Giving a rebirth to tracks off of both the Dirty Pond Songs and Dangerous Summer Tour albums, Long’s set put these songs into a setting that called upon the drone and twang of country blues. With a subtle tin quality of the pedal steel guitar and a rolling drum beat that called to mind the music of Western film scores, “Two Years Old” carried out this idea of a Southern nostalgia to near perfection. A broken string early in the song was the performances only flaw, causing Long to switch from acoustic to electric guitar, giving the song a heavier, static sound rather than the down-home, muddled acoustic sound it started with. Extracting that bluesy, folk sound from Long’s solo work and putting it to a steel pedal guitar on songs such as “The Borough Mill,” “A Passing Tale” and “Dead and Done,” the set further embraced the new electric ambience while evoking Long’s older recordings.

Breaking off from this more than any of the songs on the record and in live performance, the heavier guitar riffs and distorted sound of the new album’s title track, “A Winter Tale" allowed Long to let loose and work his way around the stage. Extended past the standard two or three minute song mark, the band finished off their set with a fantastic, rousing performance of this track that sent Long and the others into a short jam session packed with a drive, force and density that showed Long to have a sensible grasp on music outside of the blues and folk he gained recognition for.

Though making the transition from performing as a solo musician to fronting a band no doubt put a finishing coat on his still austere, exposed guitar style and vocals, the marks of Long’s raw, bluesy, coffee house sound show from below, with one foot firm on those grounds and the other comfortably so among electric guitars and amplifiers.

Check out more photos from the show.

Short and sweet can be a good thing, but when it’s good, everybody wants some more. British musician Lee MacDougall certainly showed that he could satisfy, but unfortunately for the very few that showed up for his performance at the Larimer Lounge, it was a moment that lasted not quite long enough. Scheduled to play between numerous acts, a small crowd of 20 or so showed to catch the acoustic set of the real life, storytelling songs of MacDougall in a performance that, albeit short, was pleasing and enjoyable nonetheless, testifying to the indie pop musician’s continuously growing online fan base.

Moving from their bar stools to the stage later in the night, MacDougall and his backing guitarist and vocalist Rob Getaway were only able to play a 45 minute or less set that went by entirely too fast before a Denver local closed out the night. With just 11 tracks on his first record, “If Walls Could Talk,” it was hopeful that MacDougall would play near if not all of the unsigned EP, being one of the top billings for the night. Sadly only half of those songs were performed, along with two unrecorded songs, one of them titled “Hindsight.” While the more catchy, upbeat track “I Don’t Believe You, Alison” and the sleepy city romance of “London In The Summer” were left out of the set, MacDougall covered a range of his songs with a performance that stayed true to his recorded sound while offering up some variety with percussion on guitar and drawing out some of the vocals.

One week previous to his stop in Denver MacDougall and Getaway were down south for the annual SXSW music and film festival, well known in England and the festival that all musicians want to do, being “the festival to play,” said MacDougall in a telephone interview. Coming from music on the streets and in the city bars to just the handful of guys and gals that mingled with MacDougall both before and after his set, the atmosphere at Larimer Lounge was imaginably quite different from that the musicians left behind at SXSW. Yet MacDougall seemed to enjoy himself, chatting at the bar before going on, talking with the crowd while on stage and and signing autographs after.

Taking a request from the audience to play ”She”--an aching song about a heartbroken girl that does not recognize her beauty--and talking to the crowd about the day he and Getaway spent in the mountains of Colorado, MacDougall no doubt made himself comfortable getting to know the people who came to listen to him play. “I like storytelling and I like lyrics and connecting with the audience,” said MacDougall, the desire to be close with his listeners being one of his reasons for leaving the former band he was with, Light Brigade, just a couple of years ago before he moved to London as a singer/songwriter.

Giving anecdotes behind songs like “Joanna,” MacDougall further opened and exposed his already relatable and personal lyrics, the aforementioned being a song about the break-up of a three year relationship. Even without getting the full stories that inspired his lyrics, it is clear to those sincerely listening that MacDougall’s words truly are stories about life that everyone, with time, can relate to, most prominently so about love. Though some of MacDougall’s lyrics express the joy and thrill of these experiences of relationships and encounters, such as “The Star Hotel,” the greater part of his songs on this record deal with lost love, beautifully expressed in “Stay,” or the longing for an intangible other, as in “Falling In Love For The Last Time.”

Despite the unhappiness and healing of a broken heart that his songs deal with, MacDougall likes to keep the music up-beat, straying from minor melodies or vocal inflections that relate the pain and anger, believing that those emotions can be slipped in without being too melodramatic. “I think music as a whole should be for listening and inspiring,” said MacDougall, again establishing that he likes to write about things that are real and that happen to many. Drawing his lyrics from his personal life, MacDougall gets inspiration from some of his favorite musicians such as Paolo Nutini and The Kooks not from their words or music, but from the drive they give MacDougall to pick up his own guitar and put something together.

“To be honest I don’t really look to anyone for lyrics because I think it’s quite a personal thing,” said MacDougall, instead liking to see people enjoy doing what they’re doing and having that spark his own creativity. “When you see people that are talented it inspires you,” said MacDougall, developing his own individual style and not taking directly from those that fill his record collection.

For the present the music that MacDougall has put together as a result of this inspiration and his life adventures has put him nicely into the indie pop genre of the musical web, and while he is happy with where he is right now, MacDougall enjoys change and does not want to be locked into being the product of a given scene. “I don’t believe in staying the same,” said MacDougall, making mention of The Beatles and David Bowie, known among other things for their changes both in music and personal style every couple of years. “I see every album as a phase, it’s a chapter,” said MacDougall.

There is no saying how long the chapter of “If Walls Could Talk” will last, but it is an addictive, catchy, story-ridden one with which MacDougall is just starting his career. With smooth vocals gliding over the guitar and hitting the higher pitches without flaw, MacDougall established a light, friendly stage presence that made for an engaging and bigger, fuller sound and performance than two young Englishmen with amplified acoustic guitars may lend themselves to by appearance. Drawing attention away from the background bar chatter, MacDougall’s first show in Denver is hopefully not the last the city will see of him, his set attractively sweet set being wholly too short to endow his musical bent and fulfill his small mid-western fan base.

With the release of his fifth album, Jackie Greene said in an interview that he was tired of being labeled as the “new Dylan.” Now almost four years later with another record under his belt, Greene’s live performance has placed him in a realm outside of the more simple acoustic guitar and harmonica playing solo artist that gave Greene his start. Joined on stage with a full band, Greene’s Saturday night show at Boulder’s Fox Theatre maintained the California musician’s blues roots while jamming improvisations and drawn out versions of his recorded songs highlighted Greene’s talent far beyond the simple chord progressions of the typical Dylanesque folk musician.

Creating music that is still heavily laden down with traditional folk and blues, Greene’s two-set performance played more heavily upon the virtuosic, jamming blues music that bands such as the Grateful Dead and their contemporaries are known for. No doubt it is Greene’s clear and impressive ability to tear the guitar up in this way that allowed for him to play with Phil Lesh and Friends for a year in 2007. Whether it was Greene who influenced Lesh enough to invite him into his group, or it was Greene who took inspiration from the Dead’s original bassist, Greene’s performance was a long celebration of jamming, bluesy music that turned the Fox into a hot, moving dance venue.

Giving the audience a taste of that time spent with Lesh and other members of the Dead, in his first set Greene launched into fiery covers of “Bertha,” “Shakedown Street” and “Casey Jones.” Riling up the already exuberant crowd of mostly middle-aged adults and older Dead Heads, Greene’s largely instrumental covers were part of an unfortunately brief segment that fused together songs by Marvin Gaye, Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. Starting with “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” after the opening verses and hitting the chorus, Greene let the band into an instrumental of Gaye’s classic, slowly working it into Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” Weaving the vocals into the guitar, the instrumental version was a successful cover and the band continued to put overwhelming energy and talent into it, yet “The Wall” was the only faltering moment, the song lacking the upbeat, energetic sound that until this point had kept the audience moving. Paying tribute to Roger Waters and Syd Barrett for only a short time, Greene and the band transitioned again into another song, this time in a direction far more favorable to the audience. Launching into “Shakedown Street,” the crowd picked up the dancing even greater than before, the excitement continuing as the popular Dead song changed again into a short instrumental of “Casey Jones.” Winding down this considerably short yet driving mini-set of covers, Greene changed things up one last time and ended at the start with Marvin Gaye, slowly letting “Grapevine” bleed out into an immediate, roaring applause.

Hearing, watching and communicating with each other--aside from actually being able to play, as all of these musicians clearly can--is in part what made this cover session and the entirety of Greene’s show a success, but it is Greene himself who seemed to be at the head of the jams and improvisations. Throughout his sets, if not in nearly every song, Greene could be seen communicating with his band mates, be it by eye contact, a nod of the head or a physical gesture.

In the same interview in which Greene expressed his exasperation with being yet another generation’s version of Dylan, Greene praised live performances of all music, pointing to the freedom they allow as well as the chance for experimentation outside of the recorded song, wherein this ability to talk on stage--both literally and musically--becomes most important.

While each of his records has pushed Greene further into the numerous realms of the music world, it is Greene’s embracing of live performances with this freedom and willing to experiment that truly give him his name and shows his talent as a musician. Certainly Greene was serious about his music before, but as he has moved from being a solo singer-songwriter to the lead guitarist and singer of a full band, Greene’s desire to move away from that old image and into new musical territory has been established at a new level of changing live performances and improvisations. As Greene well knows for himself, changing things up on stage doesn’t always work, but taking that risk is what Greene’s set expressed the live performance to be all about, to be able to play around and have a good time.

Every good student knows oil doesn’t mix with water, the greater density of the water pushing it to the bottom as the oils rises and floats to the top. Los Angeles band RACES displayed such a dynamic on stage at Boulder’s Fox Theatre, one half of the band rooting the music down with a heavy rhythm section, the other floating just above that with glossy harmonies and melodies. Yet unlike this classic science experiment, RACES comes together perfectly blending the two polarities into a tight unit of indie pop and rock, creating a dense yet lifted sound that is anything but classic.

In their unfortunately short, densely cadenced set, RACES gave a performance that has solidified them as a cohesive band that came together by way of their own impromptu experiment. Originally performing under the name Black Jesus, the six piece band formed in the fall of 2009 after what was incipiently to be a single engagement. A mere two and half years later, RACES has formed itself into a successfully growing band that has beautifully married pounding drums and catchy, thumbing bass lines to soft yet powerful male/female vocals and pop melodies.

Playing their first video single “Big Broom” as their second song, RACES plunged in with an unbounded energy and force that not only carried on but escalated through the entirety of their set. Vocalist Devon Lee let her hands and body shake as she put forth a strong vocal power, in part lending to the group’s ethereal, atmospheric sound quality. Shimmering tambourine claps and rhythmic use of maracas from Lee further built up this glossy surface texture, supported and coupled alongside Breanna Wood on keys and front man Wade Ryff on guitar and lead vocals. Clasping the band down and putting forth a distinctive heavy and dense timbre on the other side were Garth Herberg on lead guitar, Oliver Hild on bass and Moog synthesizer, and Lucas Ventura on drums. While Herberg’s speed and solos led to a more rock quality, Hild’s bass lines and Ventura’s increasingly rapid and impressive drum work were at the heart of the wall of sound that holds RACES down.

Functioning as the binding agent between these to sides that allows them mingle was Ryff, whose female-tinged vocals and rhythm guitar seamlessly mixed the halves together. Though Ryff may be the original creator behind RACES--their first record coming from Ryff’s solo material and finally allowing him to take on a forefront position as vocalist--the rest of the band should lest not be forgotten. Each member turned in towards each other and folded into itself, bringing their vivacious indie pop to a more rock plateau, only to pull out with the utmost ease and slip again back into that weighted yet lilting timbre.

For a band that came together so casually and unexpected, after two years and their first full length record dropping in the following month, RACES already has created a tight adherence among all six members. Filling the air with their impenetrable, driving rhythms and slick, potent vocals and harmonies, RACES is no doubt to make a growing presence in the indie pop/rock scene.

RACES’s self-recored and produced debut LP, Year of the Witch, will be released March 27th under New York’s Frenchkiss Records.

It’s everybody’s birthday at an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros show, where several dozens of fans are welcome on stage to dance and take over the vocals, more or less, as they are struck with the desire to do so. Among the young hippies, hipsters, gypsies and all other people gathered at the Boulder Theater for the sold out show, the very few not shaking their limbs about were the odd men out. Guys and gals jumped and shook, shouted and sang for well over an hour alongside the Edward Sharpe family as they delivered a loud, loose, and gritty set that couldn’t have been anything but a fun, therapeutic dance party. And it actually was someone’s birthday.

Aiming to make the night (extra) special for a few among the crowd celebrating their birthday, front man Alex Ebert--aka Edward Sharpe--brought those lucky ones on stage for a folk rendered version of “Happy Birthday.” They clamored up to join the band, followed by small pockets of others, who were followed by still more. Ebert and friends quickly became lost among the 30+ kids who made their way up. The music never stopped though, and Ebert merely joked that it was certainly a lot of birthdays as he wove in and out of the cluster, briefly greeting fans and receiving several claps on the back.

Ebert and the rest of the nine piece band’s open reception to the audience flourished throughout the entirety of the set. Two and then three girls hopped up and joined vocalist Jade Castrinos to sing alongside her, while at another point Ebert wrapped his arm around the shoulder of a fan being held up by his peers as he comically swayed and made hand gestures to the music while Ebert sang. Preparing himself for the upper register vocals in “40 Day Dream,” Ebert handed his mic to a young woman in the crowd while Ebert massaged his neck and throat, during the interim of which this fan broke into the vocals herself as the band continued playing.

Certainly this stranger’s voice should not go un-noted, as she performed several bars of the song quite well. Yet Ebert’s vocals shan’t go without comment either, from song to song and even within a single piece showing great versatility. “Janglin” highlighted the deep, slightly rumbly sound of his voice; “Carries On” further embraced this while also moving to the opposite with higher, every so slightly female-tinged vocals; and “Truth”-- a song off of Ebert’s self titled solo record, Alexander--showing Ebert’s voice in yet another dynamic and displaying his abilities within a style akin rap or hip-hop.

Whatever the manner in which he sang, Ebert and the band both as individuals and in its entirety delivered the sound of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros that gave them their name nearly three years ago with the release of Up From Below. At the same time as they stayed true to their recorded sound, the group didn’t hesitate to turn the volume up and let loose. With nine people on stage and even more instruments, the Magnetic Zeros are no doubt a tight group. Letting the tension unwind just the slightest bit however, a sound was adopted that did reflect the studio album but with more freedom, making for a sound reflective of the spontaneous, care-free atmosphere.

Even for the few new songs the group performed off of their second album did the audience kick up their legs and flail their arms, a reception that didn’t attempt to hide their approval and favor of the new record to come. Judging from those mere two or three song played off of Here, set to drop on May 29th, fans can look forward to more of that sound that made them fall in love with the Sharpe family in the first place. Each tune unloaded keys, tambourine, accordion, trumpet, and every other instrument to deliver more of their unique gypsy folk sound along with the male-female vocals and verbal communication that is strongly exercised on their ever popular track, “Home.”

Though it was released as a single some three years ago, “Home” proved to remain a crowd favorite. Bringing the set to its near close, fans ate up the tune with no less enthusiasm than they had every other song, but with a renewed energy and vigor. Once more two brave and excited souls stood upon the stage and with microphones placed into their hands took on the roles of Jade and Alexander as they tossed the male-female vocals back and forth, respectively, and joined the audience in unison for the chorus. The moment became even more powerful near the song’s end when the music ceased and all members of the band joined with the packed theatre, singing in a united a capella, “Home is wherever I’m with you.”

As the house lights came up after one song more, energy and excitement buzzed, the hour plus long set that covered Up From Below almost in its entirety further establishing Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at home with Boulder.       

Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and David Koresh typically represent the idea of cults in America. Among the indie scene however, the word “cult” is gradually making an association with pop vocals and keyboard melodies entrenched in a darker noise rock thanks to the New York group, CULTS. Known for their song, “Go Outside,” the group showed Boulder that live and on stage their music falls more within the realm of indie pop/noise rock, performing with a weight that far exceeded CULTS’ more pop, do-it-yourself recorded sound.

Started and fronted by Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, CULTS does maintain that indie pop sound as they uphold the male/female dynamic with Follin’s high pitched vocals alongside Oblivion’s accompanying keyboard. As seemingly simple and somewhat repetitive as this music sounds on their 2011 self-titled debut album, it’s what gave Follin and Oblivion their fame. Two years after “Go Outside” landed CULTS a record label with In the Name Of/Columbia and Forest Family Records, they’re now touring--to their benefit--with a full band. Follin and Oblivion remain the focus of the group while the rest of the members should lest not be forgotten, as it is in their contributions that CULTS’ live sound gains a thickness that rules superior to the work Follin and Oblivion did as a duo.

Follin’s distinct female vocals and the keyboard, played alternately by Oblivion and an added second keyboard/guitar player, are all that held onto CULTS’ pop sound, while coupling drums and bass made for a throbbing, loud density that pushed the sound of CULTS beyond that of its birth into a darker noise rock realm. While in the beginning Oblivion did play both keyboard and guitar (and he remains to do so), the addition a second keyboard/guitar player also seems to give Oblivion more freedom as a guitarist while further adding layers of texture. Surrounded now by two guitars, and more prominently so by the booming, trembling bass of the drums and the bass itself, Follin’s high but quieter vocals were on the verge of being washed out. They balanced perfectly on that border though, teetering on the side of that pop vocals sound while staying just on the edge of being consumed by the thick organized noise.

Building a wall against which the floating vocals and keyboard were withheld, the noise rock aspect of CULTS’ show gave a backing and lift that fills the band’s sound out and gives a better sense of firmness in their music while not in the least appearing to turn any of their audience away. By no means was the Fox Theatre brimming to its limit, but when up front packed between the dancing bodies of the high school and college indie kids, it felt like the whole venue was loaded and dancing just as hard and with the same excitement and fun as those fans right before the stage.

Up front with the kids drinking pocket shooters or in the back where the rest of the crowd gathered comfortably with a full vision of the stage, the light show and video backdrop were a nice treat outside of the music that nonetheless visually reinforced the darker sound and look of the band. Various simple black and white patterns of light washed over the band while behind the drum-set video clips and animations were projected--also in black and white--onto a backdrop that covered the entire back of the stage. The band members themselves carried on this two-tone image, Follin and Oblivion again standing at the forefront with Oblivion in black jeans and a black skinny tie, his long greasy hair hanging over his face, and Follin in a black dress with laced sleeves and black eyeliner accented with red lips. Aside from the bits of blue, red, and yellow light, the majority of CULTS set, visually, was in black and white, reinforcing the unexpected yet greatly pleasant darker sound of indie pop that the group came to represent from the first song to the final bass drop.

Media shapes cultures shapes images shape persona. It’s the inescapable cycle that is the source of frustration for many within a society where news and advertising communicate what is news and what’s hot and what’s not. It is such anger and disgust with society that in part drive Letters to Kurt, a short, poetic epistolary book by Eric Erlandson, confounder and guitarist of 90s grunge band, Hole.

An ex-lover of Courtney Love and an intimate friend of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain--whom the book is addressed to--Erlandson in his post-grunge years explores via fifty-two free form prose poems the hype media and society build around the famous in an attempt to expose their damaging obsession. As he strives to remove both himself and Cobain from that realm however (and for Cobain in particular, to remove him out of the character and image of a “suicide idol”), lack of context and Erlandson’s complaints make it appear that Cobain’s suicide works for Erlandson more as a platform for personal thought and conflict.

Writing in a style that calls upon Beats such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in hand with the idea of consciousness moving from mind to pen to paper in part lend to this perception. Letting his mind jump from one thought to another as associations connect them, Erlandson adopts an artsy writing style that, in its free from and poetic nature, make the book read as if he is trying to be a poetic or literary artist. Instead of focusing on the idea of writing letters to Cobain then, an idea and image of Eralndson as an artist rises superior.

Holding to the Joyceian idea of consciousness, the free movement of thought that embraces the entirety of the book is a form that distances readers from the text and yields greater focus on the personal nature of the subject for Erlandson. Ranting and raving as one does when their guard is let down, Erlandson lets any and all thoughts drain from his mind and allows for them to make what connections they will. At times these connections lead to humor, bleakness, sarcasm. Without recognition of the context in which Erlandson is writing and in which his thoughts evolve however, there is nothing for the reader to grasp onto beyond what meaning they make of the prose poetry. No doubt fans of both Nirvana and Hole will pick up this book, but only the greatest of those fans will gather the small quips or references to these late groups and their musicians. For all else who lack that bit of knowledge, those picks and prods that Erlandson’s thoughts are set in move clear overhead.

It is among those thought patterns that Erslandson really seems to move away from his call to communicate with Cobain, expressing anger, concern, and disgust with the shape of society today. As the emotions and feelings that do surround Cobain’s suicide surface--the ideas of fame in relation to the pressure and obsession obtained by society and media--they drag up with them Erlandson’s displeasure with the likes of technology, people’s dependence on it, and an environment that its people not only allow to get destroyed but are contributers towards that end. Written a la Kurt Vonnegut in this regard, the fifty-two chapters act as units of complaint and critique on current social issues problematic or irksome to Erlandson, pushing those that surrounded Cobain’s death to the side burner.

As much as Erlandson is laden down within this prose poetry art form and personal complaint, the sadness, fear, guilt, and humor found in the flow of consciousness in nearly each “letter” do show Erlandson’s evolving self-acknowledgment. Regardless of Cobain’s suicide being a launch pad for Erlandson or not, he explores and attempts to break down the person the media made Cobain into following his death, or if anything to realize their conception of him next to the other “suicide idols,” while among these admissions surfaces Erlandson’s personal struggles with depression, guilt, drug abuse, and unhappiness in a lost state of being.

Presumably such feelings and frustration are resultant of Cobain’s suicide and those feelings being bottled up for years, yet in the general form of the text and the free flow of thought this aspect becomes lost. While Letters to Kurt does offer insight and knowledge for the most avid fans and music devotees, by way of writing solely in a state of consciousness that lacks firm context and a content that serves more particular means, it is a book more of personal healing conveyed via a very artistic form than a musical biography document.

Grateful Web’s Angela Gattuso recently had an opportunity to speak to Dan Smyers, from the Nashville-based rock duo, Bonaventure.  They spoke about the band’s influences, their debut album, Come Hell or High Water, and what would Dave Grohl do.

GW: In the short film made to introduce Bonaventure you both talk about having similar ideas of where you wanted to go and what you wanted to as the band was coming together. Musically, what were these ideas, what were or are you trying to do?

DS: Andy and I wanted to be part of a project in which the song is the most important piece of the equation.  In this day and age, honest and sincere songwriting sometimes takes a backseat to more superficial things.  We have seen bands, and even ourselves experienced the difficulties of hitting the ground running with songs that were not fully developed.  Several years ago, it was so easy to write 5 songs and hit the road in a cheap van.  While the glamour of being on tour was certainly awesome, we soon realized that this wasn’t a sustainable way to operate a band.

With that being said, Bonaventure really chooses to focus on the song more than anything else.  We have invested almost all of our time and money (life savings) into writing and recording material to the best of our abilities.  We have done minimal touring to this point, but that will come in time.  Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE touring and playing live, but we want to make sure our music is the best it can possibly be before we hit the road full time.  The way I see it, if you’re going to spend your life traveling in support of a product, do your homework beforehand to make it something you are wholeheartedly proud of. 

GW: What was it you wanted to get across as writers and artists when you first started performing together and played in more acoustic environments?

DS: As I mentioned earlier, we want to write songs that our listeners can connect with at a personal level.  Not only do we want to have strong and memorable hooks that give the tunes replay value, but we want people to be moved by our words.  At home in Nashville, we spend a lot of time refining lyrics to make sure the songs deliver a sound message.  By performing in an acoustic stripped environment, we are able to showcase the true meaning of the songs to our fans in a very digestible way.  We generally write the songs on acoustic guitars, so by playing them acoustically, the fan is able to experience the actual emotion of the song.  Playing full band is awesome, and we can’t wait to start doing it later this year, but we also dig playing in an acoustic setting where our fans can latch onto lyrics and the true meaning of the songs upon first listen. 

GW: What was it about going into the studio and working with Dan Hannon that brought that rock edge on the EP into realization and being?

DS: Before we began recording the EP, Andy and I were big fans of Dan’s previous work.  He has worked on a lot of incredible projects, such as Manchester Orchestra, that led us to seek him out as a producer for our record.  When we were able to hang out with Dan and sit down in the studio to discuss the direction of Come Hell or High Water, we connected immediately.  I think the fact that we both have similar tastes in music allowed Dan to bring the rock on the EP that we were looking for.  For example, my favorite band of all time is Foo Fighters, and Dan has a sticker across his computer monitor that reads, “WWDGD”.  More specifically, “What Would Dave Grohl Do?”.  With our influences and musical preferences aligned, we were able to craft the songs with the perfect amount of rock edge. 

GW: Songs not on the EP often seem to carry that nostalgic, acoustic sound such as that of “These Shoes,” as is mentioned in the short film. Are these other songs something you guys would like to adapt in the studio to have more of a rock edge or are you writing new material that takes that old, more acoustic sound in a new direction?

DS: We love songs like These Shoes, but we decided to feature it as a bonus track on the EP because it is a slightly different sound than the other 4 songs.  In the grand scheme of a full-length album, we will be able to take more stylistic liberties, and include a song like These Shoes in the track-listing.  As we’ve been writing the full-length album, our goal is to deliver a dynamic sound that takes the listener through a broad range of emotions.  With that being said, we will certainly have the big rock songs, reminiscent of the EP, but will also have more stripped folk-inspired ballads.  All of the songs will be “us”, but will give the listener a little something more to latch onto. 

GW: As you begin to fine tune your sound following this EP, in live performances and on tour do you want to play with a bit more heavy, in-your-face sound or do you think you’ll stick to the acoustic environments you tested the waters in during the bands beginning stages?

DS: Playing acoustic has been great and we will continue to do so throughout our career, but we DEFINITELY look forward to plugging in the electric guitars and doing the full-band thing later this year.  As soon as we hit the road full-time, we will be playing with a band in a rock and roll arrangement.  It will be great to deliver the songs in the high-energy format in which they were recorded.  Like I said, playing acoustic has been awesome, and we love showcasing our songs in a stripped format, but we are itching to turn things up to 11 as soon as possible.

GW: Now that you have released your first EP, what’s the plan? Are you going to take that music on the road, keep writing new material to further develop your sound, record more and carry the EP into a full-length album?

DS: As of now, we plan to keep writing until the day the full-length is released.  And from there, we will keep writing until the 2nd full-length is released, hah.  In all seriousness, we could not be more stoked with the way the full-length writing is coming together.  We have been playing some of the new songs live, so if you’ve seen our show lately, you may have heard some full-length contenders.  We are super proud of the EP and want to tour extensively to support it throughout the rest of the year, but we are still very hard at work getting the writing done for the next release.  The first full-length will be what really defines Bonaventure in a public sense, so we want to hit the nail on the head.  The plan, as of now, is to tour on the EP the rest of the year, and get back into the studio to track the full length this winter.  If all goes according to plan, we hope to release a full-length early 2013!  This is all super exciting to Andy and I, so we are taking it one day at a time, enjoying each step of the process! 

GW: Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions, I greatly appreciate it! I look forward to listening to your music some more and we’ll be sure to send a copy of the album review/interview as soon as it’s done. Thanks again and congratulations on the release of your first EP!

DS: Thank you so much for considering us, Angela!  It has been awesome to do this interview with you and hopefully we can do it again sometime soon.  Your support means the world to us!  Have an awesome day. :)

Every now and again a little chuckle escapes. You don’t mean to, but you just can’t help it. And you don’t mean it in a bad way, it’s anything but that. But sometimes the lyrics are just funny, and surely Craig Elkins knows this. I Love You, the first solo album under the ex-Huffamoose frontman’s real name, is track after track of somewhat dark, bleak humor. That being said, Elkins does not necessarily write the happiest of songs. He does write the truth however, and does so in such a blunt manner so as to make I Love You into a funny, odd, and quirky album that works its way up to being put on repeat.

“Offin Myself” opens the record with a currently popular mellow, indie sound. Elkins’ soft vocals are accompanied only by acoustic guitar as he sings “I’ve been thinkin’ about offin myself. I’ve been thinkin about my home, and I’ve been thinkin’ about my family.” Despite the morbid lyrics, Elkins’ pronouncement that “At times I have been a real prick,” and the theme of suicide, the song carries a gentle lull as each line ends in a slight crescendo. Fans of Tom Waits’ “Grapefruit Moon" and bands akin to Bright Eyes would love the song, but as it moves into track two with a complete lack of transition the album takes a turn to a more indie folk/country sound similar to that of Monsters of Folk.

Heavier, more dissonant guitar embodies “Tell em My Story,” lurching the listener from that soft lull into a stout, dejected grunge feel. While the riff that runs throughout is nowhere near as bold or clearly defined, it calls to mind Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.” And so it is from here that the greater sound of the album is established. “Can’t Stop Being a Dick” picks up in full on the classic old country twang with steel string guitar and gravely vocals. “Tumbleweeds,” one of the first single with a music video, takes it one step further by adding in mandolin, speeding up the tempo to make it the most upbeat song and also one of the more catchy, radio friendly tunes.

It’s clear Elkins makes good music. It’s clear he has a good voice, taking it from crescendos down to a gravel. It’s in the way Elkins uses his voice in combination with the lyrics that makes it all a bit peculiar. In “Can’t Stop Being a Dick” Elkins wails more than sings about how “I get out of bed every morning with the best of intentions that I remediately replace by these neurotic little inventions.” This method of half singing half talking is carried throughout the album, reminiscent of the vocal style of Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. Elkins takes the harsh truth even further in this style with the lyrics of “Human Drag.” The bonus/hidden track shows Elkins in the prime of his wry, witty lyrics that lace the album together as he sings in the most deft yet nonchalant tone, “Being a fuckin’ human can be a really big fuckin’ drag, especially when you have to listen to somebody tootin’ their own horn.” Next to Bob Dylan’s “Idiot Wind,” there seems to be little hope between the two musician for humanity.

One listen to I Love You does not immediately illuminate the cleverness of Elkins’ off-beat lyrics or even the talent latent in the music itself. It’s an queer album with curious lyrics and a sound that it takes a of bit to get used to. For those willing however, the repeated listens are worth it. Once Elkins’ voice and singing style sink in, the music becomes enjoyable and suddenly the somewhat twisted lyrics become blithe in their insight and prudence. Fans of indie folk/country and those with an open mind and open ear would benefit from picking up the record. Sometimes the vocals aren’t perfect and sometimes the music is a little strange, but in its mirth and oddness I Love You is a well crafted piece of quirky ingenuity.

There are those things they teach you in school about poetry, things like rhyme schemes and stresses and metrical feet. Things like sonnets and pastoral poetry and the epic. Regardless of all those rules and terms though, poetry can be one of the most free-form arts, allowing the writer to take on a poetic license, which is really to say that the author can do whatever he pleases. English singer/songwriter Bobby Long has added that character of poet to his career with his first book of poetry, Losing my Brotherhood.

Now 26 years old and living in New York to further his career as a musician, Long takes the sixty-two poems that make up the collection to look back at the past and explore today, pondering over ideas of love and relationships, youth, and finding one’s self amidst the loss of those things. While in his weaker moments Long jams pieces with too much language and descriptors or carries a distant, monotonous tone, the stronger poems that make up the majority of the book surface with their short story-like quality and tangible emotion and atmosphere.

Reminiscing on life in general and the days of his past, Long tends to take on a deeply historical context in a handful of his poems, a fun concept that turns awry by becoming almost too deeply embedded in it. “Ballad for James Jucipher” carries on with heralds and pulpits and love, but becomes so involved with this historical setting that it washes over the reader. “Jerusalem” holds a similar nature in the gallantry of the story it tells. Once again though, it takes off with that idea so markedly so as to obscure the meaning. Alongside this, the text smothers readers with extensive use of detail and verbosity as Long writes, “In the castle of my heart,/ In the loose cold tomb of Richard,/ On the handle of his gallant sword,/ Pilfering and pillaging the passion.”

Pulling away from the historically rooted or inspired pieces, other poems show Long on almost the opposite side of the spectrum. Instead of burying the reader in adjectives, he distances them from the text via a detached tone so as to make for a bland, dull sound that portrays a cliche perception of poetry. “A Hero’s Wedding" and “What I Done" are both solid pieces until the end when Long closes out the poems with an unnecessary twist and question, respectively, that give them a disappointing, hackneyed “but wait!” moment. In “Looking Out,” Long takes on a classic, simple observation of what he sees of the city outside his window. A laundry list of the sites goes on and on, taking on a very dry tone of voice as each line relays nothing more than what his eyes envision. It is not until the very end of the poem that some purpose or meaning is put into it as Long writes,  “I think I can make out the faces of the people I have met or known/ on holiday from England/ this enables my will to stay inside/ in the confines of dead flowers and hung keys/ and a moving sun," relaying last minute that the poem is not about the list of things outside the window, but more so that those sights are what keep him on the other side of the glass.

Those poems which make up the backbone of Losing My Brotherhood are those like “For America,” “We Are Gonna Fall Under Our Weight,” and “To California,” pieces that relate a story and in the minimal space of the story are able to build characters and plot and meaning and emotion. “The Barricades” uses its story of children playing as soldiers in a field to create the fantasy and reality of childhood, while the title poem of the book, “Loosing my Brotherhood,” makes use of imagery and symbols to relate the separation from the past and the forward movement of growing and life. While it is not the only one of anger, “Happy Fucking Birthday” is one of few pieces that really delves into the language of the poem to show the bitterness and coldness that the title puts forth. “In A Glare” succeeds in a similar manner with it’s hard, bold language and imagery to fuse beauty with darkness, while ”Little One” carries on a more subtle warning with the repeated refrain, “You’re a big girl now little one.”

It is between the two extremes of the lesser poems that Long finds his golden ground. Not plunging in so deep and making intentional use of his language, such as is wonderfully shown in “The Wave Runners,” puts Long’s writing into an infallible short story setting. It is here that he appears to be in most control and most in tune with his writing, when the words he uses, the sound and atmosphere he creates, all contribute to what the story of the poem is meaning to say. As liberating and helpful as it is to run free with a poetic license, Long’s greater work lies in those poems which hone in and make use of those little aspects to give real dimension and depth that turn out a true sense of poetry with manifest emotion.

There’s Bright Eyes, Talking Heads, and Little Feet, The Head and the Heart, Nine Inch Nails, and Butthole Surfers. And now Hands can too be added to the list of anatomical bands.

The Los Angeles based alternative/ indie pop and dance rock group just finished their first tour this Sunday night at the Hi-Dive in Denver. The set was short, within thirty minutes the four-piece band having played most if not all six tracks off their EP, Massive Context. A surprisingly good-sized little crowd gathered though, heating up the Hi-Dive early in the night as people inched forward bit by bit and danced along. The set wasn’t perfect, nor is the sound of Hands. It is a sound that holds a lot of potential nevertheless, and is one that is in the beginning stages of working well to carve out a spot for the young group among the indie drove.

It’s unclear whether front-man Geoffrey Halliday was sick or not, though his voice did seem considerably strained. Be that as it may, it was the strain of Halliday’s voice that in part characterized both his sound and that of the band on Massive Context and in live performance. Singing with an un-polished vocal technique that lends itself to a sense of yelling, Halliday projects a Davey Havok accent onto Hands that positions them within the alternative music genre. Moving the band more into the indie light were those moments in which Halliday’s vocals worked up to crescendo in the upper register, intimating the impressive, unique vocals of The Temper Trap’s Dougy Mandagi.

Much of Halliday’s higher ranged vocals were achieved by his own doing, though other eminent vocal and musical effects brought on via technology were ultimately what lurched the melodies, and the tenor of the band overall, into the realm of indie pop/ dance rock. In hand with the high pitch vocals it was Halliday’s keyboard work, sound loops, sound effects, and other technological gadgets that gave Hands that dance rock quality. Pitting claps, tings, keyboards, and other rising, peaking harmonies against a backdrop of heavy bass lines and pounding drum lent Hands a sound akin to that of the British group, Foals. Hands surfaces at a lower level next to Foals however, with fewer layers and less density alongside a more raw, DIY sound quality.

For a band on their first tour, this is meant to be anything but belittling. The un-polished nature of the band is part of the grit that makes them not only appealing but intriguing. It would be neither surprising nor disappointing to see Hands on tour again. Yet with more controlled vocals and a tighter unity among the four as a whole, the band could hold promise for making strong headway into the indie world and finding a home for themselves among such venues as the Hi-Dive and Larimer Lounge with the utmost ease.

Two years ago New York band Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds hit the scene with their first self titled record. Now with a second record under the belt the band is still on the road touring the country as they play small town venues and big city festivals. Fusing the musical backgrounds and influences of nine different musicians into one unit, the Dirty Birds are a powerhouse of soul, funk, rock and a little bit of country.

Arleigh Kincheloe, Sister Sparrow herself, and her brother Jackson take the band back to it’s roots when, in their youth, Arleigh would write songs and Jackson would play music to them. Over time the project grew and Arleigh’s desire to have a band with a full horn section became a reality. And thus was born the Dirty Birds.

Grateful Web’s Angela Gattuso recently had a chance to catch up with Arleigh while on a couple day’s break from tour to talk about live performances, inspiration, the logistics of working in a nine-piece band, and spreading the word of the Bird.

GW: I’m Angela Gattuso, I’m with the Grateful Web and today I have Arleigh from Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds on the line for an interview. How are you doing today?

Arleigh: I’m doing well, thank you. How are you doing?

GW: Good, thanks. Are you on a break right now from touring or do you just have some free days inbetween?

Arleigh: Well, actually, we have a couple days of break in Brooklyn. We leave again tomorrow, but I’m sort of enjoying this day in Brooklyn. It’s about 100 degrees here.

GW: Yeah it’s been a little hot lately. Are you spending time at home?

Arleigh: Yeah, I am. I’m sort of hiding out in the A/C and trying to sort of sort things cause we don’t really get a lot of time at home. So you know, it’s just those days where you just do your laundry and stuff.

GW: Right, yeah. It’s nice to do that for a change. I imagine being on the road it’s a little bit different of a lifestyle.

Arleigh: Yeah, absolutely. But it’s nice, I mean it’s definitely one big adventure and you can see the whole country which is really awesome.

GW: That’s good. You guys have been on tour for a long time now too, so is there an end in sight or are you guys just kind of going to keep for a while and see where it takes you?

Arleigh: I think we’re going to just sort of keep riding the wave. We are planning to take a little bit of time off once the weather gets colder, probably near the holidays. But yeah, we’re pretty much just truckin’ along and that’s kind of our plan is to just keep touring and sort of, it seems that the more we do it obviously the farther along we get. So it’s kind of one foot in front of the other and just trying to enjoy it while we do it.

GW: That’s good. I was looking at your guys’ touring schedule and it looks like you’re doing a lot of festivals and similar type things and a lot of those shows are free. Are you just doing that to get yourselves out there or is touring something that all of you guys have just really come to love and playing in front of audiences?

Alreigh: Well I think it’s a little of both, you know. I think we absolutely love playing and I think that’s the first reason why we started to do it. And then as we sort of saw the responses and people start to like it, you know, we figured out how to make the logistics work with nine people on the road, which took some time. But you know, after that it’s, we’re trying to spread the word of the Bird, if you will, and at the end of the day it is what we love so that’s why we do it. And we hope that by us having such a good time on stage other people will have also a good time for sharing that with us.

GW: You had mentioned that you guys are going to take a break maybe around the winter. Is your plan then to get back into the studio while your taking a break from touring, or just kind of relax or do you have new material?

Arleigh: Well right now we’re super focused on Pound of Dirt  which we just put out a couple months ago, and so you know we’re sort of slowly writing some stuff. I’m the principal song writer and so it’s been kind of a challenge for me to try to write while on the road and you know, I haven’t quite hit my stride with it yet. So I think what will happen when we get a little time off will be a lot of writing, actually, and so then after that we’ll start to get back in the studio. So I think for us the way we’ve found to work in the best way is I’ll write the songs and we’ll arrange them all together and then we pick them out on the road before we like to put them in the studio. We find that the songs sort of evolve and they grow and they get more meaning, you know, or they get deeper or more exciting or whatever as we play them more and more. So it’s sort of like kneading the bread and getting all the good stuff in there, so I think that’s probably the plan. But right now we’re just trying to, I mean we’re being pretty chill about it. It was a really crazy recording process for Pound of Dirt  because we didn’t take any time off from the road so we were recording in our, quote on quote, days off, which I think it was like two months where I sang every day or something crazy like that. Which was a challenge, it was really intense. But it was amazing and fun and I’m so happy it worked out the way it did. But I think hopefully this next time we’ll be able to like, I don’t know, maybe just like three weeks. But it was cool.

GW: Since you’ve been having a challenge hitting your stride while you’re on tour with writing your songs, do you think once you slow down and take a break you’ll look back on that and form inspiration from that? Or where do you usually get the material for your songs?

Arleigh: Yeah, I think that just life experiences definitely inspire me. But I think sometimes with me, and I guess I get like writer’s block or something, but the inspiration does come from thin air it seems like. Like the other day I woke up with a song in my head that sort of happened in my dream, which is a good tool to use when you’re dreaming. Just a stream of consciousness, free and creative. You’re mind’s not worrying about anything and so that was exciting. I was like, oh, there we go, there’s a little nugget of inspiration there. And you know, I did go ahead and write a song out of that. So it kind of comes and goes but I think that just living the lives that we do now, it adds so much to the music and because that’s all we do, it’s just all music. And it kind of, it definitely shapes how we play or how I sing or what we end up writing. And yeah, I think it’s a nice little cycle, you know, like blending each piece into each other. 

GW: Before you guys had put records out and it was just you and your brother writing songs and playing together, did you imagine it growing into something this size or what were you envisioning at the time when you had this dream of becoming a musician and taking your music on the road?

Arleigh: Well do you mean the size in terms of number of band members or do you mean like being at this point or...?

GW: Both, I guess. I mean it seems like it would be hard touring with so many of you guys but it seems like you’re doing very well for yourself keeping busy on tour and selling your records.

Arleigh: Yeah, well I definitely think when I was envisioning this project I knew I wanted a huge band. I mean I knew I want a full horn section and you know, once you add that you really have...it doubles the size of the band. And I was pretty held bent on that being it, so I knew if I was hopefully successful in finding those numbers. And then as we go along, I mean, every new little milestone, as small as it might be, it really does sort of thrill me. I don’t really have any expectations for anything but when I was a kid I definitely envisioned being a rock star or whatever. But you know, you grow older and you try and put things in perspective. And I’ve learned to not let myself get too worked up or too excited because then you know, you sort of stay grounded and you don’t get your feelings hurt when something doesn’t come through. If that helped to answer the question, I do feel like, not surprised because we are working really hard and I feel like hopefully we earn everything we get. But you know, I am definitely like, oh yay, goodie we did it.

GW: By the nature of the band just being that large and the kind of music that you’re playing, it seems that there’s a lot of room for improvisation. Is that something you guys like to incorporate into your live set or do you usually just stick more with what you have recorded or that sound?

Arleigh: There’s always a lot of soloing so all of that is totally improv. But the boys sort of told me this early on that I didn’t really notice about myself, but that they were like, “Man you sing the song different every time and it’s really cool because it inspires us to sort of do the same and to have that freedom and creativity.” And I was like, really I do that? So yeah, I think, I mean we definitely don’t...we try to play to the audience as much as can and I think that just from there immediately changes the vibe of the song. So you might not hear the same thing twice with us, which is exciting, and I think with so many people in the band we need that to sort of...we don’t want to get stuck in a rut and we also do want to keep challenging each other and ourselves. And so I think that’s a good way to do it, but we don’t get too crazy. But yeah, for sure.

GW: Cool. With there being all of you guys on the road together do you like to play the smaller venues? People generally do just because they’re more intimate, but is that more of a challenge for you guys?

Arleigh: Well, I guess it depends on how small. Sometimes we get so crammed on the stage, you know, it’s hard to fit everybody. But no, I personally, I think it’s sort of apples and oranges between cultures and festivals, I mean obviously, but there is something really sort of magical about being super close to your audience and being able to after the show just talk to everybody. Which I really love to do because it’s just meeting all sorts of cool people all the time and there’s always a story and always somebody’s long lost cousin or whatever. So I love that, I think it keeps it super interesting out there on the road. But that being said, I love playing festivals. It’s a whole other thing; it just sort of feels like a playground for musicians. It’s sort of like ok, we’re going to set you all free in this little field and you guys just go nuts, you know. And that’s cool because of that reason. We do meet a lot of other bands and we get to share those road stories with those people, and you know.

GW: Sounds like a fun time. I know that you come from a musical family and all of you guys come from different musical backgrounds and interests. Where does your interest lie or where does your inspiration come from as far as musical tastes go? What kind of music do you pull from to bring into the band?

Arleigh: Right, personally we were listening to a lot of sort of, I don’t know if you’d call it country rock or not. But my mom listened to a lot of Bonnie Raitt, which was huge for me, she was really inspiring. And then my dad was really into The Band, which was, you know, as far as my musical education goes, that was like 101. Then you know to top it off you have the Little Feet, which I think you sort of got that New Orleans-y thing going on there and my dad was definitely into the Grateful Dead so that was also in there. So I think for me and my brother we kind of come with like the Americana, sort of bluesy, rocky stuff. And the guys in the band, we have a lot of shared influences in that way, but there’s also a lot of jazz background for other players. So they bring that different element, whereas Jackson and I didn’t necessarily listen to a lot of jazz growing up at all. And I mean not jazz in the way the boys would classify, but my dad would put on Nat King Cole or something, a little Duke Ellington or something. But yeah, so it’s cool to see how all these different tastes sort of mesh together and create something sort of new, you know. But for me specifically I sort of find my home in those records you know, sort of the American. In my mind it feels like my mom and dad’s generation of like, what they grew up listening to, and that’s kind of what stuck with me. So I’m kind of an old lady, but I kind of like it. I’m kind of stuck in my ways and I have to sort of force myself to branch out. But you know, that’s always a fun little to thing to do anyway.

GW: So is there any newer music that you listen to now that influences you or do you tend to stick more to that older stuff you grew up with or music that sounds like it?

Arleigh: Well I’d definitely say certain things have influenced me. And I’d say like, going to New Orleans and hearing the brass bands there for the first time really re-birthed brass bands, like they’re power is huge. That was, I think the first time I went to New Orleans was right when the band was first starting, or when I was first getting it together, so I think that was definitely influential. Although that is sort of old school style but still happening now. And then there’s this band, The Wood Brothers. First time I ever heard them sticks out in my mind. Which is so different from what we do but there’s something about the way they sing and just the style of their song writing that I was really drawn to and I’m definitely in love with those guys.

GW: Yeah they’re good, I like them also.

Arleigh: Yeah.

GW: Cool, well I think that was all that I had for you.

Arleigh: Cool. Well thanks for taking the time.

GW: Thank you for the time. It was really nice talking to you, I really appreciate it.

Arleigh: Yeah, you too. Alright take care.

GW: Thank you, you also.

Arleigh: Alright, bye.

GW: Bye.

Weeks ago 17 year-old Ruby Jane not only graduated from high school, but released her first solo album. The Texas based fiddler and multi-instrumentalist has been playing music since her youth and has been rewarded numerous awards and shared the stage with the likes of Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett. And now she’s writing her own music and playing festivals and small down gigs with her own band, the Ruby Jane Show.

While the fiddle is her base instrument and bluegrass the music that, in part, put her on the scene, Ruby Jane is expanding her horizon and breaking into new boundaries as she writes her own songs and picks up the guitar. Having graduated from high school a year early and with such great musical success already under her belt, Ruby Jane has built up a name for herself and is nowhere in site of slowing down.

The Grateful Web’s Angela Gattuso was fortunate enough to catch up with Ruby Jane before heading out for a few shows around Texas following the June 19th release of Celebrity (Empire of Emptiness). Beyond expressing the surreal yet exciting feelings of graduating and releasing her first record, Ruby Jane shared her ideas for the future, the search for the “Ruby Jane sound,” her never ceasing and inspirational goals, and her dream of dreams to work with Tom Waits.

Grateful Web: Hi again. I’m Angela Gattuso, I’m with the Grateful Web and I’m here today with fiddler and multi-instrumentalist Ruby Jane for an interview. So, how’s it going?

Ruby Jane: I’m doing really well. I’m getting ready to head to Fort Worth today for a T.V. thing tomorrow and then a show at McDavid’s Studio on Friday night in Forth Worth.

GW: Oh ok, that’s exciting. Do you have some other tours lined up after that or are you going to be on the road for awhile?

RJ: Well, kind of. We’re just going to Forth Worth for this date and then coming back. And then got a few shows around Texas and then in July we’re heading to Finland for a few shows out there, which should be fun. And then kind of, we’re just kind of back and forth you know, going out for a few dates and coming back and out for a few days and coming back. And then we’re probably doing more kind of touring, like going out for a month at a time, closer to the end of the year.

GW: Oh ok, cool. Is this going to be your first time over to Europe or have you been to Finland at all before?

RJ: Well I’ve been to France. I played in France a couple summers ago, but this will be my second time over there. This will be my first time in Finland.

GW: Well that sounds exciting. I wish I could go do the same.

RJ: I know, it should be interesting. I’ve heard a lot of interesting things about Finland. I’ve heard really, really great things and then I’ve heard that food is kind of bad. So I have no idea what to expect.

GW: Well hopefully it goes more on the good side for you.

RJ: Yes, definitely.

GW: Well congratulations also on your high school graduation and your record release. How does that feel to have both of those accomplished right on the same day or within the same week?

RJ: Oh, it’s really weird actually. Like you know, it always felt like these really big milestones in the future and now that they’ve both happened I’m like, wow ok, so what’s next. And I mean it feels really good actually because they’re both really important sort of things happening in my life, you know, and I was really eager to have both done. So now you know, now that it’s done it feels great and now it’s kind of focusing on that year and that next kind of chapter and writing more music and touring the album. And you know, working, getting ready for the next album, so it is great.

GW: Cool. I was reading on your blog that you are going to take that year off from school but you do have plans to go to college thereafter. So is that what you’re going to focus on, is just writing the music and getting new material together then?

RJ: Well I’m taking one year off and really, that’ll be...I mean I’ll always be touring and playing music, that’s always going to be my number one for me. So it’s not like, ok I’m taking one year off to tour and then I’m going to a college for four years and I’m not playing music anymore, you know. It’s really just, I mean I graduated a year early from high school so really now I’m taking that year to just take the time to really tour the new album and get it out there. And you know, just utilize that time so I can focus full time on music and not be thinking about studies. But it is really important to me to get a college degree, so after that year is up I’ll probably look into taking some of my college basics online. Like University of Texas has an online department and I’ll probably do that for a year and then you know, see what happens after that, maybe take some classes at a brick and mortar college, just a few classes. But I’ll probably end up having to take it all really slow just because I’ll be focused on music first and foremost. But getting a degree is definitely really important to me.

GW: Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Do you have any ideas of what you might want to degree in at all or, just like you were saying, take those basic classes and then kind of see where you want to go from there?

RJ: Well I’m sure it will change, but right now I’m looking at, I really enjoy liberal arts and I think it would be great to have a liberal arts degree. And I’m not necessarily getting a degree so that I can look into getting a job, just because I already have my goals lined down and my passion. So I don’t think that I’ll need a degree for that. I’d just like a degree to be a better educated person. And I really enjoy liberal arts so I’m looking at maybe a liberal arts degree. I’m thinking about maybe getting possibly a business degree just so that I can be more business savvy for my career. And then I also really love philosophy so maybe like a minor in philosophy or something like that. That’s what I’m standing at right now but that’s probably going to change.

GW: Yeah it’s hard to make a difficult choice like that but like you were saying, there’s plenty of time so I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

RJ: Definitely.

GW: Well talking about studies I know that you had started your music with classical training and then kind of segued more into the bluegrass side. But since then, now that you’re growing as a person and your music is changing and growing as well, what other kind of music are you interested in learning or maybe just trying your hand at?

RJ: I’ve really experimented with a lot of different genres in the past and you know, playing the fiddle I really loved it because I was really free to play any genre that I wanted and explore all the different genres. And it’s really important to me to be well-rounded as a musician, so you know, I was able to tour with all different kinds of bands and things. But now I feel like is really the time for me to hone my skills and focus on my music and sound. So I’m not really focused on straying around anymore, and I’m sure maybe down the road I’ll put out some weird album that nobody is expecting. But now I feel like it’s really the time for me as Ruby Jane and as an artist to have a sound. You know because every great artist needs that sound and that defining quality to their music and I want to have music that’s unique from anything else. So right now I’m just really focused with this album, really finding my sound, you know, what is the Ruby Jane sound. So that’s really what I’m working on now, and maybe down the road when I’m a really well established artist I’ll be able to explore maybe some wacky things. As far as the genres of music that I listen to, I listen to just all kinds of music and I’m influenced by all kinds of music. But as far as the music I put out, I really now am focused on capturing what that Ruby Jane sound is.

GW: From all the different kinds of festivals you’ve played at that have a lot of younger bands and groups similar to yourself that are new and fresh to the music scene, is there anyone in particular that has really captured your attention or just inspired you, even in creating your own sound?

RJ: Well, I mean I’m inspired by a lot of different artists. I honestly love a lot of older artists. Well not like old, old older artists, but like Tom Waits and John Lennon and The Rolling Stones and all these really well established artists. But I mean are you asking about newer artists from the scene that I’ve been inspired by or just artists in general?

GW: I’m thinking newer artists because you’ve played kinds of festivals with, not bands that play the same kind of music as you, but they are a newer sound on the music scene. So is there anyone within that grouping of people that you’ve picked up on?

RJ: Well definitely a band that has had a really big impact on my sound in the past and had an impact on me creating this album is My Morning Jacket. And I really love My Morning Jacket because they’ve really achieved creating a sound that is completely unique. And I was able to see them live at ACL Festival back in October which really had a big impact on me because their show is just so amazing and so unique and just so energetic. And I just love their music and I love their lyrics and the message that they send and I just really am a big fan of My Morning Jacket. The main thing that I love about them is just their unique musical sound and so that’s something that I was really inspired by in making this album, because it’s really not able to be classified because they put out some albums that are more rock and put out some albums that are more folk-like. But their sound is unique, and I really, really was inspired by that. So My Morning Jacket would definitely be a big one, and let’s see. Another band that I really loved watching is James Blake and he’s from England and he actually played at ACL this last year as well and he really does have a music that isn’t like anything that I do. But he has a sound that really is...really I look at artists and I look at, when I’m creating my music, I look at artists that are unique and that can’t really be classified as anything because their sound is just so different from any of the pigeonholed genres. And James Blake is like that. Are you familiar with James Blake?

GW: No, that one I don’t think I’ve heard at all.

RJ: Ok, well yeah you should definitely look him up if you get a chance. I can’t even really classify him, but a little bit of it has a little bit of a pop-ish feel but a little bit of it is just very mellow. Like almost just very, very mellow not even rock. I don’t know I can’t even classify it, but he’s experimental and watching him onstage, he plays all his music, or he plays the keyboard. But his band is playing through these electronics, but the music isn’t like electronic music, it’s like a weird kind of mellow...I don’t know, it’s so difficult to classify. But he’s just amazing and he’s like one of the best singers I’ve ever heard in my life, too, so I love him. I also love The Felice Brothers. And I heard them at ACL a couple years ago and I think they were at Walla as well and their music is folk, to the folk side of things with a little rock. But they have a fiddle and they have an accordion and stuff but their music isn’t like bluegrass or folk; it’s leaning more toward the wacky, rock-ish side, but they have all these different instruments. And they’re music is very kind of carefree but they’re lyrics are really great, so I love The Felice Brothers. I guess those would be three big ones for me.

GW: Ok, cool. I know My Morning Jacket but the rest I’ll definitely have to take a look into, sounds worth it.

RJ: Definitely.

GW: You had mentioned that there are a lot of older influences like the big name, staple musicians that have influenced you. And there are others of those that you’ve toured with or played with or have even been taught or mentored by. Is there anyone that you have yet to work with but you would jump at the opportunity to do so?

RJ: Oh so many, so many. I mean I’ve been really lucky. Like one of my biggest influences is Willie Nelson and so just to have the opportunity to tour with him is life changing, you know. But I guess if I had the opportunity to collaborate in any way with Tom Waits, I think my life would be complete, honestly. I have really big goals for myself, you know, and I really want to be a huge influence and have a huge impact in the music world. But I think that, I don’t know. I mean obviously those goals are huge but if Tom Waits like said, do you want to like....write a song with me or play on this track on my album or anything, honestly. Anything. I think I would be like, my life is complete, if I died now all my dreams came true. I love Tom Waits and he’s such an influence on me. So given the opportunity to work with Tom Waits I would love. I also love The Rolling Stones and I love Keith Richards and I would love the opportunity to share a stage with them. And I know they have their more countryed-out sound, but I’ve also played rock too, so any opportunity to get on stage and jam out with Keith Richards...I would just love that. So, let’s see, I guess those are the main two. But I also love Erykah Badu and any opportunity to work with her would be just amazing, even though she’s not the same genre as I am. I just, I admire her so much.

GW: Yeah, all of those would be really fun sounding to me.

RJ: Definitely.

GW: Cool. Well outside of being on stage and performing in front of audiences you’ve also done a little bit of work behind the scenes, on your own record being the co-producer for that. Are you interested in learning more about the technical, sound engineering side of the music business as well?

RJ: I’ve learned a little bit about engineering and the technical production of that, that’s not like a priority for me. But as far as producing, I’d like to be at the point one day where I can completely have artistic freedom to produce my own album. And I obviously would love the opportunity to work with amazing producers and with the next album I already have a few producers where I’m like, oh I would really love to work with him. But I know what I want my sound to be and I know before even going into the studio. I don’t go into the studio thinking, ok, I have this song let’s see what happens with this track. I already have an exact sound in my mind and I mean, I do a little bit of experimenting in the studio once the bases of tracks are down, but pretty much I know exactly what I want every song to sound like. I think just going into every studio I’ll always have my hand in the producing pot, whether that be me producing the album all on my own or working with another producer, just because I’m very particular about what I want my sound to be, which I think is a good thing. I think I would rather be like that than be an artist that’s going to put everything in the hands of another person, you know. Because I really understand my music and my lyrics and I understand the message I want to send. So I think that I’ll always take a really big part in the production aspect of the album, just because it is so important to me.

GW: Right, yeah. It sounds like you’ve met a lot of your goals already, but like you said, you have big goals for yourself, you want to be a huge influence and have a big impact in the music world. But I also had read in your blog that in achieving that you don’t want to lose sight of yourself and who you are. So where do you want your future to take you or what do you envision for yourself at this point?

RJ: Well, ever since I was young and started playing music...I mean honestly since I was two, three years old I had the same exact goal. And honestly the sky is the limit for me, like I want to be someone like The Rolling Stones and I want to be someone like Johnny Cash and like the Beatles and like Radiohead. I want to be one of those staples that has had such a huge influence on music and is so distinct from anyone else but that really altered a lot of sounds in the music business. I want to be that big and I want to be one of those people, but it’s also important to me because I see a lot of young people today kind of looking at celebrities and looking at stars and having, thinking the wrong message and thinking that the goal of life is to be, you know, rich and beautiful and have a lot of friends and a lot of money. And instead I want them to be able to look at someone like me and see someone that has achieved their goals but is someone famous for making a positive impact and not just famous for being rich and partying hard. I want to be one of those people that helps to redefine what it means to be a celebrity and I want to be a really positive role model. And it’s really important to me to influence other teenagers and other you people. And I do a lot of things even now, I do a lot of stuff in schools and stuff. It’s just important to me to kind of show them that you can have goals and that you really can achieve anything, but that it’s important to want to achieve something that can make a positive impact, not just because you want to be famous. So I want to help to be a positive role model for younger people and also I just want to have a big influence on the actual sound of music as well.

GW: Right. Those sound like really good, inspirational, big goals.

RJ: Thank you, I appreciate that. And I apologize, that was really vague and really broad. It’s difficult in the music business to know exactly what your path to getting to your goal is just because it’s so...you can’t really expect what’s going to happen next. And if you would have asked me three years ago, you know, I would have had the same goals I have now, but I never would have been able to tell you how I would have gotten to this point that I’m at now. So, I mean obviously having Grammys is a goal for me and all of those kind of goals. But I really don’t even know at this point exactly what my path is going to be to getting to that goal. There’s so many different ways to become well known in the music business now and all that is changing so much. So I’ll always have those broad goals and I’m just kind of along for the ride as far as how I get there.

GW: Yeah, that sounds excellent. Well I think that is all I had for you but thank you so much for calling in and taking the time, I really appreciate it.

RJ: Yeah, thank you Angela. And again I’m sorry we were a little late there. We’re running around packing to leave for Fort Worth and I was like, oh my gosh I’ve got to call. So I do apologize for that, but thank you.

GW: Oh yeah, no worries. I hope that goes well and that your little bit in Finland there is a fun time also. And hopefully we will see you come through Colorado one of these days.

RJ: Yes, definitely. Ah, I love Colorado, so I hope so.

GW: Yeah, we’ll keep an eye out and hopefully we’ll see you then. But good luck to you and thank you again.

RJ: Ok, thanks so much.

GW: You’re welcome, bye.

RJ: Bye.

It gets old considering music and classifying it within the created boundaries of genre. Certain sounds and flavors that make music can’t help but call to mind those among the long history of music which precedes that of the modern era, however. For New York band Donna the Buffalo, it is within the realm of country that the group’s tenth studio album, Silverlined, seems to be most deeply rooted. Yet the thirteen track record is not so easy to classify solely within those parameters.

While country music may be at the heart of the five piece band, the music is infused with various instruments and timbres and a small few vocal qualities that reflect the group dabbling into genres across the board. “Blue Eyes” puts forth the slightest tinge of reggae; “The Call” makes use of an accordion as the prominent instrument, holding down the song with a mellow 90's alternative rock feel; and the title track “Silverlined” gives listeners a very classic, solid country number which projects just that sound which comes to represent Donna the Buffalo at their most bare.

Driving the list of genres out still more, Donna the Buffalo experiments with a more jam band, funk vibe in both “Temporary Misery” and “I Don’t Need a Riddle,” while “Locket and Key” and “Beauty Within” hold a tint of folk with subtle use of the banjo which, while in a less pronounced role, creates great structure to the sound and lends the tracks to the realm of folk.

For as much ground as is covered however, the structure and organization of the album lends to a repetition and predictability in the vocal characterization and thus the overall sound of the record outside of its country basis. Aside from two tracks right in the middle of the album, the songs rotate back and forth between those with vocals sung by Tara Nevins and those with vocals by Jeb Puryear. Certainly there is a small handful of songs that feature both vocalists, but the greater portion of the record moves from female vocals on one track with male vocals on the next, going back and forth again from Nevins to Puryear as the album carries on in its entirety.

It is within this pattern of vocalization between female and male in the structure of the album that a repetition in vocal performance emerges. Radio friendly, catchy pop vocals characterize the six or so songs that Nevins takes lead vocals on, ultimately giving them a country pop sound that, with songs such as “Locket and Key,” make Donna the Buffalo just slightly akin to the likes of Taylor Swift. So too do the lyrics of those songs sung by Nevin pit the band within this genre. “Broken Record” functions as an example for the rest as a song about relationships, communication, and desire sung with a bit of underlying female attitude with the support of backing female vocals.

Standing opposite is Puryear, whose half talking, half singing vocal style not only calls to mind Bob Dylan, Craig Elkins, and oddly, Bob Seger (specifically in “Meant to Be”), but so too makes for songs that are often more simple, continuous, flat, and even in both the vocals and in the collective aspects of the instrumentation and music itself.

Predictability in the vocal progression from one song to the next within the greater patterned structure and organization of the album are the major pitfalls of Silverlined. And yet at the same time it is the catchy nature of songs such as “Broken Record” and “Sliverlined” itself, alongside the quirkiness found in the likes of “Biggie K,” that make Donna the Buffalo a simple country band with a bit of a modern kick and flavor that show a desire to dabble in music across the board.

Most far reaching for the band in this regard is “Garden of Eden,” a song with an odd yet most wonderful combination of percussion and strings next to Puryear’s talk vocals and that country sound found deep at the bottom of all of Silverlined. An Oriental yet somewhat African feel is given off in this composite of stringed instruments with percussion. The worldly sound produced makes this track the most unique to the album and shows that Donna the Buffalo is capable of creating an intriguing, refreshing sound with which further exploration and tinkering would be more than welcome.

Rattling floorboards and seats caused by the stomping of a rowdy crowd is a common occurrence at sporting events. Such a regularity becomes rather out of place at a concert venue however, as was the case for The Head and the Heart’s sold out Boulder show. Hollers and whistles accompanied the vibrations during the set, at its finale, and held out through to the encore. It was one of many stops on the band’s first headlining tour, and while The Head and the Heart wasn’t spot-on, their Boulder Theater audience showed the utmost support and enthusiasm for the Seattle based folk rockers.

Like Crosby Stills and Nash, The Head and the Heart are noted time and again for their resounding vocal harmonies. Part of what makes such harmonization work and makes for the appeal is the rich, clear distinction of the voices folding and melting together. It is this minor yet all important aspect that Sunday night’s performance lacked.

To an untrained ear, it is not clear whether microphone volumes were askew or the band simply was not as on top of the set as they have been during other live shows. Regardless, harmonies were there but with a strong lack of distinction among the voices of Charity Rose Thielen, Josiah Johnson, and Jonathan Russell. Especially missing from the trio was Thielen’s unique yet beautiful and astoundingly powerful voice. It was only during song’s such as “Rivers and Roads,” in which Thielen holds the spotlight for some time, that her vocals were really heard. While the effect wasn’t ultimately damaging to the set, it did make for a disappointing and unfortunate loss of a part of the sound that defines The Head and the Heart.

Of greater or at least more audible consequence was irregular tempo throughout the set. It is important to acknowledge that on stage musicians are free to do as they please, sometimes making for a live sound that differs from that on the printed record. Yet the rubato or push and pull of tempo during some of The Head and the Heart’s songs seemed rather unintentional, creating a sound that made audibly distinct the error in the tempo rather than a pleasant and flowing intention of rubato. Again, to a trained ear this characteristic may have been noted much more often throughout the set. Even still, during two songs the tempo was so radically slowed down that any fan would have noted the difference, regardless of whether they have a musically trained ear. “Lost in my Mind” and “Ghosts” were both performed in similarity to their recorded sounds up until the chorus, wherein Russell especially had to slow down his vocals to such an extent that it looked awkward to watch him sing and made the songs struggle along until they finally pulled out and moved back into the bridge.

It’s not up to one to say how much the audience was dismayed or upset by these flaws, while the insistent stomping and yelling speaks for itself to say that Boulder loves The Head and the Heart regardless. For as responsive as the crowd was with their enthusiasm, the respect they showed for the musicians while on stage was equally impressive. Silence fell over the audience during songs such as “Sounds Like Hallelujah” and “Rivers and Roads,” the crowd exploding in the latter only during Thielen’s thunderous vocal performance, giving the musician so much praise so as to leave her shaking her head and smiling in appreciation. An even greater, longer lasting silence was obtained during the first song of the encore, “Honey Come Home.” As Johnson explained, some songs don’t sound the same as they did when written sitting on the floor in your bedroom. To bring that original sound back to the audience, Johnson performed a beautiful stripped down, acoustic version of the love song.

As Thielen said in true excitement and appreciation of the packed house standing before her, “You’re so quiet when we’re quiet; you’re fucking rowdy when we’re rowdy.” And so did Boulder show support and respect for the band, despite a set that could have been lifted still higher.

Perhaps at the most simple level musicians view it as their job to deliver the music their fans love them for and to put on a good, entertaining live performance. Beyond that however, making and performing music is about much more. For world jam rockers Rusted Root, this means a new devotion to consciousness, focus, and discovering the vibe and light of being for both themselves and their community of fans. Released in October of this year, The Movement is the latest record from Rusted Root which seeks to conceptualize these ideas into a musical form that marks a turning point for the band while not only maintaining but strengthening the tie to their listeners.

After two decades together, the six piece Pittsburgh group has a good idea of what they’re after and how to achieve it, and yet the making of The Movement marked many firsts. For lead vocalist and founder Michael Glabicki, that first was distinguished by his production and engineering of the album. “It’s probably the most work I’ve ever done in my life,” said Glabicki in a telephone interview. It was his first time acting as producer and engineer and in the beginning, he said, “I didn’t know if it was going to work because it was really madness.” Glabicki and the rest of Rusted Root grew into the process though, learning that despite their desire to capture a live sound with single takes, that it would require many takes with Glabicki running back and forth. Madness aside, Glabicki said he enjoyed the experience, which he found inspiring for directing the band and opening them up to a new level of communication among the chaos.

Outside of their own communication and ideas, Glabicki said that is was also in part of fan contribution to the album that the band was able to push their creativity into new territory. Fortunate Freaks Unite, a fan-funding campaign, was created in tandem with The Movement to allow fans to make personal contribution and participate in the recording process. By buying into various packages, fans were able to get involved on a variety of levels, “Anywhere from getting their name on the record to people coming to sounds checks to getting their favorite song played while sitting in on recording,” said Glabicki. Aside from fans’ contribution to the sound of the record and the effects of their physical presence, Glabicki said they also interacted directly with the music, generating hand claps and other such nuances during actual recording. “It really got us creatively out of our box,” said Glabicki, a fun experience that got the band thinking in a different light while allowing listeners to be involved in the music they love.

As Rusted Root’s songwriter, Glabicki also sought ways in which to push his lyrics into a new light. “I also ask myself what is inspiring me, is there something I need to do to refuel the tank,” said Glabicki, a difficult and constant personal question. Just as the band strives to bring new aspects to their music, so too does Glabicki try to incorporate both the world and himself into the lyrics. On The Movement the result was a personal side that Glabicki said he’s not really touched on before. “On this record I’ve had a lot more personal relationship type songs I don’t normally tap into, which was new for me,” said Glabicki.

Whatever it is he’s singing about, Glabicki said it’s like a whole other world comes out in his voice and in himself in connection to the music. Such a connection creates feeling, Glabicki went on to say, which then leads to a spark that creates an image which builds the final story of the song and music. “I don’t know what it is I’m tapping into, but that’s it,” said Glabicki, and that’s what it is he wants to keep focus on.

Realizing and maintaining that focus has been a whole other story, however, one which Glabicki said he feels the band has finally approached after many episodes of trial and error and general experimentation. “As we look at the past we just experimented” without a lot of direction, allowing for any focus to turn into craziness, said Glabicki. This time around, Glabicki said they went into the studio with a handful of songs already picked out and of those took the ones that worked rather than bringing every piece of material in from the get-go. While Glabicki did note that some bad experiences have resulted from past experiments, he emphasized that such an experimental nature is important to have in the creative process. “We just do what we gotta do and do it best,” said Glabicki. In an atmosphere where experimentation can either lead to something spectacular or simply more experimentation, Glabicki said that with The Movement,“The main priority was to have fun and keep it a little bit lighter.”

While Glabicki and Rusted Root wanted the album to be fun and light in both its sound and ambiance, The Movement was recorded with a much greater idea behind it that called largely upon community and a state of being. “I feel like as a band our devotion is light,” and it is at live shows among the Rusted Root community that that light is created, said Glabicki. Much of music is about the perception of the people, said Glabicki, that people hear the music and they hear a happiness, and it is that togetherness which Glabicki seeks to transfer to listeners with The Movement. “It’s about getting a vibe on where our consciousness is...about being in it completely and going for it,” said Glabicki. And like Rusted Root’s experimentation and creation in the birth of a new record, such a state of mind and the capturing of that light can be brought about only by focus. It’s about keeping focused in the crazy moments among the rush of social media, meeting people, and the general rush of life, said Glabicki. “There’s just a lot of work being done,” he said, “and all you can do right now is give all you can give and just give that light.”

It may have taken the two decades that Rusted Root has been together for them to really focus themselves individually and as a band to achieve such a light. Yet over that time they have developed a community of Fortunate Freaks who Glabicki and Rusted Root seem ready and eager to communicate with in a new light, bringing about their ideas with the music of The Movement.

There are many faces and aspects of love, and Tennessee singer/songwriter Joseph LeMay hits on many of them on his first full length album, Seventeen Acres. From past or potential love to new love to lasting and exciting love, his songs take you through the emotions of such experiences not only as they relate to relationships, but to life in general. LeMay explores and conveys these feelings through a few different styles of music, though it is the more laid-back, minor, folksy style that comes across strongest, even if at times it runs contrary to those more positive songs.

Much of the album, in fact, does highlight the bright side of love. The title track, "Seventeen Acres," recalls young love, while "You Still Do It" is the confirmation of lasting love and "Crazy Woman" relates the excitemet and adventure of falling in love. Even so, much of the album is also put to the more minor side of Americana and folk, the emotion of the music often times running seemingly contrary to that of the lyrics. And yet it works. Songs such as "You Still Do It" and "Just So" are heartfelt, honest love songs. As such, the gentle, folksy nature of the music, rather than betraying the lyrics, reinforces the depth of their meaning and truth.

Two of the most outright, plain happy songs, "Crazy Woman" and "Molly My Girl" show LeMay in an enitrely different light. You can still hear LeMay's sound in both tracks, but they stand apart from the rest in being full-on Americana/ folk dance tunes. Again, this works. While these songs may be just as heart felt and true as their more romantic counterparts, they focus more on the adventure and fun of young love and the excitement of new romance. The up-beat, dancing, feel good quality of the music is perfect for these songs, and they work well, yet they don't hold as LeMay's strong point as a musician at this point in time.

Indeed, LeMay said in the album's press release that while writing this record he "was constantly alone and in a period of self-doubt," being afraid he wouldn't "measure up as a new husband and songwriter." In this light, the more mellow songs become very fitting, whether they're lyrical nature be on the positive or negative side. Writing and self-producing the album at home in a singlewide trailor on a family farm, LeMay took to the isolation of Dyersburg, Tenn. to take a good look at himself.

"Music fulfills a need," LeMay said further in the press release, "Its communicating across mediums. We don't just want words. It's the color and the canvas. The cadence and the lyric." Seventeen Acres appears to have fulfilled all of that. Throwing himself completely into the album and "sitting under a magnifying glass" that is rural Tenneesse, LeMay put together an album that does communicate across all its mediums, blending the warm, bright, passionate colors of love in its voice and word with the cooler, softer colors of emotion and feeling in its music.

Perhaps one day this will change, the color and the canvas, the cadence and the lyric. For now, however, LeMay seems to be on the right track. He might not have a firm stance yet in his musical style and sound, but LeMay has succeed both in his desire to fulfill a personal need and to communicate across the board. Only a few songs stand out upon the first listening of Seventeen Acres, yet with repeated listening the album as a whole grows on you, and it is thanks to this communcation that, while if fulfills something for the individual, it is relatable to all in its emotion and truth.