Having performed professionally for more than two decades with Ken Peplowski, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, the Stylistics and a number of Broadway shows, Boulder-based reedsman Eric Erhardt is finally releasing his debut as a bandleader with A Better Fate. On the eight original cuts here, Erhardt, who started composing for…
As a founding member of the Punch Brothers and bassist for Leftover Salmon for the past decade, Greg Garrison undoubtedly knows his way around bluegrass. Before all that, though, Garrison was a jazz fan. As a teenager, he immersed himself in albums like John Coltrane’s Crescent and the Oscar Peterson…
Music Bar, a Denver landmark of sorts that opened in 1937, has closed. Jeffery Laws, of Universal Lending Corporation, says the owner of the bar for the past nine years didn’t renew the lease. Renowned for its karaoke nights, which earned a Best of Denver nod last year, Music Bar…
On Chimney Choir’s debut EP — titled (feather) and graced with a block-print feather graphic on the cover — the trio offered five songs that were all keepers. At the same time, those tunes left the listener wanting more. It didn’t take long for the act to deliver, following that…
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club @ Bluebird Theater | 12/30/11 For the past decade, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has been playing the Bluebird on New Year’s Eve and the night before. As Slim himself says, it just kind of happened. The band just kept getting asked to do these yearly shows…
Long in development, the Miles Davis feature film that Don Cheadle plans to star in and direct has a studio offer, the actor said in interview with the Wall Street Journal that was published today. Cheadle, who graduated from East High School, says in the interview that “the movie isn’t…
While there have been a few Red Rocks show announced for next summer, including Foster the People (July 3) and Big Head Todd & the Monsters (June 7), a few tribute shows have also been added to the summer line-up. The third annual John Denver Tribute, featuring Jim Curry and…
Since Ticketfly straddles both the ticketing and social marketing worlds, it makes perfect since for the company to introduce its Facebook Purchase App, which allows people to purchase tickets within Facebook instead of leaving the network to log onto an external system to complete the transaction. So when fans hear…
Together for nearly two decades, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has played the Bluebird Theater on New Year’s Eve for almost half the time the band has been together. The New Year’s shows have turned into something of a tradition for the band, who usually toss in a little something extra…
Swallow Hill’s Julie Davis School of Music, which starts 2012 classes on January 3, is expanding its Core Programs, something that was previously only used in the Core Guitar Program. The teaching style, which focuses on students playing songs on their instruments right away, is designed for the beginner with…
Voted best club night by Westword in 2007, Chit Chat’s weekly soul night at Old Curtis St. was essentially the city’s best house party. Headed up Jason Heller and Big Al, the two took turns spinning ’45s of deep classic soul cuts, R&B, early funk, vintage mod and Northern soul…
Denver’s all vocal hip-hop group Urban Method, who made it to the final three on NBC’s The Sing-Off, and Boulder-based all vocal rock band FACE, who was on the show in 2009, team up for a night of a cappella at the Paramount on Saturday, February 25. Tickets ($15/$25) are…
Correction: Bop Skizzum performs at Moe’s BBQ & Bowling on New Year’s Eve. An earlier version of this story included an incorrect venue. While there’s plenty of action in the clubs over New Year’s weekend, there are also a ton of bands playing in Denver and Boulder, and a lot…
Last July, Austin-based singer-songwriter Darden Smith gathered a team of other professional musicians to lead a songwriting retreat for nine servicemen and women. Songs written during the retreat were performed at the Faces of Freedom concert on September 11 at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. As a follow-up to…
A few years ago, Slim Cessna made CDs of old cassette recordings and sold them to help make ends meet. Now he’s offering those two volumes of rare recordings again, but as download only. Some of the cuts date back to the ’80s, some include his brother Whiff, some were…
Over the last decade, the space that was once Regas Christou’s Deadbeat Club at 4040 East Evans Avenue has changed names and concepts a number of times. The same folks who owned the club as it changed its name from Skin to Posh Ultra Lounge and then to Club Next,…
Although James Cooley, who releases albums under the Mesita moniker, doesn’t really play shows, he’s written a few hundred songs, some of which ended up on his latest effort, the outstanding Here’s to Nowhere. Cooley is currently working a new album, The Coyote, which he says “will have a lot…
Memphis-based alt-country act Lucero is hitting the road in February in support of Women & Work, the band’s forthcoming album, slated for release next spring on ATO, and will stop at the Bluebird Theater for a two-night stand on Friday, March 30, and Saturday, March 31. Tickets ($25) go on…
While Kamtin Mohager started performing under the moniker of Chain Gang of 1974 in Denver about five years ago, he’s been living in Los Angeles for close to a year now. As he tells David Dye in a recent interview with World Cafe, “I was just never a big fan…
Here’s what’s happening in music on the Front Range this week: On the concert front, shows from T-Pain and David Grisman Bluegrass Experience at the Ogden Theatre were announced; Bop Skizzum, Overcaster, Breakaway and Lion Sized got spins on local radio; and new releases from the Black Keys, Young Jeezy…
After 35 years with Warner Bros., Van Halen signed a deal with Interscope last month, and rumors spread that the band — with David Lee Roth back on board — had a new album nearly in the can and a tour in the works. Now one of those rumors can…
A number of new venues opened in 2011, while others changed hands. Here’s a look back through a year’s worth of club scouting: After a seven year-run at 2401 Blake Street, in June 2010, Blake Street Tavern moved a block south, to the former Club 303/Polly Esther’s space at 2301…
