Another week and another weekend of live music in Northern Colorado. The main event this weekend was a benefit for Women In Blues held at the Armory Event Center in Brighton.
Event organizer Kyle Deibler (Memphis West Music) filled me in that W.I.B. is an aspiring national level non-profit (501C3) organization. Colorado women in blues owned the sparsely attended event from the first act on.
Unfortunately, I was not able to stay to see the non-Colorado talent headlining the bill, due to a scheduled show with my own band.
The biggest surprise of the day was a revamped Kerry Pastine & the Crime Scene. Gone are Lance “Romance” Bakermeyer (bass) and Mad Dog Minnick (drums/vocals), who have gone back to the Hillbilly Hellcats with Chuch Hughes.
Lance and Mad Dog provided equal parts of the look, vibe and style to the original Crime Scene lineup – giving the band a unified and uniformed look and sound on stage – matching Kerry AND Pauly Six in performance intensity and style. Wearing beards, caps, dark glasses and black shirts, the matching colorful fashion statement gone, a potentially darker and deadlier groove may be what we’ll get moving forward from the new rhythm section.
KPCS has a new album dropping very soon – I premiered a new track from the album (a Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood cover featuring Jim Dalton of the Railbenders) in the show this week .. it’s below in the MMMM.
Fresh off her album release show at the Walnut Room in Denver, Cass Clayton opened the show. She and her airtight band showed considered homage to her obvious influences, that include Susan Tedeschi and Bonnie Raitt.
The Crime Scene and Cass Clayton Band were not the only ones appearing with new releases in hand. Colorado Blues Society 2018 Band Champion, Mojomama, recently released their latest called Red, White and Blues. Happily for me they included my favorite track on the album, Lazy River. Eef & the Blues Express rounded out the show, showcasing her formidable guitar chops, alongside the Colorado Blues Society 2018 solo/duo Champion Scott Hackler on keys.
The Brighton Armory is an exquisite small venue in our region capable of seating 300, or providing standing room only for 500. They’ve been adding more and more shows there, produced either by the city of Brighton under the management of Gary Montoya or by independent promoters.
The sound system is more than adequate for the room, and stands out as among the best in the region – equaling those at venues such as the Armory in Fort Collins or the Boulder Theater or the Mishawaka Amphitheatre. One criticism from me is that the room clearly needs additional baffling and sound absorption panels to knock down the boominess of a near empty room.
In a city that lacks even ONE non-public venue dedicated to live music, the Armory is a wonderful place to catch upcoming shows from the likes of popular regional acts like FACE Vocal Band, or national country acts like John Anderson (coming Oct 28) … and is EASILY accessible to Denver, Thornton, and other north metro communities.
VIDEO PICK OF THE WEEK
Every once in a while a new artist appears, seemingly out of nowhere. I cannot even begin to say where or how I heard of Jackson Emmer from Carbondale. He’s been getting mad praise from the likes of No Depression, POPMATTERS and Rolling Stone, which wrote “Americana songwriters are a dime a dozen these days, but few are writing songs like Jackson Emmer.”
At Bohemian Foundation, our focus is on building community …by coming together to create and enjoy music.
MONDAY MORNING MUSIC MEETING
What you’ll find below are new songs on the show this week … listen and let me know which ones you think I should keep in the Colorado Playlist, and which I should delete.
NOTE: In order to be included in the MMMM poll, the band/artist must have an embeddable file on Soundcloud, BandCamp, Reverbnation or YouTube.
PLAYLIST S12 EP27
(D) = debut of lp, ep or single
(N) = new cut from previously debuted lp or ep
HOUR 1
The Moonrakers “I’m All Right” from Anthology (2007)
Astronauts “Little Ford Ragtop” from Competition Coupe/Astronauts Orbit Kampus (1964)
(D) Jackson Emmer “Don’t Leave Me Blue” from Jukebox (2018)
Chris Daniels & the Kings “Joy” from Funky To the Bone (2015)
(D) Darren Garvey “First of the Year” from Heart Attack Sleeves EP (2018) Voodoo Kings “Eyes on You” from Faith & Whiskey (2018)
Churchill “Made a List” from Change EP (2012)
Fierce Bad Rabbit “Time Machine” from Maestro & the Elephant (2013)
The SIR Band “Wading” from So Cold (2018)
(D) Kerry Pastine & the Crime Scene “Summer Wine (feat. Jim Dalton)” from I Make My Own Luck (2018) Patti Fiasco “Blue Eyed West” from Saved By Rock And Roll (2016)
Big Head Todd & The Monsters “Glow” from New World Arisin’ (2017)
Paa Kow “African lady” from Cookpot (2017)
HOUR 2
Poco “You Better Think Twice” from Deliverin’ (1971)
Rick Roberts “She Made Me Lose My Blues” from Windmills / She is a Song (2010)
(D) Gregory Alan Isakov “Chemicals” from Evening Machines (2018)
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats “Thank you” from Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats (2015)
(D) Dierks Bentley “The Mountain” from The Mountain (2018)
SHEL “The Latest And Greatest Blueberry Rubberband” from SHEL (2012)
Paul Galaxy & the Galatix “White Train” from Slingshot (2004)
Francis and the Wolf “Call of the Wild” from Ladies & Gentlemen (2017)
(N) Blake Brown & American Dust Choir “Up In Arms” from Long Way Home (2018) Pan Astral “Gulf of Mexico” from Suburban Blues (2016)
Rose Hill Drive “Broken by the Storm” from Mania (2017)
Paul Mullikin Quintet “Minor Profits” from TIME IS NOW (2014)
Chris K's Colorado Playlist 