Category: Playlists

CP S16 EP27 2022 – GRAND JUNCTION

View from Colorado National Monument looking north towards Grand Junction and Fruita

AUG 01 2022 – WOW! You all blew the monthly view count out of the park! Thank you for visiting. I’ll get the JULY monthly spins up in a day or two. In the meantime, check out the new music and videos in this week’s MMMM from Twenty Hands High, Dayton Stone & the Undertones, Violet Pilot and Dzirae Gold.

We finally got to visit Colorado Playlist sponsor Starr’s Guitars in Cedaredge! If you’re looking for some nice wood, this is the place. Yeah, they send, but they’d rather you stop by the store. I sat and picked on a few beautiful Larrivee guitars – my favorite since I own two. It was great to meet store manager Candace. Sadly, David Starr wasn’t home this trip. Next time my friend!

Speaking of visiting Cedaredge – we spent a few days in Grand Junction this past week. We went to a show at the Avalon Theater. This is one of the nicest sit-down venues in our state. At just under 1100 seats, the recently renovated state-of-the art theater features comfortable seating, exquisite line of sight, sound and lighting, all experienced while sitting near the back of the orchestra section.

Local blues legend Bobby Walker has opened there for several national stars many times over the years. David Starr will be supporting the classic yacht rock band America coming up on Aug 20.

Another Grand Junction venue worth visiting is the Mesa Theater, about a two minute walk down the block from the Avalon on Main Street. There was a poster up featuring the Tejon Street Corner Thieves from Colorado Springs who recently appeared there. InTheWhale is there on AUG 27.

If you’re partying on Main Street in Grand Junction, there are several very nice restaurants to enjoy. We ate at the Winery, a long standing fine dining restaurant in a “…90 year old building that used to house a horse drawn carriage fire station.” Buyer beware, this is not a budget friendly restaurant.

There’s also the French inspired LeRouge! We enjoyed one of the nicest charcuteries we’ve had anyplace, before the concert. They and the Winery have wonderful wine lists, as you’d expect of the region. And then there’s the British Isles themed Goat and Clover Tavern. You KNOW we ate there! Every picture in the place has a goat in it. Hmmmmm.

The British / Irish Pub inspired menu features bangers and mash as well as corned beef and cabbage …and somehow or other the owners are connected to Elijah Craig bourbon distillers.

I will be returning to Grand Junction to emcee KAFM‘s Annual Radio Daze Music Fest and Fundraiser on Sept 10.

Don’t overlook Grand Junction! Also, the wineries in the area are big supporters of Colorado based acoustic music.

TOP 5 #COMUSIC WKEND 7/31/22

Spin data pulled from the Colorado Playlist, 105.5 The Colorado Sound, Indie 102.3, 88.9 KRFC  and ten other stations that use playlist generator Spinitron, designed to benefit community/public and college radio stations and offering advanced search functions for artists and agents.

  1. THE LUMINEERS – Brightside LP
  2. MUSKETEER GRIPWEED – Hard Times SINGLE
  3. GREENSKY BLUEGRASS – Stress Dreams LP
  4. MIKE CLARK & THE SUGAR SOUNDS – Moon Rock LP
  5. FAST EDDY – Take A Look LP

MONDAY MORNING MUSIC MEETING (MMMM)

www.starrsguitars.com

I designed the Monday Morning Music Meeting (MMMM) as a way for you to let me know what you think of new music emerging from around the state. Results enter into which cuts stay in rotation, and which cuts make the final “best of” list.

Dan Fogelberg – As The Raven Flies – Souvenirs (1974)
(D) Twenty Hands High – Back to Wichita (2022)

LVDY – Gold (2021)
Wellington Bullings – Because I Want To (2020)
Elektric Animals – Head in the Ground – Channels EP (2022)
Erik Lunde – Steel Militia – Water From The Stone (2022)
Acoustic Junction – Every Heart – Strange Days (2000)
Conjunto Colores – Planeta – Lo Mejor Del Conjunto Colores (2002)
(D) Dayton Stone & the Undertones – Cake (2022)

The Still Tide – High Wire – Run Out (2017)
Musketeer Gripweed – Rich Man’s Child – More Than Ever (2021)
The Chip Stephens Trio – Beans & Weenies – Holding on What Counts (2007)

Sugarloaf – Green-Eyed Lady – Best Of Sugarloaf (1975)
(D) Violet Pilot – Lazy Lions (2022)

Kind Hearted Strangers – Red & Blue – East/West (2021)
A.J. Fullerton – She’s So Cold – Kalamath (2017)
Bluebook – Shake Shake – Shake Shake (2022)
Richie Furay – Somebody Like You (2022)
The Wendy Woo Trio – Crisis – Luxury (2007)
Gregory Alan Isakov – Salt and the Sea – That Sea,The Gambler (2007)
(D) Dzirae Gold – Snooze for an Hour (2022)

piKziL – Here’s The News – Songs From My 3rd Life (2016)
David Starr – Every Kind of People – Touchstones (2021)
H2 Big Band – BMG – You’re It! (2015)

THIS WEEK ON YOUTUBE (not all songs may be included)

featuring  LiveMusicMegaSearch™

CP S16 EP25 2022

Picture of Buck Moon from Lookout Mountain courtesy of Claire Mannato

July 18, 2022 – An album of covers (done very well I might add) almost a year old (Sept 2021) is #1 again this week – David Starr‘s Touchstones takes it by a MILE, blowing past all the heavy weights! (disclaimer, David’s business, Starr’s Guitars, is a supporter of the CP). Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats falls to #5 .. check out the TOP 5 this week and the MMMM (Monday Morning Music Meeting) below.

The Colorado Playlist relies on your donations. Please contribute as you see fit below.

TOP 5 #COMUSIC WK END 7/17/22

Spin data pulled from the Colorado Playlist, 105.5 The Colorado Sound, Indie 102.3, 88.9 KRFC  and ten other stations that use playlist generator Spinitron, designed to benefit community/public and college radio stations and offering advanced search functions for artists and agents.

  1. DAVID STARR – Touchstones LP
  2. EUFORQUESTRA – While We Still Got Time LP (Jun-22)
  3. THE LUMINEERS – Brightside LP
  4. GREENSKY BLUEGRASS – Stress Dreams LP (Jan-22)
  5. NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHTSWEATS – The Future LP

MONDAY MORNING MUSIC MEETING (MMMM)

www.starrsguitars.com

I designed the Monday Morning Music Meeting (MMMM) as a way for you to let me know what you think of new music emerging from around the state. Results enter into which cuts stay in rotation, and which cuts make the final “best of” list.

Lannie Garrett feat. Nelson Rangell – Easy Street – Comes Love (1995)
Dianne Reeves – You’re Driving Me Crazy – Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
(D) Eminence Ensemble – Don’t Hold Your Breath (ft. Maurice Brown & Chelsea Baratz) (2022)

Leftover Salmon – Brand New Good Old Days – Brand New Good Old Days (2021)
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – Trying So Hard Not To Know – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (2015)
Alysia Kraft – Hamilton Pool – First Light (2022)
Cody Qualls – Good Vibes (2022)
Big Head Todd & the Monsters – Resignation Superman – Beautiful World (1997)
The Apples In Stereo – About Your Fame – Tone Soul Evolution (1997)
Hunter James and the Titanic – Adeline – La Liberte (2021)
(D) Brendan McKinney & The 99 Brown Dogs – We Didn’t Come This Far (2022)

Cassie Taylor – No Ring Blues – Out of My Mind (2013)
Heavy Diamond Ring – Unknown Legend – The Brightest Light EP (2021)
Big Brooklyn – Send It To Me – Everyone Everywhere (2022)

Philip Bailey w Phil Collins – Easy Lover – Chinese Wall (1985)
(D) iZCalli – On My Own – Rebirth (2022)
The Velveteers – Charmer And The Snake – Nightmare Daydream (2021)
Brent Cowles – Cold Times – Cold Times (2017)
Bevin Luna – Masquerade – Madison and Angelus (2022)
N3ptune, Rusty Steve – Black Horse – Renaissance (2022)
DeVotchKa – Curse Your Little Heart – Curse Your Little Heart (2006)
Andy Monley – All Hail – Triplight (2006)
Ellsworth– Dear Rosie – Ellsworth (2021)
(D) Lettuce – Keep That Funk Alive (ft. Bootsy Collins) – Unify (2022)

Edison – Open Road – Familiar Spirit (2016)
Many Mountains – What Used to Be – Endless Time (2021)
Gerald Albright – Taking Control – G (2016)

featuring  LiveMusicMegaSearch™

COLORADO BLUES – A PRIMER.

Let me start by saying that my girlfriend is a blues junkie and it is because of her that I’m writing about blues in Colorado. We recently went out to catch some local blues bands. I started writing a critique about what I saw on stage. She disapproved. I started over.

Blues is well over a hundred years old. Today, it’s like that old dog-eared novel that you pull out for comfort. You no longer really read it for the detail; instead you put it on for the feels, like a throw blanket on the coach that should have been discarded years ago but is too comfortable to let go.

And, artists keep chasing it – the feels – the groove – the “blues.”

Most of what passes for blues bands in Colorado today are backyard concert party bands playing in small bar and grills and, well, backyard parties and suburban centers and events attended by aging boomers and GenX parents, grandparents and pre-tween kids swingin’ on the grass.

Despite that outlook, there are some stellar blues players capable of capturing broader attention given the right set of circumstances: Some of whom are award winners playing to national and international audiences.

When it comes to blues in Colorado music history, some notable names and organizations come to mind.

Judy Roderick – A University of Colorado student, Judy signed with Columbia and Vanguard Records and released two albums; Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues (1964) and Woman Blue (1965). She also founded and fronted 60,000,000 Buffalo, a Denver based funky blues-rock band that broke up after one album, Nevada Jukebox, in 1973.

Candy Givens emerged with the band Zephyr in 1969. Powered by the hard rock blues guitar of Tommy Bolin, Zephyr put out two well received blues-rock albums before pivoting stylistically in subsequent albums. Tommy Bolin and Zephyr were inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2019.

Although not strictly speaking a blues artist at the time, award winning finger style guitarist Mary Flower moved to Colorado in 1972 and became an instrumental part of Swallow Hill Music and the Blues Foundation’s Blues In the Schools program.

Mary moved to Oregon in 2004, and was the Blues Music Award nominee for Acoustic Artist of The Year in 2008.

Filling the void left by the demise of Zephyr in the early 80s, Big Head Todd and the Monsters embraced blues-rock beginning in the mid-80s. The band would go all in on the blues for two albums as Big Head Blues Club, “100 Years of Robert Johnson” (2011), and “Way Down Inside, the Songs of Willie Dixon” (2016).

Their version of John Lee Hooker‘s classic Boom Boom (Beautiful World, 1997) remains a staple of the band’s live shows today.

The most heavily awarded blues artist in the Colorado blues pantheon is multi-award winner and Colorado Music Hall of Fame inductee Otis Taylor.

In the seventies Otis performed alongside Candy Givens in Zephyr and in the Legendary 4Nikators, another popular Boulder band. Otis left music in 1977 and wouldn’t return until 1997 when he self-released the stunning blues-trance debut When Negroes Walked the Earth.

Otis’ 2008 album Recapturing the Banjo is remarkable, as much for who appears on it as how he reintroduces the banjo as an historical blues instrument.

Other than Otis Taylor, no other significant blues band or artist emerged during the 1990s. Recording was still too expensive for most locally based bands. Exceptions included the late Creighton Holley, Dan Treanor’s band Arclight, David Booker’s Alleygators and Boa and the Constrictors.

Baby boomers now in their mid-thirties to mid-fifties, who grew up on the blues-rock of the 1960s and wanted to escape the deluge of 80s hair-metal bands and 90s grunge, flocked to area bars to catch acts like the Creighton Holley Band, JD & the Love Bandits featuring the late trombonist JD Kelly, the Alleygators, Arclight and Boa and the Constrictors to name a few.

In 1995, under the leadership of David McIntyre, the Colorado Blues Society was formed and opened the door for national and regional blues bands at the growing list of blues specific venues and festivals.

However, it wouldn’t be until the beginning of the 21st century that the next group of blues artists would truly begin to emerge.

To learn more about blues in Colorado, there are two organizations that serve to preserve not only the legacy of blues in Colorado, but also advance it via educational programs: The Colorado Blues Society and the Mile High Blues Society. Please visit and support.

I’ll be back soon for The Blues in Colorado – Part II – the 21st Century