WEEKLY TOP FIVE + SPOTIFY HITS + WHERE AND WHEN DO YOU GO OUT?

Good morning from the Crystal Coast NC – courtesy of Clear Vistas Photography

MONDAY SPT 25, 2023 …. Claire and I are just ending our annual September road trips. For a second year we visited the Crystal Coast in North Carolina. Now we are looking forward to doing a couple of day trips this next week for the fall colors. In the meantime, I’ve been focused on finding out what the most popular Colorado titles are on Spotify, besides tracking radio airplay around the state.

BUT FIRST! I want to know a bit more about you and your music habits.

#COMUSIC – WEEK SPT 17-24 2023

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, offering search functions for artists and agents to track airplay.

(D) Debuted in TOP 5
(R) Re-entered TOP 5
LP = album (5 or more songs)
EP = extended play (3-5 songs)
SP = single play (1-2 songs)
* = Colorado expats, as long as they were born and/or raised here, or got their career started here or there is some other reason to include them.
** = serviced to Colorado media by Rocky Mountain Music Network, LLC.

(1) 1. GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV – Appaloosa Bones LP May-23 LP (May-23)
(2) 2. KILTRO – Underbelly LP (Apr-23)
(R) 2.LEFTOVER SALMON – Grass Roots LP (May-23)
(D) 3. SOY CELESTE – Break Out EP (Apr-23)
(D) 3. THE TRUJILLO COMPANY – 4 Arrows LP (Aug-23)
(3) 3. *THE WOOD BROTHERS – Heart Is the Hero  LP (Apr-23)

TOP SPINS ON SPOTIFY

1. ILLENIUM, JVKE – With All My Heart (30-Mar-23)
2. Tennis – One Night With the Valet (28-Mar-23)
3. Gregory Alan Isakov – The Fall (16-May-23)
4. Sid Siriram – Do The Dance (2-Jul-23)
5. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – Buy My Round (6-May-23)
6. The Motet – False Prophets (18-Jan-23)
7. CloZee – Microworlds (21-Jul-23)
8. Leftover Salmon – Blue Railroad Train (2-Apr-23)
9. Kiltro – All The Time In the World (6-May-23)
10. NOT A TOY – Nervous (2-Jul-23)
11. Big Gigantic – Keep On Rising (w/Aloe Blacc) (12-Feb-23)
12. Miranda Fling – “25” (2-Jun-23)

Live Music Colorado featuring  LiveMusicMegaSearch™

FIREFALL – FRIENDS & FAMILY

Somewhere, somehow, I was reminded that a good critique starts off with something positive. Friends & Family, the new release from Colorado Music Hall of Fame band Firefall, is a hit and miss affair. That’s as positive as I can get.

For lifelong Firefall fans it’s likely a positive that they just released an album of covers from bands each of the current members were also in, shared stages with or collaborated with (the Doobie Brothers, Dan Fogelberg, Heart, the Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Loggins and Messina, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Byrds, Fleetwood Mac, Spirit, the Band, Flying Burrito Brothers, and Gram Parsons). All legends, friends and family of the current members of Firefall.

The band’s core followers are now in their seventies and are proven to NOT be fans of new music. So, an album of covers from the aforementioned acts provides nostalgia – especially since Firefall hasn’t released an album of original material worth listening to or remembered since 1980, despite attempts in 2020 (Comet) and 1992 (Messenger).

It was the singular voice and song-writing of original founding member Rick Roberts, no longer able to perform, as well as singer-songwriter Larry Burnett, who left the band in 1981, that anchored the sound of Firefall for all time – they are long gone and so is the sound that elevated the band to national popularity between 1976 and 1982.

The only original member of the band is guitarist Jock Bartley, who owns the band name; so basically all we’re talking about here is a tribute/cover band with heavyweight national league players.

Whoever sequenced the songs on this album did the band a gross injustice. Listening to Friends & Family starting at track #1 (“Listen to the Music”) made me wonder if I should keep on listening. Skip “Listen to the Music” as well as the Lynyrd Skynyrd track “Simple Man,” both of which were released earlier as lead singles. What the band lacks on both is a strong lead singer capable of carrying the weight on such classic hits.

Fleetwood Mac‘s “World Turning” and the Spirit classic “I Got A Line On You” -sung by the newest Firefall member, singer/bassist John Bisaha (the Babys) – are “hits.” A credible cover of Gram Parson‘s “Ooh Las Vegas” closes out the collection, showing the strength of the band – their ability to harmonize. This is a band that sings well together despite not having a “world class” lead singer.

Firefall isn’t what they were and never will be. The misses on Friends & Family don’t do justice to the Firefall of yore, the musicians that make up the band now, nor the original recordings. So, unless you’re a Firefall super-fan you might want to skip most of this album and enjoy the few hits it does offer.

CP S17 EP34 2023

We are on vacation but I did manage to get this done before we left. September is travel month for me and Claire. Here’s the show schedule for the coming few weeks.

*CP SPECIAL ENCORE SHOW SPT 16-22
*CP SPECIAL ENCORE SHOW SPT 23-29
*CP S17 EP35 SPT 30-OCT 05

MONDAY MORNING MUSIC MEETING (MMMM)

The Serendipity Singers – Little Brown Jug – Take Your Shoes Off With The Serendipity Singers (1964)
The Doppler Effect – Memphis Woman – God Is Alive In Argentina (Side B) (1967)
(D) Bison Bone – High Road to Taos (2023)

Companion – 23rd Street – Second Day of Spring (2022)
Nathaniel Rateliff – All Or Nothing – And It’s Still Alright
Alysia Kraft – Electric Blooms (2023)
OneRepublic – Tyrant – Dreaming Out Loud (2007)
The Apples In Stereo – No One In The World – Travellers In Space And Time (2010)
Julian Fulco Perron – About Love (2023)
(D) Broken Record – Blueprinting – Nothing Moves Me (2023)

Down Time – Hurts Being Alive – Hurts Being Alive (2020)
Lettuce – Everything’s Gonna Be Alright – Unify (2022)
Blumer Haus – Ode To Brubeck – Boy Meets Groove (2021)

Jimmy Buffett – A Mile High in Denver – Down to Earth (1970)
Jimmy Buffett – Come Monday – Livin’ and Dyin’ in 3/4 Time (1974)
(D) Faith Eliza – Call the Healer (2023)

SHEL, Damned Anthem – Enter Sandman – Undercover EP (2022)
Five Iron Frenzy – So We Sing – Until This Shakes Apart (2021)
Wood Belly – Play Me Out (2023)
Acoustic Junction – Think About It – Acoustic Junction (1996)
DeVotchKa – Gasoline Serpent – Supermelodrama (2000)
Kiltro – All The Time in the World – Underbelly (2023)
(D) Giant Walking Robots – People Get Ready (2023)

The Still Tide – High Wire – Run Out (2017)
Carolyn Hunter – Hardest Part (2022)
Matt Skellenger – The Lion’s Tooth – Subspace Transmission (2023)

THIS WEEK ON YOUTUBE

Live Music Colorado featuring  LiveMusicMegaSearch™