I’m so done with the heat until next June. Seriously. I am not done with festival events however 🙂 …. One more – SEPT 20-21 – Fortober Fest – Fort Collins – bicycles, beers, and bands is the theme for this newer annual event now in its second year. This year’s featured acts = 12 Cents for Marvin, the Railbenders, P-Nuckle, Jeff Brinkman Band and several others. It’s the last big chance I know of to catch some of the region’s top bands outdoors before the fall sets in hard. Time to decorate the bike and join the fun … hope to see you there. Isn’t September 21 the first day of fall? Hmmmm.
In artist related news – congrats to John Common and Jessica DiNicola on their wedding this past week … nicely done you two 🙂 If you don’t know these two fine singers, check out this video of John & Jessica performing at the Soiled Dove Underground in 2011 …
Congratulations are in order for Colorado actress and neo-soul songstress Su Charles who goes by the handle SuCH … she signed a distro deal for her more recent album, Stretch Marks, to be sold at retail in Japan – a pretty big deal there .. and she also won Denver’s equivalent to the Tony Award – called the Henry Award – she won for outstanding lead actress in a musical for her performance of Celie in the Colorado Purple. SuCh is a Boston born, New York raised, California educated, Chicago groomed soul singer living and working in Denver – and I for one am glad she is.
News broke just this morning that Jeff Brinkman made the cut for this season’s X-Factor … see the video here => https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151552424196895 “The X Factor” Season 3 premieres Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox. With that … the Featured Video Pick of the Week is Jeff Brinkman – Island …
PLAYLIST S7 EP32
Boenzee Cryque “Still In Love With You Baby” [single] (1967)
Zephyr “I Am Not Surprised” from Sunset Ride (1972)
a. Tom Collins “Mambo” from Stick & Poke (2013)
3 Twins “Little Bird” from De Nada (2013)
Bad Brad & the Fat Cats “Thunder On the Mountain” from Eyes on the Prize (2013)
Meniskus “The Equalizer” from Stowaway (2013)
Lion Drome “Curve of the Earth” from Curve of the Earth (2013)OneRepublic “Light It Up” from Native (2013)
Pretty Lights “Around the Block (feat. Talib Kweli)” from A Color Map of the Sun (2013)
(D) Gabrielle Louise “Colours” from The Bird in My Chest (2013)
Newcomers Home “Hold On” from In the Hour (2004)
GogoLab “Honey Trap” from Border Patrol (2013)
Cory Harris “Got to Be A Better Way” from Daily Bread (2005)
India.Arie “Slow Down” from Voyage to India (2002)
Flobots “The Rose and the Thistle” from The Circle in the Square (2012)
12 Cents for Marvin “Russian Roulette (Tragedy Version)” from Change (2006)
Dubskin “Warrior Stomp” from Release from Fear (2011)Head for The Hills “Never Does” from Blue Ruin (2013)
Thom Chacon “Ain’t Gonna Take Us Alive” from Thom Chacon (2013)
Patti Fiasco “Small Town Lights” from Small Town Lights (2013)
Yonder Mountain String Band “Criminal” from The Show (2009)
Wendy Woo Band “Hold On” from Live (2013)
Danny Shafer “I Am” from Wherever You Are (2013)
Fingers of the Sun “The Leaves Were So Green” from Fingers of the Sun (2011)Jim Stranahan “I’ve Got No Rhythm in My Feet” from Free For All (2010)
If you can’t get excited about a new Leftover Salmon record, you’re just not not a true Colorado music lover. So, HELL YEAH I’m excited to get Aquatic Hitchhiker. Vince Herman messaged me this week … record’s on the way. I’m stoked. It’s the first new album of all original tunes in like 8 years! Hope to have it in time for EP16 next week. Here’s a taste of what we can expect on the new album, courtesy of eTown. If you can’t tell I’m excited, you don’t this old goat too well 😉 
Megan Redmond – Dreamland — a tasty bit of crossover pop country/americana from this young lady who is playing damn near every festival event of the summer from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins in 2012. Not since Katie Moffatt in the early 70s has there been, to the best of my knowledge, a top female pop country artist break out of Colorado. Her 6 song debut ep is full of songs she wrote or co-wrote, and was produced in Nashville with some top session players. The first single, “Falling,” was placed on industry news leader ALLACCESS.COM’s “Cool New Country” highlight list… then landed on Clear Channel Media’s show on hot new country propelling “Falling” onto the Top 100 Country charts on both Mediabase and Nielsen BDS. 
Rebel Tongue – Movin On … several years ago now I got hipped to U.S. Pipe – a band that featured lead MC Azma Holiday. That band broke up. Azma and some of the members of the Pipe moved on – to REBEL TONGUE. I knew Azma as a rapper – NOW I know him as a soulful singer and rapper with a group of funk masters backing him up. Give me a band with a wickedly tight and groovin rhythm section, a couple of horns, and a front guy who OWNS an audience and I’m a sucka for love like this anytime. Here’s the official teaser they came up with. 
Mosey West – Merica — Hmmmm …. over the past two years this band, originally called Merica before changing their name to Mosey West, has reaped more praise and more accomplishments here locally than just about any band I can name outside of those who have gained national attention — i.e. The Lumineers or Tennis. Expect even greater praise and accomplishments in 2012. I expect this record is going to be listed on many critics lists as a “best of 2012.” 
Chris K's Colorado Playlist 