To be a true artist is to make the environment and context in which your art is experienced bend to your will. To witness things about the normal “art-experience context” which don’t make sense or which don’t serve the art itself, rather serving a peripheral set of needs which don’t have anything to do with what’s being created or presented.
Jen Korte is one such artist with a rare ability to lift up the curtain of Oz, defy the workings behind it, and celebrate the real magic happening – that of creativity and community, no matter how motley or unique.
Korte is a Denver songwriter and musician who has more musical projects than the yellow road has bricks. For example: Her first “true love” americana project Jen Korte & The Loss, Lady Gang (a one-woman loop pedal project the genre of which is about as definable as Beck’s Odelay), The Itty Ditties (an interactive children’s music series) and further projects like the 2000’s inspired Sega Nemesis and female grunge act Hervanna. Korte crosses barriers, reps the underrepresented and shines a light on the corners of the music industry many may not know are there.
In April, Korte spearheaded an alcohol-free rock concert event in Denver called Clearheads, A Booze-Free Hang at Fort Greene. The event was designed to break the age-old music venue / alcohol sales complex, where often the house’s main focus is on selling drinks rather than fostering a space focused on listening and placing value on performance. Successive installations of Clearheads have been a hit, with further shows hitting, including one on July 10.
This month – Pride Month in Colorado – BandWagon presents Jen Korte & The Loss alongside headliner Dear Marsha, Angie Stevens and Melissa Crispo at The Black Buzzard on June 24. Dubbed the First Annual Women’s Pride Music Fest, the event sold-out weeks ago, proving that the female, queer portions of the of the music world may be marginal, but could be largely just yet-to-be-discovered. We highly advise following Korte as she continues to shine her vibrant light.
