UPLIFT: FoCo – New Generation on the Rise

December 2, 2021

“My thinking was, ‘Yeah, get me off this bus,’” Andy Whilden said. He decided to leave touring as a musician for a job at The Matthews House, a place for underserved youth. 

Starting the Uplift: FoCo festival two years ago gave Whilden more personal satisfaction than he expected. The benefit festival will feature acts that are acoustically driven. “They can play any genre,” Whilden said of the house band, though the 2021 installment will also deliver something different, and, well, a little less tenured.

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The Motet: Colorado Sound Featured Artist, October 2021

October 12, 2021

A motet, in Western classical music, is a composition, diverse in form and style, dating all the way back to medieval times; a polyphonic form described by scholars as “a piece of music in several parts.”

Today, we might call such a conglomeration simply … a jam. Maybe that’s where the head of drummer Dave Watts was in 1998 when he founded what would become one of Colorado’s (and the world’s) most well-loved live bands: The Motet.

Always laying on a fresh coat of funk, rock, soul and jazz, the band is known for surprising their die-hard audiences with top-tier special guests, but have other tricks, and indeed treats, up their sleeves too, especially for Halloween.

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Lady Denim: Colorado Sound Spotlight Artist, September 2021

September 8, 2021

“We were desperately trying to stay optimistic,” Lady Denim’s lead vocalist Nick Lundeen tells BandWagon, “which – to be honest, was a lot easier said than done.”

On September 10, Fort Collins indie-pop quartet Lady Denim release “Loosely Held Hands” with plans to rock the block at Downtown Greeley’s Block Party festival that night in celebration of the EP’s release.

“Loosely Held Hands is about holding on to something during tough circumstances,” Lundeen says. “We became a lot more dependent on one another and the songwriting became more fluid.”

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Buckle Up: FoCoMX Drive and Jive Continues Despite BoHo NoGo

August 7, 2021

Taking place on Sundays this month at the historic Holiday Twin Drive-In, FoCoMX: Drive and Jive continued its live offerings last month with further programming into August and beyond. Reimagining the series to feature a mix of established veteran Colorado acts as well as “discovery” artists from the region, Drive and Jive aims to build engaged audiences and more.

In light of yesterday’s news that the Bohemian Foundation’s recently announced Bohemian Light Music Festival is now in fact cancelled due to COVID precautions, the Drive and Jive series offers a live music format which has proved to function well under pandemic restrictions.

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