The Motet: Colorado Sound Featured Artist, October 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.
Lady Denim: Colorado Sound Spotlight Artist, September 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.”
Buckle Up: FoCoMX Drive and Jive Continues Despite BoHo NoGo
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.
Bohemian Light Brings Heavy Hitters Back to Famed Fort Collins Festival
The Bohemian Foundation will put on a music festival this summer in downtown Fort Collins, and though the headliners are big names, fans of Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest should temper their expectations somewhat.
Dubbed the Bohemian Light Music Festival, free, live concerts will commence two nights instead of three, featuring psychedelic soul band Black Pumas and singer-songwriter Randy Newman, plus Shovels & Rope and dozens of Colorado’s top bands.
Make More Everything: FoCo Film and Music Collide and Connect
“A lot of people that are emotionally driven tend to gravitate towards the arts,” musician Maxwell Tretter tells BandWagon. “But, then they also hit this pivotal moment between the path of isolation or the path of connection. I’m sick of hearing about the tragic origin story. I want to hear about the well connected, like, ‘life went great for me and I made amazing shit’ story.”
And thus sparked Make More Everything, a “game of telephone between writers, musicians and visual artists.” Tretter collaborated with film-slam organizer Jesse Nyander, culminating in a bonanza, multi-media event Friday, July 2nd at The Lyric in Fort Collins.
For Life: Emily Nelson on The Drums
Emily Nelson had a feeling the universe had something in mind for her.
“The drums were just a fun way to get healthy again,” she said, “and a year later, Erica was there.”
Erica, Brown, the Denver blues diva and Greeley favorite, brought Nelson in to her all-woman band the Cast Iron Queens after several life-changing events gave Nelson the strength not to be paralyzed by perfectionism.
Failure to launch: Shuttered Venue Operators Grant application is delayed after months of anticipation
For the past three-and-a-half months, independent venue owners around the country have anxiously awaited an application for the now $16 billion in grant funds that the U.S. Congress allocated to “shuttered venues” at the end of last year, otherwise known as the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG). “We’ve been anticipating this day for the past […]
Just Wanna Have Funds: Did the Colorado Arts Relief Grant Support the Organizations it Intended?
Over 63 days, Colorado Creative Industries (CCI), created a set of criteria, launched an application, administered the selection process and allocated just under $6 million to organizations and businesses state-wide including music venues.
“We were given the charge to distribute the funding as quickly as possible,” a CCI spokesperson told BandWagon.
This hasty allocation of public funds was met with cynical speculation from independent venue owners who were not awarded money.
Until now, the controversy over the grant has remained purely speculative. No one has pointed to specific evidence of nepotism or neglect on CCI’s part. But, thanks to the Colorado Open Records Act, BandWagon was able to obtain a copy of the scoring rubric used to evaluate grant applicants.