Album Review: Jackson Maloney – Dharma Farm

September 5, 2021

Jackson Maloney: singer, songwriter, folk musician, and Colorado transplant via Northern California. The coarse-voiced busker has found himself a home in unincorporated Boulder County, at a place called Dharma Farm – a small hippie commune near Hygiene, CO. The location, in fact, where Maloney recorded his latest EP – a six track EP that encapsulates the simplicity of a working farm, which, after having been recorded in a ruined grain silo, ‘checks out.’ It’s a bare-boned, extended play that is completely comfortable with skimping on the pleasantries.

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Album Review: King Crawdad – King Crawdad 3

August 10, 2021

Fort Collins-based rock outfit King Crawdad has hit an impressive new stride, producing an EP alive with the particular energy they are clearly looking to translate. Taking their latest material to the renowned Fort Collins recording studio The Blasting Room and adding Tucker Valentine into the mix on bass, King Crawdad 3 stands as some of their best work yet. It punches where it needs to punch, kicks out the jams when it needs it the most, and shows a band really honing in on their sound.

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Album Review: Ms. Nomer – TAOTUNU

July 9, 2021

Fusion and rock group Ms. Nomer are releasing their debut full-length album TAOTUNU (IE; “things are on the up n up”) July 16 at the Aggie. Ms Nomer’s music already pulls a jazz sound with their colorful chords and complex grooves, but the addition of three additional musicians pull them out of the “rock jam band” genre and into a jazz fusion realm, reminiscent of instrumental giants Herbie Hancock or Chick Corea.

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Album Review: Wolf van Elfmand – All Blue

March 8, 2021

Coloradan songwriter Wolf van Elfmand’s music has always had a western flair. This remains true in his newest album All Blue released in February, but he also incorporates what the title suggests: the blues.

Cool and steady like a long lost J.J. Cale gem, van Elfmand incorporates improvisation and musical playfulness between the melody and simple chord structures, leaving comfortable spaces for harmonica, pedal steel and lead guitar to add conversational nuances to the texture. 

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