Album Review: Logan Farmer – A Mold For The Bell
Following in the Soft-Croon tradition of fellow Colorado folkers Covenhoven and Gregory Alan Isakov, Fort Collins’ Farmer paints with a palette of little more than acoustic guitar and vocal. But a flutter of woodwind textures, flecks of orchestral harp and thoughtful string arrangements elevate the album’s eight songs to a 10.
Fans of Bon Iver will love A Mold For The Bell, but expect a few unique brush strokes in this impressionist piece, namely, the pointed, trembling timbre of Farmer’s vocal: It’s hushed and rife with vibrato yet convinced with a determined grit.
Max Barcelow: The Fragile Big Time and Saying Yes
Max Barcelow’s life as a professional musician in Fort Collins has had plenty of twists and turns. Drumming for prolific folk artist Gregory Alan Isakov, he’s played Red Rocks, in Europe, with the Colorado Symphony and attended this year’s Grammy ceremony on January 26 at The Staples Center, long dubbed “Kobe’s House,” on the day of Kobe Bryant’s death.
An evening torn between celebrating music and hastily trying to address and honor Bryant, Barcelow witnessed the pomp and grandeur of the Grammy’s while being reminded of how no one can escape life’s fragility – even with success and money. “It’s funny how death just brings it all back home,” Barcelow said.
Album Review: Igaus Davis – Too Fallow, Too Long
Igaus Davis, real name Matt Davis, has a story relatively common in the emerging Greeley music scene. Like many musicians in town, music was more or less a hobby until they started going to shows and seeing some of the bands coming through on tour. The collective thought from local musicians seems to have been, “Wait, I can do that.”
Album Review: Gregory Alan Isakov
Having played with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Boettcher Concert Hall back in November 2013, Gregory Alan Isakov has recently revisited that night by recording a full length of many of his older compositions featuring the Colorado Symphony.
Gregory Alan Isakov Discusses Song Writing and His Work with Horticulture
Gregory Alan Isakov’s songs dance around the edge of modern folk music and he plays by an old set of rules. Not only was Weatherman the product of abandoning a previous album, but it was also made on analogue recording equipment from a cabin in Nederland, Colorado. His sounds as rich as they are simple, rooted in the patchwork of the hills of that state.