2023 FREE SUMMER CONCERTS LINEUP
Friday, June 23
The Greyboy Allstars
The Greyboy Allstars Era-Defining Second Album A Town Called Earth Finally Makes Its Debut On Streaming Platforms And Vinyl
New “Immortal Edition” To Be Released September 16 On Deluxe Double-LP + Digital Formats Via Knowledge Room Recordings / Light In The Attic
It didn’t take 25 years for A Town Called Earth to become a classic. As soon as the terra firma-shaking second album by The Greyboy Allstars was released in the summer of 1997, it was clear to anyone with receptive ears that here was the future of—well, you name it: funk, boogaloo, soul, jazz, R&B, fusion. It’s all mashed up and buoyed by a propulsive groove on this groundbreaking recording. A quarter of a century later and A Town Called Earth is recognized as a bonafide game changer. What better way to celebrate the landmark anniversary of a landmark album than to present its long overdue debut on digital streaming platforms and vinyl. A Town Called Earth: The Immortal Edition will be released on September 16 by the band’s own Knowledge Room Recordings with distribution via reissue impresarios Light In The Attic.
The Immortal Edition features the original ten-track album supplemented by the previously unreleased “Cassiopeia’s Chair,” a tight yet breezy groover with a touch of the band’s skewed, cosmic sensibilities. Remastered from the original analog source tapes by Dave Cooley and Phillip Rodriguez at Elysian Masters, pressed on 180-gram audiophile vinyl and packaged with an 18×24” color poster, only 2000 copies of the double-LP set will be issued.
“It feels great to still be making music together as we revisit this seminal record,” says saxophonist Karl Denson. “It was a great time in our lives, [when] we found like-minded artists and were able to do something on the scale of A Town Called Earth… And vinyl is and will always be cool.”
The Greyboy Allstars—Denson, keyboardist Robert Walter, guitarist Elgin Park (aka Mike Andrews), bassist Chris Stillwell, and drummer Zak Najor—originally came together in 1993 as the backing band for acid jazz DJ and producer DJ Greyboy. Their debut album, West Coast Boogaloo, was released the following year, showcasing the band’s tight grooves and combustible chemistry. That hardly prepared listeners, however, for the creative explosion represented by A Town Called Earth. The lean funk of its predecessor blossomed in myriad directions, fueled in part by the extensive tour schedule the band had maintained in the interim.
“The Greyboy Allstars had a sort of magical chemistry right from the start,” says Walter. “I think we all just love rhythm and feel it in similar ways. By the time we were recording this album we also had played a ton of shows. It was very telepathic. We would go out on tour and then as soon as we were back home we would play local shows. We really never stopped for a few years straight.”
“We really weren’t even a band for but a few weeks when we recorded West Coast Boogaloo,” adds Park. “By the time we recorded A Town Called Earth we had gelled and formed our own individual perspectives within the music. I think the source of inspiration was in the same universe, but our confidence was in a completely other place.”
That confidence was bolstered in part by the torch-passing support of legendary James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic trombonist Fred Wesley, who performed on West Coast Boogaloo and contributed laudatory liner notes to A Town Called Earth.
“Playing with Fred taught us the value of hard work and perseverance,” Park says. “It gave us confidence we needed to play with simplicity and intent. He also taught us how to play with a smile and generous heart—always by example, of course.”
A Town Called Earth was recorded over a sprawling ten-day session at San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios with engineer Mickey Petralia. It found the band moving beyond their influences to redefining funk for the coming millennium. The slippery soul jazz of “Turnip’s Big Move” landed somewhere between “Cissy Strut” and “Chameleon,” while “The Many Moods of Erik Newson” ventured into more blissed-out exotica. The classic, slinky groove of “Happy Friends” stands in stark contrast to the exploratory, psychedelia-tinged title track, which maintains its heady atmosphere for more than 15 minutes. “Quantico VA” captures the raucous feel of the band’s live sets, while “December’s Bicycle” unfurls as breezy, shimmering folk-rock.
“We had moved from just trying to emulate old records to finding our own sound. Everyone was composing and we were playing more original music at our shows. We were expanding our improvisations too, playing less strict to the genre,” explains Walter. “It was also the longest we had spent recording. West Coast Boogaloo was done in just one day. When it came time to record A Town Called Earth, I remember feeling like we could experiment a lot without being on a crazy time crunch.”
“We made the decision to record away from home, which I think helped with our collective purpose of making something special,” continues Stilwell. “It was our job to go to every day until it was finished. There were no inactive days where we were without ideas or thoughts of what to do. We were in a good flow.”
Although Najor has since departed the band, The Greyboy Allstars are still going strong nearly three decades after first convening, and remain one of the most scintillating live acts on the planet. A Town Called Earth: The Immortal Edition offers a welcome opportunity to revisit the band’s full-throttle beginnings and a reminder that their vibrant inventiveness has been a core component since their early days.
“I’m very happy to have A Town Called Earth out on vinyl and digital,” Walter says. “It’s an album I’m really proud of and captures the band at a time of particular growth.”
Friday, July 21
The Wood Brothers
The Wood Brothers have learned to trust their hearts. For the better part of two decades, they’ve cemented their reputation as freethinking songwriters, road warriors, and community builders, creating a catalog of diverse music and a loyal audience who’ve grown alongside them through the years. That evolution continues with Heart is the Hero, the band’s eighth studio album. Recorded analog to 16-track tape, this latest effort finds its three creators embracing the chemistry of their acclaimed live shows by capturing their performances in real-time direct from the studio floor with nary a computer in sight. An acoustic-driven album that electrifies, Heart is the Hero is stocked with songs that target not only the heart, but the head and hips, too.
“We love records that come from the era of less tracks and more care,” explains co-founder Oliver Wood. “When you use a computer during the tracking process, you have an infinite number of tracks at your disposal, which implies that nothing is permanent, and everything can be fixed. Tape gives you limitations that force you to be creative and intentional. You don’t look at the music on a screen; you listen to it, and you learn to focus on the feeling of the performance.”
Throughout Heart Is The Hero, those performances are matched by the visceral storytelling and songwriting chops that have turned The Wood Brothers into Grammy-nominated leaders of American roots music, even as their music reaches far beyond the genre’s borders. The stripped- down swagger of “Pilgrim” underscores Oliver’s reminder to slow down and experience each moment as an interactive observer, rather than a passive tourist. A similar theme anchors “Between the Beats,” where Oliver draws upon a meditation technique — maintaining one’s focus on the space between heartbeats — to reach a new level of presence. The gentle sway of country soul gem “Rollin’ On,” featuring horns by Matt Glassmeyer and Roy Agee, expounds on the time- honored tradition of love as the guiding light through darkness, while ”Mean Man World” finds Chris Wood singing about his responsibilities as a father whose young daughter is poised to inherit an uncertain future. “Line Those Pockets” is a universal call for mercy and understanding over materialism. “Everybody’s just trying to be happy, so put your money away; line those pockets with grace,” the band sings in three-part harmony during the song’s chorus, which emphasizes compassion over cash as the world’s true currency. Together, these songs offer a snapshot of a spirited, independent-minded group at the peak of its powers, always pushing forward and seeking to evolve beyond what’s come before.
“There’s still acoustic guitar, upright bass, and percussion on this album — things people use all the time — but we’re always thinking, ‘How can we make this sound like us, but not like something we’ve already done?'” Oliver says. “Sometimes, the only way to do that is to get weird.”
That sense of exploration pumps its way through Heart is the Hero like lifeblood. Arriving on the heels of 2019’s Live at The Fillmore, 2020’s Kingdom In My Mind, and Oliver Wood’s solo album Always Smilin’ — all of which were released on Honey Jar Records, the band’s independent label — Heart is the Hero is bold, bright, and singularly creative, a fully realized collective effort ultimately greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps that’s to be expected from a group whose willingness to experiment has earned acclaim from Rolling Stone and NPR, as well as an annual touring schedule of sold-out music halls and theaters on both sides of the Atlantic. Ask The Wood Brothers, though, and they’ll tell you to expect the unexpected.
“We are never satisfied if we are not searching for new musical recipes,” says Jano Rix, nodding to the uncharted territory that Heart is the Hero covers. Chris Wood agrees, adding, “We are one of those bands that isn’t easily categorized. We know what our strengths are, but we can’t help but push the envelope, as well. It’s too much fun.”
Friday, August 11th
St Paul & The Broken Bones
Founded in Birmingham, Alabama in 2011, St. Paul & the Broken Bones consists of Paul Janeway (vocals), Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keyboards), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Chad Fisher (trombone), and Amari Ansari (saxophone). The eight piece ensemble burst into the world with their 2014 debut Half the City, establishing a sound that quickly became a calling card and landing the band a slew of major festivals including Lollapalooza, Coachella and Glastonbury. Critical praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, SPIN and NPR followed, leading to shared stages with some of the world’s biggest artists Elton John and The Rolling Stones among them and launching an impressive run of headlining tours behind what Esquire touted as a “potent live show that knocks audiences on their ass.”
The group has continued to expand their sound with every record, branching out well beyond old school soul into sleek summertime funk and classic disco on albums like 2018’s Young Sick Camellia. Their forthcoming LP, Angels in Science Fiction , stretches their limbs further afield, building on the shadowy psychedelia and intricate, experimental R&B of 2022’s The Alien Coast.
Sunday, September 3
Yonder Mountain String Band
Bluegrass music is currently experiencing widespread popularity among mainstream audiences but transforming the vintage sound into music that could gain popular appeal didn’t happen overnight. At 25 years old, Yonder Mountain String Band continues to exist at the forefront of the progressive bluegrass scene as undeniable innovators and pioneers of the modern jamgrass movement. Blending bluegrass with elements of rock, alternative, psychedelic and improvisational music, Yonder Mountain String Band brought their high-energy acoustic sound and light show into rock n’ roll settings with tremendous success, proving it was possible for a bluegrass band to not only exist but excel in a rock world, without drums. The inroads they made created opportunities for like-minded acoustic bands to perform at festivals, rock clubs, theaters and stadiums previously considered off-limits for string bands. Yonder Mountain’s high-energy sound, compelling original music and anything goes attitude cultivated a spirit of collaborative improvisation that continues to fuel today’s progressive bluegrass and jamgrass scenes.
It is a testament to the legacy of Yonder Mountain String Band that their original songs and unique interpretations of covers are regularly performed by next generation bands in the scene.
Yonder Mountain String Band celebrates their quarter century mark with a Grammy Nomination for their 2022 release Get Yourself Outside. Band members Adam Aijala (guitar, vocals), Ben Kaufmann (bass, vocals), Dave Johnston (banjo, vocals) and Nick Piccininni (mandolin, banjo, fiddle, vocals) co-wrote all tracks on the album over zoom sessions when Covid shut down the music touring industry. Yonder Mountain was recently honored with an induction into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame alongside friends and legends Leftover Salmon, Hot Rize, The String Cheese Incident and The Fox Theater (where they played their very first show as a band in 1998). They will celebrate this achievement with an official ceremony this summer.
All Shows will take place at the historic Howelsen Hill in downtown Steamboat Springs.