Holden Young

For the Love of Even More Music
David Caddell

Artist: Holden Young
Title: Not Much & Everything
Label: N/A
Internet: www.myspace.com/holdenworld
Recorded among the storied session rooms of Nashville, here is Holden Young's first album, Not Much & Everything.

The album opens with solid reggae and world-beat flavors sharing similarities with local jam mates E.O.E., then becomes troubadour folk raga, and finishes after interplanetary liftoff.

Holden describes himself as "a new rock, reggae and improvisation artist from Maine."

Listeners may come to know him as a leading musical stylist during this time of unprecedented cultural heterogeneity.

The album's third track, "You & I (Deeper Meaning)," somehow succeeds at world-beat, blue-eyed soul. Here, Holden Young achieves as independent a familiarity with his soul as Van Morrison. Instead of Celtic soul, this is soul for the world with a vocal style sometimes recalling Wilco's Jeff Tweedy.

Holden Young conducts a folk space odyssey for "The World," featuring mesmerizing accordion from Travis Vance and dry, perfectly captured acoustic guitar from Holden Young. This is a dream space welling wistful reflection.

It's good to hear Holden Young stepping out of expected musical directions - especially welcome since Holden resists the self-idolization commonly associated with unfocused venturers into the beyond.

Later tracks break into psychedelic rock-funk like Ozric Tentacles and a mighty cloud crew busting up probability. Drummer Thomas Anderson's impenetrable funk-roll provides ample textural opportunities for Holden Young's guitar strum/snare-pop dance, deranged trumpets from Chris Littlefield and Mikie Martel call out of the darkness, and Ben Easley's bass is a steady vibe machine throughout.

Further into the lengthy jam, Holden Young breaks out the intriguing effects-laden guitar specialization.

Even as Holden Young explores the outer limits of sonic space, this recording remains appealingly accessible to anyone who enjoys music.

CD release party on Saturday, June 24 at Mambo Italiano.

- Steamboat Local

Article by Alison Plean of
Steamboat's Pilot & Today

Holden Young is finally at a place where he has something meaningful to say.
“As a teenager, I was just letting things out,” said Young, a guitarist, pianist, percussionist and singer/songwriter. “Now I actually do know something and want to share.”
Tonight, Young will showcase the more eclectic side of his craft. He will perform Indian classical, jazz and folk music. Carolyn Berns will accompany Young for three songs on the violin.
“I normally play rock ’n’ roll, but this will be much more in the jazz vein and more compositionally oriented,” said Young, a Steamboat Springs resident originally from Maine. “I’m expanding my palette of music.”
His performance will be a sit-down affair instead of the typical bar scene, for which he played as many as five shows a week this summer.
“Most events are fueled by alcohol and good times. I want to make this space to be a place people can do actual listening, and play music in an environment where people can concentrate on the moment and focus on something together and relax,” he said. “That’s the meditative aspect, where you can draw from the people around you.”
Young called himself a spiritual person who enjoys reading about and incorporating Eastern philosophy into his music.
“I want some sort of message that you can grab on to,” he said. “I’m at a point where I’m playing loud rock ’n’ roll funk with a positive message about being good to yourself so you can be good to other people.”
He thinks the messages inherent in music can be obvious.
“You can hear a really cheesy song on the radio and its message comes along so simple,” he said. “It’s something you can relate to in a different way. Music is a way of having a voice for how you are feeling.”
Unlike the European music culture, in which Young said people focus on the music itself, many Americans don’t have the attention span to concentrate on what they’re listening to. Young wants to perform sit-down concerts at least once a month to give his audiences a chance to appreciate a live music performance.
“Music is in every aspect of life,” Young said. “It’s something to listen to and to elevate yourself, whether it’s cleaning the house, making breakfast or sitting around drinking a beer.”
- Steamboat Pilot & Today

By Cynthia Davis (6/5/2008)

Like many of us, Holden Young came a long way to begin a life in Colorado. Born in Maine, Holden traveled to Nashville via Boston after college. It was in that great city of music he recorded his first album. Living there for three years Holden furthered his knowledge studying songwriting and the music bussiness. After the terror of Hurricane Katrina hit in 2006, Holden found himself in New Orleans helping with disaster relief, from there, he came to Colorado.

" It's hard to explain in words," says Holden "Colorado is a beautiful place, there is no doubt about that. And living in a beautiful place allows me to process my active life as a musician."

The trio falls into a funk category but explains they don't have that big band funk sound, you can expect more of a Rock influence like Blind Melon or the Chili Peppers. Most of the material is written by Holden and then arranged musically with the band. "Songs always take on different meanings. Some tours a particular song will be my favorite and some tours another song. The best is when a song takes on a new meaning by reflecting something that happened recently " says Holden.

HY3 has recently started a "GO Green" Campaign. As the band gears up for their summer tour through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Washington they are looking for ways to go GREEN. "We understand that our touring creates lots of CO2 emissions and also puts lots of money in the pockets of the oil industry." says Young. Their most pressing goal is to raise enough money to buy a veggie oil/biodiesel bus this Fall. "We don't make much money and will need alot of support to do this," as Holden put's it, "Also, I'm just a musician, not a mechanic nor a politician and will need help in understanding what the best methods are for running a vehicle on these alternative fuel sources."

Holden and the Trio are looking for local Colorado sponsors/advertisers/companies to get the ball rolling. Many musicians are going green these days with alternative fuel vehicles and eco-packaging, with-out the support of heavy financiers, they must find a way to do it themselves. You can find more information on Holden's "Go Green" campaign on his website at holdenyoungmusic.com
The Holden Young Trio will be playing this weekend at the Kathmandu for the second show in the NedMusic Summer Concert Series. There is a $10.00 donation at the door and proceeds from the show will go towards the Nederland Fireworks Foundation raising money so that locals and the thousands of visitors coming through our town can enjoy the bursting lights over the reservoir. The show starts at 10:00pm and will surely be a great night for some funk in Nederland. What better excuse to stay out late and party "mountain style"... - Mountain Ear

By Margaret Hair (6/6/2008)

Steamboat Springs — For a band that’s been together for about 2 1/2 years, playing as many live shows as possible is crucial to survival.

But playing a dozen shows a month in towns across the West can have a catch: at some point, something is bound to go wrong. And when that happens, the best you can hope for is a good memory.

“I don’t think we have too many that didn’t end up working out, actually — which is why we’re still doing it, I think,” said former Steamboat Springs resident Holden Young, whose band, Holden Young Trio, kicks off a summer tour with a show Thursday at Old Town Pub.

“We’ve blown a lot of tires, lost a lot of pieces, favorite family heirlooms — everything that you’d want to hold onto on the road, we’ve lost. But we always come back in one piece,” he said.

Young, with help from bandmates Billy Franklin and Eric Rolls, shared a few of his favorite stories from the road and Steamboat Springs.
Power chords

“For Fourth of July in 2006, we played up at these condos/townhomes on Old Fish Creek Falls all afternoon.

“After the fireworks, we continued until the cops were called. Immediately following the last song, around 10 p.m., we played the final chord, thanked everyone for hanging out, wished them a happy Fourth and finished the song. The power for all of Routt County went out the very next second.

“We still think of this as the time we blew up Steamboat.”
Roadside assistance

“We were going to a gig in Clarkston, Wash. It was Friday afternoon at about 5:30, and we were in the most rural parts of Idaho, still about three hours out from where we needed to be.

“We busted two flat tires going up a mountain pass. They’d both worn down a bit, but at the same time they busted, both our back tires.

“So we ended up rolling down the hill where we’d just passed these two little towns, but they were just of the microscopic variety. And we went to a gas station where the doors were open and everything was on, but there was no one around. It seemed like there was a town party going on next door, and everyone kept saying the owner was ‘around,’ but we couldn’t find the guy for the life of us.

“So we slowly roll back down the road three or four miles. At 5:45 on a Friday night in the middle of nowhere, we find a service station open, and the guy has two tries, used, that he’d just pulled off a truck that afternoon. He sold them to us for $20 apiece.”
Odd finds, new friends

“About two years ago, we were playing a show at the Depot Art Center, and while we were setting up and kind of poking around in the back, we found this androgynous blow-up doll, who we named Frank Fred.

“The people at the Depot, they were like, ‘I don’t know where that came from, but you can have it.’ So Frank Fred, who was born and raised in the Steamboat Art Depot, as far as we know, ended up coming with us on tour that summer.

“He eventually got a terminal leak and passed on. But before that happened, we were doing a radio interview in Fort Collins on KRFC, and we happened to mention it to the lady who was interviewing us, that we were carrying around this blow-up doll. And she was like, ‘I have one, too!’ And she ended up wanting to take pictures with it. … It ended up being one of those interviews that was almost too casual, but it was great.” - Steamboat Pilot

By EMILY DONAHOE - Independent Record - 09/18/2008
Photo provided

A quick listen to a few songs by the Colorado-based Holden Young Trio might have you scratching your head.

Is it funk, folk, rock or reggae?

But if the urge to pin the group’s sound down gets to you, you might take a cue from one of its song titles: “Don’t Think Too Much.”

The group will make its first appearance at Miller’s Crossing this Saturday, Sept. 20.

Front man Holden Young says the confluence of styles is just a natural result of living in the digital age, where anybody can listen to anything, anytime.

“I think it’s just the beginning stages of that,” says Young, adding, “It’s classic America; we meld styles.”

Young’s own trajectory as a musician began with a love of rhythm guitar, which led him to the more complex patterns of world music.

“At a certain point, you know, guitar rhythms get pretty simple,” says Young.

An avid musician who was also interested in arts and literature, Young’s decision to attend Berklee College of Music solidified his desire to pursue a career in music. At Berklee he found a community of like-minded students and furthered his study of world music, guitar and songwriting.

After a stint in Nashville, where he found that people were more interested in big names and not so willing to just go out and see a band they weren’t familiar with, Young decided he’d rather just live somewhere he wanted to live, and made his way west.

In the Rocky Mountain region, Young has been able to make a living as a full time musician and has been touring regularly for over two years now.

As previously mentioned, Young’s music is a blend of funk, folk and unusual rhythms; he says that these elements are incorporated into what in essence are rock songs.

Young admits that he’s “not much of a support guy” but he does prefer to play with a band, rather than solo. To that end, he collaborates with a rotating lineup of players of which he is the driving artistic force.

The tunes are always the same, but depending on who he’s performoing with, Young says that arrangements and interpretations often change.

“So the songs will have a slightly different feel,” says Young. “The train is moving and people just hop on and hop off.”

These days, Young is either touring or sitting at home churning out songs in the hope of coming up with a few good ones.

He says he wrote the song “Change” when he found himself at a “make or break” point in a serious relationship.

“It’s basically about pushing yourself into change but not expecting an end result,” he says.

As befitting someone who embraces unpredictablilty, Young says he loves the lifestyle of a touring musician, but admits that, for the first time ever, he’s not as enthusiastic as ususal about his upcoming few weeks on the road.

“I met a girl,” explains Young. “This tour coming up is the only one that I’m like, ahhhhh...”

For info go to www.holdenyoungmusic.com - Independent Record

Holden Young Trio - New Insight to the Groove

Written by administrator
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Marc Tonglen
Nederland

The Holden Young Trio is making a much anticipated high country appearance this Saturday July 25 at 10:00 p.m. at The Whistlers Cafe in Nederland. Holden's most recent trio consists of Ryan Drecker on drums and the seasoned veteran Bill Teavs on electric bass. Holden Young moved to Steamboat Springs with some cats from New Orleans in 2005 and was quick to realize that Boulder County spawns the region's hottest live music. Since moving to Boulder in 2006, Holden Young has consistently infused the region with his own brand of original rock, reggae, funk and world grooves. As Ryan Drecker elaborates, "A Holden Young Show is an eclectic mix between groove, reggae, electronica and straight up funk. It's definitely a dance party."
Growing up in Maine, Holden has always known the world in terms of beauty and he carries with him an open attitude based in positivity and the collective spirit. Young is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and lived for a short while in Nashville, Tennessee where he recorded his 2005 release: "Not Much & Everything." The album features Young's songwriting and funk guitar virtuosity with members of Karl Denson's Tiny Universe adding classic cuts to the canvas. The performer has only now begun to find his true calling as his compositions are finding an original voice with the help of his most recent incarnation of the HY3.
As the hype keeps growing for The Holden Young Trio, the opportunity for fans to become involved keeps expanding as well. As Drecker elaborates: "Holden's a very positive person and he gets people excited and involved in the music any way he can. We create an open atmosphere where the idea is to become part of the dance party." For more information on HY3 logon to www.holdenyoungmusic.com or call the venue at 303-258-0614. - Mountain Ear

The Young and the restless
Holden Young has been busy in Boulder
by Dave Kirby(1/29/08)

Boulder is… kind of a strange place,” observed guitarist/songwriter Holden Young when we caught up with him last weekend. “It’s… I don’t know… I’m used to living in the sticks, so it’s a different experience for me.

“The thing is, I came here for the music scene, and that part’s great.”

Without the benefit of years, Boulder’s current strangeness quotient may seem a little inflated by some standards (as in, “you should have been here 30 years ago,” even if longtimers usually manage to stifle that reflex), but after about a year, Young seems to be settling right in.

The guitarist brings his new trio (Holden Young Experience) to the Pearl Street Pub this Sunday, a localized incarnation of the edgy, world-beat funk that plays across his last CD, Steps To The Top, recorded with his other trio, HY3. But hey, having multiple bands working at any given moment is a luxury that a scene as active as Boulder’s can offer, the kind of busy that any working musician is grateful to be.

“My bass player from the other band [Billy Franklin] lives in New Orleans, so we have to kind of play in a pretty concentrated way — like, take a couple of weeks in March and just play out five or six days each week. This band is local players [Ryan Decker drums, Bill Teags bass], so we can concentrate on doing a lot of local gigging around here.”

Young’s music slides comfortably amongst icy guitar-driven funk, psy-scrambled instrumental workouts and various flavors of reggae and other global cuisine, and he says that he smears material across one trio to the next.

“Some of the stuff we’re doing is from the album, some I’ve written new. I write a lot, so there’s plenty of material. It’s also good to hear tunes from one to the next — always gives them a fresh perspective.”

The son of a Maine lobsterman, Young graduated from Berklee and spent some time wood shedding in Nashville, eventually forming his last group in New Orleans when he volunteered for recovery work after Katrina.

“I spent some time trying to do the ‘working musician’ thing in Nashville, but it’s a really hard scene to break into. Going down to New Orleans and seeing everything down there, I just got this whole new perspective on this country and where its priorities were. We must have tarped 50 houses down there, and somehow in that whole thing I managed to get this new identity for myself.

“I always knew I wanted to live in Colorado. I had a friend who was living in Steamboat and the New Orleans experience was just kind of the kick I needed.”

Young studied guitar and world music at Berklee, and while he praises the experience overall (anyone who gets out of there in one piece usually does), he admits that the environment was somewhat daunting and not necessarily the best preparation for a player who wants to find that mix between promoting original material and keeping a club crowd happy.

“We do covers from time to time, crowd-pleaser stuff that we keep in reserve. We do a Hendrix song from Axis Bold As Love, but a more obscure song.

“At Berklee, I wasn’t the best player there, and that was a good thing, because it made me practice that much harder. I mean, I graduated, but it took all four years, and I’m glad it did.

“But it also made it that much harder after I got out. There’s that whole dichotomy of playing for other people versus playing for yourself. Berklee is 100 percent about playing for yourself. It’s hard to find that balance sometimes, and I kind of had to find it for myself.”


“But ultimately, it just made me realize what I’m here for, and made me want to focus that much more on what I’m doing. I’m here to play music, and this whole thing has just made me that much more determined.”
- Boulder Weekly

By Margaret Hair
10/3/2008
Steamboat Pilot

Steamboat Springs — For The Grip’s first trip to Steamboat Springs, the jazz-heavy rock trio will pair with the musically matched, formerly local Holden Young Trio.

Where HY3 embraces funk with a harder edge, The Grip bulks up its sound with Jimmy Smith-inspired organ lines, drawing on jazz fusion to create psyched-out jams. On Saturday, the two bands share a bill at Mahogany Ridge, playing separate sets before morphing into a jam supergroup to close out the night.

Both acts offer a list of their closest-held influences, from the expected (James Brown, Jimmy Smith), to the logical (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg), to the musically intangible (nature, pink wine).

➤ Holden Young Trio’s influences, compiled by leadman and guitarist Holden Young:

1. Nature: There is nothing better than touring around Colorado watching the landscapes change through the seasons — always an inspiration to keep going and growing.

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers: The Chili Peppers have an innate sense of freak with a taste of musicality and an irresistible groove.

3. Travel: I am always surprised by how similar people are in place to place — just with different hand gestures and accents. All too often we distinguish people from one place to another when really everyone has the same heartaches, backaches, pancakes and awkward retakes. This inspires me to see our equality even when it is the most difficult thing to see.

4. Good friends: No explanation — everyone knows the secret to life is good friends! I still feel like I have a home in Steamboat because of all my good friends here.

5. James Brown: Get up and dance! Shake the foundation of your routines, egos and patterns and dance till you drop. James Brown, RIP.

➤ The Grip’s influences, compiled by drummer Stu Crair:

1. Stanton Moore (of Galactic and The Stanton Moore Trio): We had the honor of opening for The Stanton Moore Trio recently, and he reinforced why he is one of my favorites. He made the whole crowd boogie by himself, and he plays with such power and grace with the other members of each band. Right after that gig, we wrote a song called “Moore or Less” with him in mind and it keeps a New Orleans funk feel. Recently, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans played it with us while touring through Fort Collins, and it gave it all a new meaning. That was one of the cooler experiences of our lives.

2. Jimmy Smith: Walter Hannah (organ, keys) and I recently watched some old videos online of Jimmy Smith tearing up the B-3 organ, and I think it made us realize how innovative he was. We’ve been trying to push the jazzy boundaries of what we are playing without losing the groove. He was a master at that.

3. Lettuce: Opening for this band at the Mishawaka Amphitheatre this summer, we all were taken aback by the tightness of this funk. We’ve all been fans for a while, but it was great to meet them and pick their brains for a second. An amazing band we all love.

4. Snoop Dogg: We all grew up listening to Snoop and love his beats, as well as a lot of the other ’70s funk-based hip-hop of that era when Snoop and friends were great. Lately, we’ve been covering “Sensual Seduction,” one of his new tunes, with Walter playing his homemade talkbox, and it has led us to trying lots of other “talkbox” tunes. We call Walter’s musical creation “The Waltenator.” It’s pretty freakin’ (awesome).

5. Zull Austrian Red Wine: For some reason, this stuff makes us play out of our minds. It is a pink wine and all, but it tastes great and it seems to put us in the perfect headspace. Who would have thunk it? - Steamboat Pilot

Holden Young Trio (HY3)

Despite the scrupulous nature of the band members meeting (It was in a van behind a bar in Boulder with no more detail given), the members of Holden Young Trio have been playing music together ever since. Holden Young, (guitar and vocals) Adrian Engfer (bass and vocals) and Eric Rolls (percussion) have been serving up “Music for the 2010 Space Funk Odyssey” since 2006. You can count on two sets of high energy instrumental work at a HY3 show. Young writes the lyrics but the band collaborates for the arrangement of most of their originals.
“I have been really hard-up ever since college and I think I’m trying to deal with that in a lot of my songs. I’ve had a few love experiences and that validates the two-three lovely songs we have. Most of my songs also have a theme of getting out of the way of your own self. A positive break through experience is some thing I’ve tried to convey in songs for a long time. Then we jam out.”
While 90% of their shows are originals you can expect to hear some Hendrix, Herbie Hancock, Ray LeMontagne, Red Hot Chili peppers and even some Toots & the Maytals covers. Bring your dancing shoes folks. While the band has been playing around the state for years they say that people in the mountains tend to start dancing sooner then people from the Front Range.
“Or maybe they just get a head start on drinking”, says Young. The band says they enjoy a variety of venues around the state with Mahogany Ridge in Steamboat and Mishawaka as standouts.
“I miss State Bridge a whole lot.”
Don’t we all Holden. Don’t we all. But patience is a virtue and hopefully this summer we will get a small taste of the former glory. With high energy beats and hip swinging grooves, the Holden Young Trio is a fun show to be a witness to.Find their next show near you and download their latest album release “To the Top” by going to www.holdenyoungmusic.com. - Mousike Magazine

(1/7/09 - Dave Kirby)

As we exit 2008, soiled and exhausted and clinging to promises of “change” in the new year, we thought we would check in with some of our favorite local musicians to see how last year treated them, how the tanking economy is hurting (or helping) their trade, and how their plans for global domination in 2009 are shaping up.

Trace Bundy
Bundy traded a promising career as an engineer and CU educator for the life of a (usually) solo acoustic guitarist and composer a few years ago, and his spectacularly inventive fingerstyle technique has won him accolades from music rags, perplexed frustration from aspiring guitarists, and scary-sudden YouTube superstardom.

What was the high point(s) of your year in 2008 (new music, tours, festivals, band changes, etc.)?

I had some great tours in 2008. I went on my first Asia tour in the fall, and made return trips to Central America, Africa, France and Canada. I also released a new studio CD and DVD (Missile Bell). But the highlight of 2008 was probably being named Most Promising New Talent of the Year, and tying for 3rd Best Fingerstyle Guitarist of the Year by Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

Is the lousy economy taking a bite out of your current work or anticipated work?

When gas prices skyrocketed, I definitely noticed a decrease in fans driving longer distances to shows. But overall, my concert attendance and CD sales have grown over the course of the year, so it doesn’t really seem to have affected me much.

What do you have on deck for 2009 (recordings, collaborations, touring, special events, etc.)?

I’m looking forward to some more international touring in 2009. I look forward to playing in the All Star Guitar Night at the NAMM conference this January. I’m also planning to take some much-needed time off in February to have a bit of a writing sabbatical.

Jon Snodgrass
Reports of Ft. Collins alt-country-rock Drag the River’s untimely demise proved premature, as songwriter Jon Snodgrass teamed up again with Chad Price and toured behind a new release, to the relief of their devoted local following.

What was the high point(s) of your year in 2008 (new music, tours, festivals, band changes, etc.)?

All the Drag the River shows were AWESOME. Some just me and Chad, and some with the whole band. And the Revival Tour was just about the most fun I’ve ever had.

Is the lousy economy taking a bite out of your current work or anticipated work?

Not really.

What do you have on deck for 2009? (recordings, collaborations, touring, special events, etc.)?

I have a new record out in February. And I have shows booked through May here and in Europe... I’m pretty excited to go over there and just got my passport. I look kinda scketchy in the picture, so I hope they let me in.

Holden Young
Guitarist/songwriter Holden Young’s music slides comfortably through icy guitar-driven funk, psy-scrambled instrumental workouts and various flavors of reggae and other global cuisine, both in special projects and his trio, HY3.

What was the high point(s) of your year in 2008 (new music, tours, festivals, band changes, etc.)?

The high points for HY3 in 2008 were the Experience Festival at Mishawaka, opening for the Motet at the Fox Theatre and opening for Michael Franti in Steamboat. 2008 was also the first year that people noticed and associated the Holden Young name with the funk/rock/psychedelic sound that we create.

Is the lousy economy taking a bite out of your current work or anticipated work?

Ha! The life of a musician is about constantly looking for work and ways to cut costs along the way. I think music, especially live-music, will only blossom in these times.

What do you have on deck for 2009 (recordings, collaborations, touring, special events, etc.)?

HY3 will be recording their second full-length record in 2009. Most of the material is already being performed live, so we’ll be excited to get it on disc. We look forward to touring throughout the 2009 summer. I’m excited to see the changes this country is going through and how they manifest in our personal and artistic lives.

Nathaniel Motte
After a few years of woodshedding and copping the odd weekday night gig, Boulder natives 3OH!3 (Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman) fairly face-planted onto the national scene in 2008, with their massive-beats, high-octane hip-hop skronk and razor-sharp satire delivered via their debut CD, Want.

What was the high point(s) of your year in 2008 (new music, tours, festivals, band changes, etc.)?

Whew... there have been so many amazing developments this year! Let’s see, we started touring nationally this summer on the Warped Tour, and that couldn’t have gone better. We got signed to Photo Finish Records previous to that. We made another album in April. We made another video in August. We went out on a headlining tour, and it was a couple of the most rewarding months of our lives.

Is the lousy economy taking a bite out of your current work or anticipated work?

We have tried to be savvy about the situation, and we have been doing really well. We made sure to keep the ticket prices on our recent tour really low ($10-12), so that it wouldn’t be a tremendous burden for people to come to our shows. A lot of tours are tanking right now, in part because of higher-than-fair ticket prices and bands being too greedy.

What do you have on deck for 2009 (recordings, collaborations, touring, special events, etc.)?

Europe! AP tour in the spring in the States, then another big tour in the summer. We have a lot of fun stuff planned, but we are sworn to double-MI6-CIA-KGB secrecy... you know how it goes.

Vince Herman
Co-founder of Leftover Salmon and now singer/songwriter in the rambling Americana outfit Great American Taxi, Herman has been a pillar of the Boulder groove ’n’ grass gestalt for two decades, a songwriter of unique craft and someone who’s thankfully been around long enough to remember when Boulder was still weird.

What was the high point(s) of your year in 2008 (new music, tours, festivals, band changes, etc.)?

2008 has been a great year for Taxi. We played some really fun festivals, toured the country several times, and made my favorite record ever at the end of the year. Look for that to be out late March or so. It’s also been a great year for watching my son Silas turn into an amazing guitarist.

Is the lousy economy taking a bite out of your current work or anticipated work?

The economy has definitely affected the festival scene, especially the smaller, independent fests. The big boys seemed to do all right, just like big oil did this year. It remains to be seen what next year will be like, but I think there may be some contraction of the biz.

What do you have on deck for 2009 (recordings, collaborations, touring, special events, etc.)?

2009 starts with Leftover playing Jam Cruise, then I head to Hawaii with the David Nelson Band before Taxi fires up again in February.

Dave Watts
Founder, drummer and overall majordomo for The Motet and countless related/side projects, Watts’ limber drumming, ceaselessly restless musical instincts and tireless community building have all been a foundation of the Boulder music scene for nearly two decades.

What was the high point(s) of your year in 2008 (new music, tours, festivals, band changes, etc.)?

I know this is not really part of the question, but the excitement of watching Barack Obama win the election dwarfed anything that happened to me musically in 2008. I edited down his acceptance speech and we sometimes improvise to it during our shows.

Is the lousy economy taking a bite out of your current work or anticipated work?

No, and with the price of gas now it’s actually getting better. I once heard Ahmad Jamal speak about how musicians during the Great Depression didn’t really feel the brunt of the economic downturn. In hard times, it seems people have an even stronger desire to experience music... knock on wood.

What do you have on deck for 2009 (recordings, collaborations, touring, special events, etc.)?

I am looking forward to putting out a couple of albums, The Motet and our side-project Juno What?! Now, exactly how we will put them out is another question. I predict that in a few years CDs will “go the way of the dodo.” Hmmmm, that’s a pretty good album title...
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