You Me & Apollo

If you are an artisan of any variety – a painter, sculptor, metal worker, writer, or even musician: your job is, in large part, to be an idea factory. For certain, to create anything at all requires multiple meetings with whomever sits above your head in the congealed spiritual world. But, as logic would have it: if your muse is not residing in the spiritual, invisible realm, then it lives here. And if that’s the case, that your inspiration lives among us, then it breathes and eats only one thing: emotion.

You, Me and Apollo is the creation of Brent Cowles, an emphatic and torn man on stage. Off the stage, he is something more to center. A bit more approachable. Yet, assured is the idea that, if you ever were in the room while he was on stage, with his band or not: you’d have known it. He would have killed and rose some part of your spirit, for sure.

Trust me. I’ve sat in that room. It happened to me.

Raw emotion is a contagion. It underlies all of our human interactions and is the mouthpiece to the gods. But reckless honesty in the way that Cowles gives it, is an art not yet won on our species. This is why he is a godly gift.

In music, as in any creative form, I implore every artist to drop their drawers. I say, I want to see you stumbling. I want to see you trip and stagger and humble and haw. Give it up, I want to see you: scream. Howl. Abandon everything for the reckless. I want ever to be intoxicated by music, in the face of its jowls – I beg you to give me everything that I think being alive is about.

This is precisely what Cards with Cheats, the latest album from Brent Cowles and his outlaw accomplices in his band, does (with Matthew Roberts, Lead Guitar; Corey Coffman, Rhythm Guitar; Shawn Keefer, Bass/Vocals; Spencer Monson, Drums).Thing is, there is a profound translation to the stage that I don’t think many other acts, local or national, are willing to put themselves through. Because, how is this kind of exhibition possible every time you lace-up your boots? Tell me.

Asking Cowles about what he’s thinking after he walks off stage and it’s something about how the performance could be better, something technical should have been stronger (yes, it’s a different band on the stage: Morgan Travis, Lead Guitar; Jonathan Alonzo, Rhythm Guitar/Vocals; Shawn Keefer, Bass/Vocals; Tyler Kellogg, Drums). I’m remarked to hear something like this (about all things technical) when there is such a profound emotional expenditure – even when there was only 20 people in the room (but, I assure you – this isn’t common – the word has spread about Cowles and his heartbreaking and raw performances). To this end, it’s safe to say that Cowles has come full-round, to a place where he continually steps outside of himself. It’s as though he leaves his boots at the stage when he walks-on, like a Japanese home – then, when he exits, he laces back-up for the big, bad world outside of that safe space. It’s a bit sacred like this. Really: I don’t need to justify it to you, but I will – just watch him.

Here is where you spy a photo of the young musician in humble repose, exiting the stage and its amber lights. Here is probably where you meet the kind of musician that you always wanted to. After he puts his boots on for the big, bad world, of course.

So let’s be straight: A pastor’s son, Cowles has been pushed to a place where reconciling the secular with the spiritual was a way of life. Immensely supportive his parents have always been, Cowles began to wind his way outside of the church’s natural teachings. Then (serendipitously) he really found music. At the age of 13 he received his first instrument. At 14 he began writing. Immediately, it was important. Maybe something more than that. And then, at 17: You, Me and Apollo.

Named after a phrase he heard his girl speak about he, she and his pup: You, Me and Apollo was born. Brent quickly internalized the name at the same point that he was becoming even more fiercely - Denver Syntax

If you are an artisan of any variety – a painter, sculptor, metal worker, writer, or even musician: your job is, in large part, to be an idea factory. For certain, to create anything at all requires multiple meetings with whomever sits above your head in the congealed spiritual world. But, as logic would have it: if your muse is not residing in the spiritual, invisible realm, then it lives here. And if that’s the case, that your inspiration lives among us, then it breathes and eats only one thing: emotion.

You, Me and Apollo is the creation of Brent Cowles, an emphatic and torn man on stage. Off the stage, he is something more to center. A bit more approachable. Yet, assured is the idea that, if you ever were in the room while he was on stage, with his band or not: you’d have known it. He would have killed and rose some part of your spirit, for sure.

Trust me. I’ve sat in that room. It happened to me.

Raw emotion is a contagion. It underlies all of our human interactions and is the mouthpiece to the gods. But reckless honesty in the way that Cowles gives it, is an art not yet won on our species. This is why he is a godly gift.

In music, as in any creative form, I implore every artist to drop their drawers. I say, I want to see you stumbling. I want to see you trip and stagger and humble and haw. Give it up, I want to see you: scream. Howl. Abandon everything for the reckless. I want ever to be intoxicated by music, in the face of its jowls – I beg you to give me everything that I think being alive is about.

This is precisely what Cards with Cheats, the latest album from Brent Cowles and his outlaw accomplices in his band, does (with Matthew Roberts, Lead Guitar; Corey Coffman, Rhythm Guitar; Shawn Keefer, Bass/Vocals; Spencer Monson, Drums).Thing is, there is a profound translation to the stage that I don’t think many other acts, local or national, are willing to put themselves through. Because, how is this kind of exhibition possible every time you lace-up your boots? Tell me.

Asking Cowles about what he’s thinking after he walks off stage and it’s something about how the performance could be better, something technical should have been stronger (yes, it’s a different band on the stage: Morgan Travis, Lead Guitar; Jonathan Alonzo, Rhythm Guitar/Vocals; Shawn Keefer, Bass/Vocals; Tyler Kellogg, Drums). I’m remarked to hear something like this (about all things technical) when there is such a profound emotional expenditure – even when there was only 20 people in the room (but, I assure you – this isn’t common – the word has spread about Cowles and his heartbreaking and raw performances). To this end, it’s safe to say that Cowles has come full-round, to a place where he continually steps outside of himself. It’s as though he leaves his boots at the stage when he walks-on, like a Japanese home – then, when he exits, he laces back-up for the big, bad world outside of that safe space. It’s a bit sacred like this. Really: I don’t need to justify it to you, but I will – just watch him.

Here is where you spy a photo of the young musician in humble repose, exiting the stage and its amber lights. Here is probably where you meet the kind of musician that you always wanted to. After he puts his boots on for the big, bad world, of course.

So let’s be straight: A pastor’s son, Cowles has been pushed to a place where reconciling the secular with the spiritual was a way of life. Immensely supportive his parents have always been, Cowles began to wind his way outside of the church’s natural teachings. Then (serendipitously) he really found music. At the age of 13 he received his first instrument. At 14 he began writing. Immediately, it was important. Maybe something more than that. And then, at 17: You, Me and Apollo.

Named after a phrase he heard his girl speak about he, she and his pup: You, Me and Apollo was born. Brent quickly internalized the name at the same point that he was becoming even more fiercely - Denver Syntax

here can be preconceived notions of an album based on how it gets to us. Who recommends it to us. Who asks us to listen to it as a favor. Who gives it to us as a gift.
Having those notions blown by the wayside can be a pleasant surprise or a surprise letdown. When those notions are blown completely out of the stratosphere…well that’s another thing altogether.

You Me & Apollo is the musical moniker of Brent Cowles – a pastor’s kid. When his How To Swim, How To Rot EP was passed on to me for one reason or another, I didn’t expect anything really. That is a lie. I expected very specific things: songs attempting to be uplifting but coming off as forced, just-listenable to mediocre recording quality, a collection of music that will either encourage a dream further or encourage the writer to move on with life.
What I got was the precise opposite: songs with little to nothing uplifting about them that seemed to wrap their tentacles around your heart and squeeze, recording quality and technicality just lo-fi enough to be intriguing but with enough obvious skill present to keep you listening, a collection of music that suprised me, tied my stomach in knots, and delivered enough promise to make me a fan.
On Cards With Cheats doo-wop, soul, and alt-country lament all go hand in hand. It’s a refinement of the raw emotion from How To Swim into cohesive, pointed songwriting with creatively tight arrangements that don’t wander but prove a point. It struts in its angst. It is Johnny Cash giving the photographer at Folsom Prison the finger.
What songs like “Coming Home In A Coffin”, “Ink On Paper”, and “The Learned Thief” lack in hope they deliver full force in honesty. The hauntingly jangly “The Devil Inside” brings you to a place of precise chaos that is all too familiar to most of us. “Oh, Brother” is the tender spot on the album. Cowles reaches out to the subject with, “Now show me the way you smile. I ain’t never seen nothin’ so great. Now show me the way you love Jesus. Cause heaven knows we ain’t spoke” before taking an almost protective stance with, “You ain’t gonna’ follow me now. No I ain’t gonna’ let you…keep your eyes on what you’re doin’, don’t you look at me. Keep your head on straight and I’ll keep out.”
Cards With Cheats is a rock & soul record that delivers heaviness on a plate with presentation that makes you want it. The delivery of honesty and near-torment without a forced smile makes it beautiful poetry. It is lament.
[Cards With Cheats can be listened to in its entirety and purchased at youmeandapollo.bandcamp.com] - Ruminate Magazine

here can be preconceived notions of an album based on how it gets to us. Who recommends it to us. Who asks us to listen to it as a favor. Who gives it to us as a gift.
Having those notions blown by the wayside can be a pleasant surprise or a surprise letdown. When those notions are blown completely out of the stratosphere…well that’s another thing altogether.

You Me & Apollo is the musical moniker of Brent Cowles – a pastor’s kid. When his How To Swim, How To Rot EP was passed on to me for one reason or another, I didn’t expect anything really. That is a lie. I expected very specific things: songs attempting to be uplifting but coming off as forced, just-listenable to mediocre recording quality, a collection of music that will either encourage a dream further or encourage the writer to move on with life.
What I got was the precise opposite: songs with little to nothing uplifting about them that seemed to wrap their tentacles around your heart and squeeze, recording quality and technicality just lo-fi enough to be intriguing but with enough obvious skill present to keep you listening, a collection of music that suprised me, tied my stomach in knots, and delivered enough promise to make me a fan.
On Cards With Cheats doo-wop, soul, and alt-country lament all go hand in hand. It’s a refinement of the raw emotion from How To Swim into cohesive, pointed songwriting with creatively tight arrangements that don’t wander but prove a point. It struts in its angst. It is Johnny Cash giving the photographer at Folsom Prison the finger.
What songs like “Coming Home In A Coffin”, “Ink On Paper”, and “The Learned Thief” lack in hope they deliver full force in honesty. The hauntingly jangly “The Devil Inside” brings you to a place of precise chaos that is all too familiar to most of us. “Oh, Brother” is the tender spot on the album. Cowles reaches out to the subject with, “Now show me the way you smile. I ain’t never seen nothin’ so great. Now show me the way you love Jesus. Cause heaven knows we ain’t spoke” before taking an almost protective stance with, “You ain’t gonna’ follow me now. No I ain’t gonna’ let you…keep your eyes on what you’re doin’, don’t you look at me. Keep your head on straight and I’ll keep out.”
Cards With Cheats is a rock & soul record that delivers heaviness on a plate with presentation that makes you want it. The delivery of honesty and near-torment without a forced smile makes it beautiful poetry. It is lament.
[Cards With Cheats can be listened to in its entirety and purchased at youmeandapollo.bandcamp.com] - Ruminate Magazine

Power Hour. It's a time-honored tradition that 20-year-old kids across the country look forward to with eagerness as they push the limits of blood-alcohol levels.
In Tempe and Phoenix, most people target Mill Avenue as their destination for drunken debauchery, but when Tucson-based pianist/vocalist Steff Koeppen comes to town Saturday night, she'll be staying on the north side of Rural and the 202.

Koeppen and her band, Steff Koeppen & The Articles will be opening for former Phoenician You Me and Apollo on September 17, at The Rogue Bar in Scottsdale, but when the clock strikes midnight, she'll be celebrating her 21st birthday with the rest of you heathens.

Brent Cowles, who is the man behind YMaA, is kicking off his tour with support of a full band and a little help from his friends, The Muddy Moneys and Dylan Pratt.

Interestingly, The Muddy Moneys are double booked that night. They'll be playing the Trunk Space at 7 p.m. and are scheduled to play Rogue at 10.

The show starts at 9, and is for the 21 and over crowd. There's a $5 cover so make sure you bring enough cash for the door and to buy Steff a shot. - Phoenix Sun TImes Blog

Power Hour. It's a time-honored tradition that 20-year-old kids across the country look forward to with eagerness as they push the limits of blood-alcohol levels.
In Tempe and Phoenix, most people target Mill Avenue as their destination for drunken debauchery, but when Tucson-based pianist/vocalist Steff Koeppen comes to town Saturday night, she'll be staying on the north side of Rural and the 202.

Koeppen and her band, Steff Koeppen & The Articles will be opening for former Phoenician You Me and Apollo on September 17, at The Rogue Bar in Scottsdale, but when the clock strikes midnight, she'll be celebrating her 21st birthday with the rest of you heathens.

Brent Cowles, who is the man behind YMaA, is kicking off his tour with support of a full band and a little help from his friends, The Muddy Moneys and Dylan Pratt.

Interestingly, The Muddy Moneys are double booked that night. They'll be playing the Trunk Space at 7 p.m. and are scheduled to play Rogue at 10.

The show starts at 9, and is for the 21 and over crowd. There's a $5 cover so make sure you bring enough cash for the door and to buy Steff a shot. - Phoenix Sun TImes Blog

In an age when the internet connects people around the world, when highways and powerful cars carry us hundreds of miles in no time, when the world is at our doorsteps, it’s remarkable how provincial we can still be. Take You Me and Apollo, for example. Two months ago, on the eve of the Fort Collins-based singer-songwriter’s 22nd birthday, I caught You Me and Apollo’s CD release show at Hodi’s Half Note, and the place was packed with fans — especially considering it was Wednesday. He’s currently on a tour of the west, being welcomed in Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle. And yet, in Denver, he’s virtually unknown. Once you steal this week’s track, you’ll wonder what took you so long to discover this talent.

You Me and Apollo is the nom-de-roque of Colorado Springs-born Brent Cowles. On his latest release, “Cards With Cheats,” Cowles collaborates with some very talented friends to create a yearning, soulful record that suggests the unholy union of Hank Williams and Otis Redding. His subtle guitar work and tasteful arrangements never draw too much attention to themselves, but instead take their humble places, in service to the songs.

Cowles’s lyrics and songwriting would be the envy of artists twice his age. There’s a deceptive simplicity to his old-timey themes and structures that suggests just another Americana act. Disguised beneath that veneer, however, is a man who is part romantic poet, part Dust Bowl troubadour and part ’60s soul singer.

And then there’s that voice. Cowles growls, shouts and coos with the deft expressiveness of a seasoned veteran. In one moment, he can whisper in your ear like a penitent lover, and in the next, he’ll holler like one spurned. In the middle is that keening, heartbreaking croon that draws comparisons to Jeff Buckley that are probably lazy and hyperbolic, but not entirely unwarranted. The possessed passion that the young artist brings to his arresting live performances is captured beautifully on “Cards With Cheats.”

Steal “Oh Brother” for a sample of what this emerging powerhouse is capable of, then pop over to Bandcamp and treat yourself to the whole album. After you’ve been completely seduced by this album, mark your calendar for You Me and Apollo’s upcoming shows — Oct 2 at Jives Coffee Lounge in Colorado Springs, Oct 7 at Everyday Joe’s Coffee House in Fort Collins, and Oct 8 at the Meadowlark in Denver. - Hey Reverb (Denver Post)

In an age when the internet connects people around the world, when highways and powerful cars carry us hundreds of miles in no time, when the world is at our doorsteps, it’s remarkable how provincial we can still be. Take You Me and Apollo, for example. Two months ago, on the eve of the Fort Collins-based singer-songwriter’s 22nd birthday, I caught You Me and Apollo’s CD release show at Hodi’s Half Note, and the place was packed with fans — especially considering it was Wednesday. He’s currently on a tour of the west, being welcomed in Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle. And yet, in Denver, he’s virtually unknown. Once you steal this week’s track, you’ll wonder what took you so long to discover this talent.

You Me and Apollo is the nom-de-roque of Colorado Springs-born Brent Cowles. On his latest release, “Cards With Cheats,” Cowles collaborates with some very talented friends to create a yearning, soulful record that suggests the unholy union of Hank Williams and Otis Redding. His subtle guitar work and tasteful arrangements never draw too much attention to themselves, but instead take their humble places, in service to the songs.

Cowles’s lyrics and songwriting would be the envy of artists twice his age. There’s a deceptive simplicity to his old-timey themes and structures that suggests just another Americana act. Disguised beneath that veneer, however, is a man who is part romantic poet, part Dust Bowl troubadour and part ’60s soul singer.

And then there’s that voice. Cowles growls, shouts and coos with the deft expressiveness of a seasoned veteran. In one moment, he can whisper in your ear like a penitent lover, and in the next, he’ll holler like one spurned. In the middle is that keening, heartbreaking croon that draws comparisons to Jeff Buckley that are probably lazy and hyperbolic, but not entirely unwarranted. The possessed passion that the young artist brings to his arresting live performances is captured beautifully on “Cards With Cheats.”

Steal “Oh Brother” for a sample of what this emerging powerhouse is capable of, then pop over to Bandcamp and treat yourself to the whole album. After you’ve been completely seduced by this album, mark your calendar for You Me and Apollo’s upcoming shows — Oct 2 at Jives Coffee Lounge in Colorado Springs, Oct 7 at Everyday Joe’s Coffee House in Fort Collins, and Oct 8 at the Meadowlark in Denver. - Hey Reverb (Denver Post)