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ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively called ATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance is the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves at
NOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
This
video of the Fort Collins trio Whippoorwill leaves one with the
impression that not much has changed along Colorado's front range since
gold was first discovered in the streams flowing down out of the Rockies.
It looks just like how I remember the area when I was last there in the
early 1980s, and these folks sound a lot like what Colorado sounded like
then.
Alysia Kraft
(guitar, vocals), Staci Foster (guitar,
banjo, harmonica, vocals), and Tobias Bank
(drums, vocals) have been touring this band for a couple years, and now
have a debut LP, The Nature of Storms (November 2019). This
production is coming out of Lexington, Kentucky's Shangri-La Studio. It
was produced by J.Tom Hnatow (Horse Feathers, Vandaveer) and mixed by
Duane Lundy (Jim James, Ringo Starr). They are a solid unit with a rich
and authentic sound, even as it clearly invokes the spirit of previous
wood music idols like Neil Young and Emmy Lou Harris. New isn't on tap
so much as is reverence for the old stuff, but it is pleasurable
listening if you have a yen for morning coffee.
- RAR
Kramies
Kramies
(pronounced Kraim-iss) seems like a most un-Denver kind of a guy, which
makes sense as he is Dutch by birth.
The dreamy prog-folk balladeer is out with an EP
titled "Of All The Places Been & Evening The End" (see video right), a
cryptic title that probably reveals something about the artist and his
sensibilities. He is a little outside, a lot ethereal, a little like
Thom Yorke minus Radiohead.
Kramies has been just beyond the periphery of big-time
recognition for years, since he was signed in 2011 to Australia's
Hidden Shoal Recordings. That produced an
EP, but more importantly connected Kramies with
Jason Lytle of Grandaddy and producer Todd
Tobias (Robert Pollard, Guided by Voices). Kramie's team
produced a well-received 2014 EP, "The Wooden Heart". Kramies teamed
again with Lytle in 2015 for a single titled "The Fate That Never
Favored Us". In 2014, Kramies also worked with
Grant Wilson, a pianist and composer best known from the Syfy TV
show "Ghost Hunters".
Kramies has probably gotten his greatest traction to
date in France, where he has sold out venues, with a recording of one of
his live shows at the famous Le Grand Théâtre in Angers, France being
released as a live EP titled "forêts antiques". That was listed among
the Top Albums of 2015 by Paris magazine Pop Cultures & Co.
Groover
Why can't there be peace? That's the question Colorado
progressive-jazz band Groover poses
with their new 12-song digital LP. It sounds like something from the
prospectus of a college class, and to the extent that Groover is an
assemblage of studio musicians it is high-toned stuff. This is
essentially a duo - drummer and keyboard player
Steve Sirockin and bassist/guitarist
Evan Strauss - supported by a strong
cast. Paul Stadler plays Soprano and Tenor
Saxophones, Jessica Jones provides vocals,
Matt Flaherty contributes additional guitar
work, and Bob Harris contributes a vocal.
TrieuHuong Nguyen provided the nature
photos for the jacket, while Sirockin provided other photos and graphic
design.
Sirockin has been a mainstay of the Boulder music
scene for decades, dating back to the early 1970s and his work with
Navarro, which for a time served as Carole King's backup band. Holding a
degree in Sound Synthesis, Recording, and Reinforcement from the
University of Colorado, Sirockin has recorded as a studio musician in numerous Colorado
studios, including Caribou Ranch, Northstar, Mountain Ears, and
Applewood, and is the owner/operator of Altitude Recording. As a
musician, Sirockin has shared a stage with many national acts, including
Widespread Panic, Fishbone, Marty Balin from Jefferson Starship, Jack
Mack and the Heart Attack, Commander Cody, and more.
Evan Strauss is a Seattle resident and a founding
member of the Seattle-based, all-improvised psychedelic-music collective
SNOOSE JUNCTION (with John Foss, John Leighton Beezer and 5-Track). He
also founded Yggdrasil In The Skunk Ape Moment, an experimental
improvised-music trio (with Michael Beggs and Morgan Greenstreet).
Use this link to listen to tracks on "Why Can't There Be Peace" and
place an order.
QUICK REVIEW:
Groover is a really aggressive, in your face sort of collective.
The opening track might lead you to believe it is a fraternity house
rave band, but it turns out to be a one-off. This LP brings on the Funk
- it's wah-wah wonderful - and the whole band is right in the high
energy moment. They get a little loopy with the electronic effects from
time-to-time, to no particular gain, but then again they also have songs
that sound a lot like Spyro Gyra, and could plug into a lot of
progressive jazz playlists. The players are great. Paul Stadler is a
really standout player, and Sirockin does dynamite work on the keys and
drums. Jessica Jones is a soulful singer, though she isn't really given much
to work with. Evan Strauss is a fine bass player. I would say "Chorus of
Doom" is my favorite track. It is really smokin' in a way that might
even make a person think of James Brown's bands, kind of hard-core cool.
"Discreet Muzeek" is a really cool track, with all sorts of call-backs
to '60s sounds, especially The Doors, and the final track, "A Remarkable
Day" is really strong, a beautiful composition beautifully performed.
The LP is rich. My overall sense is that if you like energized party
music, with a progressive-jazz flare, you will probably dig "Why Can't
There Be Peace?" - RAR
Candy
Claws
These Fort Collins kids --
Kay Bertholf, Karen McCormick, and Ryan Hover -- do a spacey dream pop,
concept-oriented thing, as demonstrated on their album Ceres &
Calypso in the Deep Time album (2013). The bio reads that Hover and
Bertholf met at an Evangelical church they both attended during high
school. Together with McCormick, Hover’s fiancé, the three steer this
collective and its concept-heavy, dream pop albums. Their most recent
album, including notable collaborations with Chicago poet Jenn Morea and
orchestrations by New York composer Bryan Senti, transports listeners to
the Mesozoic Era where the album is divided into the Triassic, Jurassic
and Cretaceous periods.
I am not certain who the
girl singing in the video below is, but she has a really special vocal
quality.- RAR
The Centennial
Denver
is home for Patrick Meese, his wife Tiffany, and his brother Nate who
together make up The Centennial. They are an indie-rock and dream pop
outfit. The brothers were previously together in their band Meese.
Elephant Revival
Elephant
Revival bases out of Nederland, which has a well-established reputation
as a hippie enclave. It is the kind of place where young hipster
musicians go to live in old school buses just for the pleasure of being
around like-minded Bohemians. The Elephant Revival folks - Bonnie Paine,
Daniel Rodriguez, Sage T. Cook, Dango Rose, Bridget Law - are
well-talented and sort of a throw-back to 1971.
Frances and the Foundation
Frances
and the Foundation - Samantha Frances, Matt Simms, Johnny Angel - came
out of Colorado Springs, though they now base out of Nashville. They are
a solid pop-rock unit with strong material. This video below isn't their
best resume credit, but you get the idea. Pretty solid guitar work.
Paper Bird
Denver band Paper Bird
--
Sarah
Anderson, Genevieve Patterson, Esmé Patterson, Caleb Summeril, Paul
DeHaven, Macon Terry, Mark Anderson -- is really kinda special. This
band has been playing big festivals and sharing stages with Neko Case and The Lumineers.
They’ve also been voted as a “Top 10 Best Underground Band” by The
Denver Post three years in a row.
Princess Music
Tyler Ludwick, Rachel Sliker, Psyche Cassandra Dunkhase, Robin Chestnut,
and
Jeremy Averitt hail from Denver. They are a folk and orchestral pop ensemble.
You Me and Apollo
You Me and
Apollo is aFort
Collins collective including Brent
Cowles, Tyler Kellogg, Jonathan Alonzo, Morgan Travis, and Dave Cole.
They are an indie-rock and alt-country act that began as a
solo project of frontman Brent Cowles in 2007 while he was working on an
audio engineering degree in Arizona.
Head for the Hills
Out
of Fort Collins, Head for the Hills (Mike Chappell, Adam Kinghorn, Joe
Lessard, Matt Loewen) do a kind of Pop-Bluegrass that has been heard
around Colorado for decades. They call it "Newgrass", just like Sam Bush
and the Newgrass Revival did before them. Head for the Hills has drawn
good reviews for their SXSW Festival shows.
Joseph Childress
Joseph Childress is a Colorado native who
has been around a long time. He is a compelling singer-songwriter who
seems to actually have something special in his sound. He could sure use
a more recent and better set of videos to promote was is pretty
significant talent. Perhaps a mentoring manager, too.
Blake Rooker, Will Buck, Vincent Ellwood,
and Andrew Oakley are from Boulder. They met as students at the
University of Colorado and they do high-energy rock.
The Woodsman
Trevor
Peterson, Mark Demolar, and Dylan Shumaker are "Brookyln-via-Denver" and
they are a psych-rock trio who began performing in
Colorado in the fall of 2008.
Lynx
Caitlin DeMuth, a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and
beat-boxer, lived in Colorado for 23 years before relocating to the Bay
Area. According to her, “The Colorado scene in general definitely formed
me as an artist.” DeMuth, under the moniker Lynx, combines elements of
electronica into her brand of folk and indie pop.
Colorado Music
Experience
Visit https://colomusic.org where
long-time Colorado music writer G. Brown has a website focused on the
history of Colorado pop music.
Colorado Music Experience put together this video on Colorado's
"Golden Era" of Country-Rock, the early 1970s.
I can't make head
nor tails out of this video, but I like the song by Denver-based
singer-songwriter Anthony Ruptak. He
is a multi-instrumentalist who is releasing his first full-length LP ("A
Place That Never Changes") after three earlier EPs.
Ruptak's sound is modern, as folk-rock
goes, if a little too familiar. He sounds like those bands that came out
of Seattle that were so popular around the turn of the century.