Saturday – September 2nd
Music begins at noon.
Sunday – September 3rd
Music begins at noon.
- Country Showdown – Colorado State Finals
- The Long Players
- JD McPherson
- The Spinners
- Vintage Trouble
Saturday Performers
The Long Players
The Long Players are a group of Nashville-based musicians who have, since 2004, taken classic albums and performed them live in their original sequence. Recruiting guest artists from their exceptional musical community, the band has celebrated well over 50 seminal albums over the last eleven years and gained national notoriety with features by NPR Radio and in The Associated Press.
Their faithful renditions of LP’s like Bob Dylan’s “Blonde On Blonde” (with sidemen from the original album, Al Kooper and Charlie McCoy sitting in) or The Rolling Stones “Sticky Fingers” (when Stones sax man Bobby Keys sat in), have raised the bar of what “playing in a cover band” is all about. These shows are treated by both the fans and the band as a celebration of the music that shaped their lives.
The founding members of The Long Players include Bill Lloyd (from 80’s RCA country hit-makers Foster & Lloyd), Steve Allen (from LA power-pop icons 20/20), Steve Ebe (from Human Radio) and Garry Tallent (Bruce Springsteen’s E. St. Band).
Since Tallent rejoined his “other” band for another round of touring all over the globe, The Long Players have been fortunate enough to enlist musician/record producer, Brad Jones (who has worked with Josh Rouse, Jill Sobule, Hayes Carll and many others) to take over the bass duties.
Bill Miller
Bill Miller is an award-winning Native American recording artist, performer, songwriter, activist, painter, and world-class native flute player. Over the entirety, Miller has produced over a dozen albums, received three GRAMMY® Awards, numerous Native American Music Awards & Association (NAMA) awards (including a “Lifetime Achievement” Award) and led Wisconsin’s La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. He is now touring in support of the history-making album release, Look Again To The Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited, on which he performed the title track.
C.J. Chenier
C.J. Chenier, a Creole born and raised in an indigenous American culture with its distinct language, cuisine and music, delivers a soulful vocal and accordion! Chenier, a GRAMMY® nominated world renowned musician and recording artist, has performed alongside many internationally recognized artists including his GRAMMY® awarded father, Clifton Chenier “The King of Zydeco”, Paul Simon, Joe Sample and Ray Parker, Jr., The Gin Blossoms, and John Mayall. He has appeared on the Jon Stewart Show, CNN and was featured on VH1 and Entertainment Weekly.
C.J. has exhibited his musicianship at many large festival venues such as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Chicago Blues Festival and Austin’s SxSW Music Conference. In addition to a GRAMMY® award nomination in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category, C.J. has received many major awards inclusive of the Living Blues Critics’ Poll Award, Indie Award (from AFIM) for Best Zydeco Album, Coups de Coeur (Blows of Heart) Blues Category Award from l’Académie Charles Cros (France) and Best of the Beat Best Zydeco Album (Offbeat Magazine).
JD McPherson
You could mistake JD McPherson for a revivalist, given how few other contemporary artists are likely to assert, as he boldly does, that “Keep a Knockin” by Little Richard is the best record ever made. It’s so insanely visceral, you feel like it’s going to explode your speakers. If I’m listening to that in the car, I find myself having to brake suddenly. I can listen to that and it makes me feel like I’m 20 feet tall. And the feeling of joy I get from that record is always going to be the real push behind trying to make music.”
But in a very real sense, McPherson is much more a pioneer than roots resuscitator. He’s knocking at the door of something that arguably hasn’t yet been accomplished—a spirited, almost spiritual hybrid that brings the forgotten lessons from the earliest days of rock & roll into a future that has room for the modernities of studio technique and 21st century singer/songwriter idiosyncrasies that Richard Penniman would not recognize. Let the Good Times Roll, his second album, is a stranger, and more personal affair than its Fats Domino-redolent title might at first suggest, but the name isn’t exactly ironic, either. If you, too, brake for pleasure, you’ll screech to a halt at the enrapturing sound of these Good Times.
WAR
An American Original; WAR was the first and most successful musical crossover phenomenon that forever fused rock, jazz, Latin, and R&B, while transcending racial and cultural barriers with a multi-ethnic line-up; a musical melting pot and an enduring influence that has sold nearly 50 million records to date.
Today, WAR is a permanent part of America’s pop cultural landscape. A touring act that performs 150 shows a year and whose catalogue of timeless hits permeates our everyday lives.
WAR classics have been featured in countless movies, television shows and commercials. Films such as The Mexican, How High, Remember The Titans, A Knight’s Tale, Boogie Nights and Lethal Weapon 4; T.V. shows such as ER, That Seventies Show, Bernie Mac, The Job, The Simpsons and the theme to the George Lopez Show; TV ads for products like Nissan, Mitsubishi, Miller Brewing, Burger King and Sprint PCS have kept WAR music in the fore.
The music has also been re-spun by many contemporary artists from Janet Jackson to Korn, Smashmouth to Shaggy and from Macy Gray to TLC with covers or samples of WAR hits.
Sunday
Colorado State Final of the Country Showdown
The 32nd Annual Country Showdown is designed to find the most promising country music talent in America and to give these performers a chance to launch their professional music careers.
The Country Showdown begins each Spring with over 450 local talent contests sponsored by country music radio stations throughout the US. Winners advance to their respective State competitions held at leading fairs and expositions. Acts then compete for a $1,000 prize, the State Title and the opportunity to advance to one of five Regional Finals. It’s the last step before the prestigious National Final held at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. The audience cheers on the Regional Winners, as they compete for the Grand Prize of $100,000 and the National Title. A uniform judging system is used at all levels of competition to help ensure fairness.
Sundance Head
The Spinners
Most often thought of as a Motown recording act, the classic group sound of legendary R&B recording artists, The Spinners has never lost its universal appeal. Throughout the years they have sold millions of records and topped both the Pop and R&B charts with smash hits like “I’ll Be Around” and “Then Came You.” Today, original member Henry Fambrough is joined onstage by lead singer Charlton Washington, high tenor Marvin Taylor, tenor Ronnie Moss, and bass singer Jessie Peck; a soul-infused 5-piece band, led by Keith Ferguson, backs them up.
Vintage Trouble
Over the past few years, Vintage Trouble has wowed audiences across the globe by opening for The Rolling Stones, The Who, AC/DC and the Dixie Chicks, and have played sold-out headline shows worldwide. Beginning with their blistering introduction on the Late Show with David Letterman to their recent performance on PBS’ Austin City Limits, Vintage Trouble has used their live show as a vehicle to win over a wide range of music fans. Vintage Trouble has earned the support from legends such as the late Prince, Martin Scorsese and Don Was, and have critics at NPR, BBC Radio, Rolling Stone and The New York Times raving “like Otis Redding, Vintage Trouble makes music that is a little bit of everything … You can slow dance, groove, rock and let it all go.” In January 2017, John Varvatos tapped the band to appear in his much-celebrated music campaign series, bringing their foot-stomping rhythm and irrepressible spirit to electrify his new Spring / Summer 2017 Campaign. Throughout 2017, Vintage Trouble will release a handful of new songs starting with the blistering new song “Knock Me Out,” released on February 15th.
