Yes, Denver will get new blood--but when will the city show respect for bands like Chris Daniels or Freddi-Henchi or Billy Tolles or Freddie Rodriguez or Creighton Holley? Yes, Denver is probably the best place in the country to live--but forget about making a full-time living as a musician here. If you have any passion about music, how can you play a ski resort and get requests for Stevie Ray?
Yes, I have a bad taste after performing here, but I have an even worse taste for imbecile writers like Roberts who don't research the topic.
Mark Bell
via the Internet
As a band manager (Turnsol), it was great to see Michael Roberts doing a cover story on the music scene in Denver. Having committed myself to learning and promoting Colorado music the last four years, I found it a good history and overview. I want to add a few points:
Live music clubs do have to compete with dance clubs, which people who want to "fraternize with the opposite sex," as David Fox stated, often frequent in greater numbers. This is not a musical issue; it's about selling drinks. That's simply an economic reality.
Touring is a problem for all of us because we are isolated here compared to the coasts. Denver is an oasis in the middle of many national tours that stop here, and this makes for a lot of competition that other local scenes are not up against. If promoters will give more local acts a chance to open for national acts, this will make an immediate impact.
Support from media--both print and electronic--is a key issue. When I was in Austin (not even while SXSW was happening), it amazed me how the media and the radio publicized the local club scene and bands.
Bands must work hard and sacrifice. I have gained new appreciation for the passion it takes to persevere. We have had our share of reasons to quit, but we continue and will release our second full-length CD in two years this June. We have chosen to work in Colorado and strive to make the best recordings we can.
If you have not been to a local show where you can buy a very inexpensive ticket, see great live music and actually meet the band afterward, check it out. Remember, even the Beatles were a local band once.
Tom Lord
Denver
Maybe if I were a regular reader of Westword, I would have known immediately that the cover tag on the April 30 issue, "What's Killing the Great Bands of Denver?," probably referred to the rock-band genre. But there are a lot of us out here who have something else in mind when we read "big band"--a term commonly applied to larger groups (nine to twenty players) that play mostly music from the swing era. I'll name four such bands, good ones (there are more) in Denver that have been active for many years and continue to play regularly in concert or for dancing: Joel Kaye's Neophonic Big Band Orchestra, Dean Bushnell, Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra, Denver Kicks Band. These bands are not "vanishing" and in fact have been buoyed by a growing following of younger swing dancers. Add to these the high-school and college big jazz bands, and we're talking about a lot of musicians and a sizable audience.
My point is simply that your article headings might be misleading for many readers.
Wayne Scott
Boulder
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