Thursday May 2 Just folks: Early mountain musicians of the southeastern United States improved upon traditional Scottish and Irish melodies armed with an arsenal of mandolins, guitars, dulcimers and autoharps. In the process, they created a completely indigenous musical strain–the forerunner to what we now know as bluegrass, folk and…
Thursday April 25 Triumph of the Will: The Arvada Center’s Music With a View series offers short and sweet concerts commingled with current gallery shows, a gentle combination well-suited to lovers of the arts. The series gets a few birds with one big rock tonight during a celebration of William…
Thursday April 18 Band of Lincoln: A revolving ensemble made up of some of the world’s finest musicians, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center simply oozes excellence, mixing unexpected instrumentation and eclectic material with stunning showmanship. One such grouping–flutist Ransom Wilson, violinist Ani Kavafian, viola player Kim Kashkashian, guitarist…
Thursday April 11 Freudian slip: Author Robert Boswell didn’t graduate with a double major in psychology and creative writing for nothing. His finely etched portraits of human relationships, the backbone of novels such as Crooked Hearts and the bestselling Mystery Ride, owe something to both disciplines. Boswell, who now teaches…
Thursday April 4 Sheer poetry: Bet you didn’t know April is National Poetry Month. True, the fragile, sometimes-ridiculed literary genre won’t change the world, but it does, by virtue of its rich, metaphoric language and deep insights, help make our mean old planet a slightly nicer place. That’s reason enough…
Thursday March 28 Star man: Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo originally was written in response to the rise of Nazi Germany. But it’s as much the story of a famous astronomer as it is an examination of the uneasy relationship between free-thinking scientists and fascist ideology. Brecht, who equated Galileo’s struggle against…
Thursday March 21 A walk on the wild side: There’s not much one can say about Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed that hasn’t already been said: The influential, timeless and poetic elder statesman of urban rock has seen it all, done it all, commented on it all and come through…
Thursday March 14 Eve of destruction: “While sketching a series of ideas for monoprints and reflecting on the dilemma of Eden,” artist Connie Lehman says, “it occurred to me that no one has ever blamed the apple.” Score one point for the women. Lehman decided to explore that discrepancy by…
Thursday March 7 One to wash: It’s cute and kicky–it’s Suds, a goofy, melodramatic musical romp through the innocent Sixties. A despondent 16-year-old girl decides to end her life in a laundromat dryer but is saved by three angels: a bubbly Gidget clone, a Capri-pants bad girl and–who else?–a glowing…
Thursday February 29 Old-time religion: While the membership of Blind Boys of Alabama has evolved, the gospel-singing group’s name has remained intact for nearly sixty years, as has its pious intent. Best of all, when the boys fire up their voices to praise the Lord–Lord, what God-given, soul-stirring voices they…
Thursday February 22 Oz capades: Imagine Dorothy, Toto and the rest lifted right off the screen and plopped down on an ice rink. That’s just what the creators of Wizard of Oz on Ice did, but with a few ingenious twists. Though the familiar movie characters and songs are all…
Wednesday February 14 Blues period: When a big band and the blues collide head-on, you can count on a full dance floor–that’s the main objective of Roomful of Blues, a Rhode Island-based combo with a revolving membership of great musicians. Over 25 years after guitarist Duke Robillard first formed the…
Wednesday February 7 Tuna melt: As a former member of San Francisco’s premier acid-rockers the Jefferson Airplane, Jorma Kaukonen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month. But Kaukonen has spent more years doing his own thing–acoustic country blues–than he ever spent soaring with the Airplane…
Wednesday January 31 To Sir, with love: Perhaps the scarcest ticket in town is a seat for Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser, a Denver Center Theatre Company production at the Ricketson Theatre, 14th and Curtis in the Plex. Starring veteran actor Tony Church, the play is set during World War II…
Wednesday January 24 Photo synthesis: A twentieth-century genius who created groundbreaking work in both commercial photography and revealing portraiture is the subject of Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light, a visually superb public-TV documentary focusing on Avedon’s celebrated fifty-year career. The program, a clean-edged insider’s portrayal as striking as a modern-day…
Wednesday January 17 West meets West: Old and new images of the American West meet magnificently in Western Visions: An Exhibit of Place and Culture, a major juried show now on display at Republic Plaza, 370 17th St. Featuring over eighty pieces executed in styles from traditional to contemporary in…
As a result of his late-Sixties recordings and collaborations with onetime Charles Mingus sideman John Handy and vibraphonist Gary Burton, guitarist Jerry Hahn is seen as a springboard for an entire crop of jazz strummers–Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, John Scofield and Bill Frisell among them. But until the release of…
Wednesday January 10 Colorado dreamin’: Though official observance of the King holiday officially takes place Monday in Colorado, a number of events sponsored by a state commission–under the banner of Martin Luther King Jr.: Fulfilling the Dream–lead up to the actual January 15 anniversary. Today from 9 to 4, the…
Wednesday January 3 Feeling puckish: Though they are the last team on the totem pole in Denver’s major-league sport sweepstakes, the Colorado Avalanche pucksters take a back seat to no one. The ex-Nordiques from Quebec have swept onto Mile High ice for a fine season in the National Hockey League,…
Wednesday December 27 Bored games: The most interminable part of the holidays begins right about now, when the tree begins to shed and the novelty of new bikes and Barbies begins to wear thin. But there are ways to prevent cabin fever from taking hold. For instance, there’s nothing like…
Wednesday December 20 Chicken feed: How does this sound for holiday fare that’s loud, boisterous, anarchic and silly? A bunch of parents and their kids show up for a play. Only instead of sitting and fidgeting, they get on stage and play the leading roles. At the Chicken Lips Comedy…
Wednesday December 13 Silver screening: Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, going to the movies was an event to be treasured, rather than a cheap thrill pocketed easily at any corner video-rental store. A gentle bow to the bygone heyday of great movie palaces everywhere, the…
