At least, that's the case for Colorado artist Gregory Alan Isakov, who spends his time growing crops at Starling Farm in Boulder County when he's not playing his music with the Colorado Symphony or opening for Mumford & Sons. "That ends up being a really healthy thing for me...I never feel burnt out," Isakov says of his double life as both a grower and a musician. "Even as a grower, if I was farming full time, that wouldn't be good for me either."
He's come a long way from when he won "Best Singer-Songwriter — Male" in Westword's 2007 Best of Denver awards. Just a few years after that award, he'd go on to create an album that included the song "Big Black Car," which has more than 300 million streams on Spotify alone.
He's living proof that the state's music scene has the potential to skyrocket artists. Although he was born in South Africa, he's proud of his Colorado roots, musically and literally.
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"It's the greatest music scene ever," Isakov, says of Colorado. "I grew up kind of near Lyons. There wasn't a lot of songwriters, really. There was a lot of jam bands and Reggae bands. I thought it was a good place for me because I wasn't influenced very much and I didn't feel intimidated." He notes that in musically populated places such as Nashville, Austin or Los Angeles, "you almost feel like everybody's kind of doing what you're doing. I think Colorado's a good place because you can find your originality and find your writer's voice and it feels like there's a lot of space for it."
He started out playing at the hi-dive and Meadowlark, just like any other Denver-area musician. Today, he loves catching a show at the Bluebird, Mission Ballroom or Ogden Theater and supporting his favorite Colorado musicians such as Covenhoven and the River Arkansas.
"I have so many friends that play here and in Denver, and i'm constantly going to my friends shows and seeing what's going on here," he says. Some of his Colorado friends include performers with the Colorado Symphony, with which he'll be playing a three-night run at Boettcher Concert Hall starting April 17.
In 2016, he released Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony, an eleven-song collaboration in which the symphony elevates and fills out the instrumentals, giving each song a new life. His last time playing live with the group was in 2022. "We've been doing this tour for, like, a month now and we've been really loving it," Isakov says. "We've got a bunch of new arrangements from our new record and some old ones we're pulling out so it's been really great. I'm really enjoying 'Master & A Hound.' It's a lot of strings, it's kind of hard to find the downbeat in it. It feels floating, so it's kind of a trippy one to play with the orchestra."
After his shows with the orchestra, he'll play a string of shows with Mumford & Sons, then come back to play two sold-out shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre later this summer.
While any Coloradan likely knows Isakov's music, those less familiar have likely heard his hits like "Big Black Car" and "Amsterdam," which TikTok and other social media platforms have pushed into virality. As a musician in 2025, it's hard not to treat social media like the ticket to getting your music heard. Isakov says he's lucky he doesn't have to be tapped into social media as much, though, and he has advice for musicians feeling defeated by that hurdle: "Just make sure you’re spending less time on all that stuff than you are writing songs. Even if nothing goes well with social media, if you’re working on music, it’ll eventually get out there if you’re proud of it."
Gregory Alan Isakov, 7:30 p.m. April 17, 18 and 19, Boettcher Concert Hall, 1000 14th Street. Tickets are $56 and up; get info here.
