For the Love of Locals Amplifies Denver Musicians

The organization For the Love of Locals has spent the past six years putting Denver musicians in the spotlight. But the pandemic has changed the live-music experience, and the organization has shifted its work.

“There are so many artists that depend on live shows to pay bills,” founder Jack Roberts says. “There are hardly any shows available for local musicians to be able to play right now.”

So his organization is launching a monthly series of concerts to support local artists. The next one, including folk rocker Andy Sydow, pop singer mlady and country singer Kayla Ruby, takes place on August 29 at Summit Church in Centennial. The show will also be live-streamed on the For The Love of Locals Facebook page.

“We released a certain amount of tickets to each artist so they could get their fans to come," says Roberts. "Initially we were able to do fifty people, and then we lifted it to ninety. The first artist we announced was able to sell her first twenty tickets within her first hours of announcing.”

While live streams took off worldwide after COVID-19 quarantines began, For the Love of Locals was doing them long before.

“The whole company is a motivation to promote visibility and financial opportunity for artists," says Roberts. "I started it with one of my friends a long time ago. I started doing free shows at the Moon Room or the Marquis down on Blake Street. As time went on, it evolved into a live-stream series.”

That live-stream series became even more critical after the pandemic hit, and even as the group transitions to some in-person concerts, it plans to continue to offer live-stream options.

“For right now, we’re going to be doing it monthly,” Roberts says. “If things go really well, we’re using a venue that is a church that some of the members of For the Love of Locals are musicians at. We have to make sure we take care of them. If it goes well, we want to do it as much as we can.”

For the Love of Locals takes place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 29, at Summit Church, 7200 South Clinton Street in Centennial. Tickets are $15 and should be reserved through one of the musicians beforehand through direct messages. For more information, go to the For the Love of Locals Facebook page.