On That Note

You know it will be a good tale if it begins with someone running away to join the circus—and so I’m going to begin Janine De Lorenzo’s story by telling you that’s what she did. But the story really begins much before then, when she was a young girl in Australia,...

Rodney Bennett I’ve written often in this column about “the way things used to be,” mostly because when I’m able to connect with longtime local musicians, there’s a lot of nostalgia for it: everyone at the one bar with that one stage every weekend, gathered around,...

Around this time last year, I found my way over to Center for the Arts Evergreen, only to be blown away by an impressive line-up of aspiring musicians betting on themselves in Evergreen’s Got Talent, a local musical competition for young artists. I heard many...

The testimony of music and arts is the way the names and sentiment live on, legacies passed down through stories and song, through the voices that deliver both so well. The mountain area was blessed for decades to have such a gifted storyteller in John Davis, who...

I’ve written before about how music dissolves the imaginary lines we draw between ourselves and others, so that whether it’s swaying with your seat neighbor at Red Rocks or joining a block party dancing in the streets, as long as you’re moving to the same beat, you’re...

Every writer loves a deadline, and if you’re the sort to wait until the last minute, I know you’ve got some j-school leftover in your blood. This is why, for us professional procrastinators, publishing cycles are particularly useful. Each year about this time, though,...

If you Google Eileen Koenigsberg, you might stumble upon her life mastery website and peruse the books she has written. Or perhaps you’ll come across Moore Koenigsberg Architecture, where Eileen and her husband, Jon, have been serving up residential and commercial...

Jane Austen once said, “Without music, life would be blank to me,” which poetically and accurately points out how music fleshes out life. It’s a thing that we might not notice unless it’s missing one day, and the next, a song could stop us in our tracks. In a sense,...

Fresh on the mountain music scene with a mature indie-rock sound is Public Picasso, a new project for brothers Ethan and Grey Schapiro. Though their band was just officially formed this summer, the Schapiro brothers have been regulars around the open mic circuit and...

When I write about music and interview musicians, it’s important to capture the spirit of hard work, determination and attention to detail; but there is another piece of the puzzle—perhaps the most important piece—that is hard to wrap up into words, hard to pin down...

Ever on the hunt for the new up-and-comers in mountain area music, I was thrilled to learn that some of my latest connections have made their way through the local open mic circuit. It’s an event you know is happening somewhere nearby, but I only ever seem to stumble...

Jeb Barber and Jax Jordening A few weeks ago, in the middle of Evergreen’s Got Talent, the stage was graced by two young kids who played music like two experienced adults. From Jeb’s guitar-picking to Jax’s deep, growling vocals, the brief set was more like a live...