Collegiate Peaks Music Festival

By Danny Bay

Homegrown musicians coming from throughout all of Colorado will gather to play along the South Main River Park for the Collegiate Peaks Festival this weekend. During this celebration of Colorado, some well-known and favorite acts will again perform and emerging artists will also take the stage. And everyone who will attend the festival will have the opportunity to be a part of the music that echoes through the mountains.

The festival will begin and end with group drumming and rhythm circles facilitated by Peak Rhythms.

“The big thing about what we do is that with us, not only can people listen, they get to make music,” said Jon Crowder, founder of Peak Rhythms. “It’s about fun and building community. No experience is necessary.”

Crowder said that Peak Rhythms has facilitated well over 10,000 people in rhythm based events and that one recent event may soon be a world record holder. On June 27, 2009, Peak Rhythms hiked Pikes Peak with a group of well-connected musicians called Love Hope Strength to play music and rally to beat cancer.

“We’re submitting it to the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest drum circle,” Crowder said. “We hope to hear back in the next couple of weeks.”

Among the hundreds of people on the peak, Crowder said Kevin Bacon was there playing a djembe. “I saw him smile and I could tell he liked what we were doing,” Crowder said.

For the drum circles at the Collegiate Peaks Festival, Peak Rhythms will provide a variety of drums from diverse cultures, like Native American hoop drums, Celtic drums, African djembes, African bass drums and Latin congas. “They all have their own unique contribution,” Crowder said, “and together it makes for an over all richer sound. In that sense, it’s a metaphor of how we all come together as a community.”

And after the Peak Rhythms performance, many prominent Colorado musicians will follow.

Jake Schroeder, lead singer of Denver’s Opie Gone Bad, said he can’t wait to get up and play in the mountains. “It’s like a church for me getting up in the hills,” he said, adding that it reminds him of his childhood cabin where he hiked and cross-country skied. “I’m going to come up early. I just love that part of Colorado. It’s gorgeous,” he said.

Schroeder, who regularly sings the national anthem at the home games for the Colorado Avalanche and often for the Rockies, Nuggets and Broncos, said that Opie Gone Bad is particularly proud of their upcoming album due out in August.

According to Schroeder, the album is the primary work of guitarist Randy Chavez.

“He’s been burning the midnight oil making sure it’s exactly how he wanted,” Schroeder said. “I’m proud of it to the ends of the earth and we really, really enjoy playing.”

Judge Roughneck a ska and reggae band influenced by the two-tone bands of the 80s will return to play festival. “We’ll definitely get you up and moving. That’s for sure,” said keyboard and saxophonist Jon Hegel.

Judge Roughneck has been a group since 1995 and Hegel said that they plan to play several new songs not yet on record.

“We’re looking forward to the show. It’s one of the best one’s of the summer,” Hegel said. “Last year we ended up staying longer in a hotel and people followed us up from Denver. This year my girlfriend and I are going to camp.”

Out of Ridgway Colorado, members of a jam band group called Fall Baby will bring a true mountain feel with an acoustic set. “All of the originals are about being in the Southwest and the inspiration that being in the mountains brings,” said Helene Cassarini, lead singer.

Cassarini said that as a ritual, the members of the group like to kayak, hike or ski before they perform and that they definitely plan to get some time in the river this weekend.

New to the festival, Cassarini said that through their music, Fall Baby likes to spread that peaceful, love and hippy vibe so that, afterward, people can go on with their daily lives feeling better. “That’s what it does for us,” she said.

Angie Stevens, a local favorite, who has performed at every Collegiate Peaks Festival will also return. Her new album, Queen of This Mess, debuted at No. 5 on the Euro American chart and No. 6 on the Roots Music Report.

Also with her freshly released 2009 album Saving Grace, Wendy Woo is sure to dazzle people with her guitar wizardry and lyrics.

Upcoming star, Jessica Sonner, is scheduled to play an acoustic set. Her single “Rescue Me” has been featured on HBO’s Big Love.

And the list of music goes on. Kizumba will put a little Latin love in the atmosphere with salsa and merengue beats, The Spring Creek Bluegrass Band will flat pick the night away, the Silvertone Devils will bring the rock from Paonia and the Buena Vista High School Band will get a chance to display their talent.

And just when you think the lineup is done, everyone will be able to join the closing encore with Peak Rhythms.

“In every circle somebody says that they don’t have rhythm,” Crowder said, “and I say, ‘Well, do you have a heart beat? If you have a heartbeat then you have a rhythm.’ It’s very empowering for someone to find that they can play music.”

Picture courtesy of Jon Crowder. (Peak Rhythms along with Love Hope Strength held a drum circle on top of Pikes Peak in a rally to beat cancer)

Judge Roughneck - www.judgeroughneck.com
Peak Rhythms - www.peakrhythms.com
Spring Creek - www.springcreekbluegrassband.com
Jessica Sonner - www.jessicasonner.com
Kizumba - www.kizumba.com
Angie Stevens - www.angiestevens.com
Opie Gone Bad - www.opiegonebad.com
Silvertone Devils - http://www.reverbnation.com/silvertonedevils
Wendy Woo - www.wendywoo.com
Fall Baby www.fallbaby.com
BV High School Jazz Band


(Originally published in The Chaffee County Times)