Does your area have a "sound"?

Denver has been looking for something to call its sound for a long time.

It's not that we don't have a wealth of nationally successful musical talent, because we do. Just a few examples:

We have a band at top of the pop charts (The Fray). We have a highly acclaimed blues artist (Otis Taylor). We have the top jazz vocalist in the country (four -time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves).

We also have a thriving indie scene, and Boulder has long been known as a jamband center.

But none of that has felt distinctive enough for us to "brand" ourselves. We know we didn't invent jazz, blues, or indie rock, so we can't claim them as our own. We know that some people have credited John Denver with a "Denver Sound," but he lived in Aspen, and anyone who "names" himself after a place doesn't really represent it. We know that the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, String Cheese, and Yonder Mountain are associated with Colorado, but they're not "Denver."

Therefore it is notable that today's (7/28/2006) Denver Post talks about what can be legitimately called the "Denver Sound." I've heard it referred to as goth country -- a dark, backwoods, stylized form of alt-country. The Post expands the definition a bit to include bands like DeVotchka, which it calls "Gothic mariachi folk."

A lesson other areas might take from Denver's very recent discovery of its "sound': You can't really set out to invent a sound just because you want to be the center of the universe for something. It has to happen organically and then, after the fact, you start to realize that it's there. Further, I'd venture to say that to really be a "sound," the music has to feel so genuine to the area that you're already in the middle of it before anyone gives it a name.

DenverPost.com - "The Denver Sound" and more: "'When we're on tour, both the Harlots and [Slim Cessna's] Auto Club, people continue to come up to us and ask, 'What's going on in Denver?' Munly Munly [of Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots] said last week while on tour with the Auto Club, with which he also performs. ...

"'It's unique to Denver,' agrees Chris K., a local music industry guy who is hosting 'The Colorado Sound' radio program, 10 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays on KRFC/88.9- FM in Fort Collins. 'I don't think this is going on anywhere else in the country.'

"When Matt Fecher moved to Denver to create the South Park Music Festival (Sept. 7-10 in Fairplay), he started hearing the shared sound at rock clubs such as Bender's and the Hi-Dive.

"'I've seen American Gothic attempted to some extent all over the country, but when I moved to Denver, I finally saw it perfected,' said Fecher, who has booked many of the aforementioned bands for this year's festival. 'I truly believe that Denver's American Gothic scene is to Americana and alt-country what Omaha is to indie rock.'"

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