Denver, Colorado Local Bands That Went National

One look at the Colorado Music Hall of Fame’s list of past inductees makes it clear that music made in this state, particularly over the last five decades, has captured listeners around the nation and the world. There are the likes of Philip Bailey and Larry Dunn, who went on to join Earth, Wind & Fire; legendary singer-songwriters Judy Collins and John Denver; jazz artists Bill Frisell, Dianne Reeves and Ron Miles; and bluesman Otis Taylor.

And there are many more local acts known around the country and beyond that have yet to be inducted into the Music Hall of Fame, but it’s only a matter of time. Denver garage-punk band the Fluid was the first non-Seattle act to be signed to Sub Pop, with 1988’s Clear Black Paper. In the ’90s, such acts as Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and 16 Horsepower helped pioneer the Denver sound, while the Apples in Stereo and Dressy Bessy helped spread bubbly pop tunes around the country.

Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ 1993 album, Sister Sweetly, ended up going platinum — and while DeVotchKa formed in 1997, the quartet gained a much bigger fan base with the success of the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack nearly a decade later. In the 2000s, OneRepublic, which initially formed in Colorado Springs, and Denver band the Fray both went on to be heard around the world while Flobots, 3OH!3 and Pretty Lights also went national.

Here are ten more Colorado acts that have gained national recognition:

Big Gigantic
Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken first started releasing music under the moniker Big Gigantic in 2009 with the EP Wide Awake, and have been making audiences go wild ever since with their trademark combination of live saxophone, percussion and production that blends hip-hop, EDM, jazz and funk. Big Gigantic has an impressive discography, and the 2016 album, Brighter Future, even went to number two on the Billboard dance/electronic albums chart. Most recently, Big Gigantic released the single “Oh Dang!” in 2023.

Hailing from Boulder, the duo has been hosting the annual RowdyTown concert at Red Rocks since 2012, which regularly sells out. Because it’s not just your ordinary EDM show: “The fact that we’re live, playing our instruments — we stress that as kind of a special thing,” Salken told Westword in 2020. “There’s kind of like solos and stuff. It’s a different format than some of the other folks that are doing a live thing. Between that and our backgrounds as musicians, I think what we bring to the table separates the show a lot.”

Gregory Alan Isakov
Boulder singer-songwriter and Grammy-nominated Gregory Alan Isakov’s hushed vocal delivery demands attention. He has a way of mesmerizing audiences with his voice and his songs, which also translates on his albums. Gigging a lot, releasing albums and touring with Kelly Joe Phelps helped Isakov get noticed around the country.

Grammy winner Brandi Carlile is a big fan of Isakov’s, and they’ve shared the stage multiple times; she also appears on five songs on his self-released album This Empty Hemisphere. When his song “Big Black Car” was used in a McDonald’s commercial, Isakov, who’s also a farmer, donated the proceeds to nonprofits that further sustainable farming. His songs have been used in several films and television shows, including Californication, Girls, Roadies, The Peanut Butter Falcon and more. 

Hot Rize
Since the group formed on the Front Range in the ’70s, Hot Rize has been considered one of the pioneers of the jamgrass genre, which melds bluegrass with rock and jam influences. With a progressive flair, the members of Hot Rize were architects of new acoustic music, laying the groundwork for what would emerge in Colorado over the following decades.

They nodded to the bluegrass tradition, wearing suits and crafting a sound that dipped into the old-time well of mountain music, all while expanding on the form. Their neckties were brightly colored, they simultaneously fielded an alter-ego Western swing band called Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers, they included an electric bass guitar (considered heretical by bluegrass purists), and their banjo player ran his plucks through a phase shifter effects pedal. Some bluegrass elders gasped, while other enthusiasts applauded and took notes for the future.

Leftover Salmon
Another jamgrass stalwart, Leftover Salmon cites Hot Rize (as well as acts including Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Seldom Scene) as a primary influence. The group formed in late 1989, after fusing mandolin player Drew Emmitt’s Left Hand String Band and singer/guitarist Vince Herman’s zydeco-inspired Salmon Heads. Dubbing its sound “polyethnic Cajun slamgrass,” Leftover Salmon brings a much-appreciated speed, attitude and variety to the bluegrass tradition.

Leftover Salmon is regularly touring and can often be seen at such festivals as Telluride Bluegrass Festival and WinterWonderGrass.

The Lumineers
While New Jersey natives Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites started performing and writing together in 2005, it wasn’t until they relocated to Denver five years later that they started getting national recognition under the Lumineers moniker. In the early days, the trio would try out material at the Meadowlark’s open-mic nights, which were hosted by Tyler Despres and Maria Kohler at the time. “I went to the open-mic at Meadowlark and heard act after act, musician after musician, that were really fucking good,” Schultz told Westword in 2012. “It really kind of blew me away.”

The Lumineers released its debut studio album in 2012, which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and contained the hit single “Ho Hey.” The band sold out two nights at the Bluebird Theater the same year the album was released; by 2013, the act was headlining two nights at Red Rocks. Since then, the Lumineers have received two Grammy nominations and released three more albums. The Lumineers just released their version of “Deck the Halls.”

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
After moving to Denver from rural Missouri about two and a half decades ago, Nathaniel Rateliff got his start in Colorado with anthemic rock band Born in the Flood. He then delved into more personal material as the Wheel before recording albums under his own name, including 2010’s In Memory of Loss for Rounder Records.

While Rateliff achieved some national recognition for his solo endeavors, he’s now known for his work with the Night Sweats, which he formed in 2013 with longtime collaborator Joseph Pope III. The Night Sweats helped Rateliff and company get some long overdue recognition not only stateside, but abroad, thanks in part to a rousing version of “S.O.B.” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in August 2015, the same month the band released its self-titled debut album for Stax Records. Since then, the Night Sweats has played that same show, as well as Saturday Night Live, and has gone on to release two more albums for the legendary label, including their latest, The Future.

And when Rateliff appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, he was sure to show off his roots by spotlighting the hi-dive, where he and his bandmates cut their teeth.

Primitive Man
While Primitive Man might not be a household name outside of metal circles, the Denver doom-metal trio has a significant following around the country and has done many tours in Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and other parts of the globe. The band, which won a 2023 Best of Denver award for Best Metal Band, has slowly built a dedicated following in the past decade, but before that, lead singer and guitarist Ethan Lee McCarthy booked numerous Denver metal shows and was responsible for bringing many underground acts to the city.

As Westword contributor Justin Criado writes: “Primitive Man just isn’t your stereotypical weed-themed stoner jam band obsessively soloing over a plodding backbeat while preaching peace and prosperity. To put it bluntly, Primitive Man’s grating blend of noise-grind sounds and hell howls is more like a living nightmare. A glorious nightmare.”

String Cheese Incident
It doesn’t get much more Colorado than the String Cheese Incident, which just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary and fiftieth Red Rocks show this summer. The six-piece seamlessly combines elements of bluegrass with a variety of influences, including rock, world music and even electronica. An enterprising and self-determined outfit, Cheese started its own record label (SCI Fidelity) in Boulder in the late ’90s, shortly after moving to the Front Range from Crested Butte.

Live Cheese sets range from the acoustic leanings of Flatt & Scruggs to electronic, keyboard-inflected explorations and then back to the campfire tunes. SCI has made a major, cross-genre impact by creating the music festivals Hulaween and Electric Forest, as well.

Tennis
Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore formed the indie-pop act Tennis in 2010, and national success came fairly fast on the heels of their 2011 album, Cape Dory, which drew sonic inspiration from ’60s girl groups and lyrically was about sailing and being in love. Music blogs such as Pitchfork and Stereogum both praised the album, which was released on Fat Possum Records, the Mississippi imprint that’s put out records by the Black Keys, Iggy Pop and R.L. Burnside, among others. A year later, the husband-and-wife duo performed “It All Feels the Same” on the Late Show With David Letterman.

Tennis released Yours Conditionally in 2017 on its own label, Mutually Detrimental, and debuted at the number-three slot on Billboard’s Alternative Albums chart. While the band would go on to headline Red Rocks, play Coachella and tour with Spoon and the Shins, Riley and Moore told Westword in 2017 that fame isn’t their end game. Rather, they want to be working musicians for the rest of their lives and just make enough money to support themselves.

“I read something, a Björk quote that I’m going to butcher, that says, ‘If I try to please five people, I won’t please anyone,’” Moore told Westword. “’But if I just try to please myself, I might please ten people.’”

Yonder Mountain String Band
Much like Leftover Salmon and SCI, Yonder Mountain String Band sought the sweet spot between technological advances in acoustic amplification and the authenticity of the bluegrass sound, and it’s safe to say the band found it since it formed in Nederland in the late ’90s.

The band has become a highly acclaimed and widely appreciated Colorado outfit that represents what can be achieved when the right elements coalesce under the right conditions, in the right place and at the right time. It was a headliner for the annual Denver Comes Alive event this year, and was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2021.