We are compiling our Top 105 albums of the year, and it’s all up to you! Send your top 5 albums to [email protected]. Everyone who sends us their list will be in the running for a trip to see St. Vincent.
2017 is quickly coming to an end. Before turning the page and starting a new chapter, we want to find out what your favorite albums were. Send us your top five albums to: [email protected].
Everyone who sends us their list will be in the running for a trip to Seattle to see St. Vincent perform. The winner will be announced December 21 at our Solstice Celebration with Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Be listening December 28th as we count down your picks for the top albums of 2017 from 105.5, the Colorado Sound
Grammy Nominees That We Feature On The Colorado Sound
The National, Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem, Father John Misty, and Arcade Fire are up for Best Alternative Music Album. Read on for a comprehensive list of the Grammy nominees we play on air.
Record Of The Year:
“Redbone” — Childish Gambino
Album Of The Year:
“Awaken, My Love!” — Childish Gambino
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
“Feel It Still” — Portugal. The Man
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album:
Triplicate — Bob Dylan
Best Pop Vocal Album:
Kaleidoscope EP — Coldplay
Best Dance Recording:
“Tonite” — LCD Soundsystem
Best Dance/Electronic Album:
3-D The Catalogue — Kraftwerk
What Now — Sylvan Esso
Best Rock Performance:
“No Good” — Kaleo
Best Rock Album:
Villains — Queens Of The Stone Age
A Deeper Understanding — The War On Drugs
Best Alternative Music Album:
Everything Now — Arcade Fire
Humanz — Gorillaz
American Dream — LCD Soundsystem
Pure Comedy — Father John Misty
Sleep Well Beast — The National
Best R&B Song:
“Redbone” — Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)
Best Country Solo Performance:
“Losing You” — Alison Krauss
“Either Way” — Chris Stapleton
Best Country Duo/Group Performance:
“It Ain’t My Fault” — Brothers Osborne
“My Old Man” — Zac Brown Band
“You Look Good” — Lady Antebellum
“Better Man” — Little Big Town
“Drinkin’ Problem” — Midland
Best Country Song:
“Broken Halos” — Mike Henderson & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Chris Stapleton)
Best Country Album:
From A Room: Volume 1 — Chris Stapleton
Best New Age Album:
Reflection — Brian Eno
Best American Roots Performance:
Arkansas Farmboy — Glen Campbell
Steer Your Way — Leonard Cohen
I Never Cared For You — Alison Krauss
Best American Roots Song:
“Cumberland Gap” — David Rawlings
“I Wish You Well” — The Mavericks
“If We Were Vampires” — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
“It Ain’t Over Yet” — Rodney Crowell Featuring Rosanne Cash & John Paul White
“My Only True Friend” –Gregg Allman
Best Americana Album:
Southern Blood — Gregg Allman
Beast Epic — Iron & Wine
The Nashville Sound — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
Brand New Day — The Mavericks
Best Bluegrass Album:
Laws Of Gravity — The Infamous Stringdusters
Best Traditional Blues Album:
Blue & Lonesome — The Rolling Stones
Best Contemporary Blues Album:
Live From The Fox Oakland — Tedeschi Trucks Band
Best Folk Album:
Mental Illness — Aimee Mann
Semper Femina — Laura Marling
The Queen Of Hearts — Offa Rex
You Don’t Own Me Anymore — The Secret Sisters
Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling):
Born To Run — Bruce Springsteen
Best Recording Package:
Pure Comedy (Deluxe Edition) — Sasha Barr, Ed Steed & Josh Tillman, art directors (Father John Misty)
Sleep Well Beast — Elyanna Blaser-Gould, Luke Hayman & Andrea Trabucco-Campos, art directors (The National)
Best Album Notes:
Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings — Lynell George, album notes writer (Otis Redding)
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical:
Is This The Life We Really Want? — Nigel Godrich, Sam Petts-Davies & Darrell Thorp, engineers; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer (Roger Waters)
Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical:
Greg Kurstin — Concrete And Gold (Foo Fighters); Dear Life (Beck); Wall Of Glass (Liam Gallagher)
Blake Mills — Eternally Even (Jim James); Semper Femina (Laura Marling)
Best Music Video:
“Up All Night” — Beck
Best Music Film:
“One More Time With Feeling” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
“Long Strange Trip” — (The Grateful Dead)
The Colorado Sound Album Of The Week is Soul Of A Woman by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. The posthumous album from the soul icon features the gospel/funk highlight “Matter of Time” and is one of the most moving albums you’ll hear all year.
In her storied career, Sharon Jones was not one to back down. Backed by the Dap-Kings, arguably one of the greatest funk bands in American history, Jones had that rare voice to sing high above the rafters, while calling for justice with stunning social acuity.
Take a listen to her cover of “This Land is Your Land,” from her 2005 release, Naturally. You’d be hard pressed to find a more meaningful, funky remake of anything recorded during the Dust Bowl era.
Jones, whose influence can be felt across modern radio, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013. She continued to record with the Dap-Kings, releasing 2014′s Give The People What They Want, a holiday album, and a documentary, Miss Sharon Jones, as she confronted her illness.
Soul Of A Woman is a supremely inspirational collection. On “Matter of Time,” the words take on resonance. Unity is coming, she urges. On the stunning “Call On God,” Jones reimagines a song left over from 2007. The video says it all. What a voice. What an album. What an inspiration.
Leftover Salmon’s unique take on rock and blues classics
Leftover Salmon is back on its home turf this weekend. A return to Boulder gives us a chance to revisit some of their wildest blues and rock covers, all in the key of slam grass.
That Boulder blue/slam/jam grass pioneers are masters of their craft. They're one of the most unique live bands in the country, and their impact on the Colorado music scene has been profound. What makes them special is their deep reach into the American (and British) songbook, and never being afraid to try a new one out for the crowd.
These are some of their more well-known covers. A deep-south countrified Dead Flowers, a rare Neil Young gem, a jammy and adventurous Sweet Child, a fun Petty cover, two blues standards, and a Hendrix ballad round out some covers we love.
Dead Flowers, by The Rolling Stones
Are You Ready For The Country, by Neil Young
Sweet Child Of Mine, by Guns N Roses
You Don’t Know How It Feels, by Tom Petty
When The Levee Breaks, by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie and made famous by Led Zeppelin
Today’s the day to buy gifts for the music collector on your holiday list. AND support local record stores. It’s Black Friday, Record Store Day style.
Here are 8 BFRSD releases that have our attention.
Ryan Adams Prisoner - The 2017 breakup record is being released on cassette for BFRSD. How vintage is that?
Benjamin Booker Live for No One - Exclusive for BFRSD, this 10″ has live versions of "Right On You," "Witness," "Believe," "Slow Drag Under," and "Overtime."
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats Baby It's Cold Outside - This 7″ features the Colorado band doing “Baby It’s Cold Outside/Santa Baby.” Does it get much better than that?
Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales Side Trips, Volume 1 - A live spacey, jazz/rock performance from San Francisco in 1970.
Lou Reed and Kris Kristofferson The Bottom Line Archive Series: In Their Own Words: With Vin Scelsa - Live from a 1994 get together from the two famed songwriters, featuring the stories and versions of their classics.
John Lee Hooker Black Night is Falling - Raw and live from the legend himself, from Montreal, in 1977.
Son Volt Ballymena EP - A 10″ with three unreleased songs from last year’s Note of Blue, plus a gritty version of Son Volt’s “Sultana.”
Waylon Jennings New Stuff - Songs from the outlaw, recorded but never released before his passing, this BFRSD release is just Waylon, his words, and his guitar.
Elvis impersonator Jonny Barber has spent the last 14 years chronicling the history of Denver's Colfax Street, collecting thousands of artifacts that he's now moving from his basement into the new Colfax Museum.
Colorado Sound Presents has an exciting lineup of shows coming up over the next few weeks. We’re always adding more, and we’ll have new show announcements on our Facebook page.
Blues expert The Red Rooster will feature essential blues songs Thursdays and Fridays at 9 am and 9 pm.
The Red Rooster (aka Cary Wolfson) is an award-winning radio producer, photographer and writer who has lived in Boulder since 1973. His radio career began in 1978 on then-fledgling community station KGNU in Boulder, where he DJ’d diverse musical shows, served as Music Director, and did the station’s first blues show before helping develop Blues Legacy, KGNU's long-running Friday night blues slot. He is best known as the host of the weekly radio show Blues From the Red Rooster Lounge, which aired on KBCO from 1985 until this spring, as well as a syndicated version of the show currently on four stations scattered across the US and on Radio Free Amsterdam. He has twice received W.C. Handy Keeping the Blues Alive awards from the Blues Foundation in Memphis: for Blues from the Red Rooster Lounge in 1987; and again in 1991 for BLUES ACCESS Magazine, which he was the editor and publisher of from 1990-2002. For the past 21 summers Cary has taught a survey class on the blues at Common Ground on the Hill, a music and arts camp in Maryland.
The Rooster has emceed countless blues shows and gotten to meet a great number of his blues heroes, including Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, Charlie Musselwhite and Bobby Rush, some of the nicest people in the music business. He hosted a memorable blues show at Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium highlighting the music of Robert Johnson, with Johnson’s stepson, Robert Jr. Lockwood, John Hammond and Rory Block, which was followed by an onstage symposium featuring John, Rory and Mary Flower. The first blues show he ever attended was Albert King at the Cellar Door in Washington, DC, in 1969, and since then he has been fortunate to see so many other departed greats while they were still alive: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, Bo Diddley, Luther Allison, William Clarke, among many more. He has interviewed Musselwhite, Copeland, Lonnie Brooks and many more.
In 2000-2001 the Rooster published a series of articles in BLUES ACCESS detailing 111 favorite blues (and related) songs that eventually was turned into the six-disc set, Rooster Music: The First 2000 Years. Now that set is the basis for Blues Bites from the Red Rooster Lounge, airing on the Colorado Sound every Thursday and Friday at 9 am and 9 pm.
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