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by Vince Darcangelo
"Blue Ribbon Buzz is an ode to roots music, to industrial beer," he says. "It’s kind of an anomaly, and it can work really good for us in the land of jam and microbrews. It’s just a little different take. It’s just trying to get an edge, trying to get a voice." Stripped-down roots-rock, country Americana is one way to describe Buckskin Stallion’s sound, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Blue Ribbon Buzz runs the gamut from old-school country and honky-tonk to Americana-laced story songs, bluegrass and alt-country. It also boasts an all-star cast of local music dignitaries, including Hit and Run Bluegrass; Danny Shafer, Rebecca Hoggan and Greg Schochet (who also produced) from the All Night Honky-Tonk All Stars; Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon; Sally Van Meter, Christian Teele and Bret Billings from Halden Wofford; and the Hi*Beams. "Greg brought in some really top-notch players," says Schoenfelder. "For me, it was my first time in a studio, so it was truly a buzz. I really enjoyed the whole process. I was game for anything." In addition to this heavyweight lineup of extras, Schoenfelder was joined by his bandmates Lee Johnson on steel guitar, James Young on bass and Andy Sweetser on drums. Schoenfelder, who began forming what would become Buckskin Stallion when he relocated to Colorado from Minnesota in 1999, says that the band wanted to create a strong studio album, a bit slicker than their more visceral live performance. "The live show has much more of a roots-rock kind of feel," he says. This is not to say that Blue Ribbon Buzz doesn’t have its moments of straight-forward rowdiness and heart-on-sleeve emotion. The CDs opening track, "Christ on a Crutch," has an endearing, smooth-liquor-on-a warm-day, back-porch philosophy. The title track is a sultry, honky-tonk strut of whisky-drenched heartache that showcases the skillful piano work of Eric Moon, whose bouncy riffs and trills would fit easily into a dusty 1960s western. And Schoenfelder’s voice sounds equally at home in the staccato, backwater swamp of "Jack of Diamonds" as it does on the CD-closing ballad "She Gone." Schoenfelder says he enjoyed this balancing act of properly representing the raw, visceral appeal of a live Buckskin Stallion show while layering each song to its full studio potential. "It was pretty great to see the puzzle slowly come into form, seeing the greater picture come into view," he says. The final product was released on Big Bender Records on Feb. 10. Ultimately, Schoenfelder hopes to take the 13-track CD on the road, but in the meantime it is available locally. The band is hoping to parlay the disc into opening gigs for national acts that will garner Buckskin Stallion more name recognition. This strategy is similar to how the band established itself as an up-and-coming local act. "We really didn’t start hitting our stride until probably 2001, early-2002," says Schoenfelder. "We started getting some big gigs with the All Night Honky-Tonk All Stars at like the Boulder Theater and the Fox." The All Night Honky-Tonk All Stars will be on hand to help Buckskin Stallion celebrate the release of their debut CD, bringing the rise of Buckskin Stallion to the upper tier of local bands full circle and reinforcing the area’s burgeoning country, roots, honky-tonk and bluegrass scene as one big, happy family. The Buckskin Stallion CD release party, with the All Night Honky-Tonk All Stars, starts at 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, 303-786-7030. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com Everything in particular by David Kirby
It was no accident that it was these two–Sanders writes most of the rapper lyrics and core compositional elements for the band, while Crystal handles most of the band’s business. And this being an interview about music and the band’s immediate fortunes, we had the right guys on the phone. "As far as the songs go, [keyboardist] Jon Piazza and I basically put the tunes together, work on changes and all the internal stuff going on there, and then [guitarist] Jon Stone will build an arrangement out of it," says Sanders. "Everyone else will sort of hear their parts, and everyone will add stuff, but between the three of us, the tunes are constructed. "Stone is a real serious composer. He approaches the songs like an orchestra piece, working on each part until they flow together seamlessly. It’s like a soundtrack, sometimes," he continues. The results are evident, especially on a few of the longer cuts on the half-vocal, half-instrumental CD. "Deep Puddin’ Pt 1" opens with an alternately consonant and dissonant weave of keyboard and horn section chords, breaking into a galloping, fusion-y jam, bursting into a full blown prog-jazz orchestra anthem and finally trailing off with a trumpet-laced ambient figure. Clocking past seven minutes, the tune conjures three or four distinct musical climates with ease and precision. And then it’s followed by a tight, perfectly rendered R&B-spiced ballad called "Dom P," with Sanders’ vocals harmonized across a letter-perfect horn chart. There is wisdom at work in a band that knows when to flex its instrumental chops and when to lay back and let the song (or the singer) carry the day, and these guys are experts at managing their resources. "Kevin Clock at Colorado Sound really worked with us on some of the creative decisions of making the CD, helping us focus a little, but ultimately, you know, it really is eight guys," says Sanders. "We take all the stuff in and pass it around, and it’s gotta work for everyone. It’s eight guys, eight compromises, yeah, but in the end, it’s something we all feel." The band’s musical references are plainly more urban, more steeped in hip-hop and R&B and old school, pastel bellbottom funk than most of its jazz-inclined contemporaries. But as they lean into their influences–which can range from Gil Scott Heron to Primus to early WAVE jazz to Cannonball Adderley to Mahavishnu–you get a sense of commitment, not showy dilettantism. Part of it may be the disciplined afterglow of longtime or recently completed musical educations (all studied at DU’s Lamont School of Music at one time or another). Part of it may be the tunes or the structure behind the scenes. But you won’t mistake this gig for a low-commitment, jamband engagement. "We do stretch things out a bit on stage, but we get that all the time. ‘Oh you’re a jazz band. Oh, you also do the funk thing. Oh, and you do the rap thing,’" says Sanders. "Yeah, it’s us going face first in four or five different directions. See, I believe there’s a niche market out there, people who can dig all this stuff, and we’re going to find it." "The goal for the album," says Crystal, "is to really position us for a management role, someone to come in and help us get set up in new markets. Ultimately, it may be that we’ll have to move, maybe to one of the coasts, but in the next few months it’s just finding the right representation to take us outside of Colorado, play some new markets, do some analysis on where the CD is getting played on the air." "That’s really the next step for us, I think we’re ready for it." Chronophonic plays at 10 p.m., Friday, Feb. 20, at Round Midnight, 1005 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-447-1959 or 303-442-2176. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com |
On Thursday, Feb. 26, local roots-country act Buckskin Stallion will release Blue Ribbon Buzz at the Boulder Theater, the result of a summer in the studio and the fruition of more than three years of hard work. Troy Schoenfelder, the band’s singer, guitarist and songwriter, says Buckskin Stallion’s debut CD is a celebration of all things Americana.
Jake Sanders and Kyle Crystal got elected (or volunteered) to speak for the eight-piece, Denver-based funk/jazz outfit Chronophonic last Sunday. The band was preparing a multi-town swing across the Front Range and a few ski towns to launch their second CD, Footwork, and Sanders and Crystal got on a speaker phone to field some questions.
