Gregory Alan Isakov at Mission Ballroom in Denver
A Gregory Alan Isakov show is a kind of spell, no matter where you see him play. In Colorado, though, it’s an experience without compare. The musical personification of Boulder (via South Africa and Philadelphia) is the the middle of his late summer swing through his adopted home state, including stops in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction, plus two nights at Red Rocks. Sandwiched in on a Friday night, it was Denver’s turn at the city’s premier indoor venue, Mission Ballroom.
Isakov’s music, to me, has been the sound of Colorado since I moved here a dozen years ago. It’s simply lush (if that’s a thing) and notably unfussy. He and his band – Jeb Bows (violin), Steve Varney (banjo, guitar, piano), Max Barcelow (drums), John Paul Grigsby (bass) and Danny Black (guitar, keys, steel) – create a rich, organic sound, and Isakov’s songs deal with a mix of sadness, isolation, fragility and acceptance. Beginning their set with the pleasantly meandering fan favorite “Amsterdam” (from 2013’s The Weatherman), Isakov chose to span his six-album career while including roughly half of last year’s Appaloosa Bones. The first track from the record, “The Fall,” made an early appearance in the set, characterized by Varney’s banjo work (and, in the chaos of 2024, who couldn’t use a little more banjo?) as Isakov sang of rugged resilience – “We all break a little when we fall.” And, despite Denver’s hot summer lingering as Labor Day approached, Isakov cooled the room with his doldrums-of-January song “Before the Sun” – “They haven’t made no pill/To get us ‘cross the wintertime.”
Show highlights spanned Isakov’s career. The singer soloed on the aching “Second Chances” (from The Weatherman), offering the simplest of wisdom – “If it weren’t for second chances, we’d all be alone.” “San Luis,” from 2018’s Evening Machines, paid tribute to one of Colorado’s most beautiful (and most isolated) regions. And one of my favorite tunes from last year, “Sweet Heat Lightning,” brought us back to summer with one of Colorado’s best pastimes, the meandering road trip – “You drive, let’s see where this ends/Let’s let the wheels wear out.” The main set concluded with “Liars,” a song written by frequent collaborator Ron Scott and covered on 2016’s Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony. On Friday, Isakov and his players cut loose with the conviction of the heaviest of bands, but with fiddle, banjo and stand-up bass. The night closed with an intimate three-song encore, the entire ensemble gathered around a single microphone. We have a lot going on in Colorado right now – bad baseball, mediocre football, a housing shortage and a greatly exaggerated gang problem – but we also have Gregory Alan Isakov. As he said halfway through the evening, “So good to play at home…this is the best place on Earth.” Isakov and his band are one of the reasons why.
Opening act Josiah and the Bonnevilles (Josiah Leming) warmed up the crowd with an acoustic set full of stories, humor and a heartfelt (really!) Justin Beiber cover, “Ghost,” dedicated to his late mother. The Tennessee native has managed to turn a brief American Idol appearance into a longtime career as a recording and touring artist, now playing some of the biggest gigs of his career.
Check out Gregory Alan Isakov tour dates here: http://gregoryalanisakov.com/tour
Joshiah and the Bonnevilles shows can be found here: https://josiahandthe.com/pages/tour
Read our review of Appaloosa Bones here: https://americanahighways.org/2023/08/15/review-gregory-alan-isakov-appaloosa-bones/
Learn more about Gregory Alan Isakov in our interview from last year: https://americanahighways.org/2023/08/17/interview-gregory-alan-isakov/