Chris Porterfield is the guy you bring home to Mom. Earnest, heartfelt, and yes, a little tortured – but not irreparably so.  He’s also the front man and lead singer of the band Field Report, who played the Hi-Dive to a mellow but appreciative crowd on November 11th. It was the coldest day in my memory of Denver, so credit is due to the intrepid fans who ventured out.

The marquee reads “Poor Man’s Whiskey: A Tribute to the Allman Brothers Band,” and the assumption that they’re no more than a cover band is understandable. Helping fuel the fire is their history of playing The Fox Theater with their renditions of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and the music of Old and In The Way. What the casual passerby doesn’t understand, however, is that there’s much more to this band than rehashing their favorite artists and albums on stage.

One of the most original music acts to emerge from the hills of Asheville, North Carolina, Americana power-pop group Alarm Clock Conspiracy, have released their sophomore album 'Harlequin'. The “conspiracy” which the band speaks of is the fallacy that all humans must awake to a bellowing alarm clock each morning only to rush off to work at a job that they truly hate. Wake up to right now! ACC's music is a combination of Indie Rock, Power Pop and Alt-Country, with influences drawn from 60's & 70's acoustic folk and rock music, as well as more current indie rock sounds of today.

San Francisco based psych Americana band, Lee Gallagher and the Hallelujah, are an organ/guitar driven rock band whose shows transport the audience out of a traditional music venue and into a hazy, hip shaking psychedelic tent revival.

Particle has just announced a month long run of coast-to-coast shows that kick off their Winter Tour 2015. The livetronica pioneers kick things off on January 9th in Cambridge, MA and then head north and west to Burlington, VT, Syracuse, NY and Pittsburgh, PA. The band then continues west, hitting key markets throughout the run, including: Columbus, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland and Seattle. Particle will wrap up with a grand finale at the legendary Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on February 6th