I first heard of Elephant Revival when I met Bridget Law at a fiddle contest five years ago. She had a magnetic personality and played the fiddle with the best of them, so I made sure to look up her band when I got home. The first Elephant song I listened to was "Ring Around the Moon", and it was stuck in my head for days. Since then I have seen them play many times.

I had never seen Elephant Revival before tonight. And sometimes, ignorance is bliss, and the best way to see a live band. Having no expectations or prior convictions of how a show will sound or make you feel is liberating.  After all, music is foremost an innate emotional reaction to rhythms, melodies, and lyrics, and when you have no existing mental model, your mind is forced to make one, which, in its synthesis, is one of the best parts of man’s love affair with music.

Just one week left until the gates open for the inaugural Hangtown Halloween Ball – featuring Railroad Earth - in Placerville, CA, October 28-30 and the early weather forecast is looking stellar for festival-goers all weekend!

Known for consistently booking some of the finest performers in new and traditional folk, roots rock, bluegrass and newgrass, and other American roots music, Suwannee Springfest returns in 2012 for its 16th straight year. Suwannee Springest will be held March 23-25, 2012 at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida and features some of the biggest names in the scene with veterans and up-and-comers alike.

Railroad Earth always attracts a massive crowd, and I had to soon forgotten the multiple block lines that can accumulate beside the Ogden on a big night.

Hustling down the festive, wintery Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, I stopped into “George’s Food and Drink” for a quick beer with a long- time Leftover Salmon fan.

Strong winds from the west blew across a dirt parking lot… people tuck their heads, pulling their hats tighter to their skulls as they struggle against the wind, walking towards a dusty, rock strewn patch of earth… getting closer, t-shirts and the tarps they are laid out on struggle to stay grounded as their owners try to protect their wares from the dust… Girls in ruffled tutu’s and fishnet stockings are re-thinking their outfit choices in light of the chill the wind brings with it- but dust and wind are commonplace occurrences for these veteran Colorado concert goers… rocks brought along

There is no better way to celebrate the country’s independence and the spirit of Colorado than a day of fun and festivities in the Colorado Rockies. For the first time ever, music, parade, food and fireworks will meet in a family environment at the Peak to Peak Music Festival in Nederland, CO, on the Fourth of July. With a long-standing musical heritage and Fourth of July festivities already in place, Nederland is the perfect mountain town for both young and old to celebrate the holiday.