Denver – Since 1979, Swallow Hill Music Association has brought the best acoustic, folk and roots music in the Rocky Mountain Region. Early spring in 2007 brings the First Annual Denver Folk & Roots Music Festival, dedicated to bringing a cross-cultural roots music event to the Denver metro community as well as to continue the mission of Swallow Hill. We also welcome back some great acts and friends with diverse repertoires and solid singer/songwriters who continue the traditions of their craft and bring their art form to new heights. Tickets are now available online at www.swallowhillmusic.org or by phone at (303) 777-1003.

HIGHLIGHTS

Acoustic Eidolon
Saturday, March 17 at 8 p.m.
Swallow Hill welcomes back the astonishingly brilliant instrumentalists Joe Scott and Hanna Alkire, who create a unique sound by mixing classical music with folk, featuring the one-of-a-kind double-necked guitjo instrument designed and played by Scott. The guitjo has been praised by USA Today as a "beautiful harp-like sounding instrument...like nothing they've ever heard before."

Grubstake
Saturday, March 24 at 8 p.m.
Harry Tuft, Jack Stanesco and Steve Abbott comprise this trio, well-known to the Colorado folk scene and a favorite of Swallow Hill. Their repertoire has a wide range and depth of influence and style, including contemporary songs from the likes of Bob Dylan and Greg Brown, chanties from St. Vincent, plus a little Chicago blues thrown in for good measure.

Bryan Bowers
Saturday, March 24 at 8 p.m.
People magazine proclaims, "Bowers is widely regarded as the leading virtuoso on the autoharp ... Bowers also has distinct gifts as a singer and songwriter." An inductee into Frets magazine's First Gallery of the Greats alongside Chet Atkins, David Grisman, Itzhak Perlman, and more, Bowers returns to Swallow Hill to enthrall audiences once more with his charismatic stories and musical grace.

Denver Folk & Roots Music Festival
Saturday, March 31 at 6 p.m.
Hosted in one of the finest acoustic concert halls in the world, the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the First Annual Denver Folk & Roots Music Festival is a showcase of world roots music. Headlined by renowned blues great Taj Mahal with his Taj Mahal Trio, the lineup is definitely a cross-cultural sampling of the sounds that comprise our world: Denver’s own flamenco guitarist, René Heredia; new and extraordinary young singer/songwriter duo, Storyhill; Colorado’s hottest new, multi-award-winning Bluegrass band, Sons & Brothers; dazzling Irish fiddle and guitar virtuosos, Liz Carroll and John Doyle; world-class mandolinist, Mike Marshall; Brazilian all-star ensemble, Choro Famoso; and Colombian singer/songwriter, Claudia Gómez.

Claudia Gómez
Saturday, April 7 at 8 p.m.
Colombian-born Claudia Gómez comes to Swallow Hill with her velvet vocals and her most recent release, Majagua, which reflects Brazilian, Flamenco and bolero-jazz influences. The East Bay Phoenix Journal says, "Her flawless contralto easily straddles the emotion of lush and sensuous bossa-nova to the near-raucous Carnival energy of the samba."

Martha Scanlan Trio
Saturday, April 14 at 8 p.m.
A lover of old-time and bluegrass music, Scanlan has built a reputation performing her old time, Appalachian and Americana tunes throughout the country. She has toured with the famed Oh Brother Where Art Thou performers on the Great High Mountain Tour and performed on the soundtrack for Cold Mountain, in addition to taking both first and second places in 2003 at the Merlefest Chris Austin Songwriting contest.

Mary Flower
Saturday, April 21 at 8 p.m.
An award-winning performer, former Swallow Hill instructor, and the only woman to reach the top three in the National Guitar Picking Championships two times in a row, masterful blues guitarist Mary Flower has been praised by Blues Review as “a first-rate fingerpicker.” Flower returns to Swallow Hill bringing her stellar Piedmont fingerpicking skills and her lapslide blues to the stage to thrill Swallow Hill audiences.

John William Davis with Nick Annis
Friday, April 27 at 8 p.m.
With four award nominations for his latest CD, Revelation Land, John William Davis comes back home with his erudite folk stories, poetry and foot-tapping rhythms. Westword says, "With echoes of early Tom Waits and Randy Newman, it’s a pastiche of Southern musical styles. (It’s) a rich, sophisticated work that manages to evoke both William Faulkner and Robert Johnson." Up-and-coming, politically edgy poet and winner of the Wildflower and South Florida competitions, Nick Annis, will open for Davis.

Vienna Teng
Saturday, April 28 at 8 p.m.
Pianist and singer-songwriter Vienna Teng comes to Swallow Hill to perform her self-described “chamber folk.” She has been hailed by the San Jose Mercury News as “a child of Chopin and Sarah McLachlan,” and her lovely soprano has been praised as “smooth and sophisticated” by the Washington Times. She's appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" and has toured with well-known musicians such as Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, Patty Griffin, Joan Baez, and the Indigo Girls.

Upcoming Concerts:

About Swallow Hill Music Association:
Helping people make music since 1979, Swallow Hill Music Association is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the United States as a source for folk, roots and acoustic music. With more than 2,100 members—some of whom are also volunteers—, Swallow Hill provides a place to celebrate music that is rarely heard elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain Region. Three concert venues house more than 150 performances a year, featuring some of the world's great artists as well as up-and-coming new talent. The Julie Davis Music School at Swallow Hill provides a valuable and affordable extra-curricular educational resource to the community with more than 50 music instructors involved in more than 240 adult classes and 70 children's classes annually.

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