Great Amerian Taxi to perform at Dickens Opera House in Longmont
Sep 01, 2012 (Menafn - Daily Times-Call - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Great American Taxi, led by the powerhouse personality of Vince Herman and one of Colorado's most in-demand bands, has long wanted to perform in Longmont.
"We've been kind of looking at it for a while," Herman said. "We thought, 'There's got to be a place to play in Longmont.'"
There is indeed a place, the band discovered.
Great American Taxi is scheduled to take the stage at Dickens Opera House on Friday, Sept. 7. Word has gotten out to many acts in the region, including Taxi, that Dickens, with its ornate proscenium stage, has made major improvements to its live-music operation. The Taxi show will be one of Longmont's most high-profile concerts all year.
Herman is one of the Colorado music scene's most recognizable
By C. Alan Crandall. Great American Taxi guitarist Jim Lewin performing ith the band at NedFest 2012. (Picasa)
figures. Great American Taxi is Herman's roots rock project, but he's best known as a member of Leftover Salmon, a bluegrass-inspired jam band that transcended its Front Range base in the 1990s and continues to enjoy national recognition. Herman, a Nederland resident, is the band's salient character. He's got ample hair, energy and pounds. The band is an elite among numerous Colorado acts that recast bluegrass styles to emphasize grooves, jams and a Rocky Mountian High sensibility, and its influence on pickers of similar taste extends to all corners of the state.
That makes what Herman revealed in an interview last week somewhat epochal. He's moving to Oregon -- his girlfriend lives in Williams, Ore.
"I'm doing it for love," he said, adding he's "a migratory species" and feels it's time to move on anyway. "I've lived in Colorado for 27 years and I never thought I'd live anywhere that long."
He rejected any notion that the move will have an effect on his bands. He said bands commonly include members who live in different states and travel as needed for their work. Asked what his bandmates thought of the move, he said, "Oh, no worries."
The band includes Longmont resident Brian Adams on bass, Firestone resident
By C. Alan Crandall. Vince Herman (Picasa)
Chad Staehly on keyboards, Jim Lewin on guitar and Chris Sheldon on drums.
Great American Taxi has released three albums, the last being "Paradise Lost," a meditation on the American Dream that was produced by the songwriter Todd Snider. The Dickens show will likely draw heavily from "Paradise Lost," Herman said, but he added that Great American Taxi's habit is to be spontaneous.
"There's no telling what you feel like playing," he said.
The band last week performed at NedFest, a jam band music festival in Nederland that Herman often performs at with one band or another.
Herman freely allows that his own home on Fourth Street has long been a raucus after-hours NedFest hotspot. In similar spirit, he mischievously invited concert-goers over to Adams' Longmont home after the Dickens show, though in deference to Adams' protests, he stopped short of divulging the address.
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