Andrew Schneider (host), Johnny Hickman & Drew Jostad (sound) at KRFC after the radio show

“Hickman is best known for co-founding the band Cracker. His fiery lead guitar sound and spirited co-writing gave flavor to that band’s alternative radio hits, including Teen Angst, Low, Get Off This, and Eurotrash Girl. Cracker, founded in 1991 with childhood friend David Lowery, has eight full-length releases to date. Kerosene Hat (1994) remains an alternative music collection staple. Lowery and Hickman together are seen as godfathers of the alternative music scene, who turned gently away from plaid-clad grunge in the 1990s with more countrified and bluesy stylings. Their collaboration with the jam-band Leftover Salmon in 2003 further proved that no one genre could contain them.

Prior to his tenure in Cracker, Hickman toured as a solo/folk acoustic performer, had a brief stint in the Unforgiven (a tongue-in-cheek-Western guitar rock band), and co-founded the Inland Empire (California) cult band the Dangers. Influenced by punk rock, surf guitar, and true Bakersfield country, Hickman’s sound is often imitated but never perfected by anyone but he and his signature 1978 Les Paul.

Occasionally, Hickman ventures away from solo work and Cracker to spearhead side projects, such as All Thumbs Trio (with moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey, and East Coast guitarist Gibb Droll), and Crazysloth, an Arizona-based band. Film and TV work to date include one full film score for the independent River Red, as well as the placement of Lowery/Hickman songs in several popular films.”

~courtesy  © ReviewNetMedia.

In addition to original music, The Holler! has fun twisting up songs by influences such as: Led Zeppelin, Bjork, The Grateful Dead, Ween, Roger McGuinn, Taj Mahal, The Highwaymen, and Darrell Scott.  They have a charismatic ability to connect with a diverse demographic of music lovers, shaking up dance floors, elevating love frequencies, and having lots of fun along the way!

“The group’s songwriting is second-to-none, creating a diverse album that holds quick to its mountain roots.  There is some subtle magic going on here as The Holler! swiftly and thoroughly draws you in with their one-of-a-kind lyricism and finger-pickin’ goodness.” -review of Gratitude by Dusty Ray, Scene Magazine July 2011

-awarded “Best Bluegrass Band 2011″ by the Fort Collins Musicians Association

-placed 3rd Place in Northern Colorado’s Scene Magazine Battle of the Bands 2010

History

Holler!WildPicked who?  Michael Kirkpatrick’s progressive acoustic vision goes back to 2002 with a project called Wildwood Holler! consisting of upright bass, banjo, and mandolin. This Colorado string trio made an underground name for themselves, from the Rockies to the Ozarks to the Cascades, in a big green school bus between 2004-2008. Eventually percussion and a tasty guitar player were added and banjo was traded for the tuba! This rock-tuba-grass quartet recorded and performed under the name Handpicked Holler! from 2008-2010. In early 2010, bass guitar was re-introduced to the band and the name was simplified to The Holler!.  Michael continue’s to walk this path of folk-rock and bluegrass with willing cohorts and enjoys the experience of working with great musicians.”

Band Members

Michael Kirkpatrick- Vocals, Mandolin, Guitar, Lap Steel

Brian Adams- Guitar, Vocals

Brad Poto- Bass, Vocals

Kris Smith- Drums

Produced by Joe Pisapia (Guster, K. D. Lang) and recorded at Nashville’s Middle Tree Studios, Barrel takes a noticeable turn from the bluegrass leanings that characterized the band’s previous effort, Jump in the Get Down. On Barrel, largely due to the mid-production departure of the group’s banjo player and the arrival of guitarist Daniel Lawrence Walker – whose slide work gives the project a bluesier edge – the band finds it self with a whole new sound. That’s not to say that there isn’t continuity in the prominence of acoustic guitar, mandolin and even some banjo throughout. In fact, there’s even a taste of just-about-straightforward ‘grass in the tribute to one of the group’s heroes, John Hartford.

“It’s much more roots-rock Americana,” bassist Johnny Qualley told the Aspen Times while the group was still hard at work on the album, and that’s right as far as it goes, but in the end, Barrel really does elude easy description; just when you think that you’ve got it pegged with the good-time, good-natured feel of the title track, your expectations are confounded by the electrified sonorities and heartfelt yearning of “Satellites,” and then by the country flavor of “Out West,” written with the help of the Infamous Stringdusters’ Jeremy Garrett.  There’s the easy R & B sway of “I’ll Be All Right,” the lilt of “Promises,” the moody cosmic American music atmospherics of “Surrender” and “Please,” which seamlessly blend a dozen different influences. Then there is the heartfelt appeal of “Time To Change” and even a raucous hoedown on “Mission,” which brings the banjo back for one more turn.

What’s more, there are also new accents, new rhythms, like in the loose, easy-going lope of songs like “Hallelu.” There are also new textures, and a new gravity, too, in the lyrics; these are boys who know how to settle back and have a good time, but they’re also men who know there’s more to life than that. Just within the three songs on the Barrel EP, there is prevailing optimism in the face of adversity, the importance of a father’s touch and awe for life itself.  Through these tunes the writers seem to be acutely aware that there are lessons and opportunity all around them and these songs inspire us to remember the simple things and not get  wrapped up in or trapped by the times, locations or circumstances we live in. They unpretentiously encourage us to simply enjoy life and all it brings.

Yet there’s a logic—even a kind of inevitability—to Barrel’s quicksilver shifts, reflecting the twists and turns of a collective career that’s now entering its second decade.  Qualley and lead singer/guitarist A. P. Hill are the lone holdovers from the founding lineup, with drummer Chris Budin, mandolin/guitar man Max Paley joining more recently and Walker the freshest recruit—but whether old or new, each member is an essential contributor.  The result is an ensemble that’s earned enough acclaim—and enough fans—to keep them on the road year-round.  Indeed, whether tearing it up around Denver, traveling across the country or crossing the oceans, Oakhurst have been tapped to appear with a dizzying variety of fellow artists, ranging from jam-grass favorites like Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon to Americana staples like the Avett Brothers and John Hiatt to country icons such as Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett to flat-out rockers like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Heck, Zac Brown and a couple band mates sat in and played funk songs with Oakhurst one year at Telluride Bluegrass. How many genres does that cover? Wherever they have done their thing, they have always gotten audiences up on their feet with their infectious energy.

So when you hear Oakhurst—and their latest album—described as “eclectic,” resist the temptation to doubt.  Some artists talk the talk, but when it comes to music that knows no boundaries and no limits and yet remains deeply rooted in the American vernacular, Oakhurst is one tight group that knows how to walk the walk.”