Celebrating an American Spring with The John Kadlecik Band: 4.28.16

The John K Band made its triumphant return to Colorado with a strong performance at the intimate Hodi’s Half Note in Fort Collins, the first of a trio of shows in the Centennial State. Led by John Kadlecik of DSO, Furthur and Golden Gate Wingmen fame and surrounded by a group of first-rate musicians and improvisors in Klyph Black (bass), Waynard Scheller (keyboards) and Nathan Graham (drums), the Fort Collins gig demonstrated that this is a band not to be missed.

The show featured not only tunes made famous by the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band, including “How Sweet It Is,”  “They Love Each Other,” “Lazy River Road,”  “Shakedown Street” and “I Know You Rider,” but also an assortment of pleasing originals like “Sister Smiles,” “Seen Love” and “It’s Alright,” which were among the most jammed out of the evening. Although JK handled the lead vocals on most songs, Klyph Black did an incredible job of taking the lead vocals for a beautiful cover of the Jefferson Airplane’s “Good Shepherd.”

Fort Collins also saw the break-out of the folk song “Upon the Lowland Sea,” (also known as “Golden Vanity”), made famous by Peter, Paul & Mary and which appeared on the album American Spring by The Mix, a band that featured Kadlecik, Melvin Seals, Greg Anton and Kevin Rosen. The title cut of the album also made an appearance. Several tunes, best known as slow ballads, were given funked-up and jammed-out treatments that had the room shaking their bones with reckless abandon – notably, Van Morrison’s “And It Stoned Me” and Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me.”

The encore of the evening, “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” with Kadlecik playing beautiful mandolin-like riffs on his Alembic guitar was clearly not enough to satisfy the smiling and rowdy crowd as cheers brought the band back out for a very rare second encore of JJ Cale’s “After Midnight.”

The John K Band continues tonight (4/29) at The Oriental Theatre in Denver and tomorrow (4/30) at The Fox Theatre in Boulder. It is a gift to be able to see such an incredible band in these smaller venues!

John Kadlecik Band

Hodi’s Half Note. Fort Collins, CO 4/28/2016

Set I

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)

They Love Each Other

Sister Smiles

Lazy River Road

Good Shepherd

Upon the Lowland Sea

Seen Love

Deal

Set II

Shakedown Street

And It Stoned Me

American Spring

It’s Alright

Don’t Let Go

She Belongs to Me

I’ll Take a Melody

I Know You Rider

E1: When I Paint My Masterpiece

E2: After Midnight