Log In


Reset Password
Columnists View from the Center Bear Smart The Travel Troubleshooter Dear Abby Student Aide Of Sound Mind Others Say Powerful solutions You are What You Eat Out Standing in the Fields What's up in Durango Skies Watch Yore Topknot Local First RE-4 Education Update MECC Cares for kids

13 years old, and already a guitar star

Jaden Carlson, a 13-year-old guitar phenom who hails from Boulder, will perform with her band at 6 p.m. Sunday at The Balcony Bar and Grill, 600 Main Ave. Jaden, who plays with a maturity and deftness that defies her years, will be joined by bandmates Will Trask and Eric Luba for an evening of rock, funk, soul and jazz.

When String Cheese Incident keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth performed in Durango last winter on his annual brew tour, he brought along a fellow Boulder resident and her trio as his supporting act. I’ve skipped plenty of openers, killing time elsewhere while I wait to see the headliner. On this night I was glad I didn’t skip the first act; otherwise I would have missed Jaden Carlson.

Walk into a venue where Jaden’s band is playing and you’ll hear a group you’d think has spent years refining its sound in the jam community. You might assume it’s a typical trio until you eyeball the guitar player and vocalist – who is several years shy of legal drinking age but plays with the maturity of a seasoned performer. The Jaden Carlson Band will perform Sunday at The Balcony Bar & Grill. Along with the 13-year-old Jaden, the trio is Will Trask on drums and Eric Luba, who handles keyboards with his right hand and bass on his keys with the left.

As you may have gathered, Jaden is not your typical teenager. The guitar player has spent half of her life achieving the guitar status of musicians four times her age.

Forget chasing down all of the bad fads, bad music and bad entertainment that are typical indulgences of teenage girls. Jaden is already ahead of the game. You won’t find One Direction, Ross Lynch, Jonas Brothers or other teenage flavors of the week in her sound. Her young musical palette moves from Michael Franti to Led Zeppelin to bands like Soulive and Snarky Puppy, outfits that have made their mark in the funk and jam community for years.

Her youth is charming. Short answers to questions may not be the best for interviews as you prod for what drives her to play guitar, but that is forgotten knowing she is growing steadily into a musical role with plenty of time to master all that comes with a career in the business.

Jaden started playing guitar at age 6, and now at 13 is well on her way to jam stardom. Her skills for someone so young are mind-blowing: a teenage songwriter, leader of a trio and guitar player with the chops that rival veterans in the jam community. Her power trio is an electric rock band leaning into the world of funk and jam, with songs of the sensitive songwriter that give way to powerful solos.

Playing guitar was a completely natural endeavor for Jaden.

“When I picked it up I said, ‘this is what I want to do,’” she said last week from Boulder. “I started with acoustic, because my teacher thought it would be better for me. But now I’m mainly electric.”

Imagine rhythm section musicians walking into band auditions and finding the person they’re auditioning for is hardly in double digits. Jaden’s bandmates didn’t have that problem; they found her.

“We didn’t do any auditions,” she said. “I play around a lot, and I guess they wanted to play with me.”

She is currently putting the finishes on her fourth release; “Polytechnic” will come out this fall.

Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.

Bryant’s best

Saturday: Rock music with Powertribe and Splatapus, 6 p.m., no cover, Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.

Sunday: The Jaden Carlson Band plays rock music, 6 p.m., no cover, The Balcony Bar & Grill, 600 Main Ave., 422-8008.



Reader Comments