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Arts and Entertainment

Elephant Revival to bring folk to Durango

Nederland band to play 2 nights at Animas City Theatre
Colorado transcendental folk quintet Elephant Revival performed at the Birds of a Feather Autumnal Ball at the Boulder Theatre last November. They’ll bring new music, as well as familiar tunes, to Animas City Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday.

Some things are just left to fate. You meet one person, and your life can change forever.

In the case of Daniel Rodriguez and Bonnie Paine, it’s been a good ride since their first encounter in 2002. The two met when Paine performed at an open-mic night Rodriguez was running in Connecticut. The two ended up playing music together on the roof of the club until sunrise.

Now, they’re both part of the Nederland-based quintet Elephant Revival. The transcendental folk band has four albums, and the latest one, “These Changing Skies,” released in 2013, has won the adoration of music critics for its catchy, danceable melodies, great male and female vocals and honest lyrics.

It’s also been getting them a lot of work. Known for having an entertaining live show, Elephant Revival will be at Animas City Theatre on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Last time they were here, in 2013, they also played two shows, but this time, they’ll be pulling into Durango in their first professional tour bus – a step up from the small vans and school buses in which they used to travel.

Over the phone last Wednesday, it was apparent that Rodriguez is on cloud nine and thankful for his current lot in life. And despite a mishap on March 21 that left him with five stitches in his left thumb – the one he uses to hold the neck of his instruments – he said their current tour is going great. Elephant Revival was getting ready to play that evening at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, a venue that used to host the Grateful Dead and now is a stage for some of the biggest names in music.

Rodriguez’s thumb has bled a little during shows, but he isn’t fretting.

“I get through the whole day snowboarding without injuring myself, which is what you want. And then I get back to my hotel room, and I lean the snowboard against the wall, and then I see the snowboard start to fall as I walk away, and I quickly turn around and try to catch it. And the sharp edge on the snowboard had enough top-heaviness that it went right through my thumb,” he said.

After rushing to the emergency room for stitches, he went straight to join Elephant Revival for their late-night set at WinterWonderGrass in Squaw Valley, California.

Rodriguez, who plays banjo and guitar and sings lead vocals in hit songs including “Birds and Stars,” has been dedicated to music for awhile.

“I knew everything else that was presented to me – college, the academic life – it was kinda slowly stripping away. And it was kind of becoming more of a façade to me than anything. And the music was really speaking the loudest to me,” Rodriguez said.

After he met Paine, a vocalist and washboard player, Rodriguez bought a Ford F-150 for $100, put a futon in the back and moved to Oklahoma, Paine’s home state. Then, he moved to Boulder, where he lived out of his truck for a while, and eventually met the others in the band: Bridget Law on fiddle; Charlie Rose on banjo, pedal steel and double bass; and Dango Rose on double bass, mandolin, banjo and vocals.

Together, they create the unique sound that defines the band and has earned them spots this summer on the bills of festivals like Palisade Bluegrass and Roots Festival and the All Good Music Festival in West Virginia.

“You take five different people from five different parts of the country and five different record collections, and you put them together in one living room. Over 10 years, it’s gonna be something that you can’t put a word to. There’s no genre for it. That red-dirt music that Bonnie listened to, that was like culture shock the first time I heard that. The Texas fiddle music and Celtic fiddle music, I never learned how to play that until I met Bridget, and then, of course, I grew up playing in a reggae band,” Rodriguez said.

Last summer, they played for the first time at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with a symphony, Gregory Alan Isakov and DeVotchKa – a big milestone for any band.

“I have no other words to describe it other than ‘awesome,’” Rodriguez said. They’ve been invited to play there again in August with Shakey Graves and Trampled by Turtles.

Rodriguez says the band is excited to play new songs, as well as familiar material, at their Durango shows.

“I just want to continue to bring our art to the world, ’cause that’s really our happy place. I don’t wanna ever lose sight of what art and music is all about and just keep everything in perspective,” he said.

mhayden@durangoherald.com

If you go

Elephant Revival will perform with Gipsy Moon opening at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive. The show is $25. Get tickets at Southwest Sound or at www.animascitytheatre.com.



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