Music

The live, intimate performances at Ebbets Field, Denver’s premier concert venue of the Seventies, would be a footnote in rock history were it not for the hundreds of shows professionally recorded by the staff of ListenUp.

A one-of-a-kind radio broadcast based in Boulder, eTown has been on the air around the country and the globe for more than three decades, mixing live music from top performers with conversation about social and environmental issues.

In 1966, nine jazz all-stars performed at Elitch Gardens’ legendary Trocadero Ballroom, which had opened in 1917 and become “the summer home of America’s big bands.” The next three years featured performances by the augmented “10 Greats of Jazz.” Businessman Dick Gibson dubbed these men “The World’s Greatest Jazz Band,” and the act toured until 1978 with a revolving cast.

The locally owned and independently operated radio station, which unleashed a diverse Americana format in the adventurous Denver market, hosted numerous artists in its lower downtown in-house studio space.

The Rainbow Music Hall became one of the nation’s top music showcases, a legend built by the acts that graced its stage, top-notch sound and lighting systems, and a certain intimacy in the 1,400-seat room.

In the ’90s, the Peak Lounge became an integral part of the heritage of live music in Denver, a cozy performance space for listeners of 96.5 KXPK—“The Peak.”

In the late ’60s, the freedom sought by a new generation came on the radio via the FM band—underground, or free-form, radio. In Denver, it was cooler to listen to the legendary KFML than to an AM Top 40 station.

Sugarloaf guitarist Bob Webber, now a recording and mix engineer, has used state-of-the-art digital software to provide audio glimpses into the band’s career beyond its best-known hit, “Green-Eyed Lady.”