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Hear This: Autumn Grooves

Come fall, Colorado is packed with shows, so you need to choose wisely. We suggest you check out these five acts coming to the Front Range this fall with new albums in tow.

Railroad Earth

New Album: Ashes and Dust
(with Warren Haynes)
Playing:
Red Rocks, Morrison, Sep. 18; Boulder Theater, Boulder, Sep. 19

Multi-dimensional string band Railroad Earth has amassed a loyal following behind a sound that combines expansive acoustic rock jams with the thought-provoking lyrics of frontman and predominant songwriter Todd Sheaffer. This year, though, the group stepped out in a supportive role as backing band to guitar hero Warren Haynes on his new album “Ashes and Dust.” While normally one to plug in and rip, Haynes, a North Carolina native, decided to make a record that took him back to his Appalachian roots. With a versatile style that can include Celtic flavor, straight-ahead bluegrass fury, and gritty backwoods rock, Railroad Earth helps give Haynes a traditionalist edge to explore blue-collar themes on standouts like “Coal Tattoo” and “Company Man.” Although the band did back Haynes at select shows this summer, this month it will return to Red Rocks as a headliner, playing September 18 with opener Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead fronting his band Billy and the Kids.

Galactic

New Album: Into the Deep
Playing: Red Rocks, Morrison, Sep. 19 (with Grace Potter)

On the album “Into the Deep” (released over the summer), the veteran New Orleans funk-expansionist crew gets by with a little help from their friends. The 11-song set features the sextet augmenting its usual high-powered instrumental grooves with an all-star cast of special guests on vocals. JJ Grey adds his swampy howl to the electro-soul room shaker “Higher and Higher,” and Macy Gray leads the inspiring R&B swagger of the title track. There’s also the catchy gospel bounce of “Doesn’t Make a Difference” with Mavis Staples, and the hard-hitting hip-hop flavored “Dollar Diva” fronted by David Shaw of the Revivalists. It’s more impressive work from a band that’s spent the past two decades taking retro sounds in innovative directions.

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The Dustbowl Revival

New Album: With A Lampshade On
Playing: Hi-Dive, Denver, Oct. 9

This eight-piece California outfit has become known for throwing rowdy hoedowns behind a sound that puts American roots music in a high-energy blender. “With A Lampshade On” is a mostly live album that offers a sample of the band’s brand of joyful noise, a collision of strings and brass that incorporates old-time foot-stompers, hot jazz dance numbers and vintage-style swing tunes. It’s all delivered with an orchestral force that can keep crowds moving.

Josh Ritter

New Album: Sermon on the Rocks
Playing: Macky Auditorium, Boulder, Oct. 10

“I wanted to play messianic oracular honky tonk.” Josh Ritter posted that description on his website when announcing that his new album, “Sermon on the Rocks,” which was made in New Orleans, comes out October 26. The first released track, “Getting Ready to Get Down,” showcases Ritter’s wry wit as he sings about a girl stifled by a Midwestern Bible college looking to let her hair down. The subject doesn’t feel so weighty since it’s delivered through an alt-country party song. Ritter and his Royal City band are playing a special show at Colorado University’s Macky Auditorium, backed by the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. He’s promising new arrangements of old favorites and songs from the new album.

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Blitzen Trapper

New Album: All Across This Land
Playing: Bluebird Theater, Denver, October 26

Indie roots-rock outfit Blitzen Trapper has proven unpredictably inventive over the course of seven studio albums and a decade and a half together. Sometimes the Portland, Oregon-based band takes off into realms of fuzzy, off-kilter space country (see the 2013 album “VII”), while other efforts feature tamer straight-ahead folk-rock tunes that thrive on the compelling lyrics and laidback vocal delivery of frontman Eric Earley. “All Across This Land” falls in the latter category. While the title track is propelled by electric riffs and twangy fills, the majority of the record has an even-keel mood. Earley sounds like a less-cryptic version of Jeff Tweedy in the earnest ballad “Love Grow Cold,” and “Nights Were Made for Love” is a catchy piece of textbook heartland rock. Overall, it’s a satisfying, goes-down-easy album from a band building an underappreciated discography.

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