The main music lineup has been announced for the Dolores River Festival on June 6.
Pimps of Joytime will headline the event for the main show in the evening at 6:30 p.m. They will be preceded by Cold River City, The Porter Draw, Carute Roma, and Afro Beatniks. Side stage acts include The Crags, a Durango surf-rock bluegrass band, and Sweetwater Station, a Montezuma County band.
Pimps of Joytime is a soul-funk band from Brooklyn and New Orleans. Their live events and recordings have captivated fans across the country. Bandleader Brian J is a charismatic and soulful visionary, whose well-crafted songs invite the listener to enter a world of infectious dance grooves and indelible melodies.
The five-piece band's diverse sound and spirited attitude are strongly influenced by the Brooklyn DJ culture and live music scene from which they emerge. Recent collaborations with legendary artists Cyril and Art Neville of the Neville Brothers and Roy Ayers have helped vitalize the band's connection to its roots.
Cold River City originates from the Boulder-Denver area. Described as the love child of funky soul and dirty blues, this six-piece music group gets psychedelic, and is not afraid of improvisation. For their debut LP, "Let Me Shine," the band collaborated with Joel Scanlon of Euforquestra and the Motet.
"Simply put, our music comes from the heart and it comes from the mind," states their website. "When we get together, we find a groove, tap into it with all our energy and we try playing to the sounds that we have been influenced by throughout our entire lives, hopefully stumbling across some new ones along the way."
The Porter Draw is an Alt-Country, Americana band from Albuquerque. They have been key contributors to a flourishing New Mexico roots music movement since 2007 and have shared the stage with such greats as Greensky Bluegrass, Reverend Horton Heat, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Cadillac Sky. Fitting in at country honky-tonks and rock 'n' roll clubs alike, The Porter Draw has built a reputation for high energy, sweat-drenched shows coupled with tight harmonies of wistfully delicate lyrics of longing, heartbreak, and the American experience. According to its website, "They'll sing high lonesome with the bluegrass boys, command the stage like The Boss, and surprise you with raucous vocals you haven't heard since your older sister made you listen to The Clash."
Carute Roma, or "Gypsy Wagon," is an upbeat troupe of 10 bohemian musicians heard around the Four Corners performing Gypsy tunes at weddings, festivals, benefits and street corners. Carute Roma hails from Durango and specializes in traditional Roma music from Eastern Europe and Russia, along with modern Gypsy songs from around the world.
The Afrobeatniks draw their inspiration from the source: the popular, folkloric and spiritual music of Africa. The ancient rhythms that have traveled through time and space have now morphed into the grooves and melodies that these performers provide. The band has a passion for the complex West African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Latin Jazz music.
