The Wild Feathers were introduced to Triple A and JBE a decade ago at an industry showcase where they stunned onlookers with their powerful, rootsy and rockin’ presentation of songs that were so well crafted, they could easily have been reworked into Pop tunes. With the music enhanced by an almost retro sense of band camaraderie – a clear “all for one and one for all” approach – stellar musicianship and the fact that they truly are all just really nice guys, they practically became the Boulder “house band,” performing at the annual Triple A convention multiple times throughout their major label association with an offer to play almost instantaneous every time they were pitched. Then, the major label ride came to an end, creating a career period that could have been rife with uncertainty even if a pandemic didn’t come close behind, shutting down live music for over a year. But the resilience of the band members shone through as they used the free time and the disappointment to bring out qualities that led them to success in the first place, only this time bringing all of the operation in-house, committing themselves to rely on their own talents to support the creation and presentation of their art.
After releasing Medium Rarities – a collection of unreleased tracks plus a few new ones – in late 2020, the band found they were most comfortable in a more relaxed, spontaneous atmosphere than the one that surrounded their label-focused career path to date, so they spent December of last year in a cabin outside Nashville working up the tunes that would end up on The Wild Feathers’ most dynamic and compelling album to date, Alvarado.
Starting with the title track, “Alvarado,” an unrecorded love song to the California desert town of the same name that The Wild Feathers had been holding on to for almost a decade, the album Alvarado highlights all that is great about this band, with dynamic interplay between the instruments, soaring solos and incredible harmonies that find all the vocalists singing as one. While the tunes are clearly rooted in the rootsy Americana world The Wild Feathers are most readily associated with, the breadth of style on the album spans from Rock & Roll that swings (“Ain’t Lookin’”), straight-on Rock (“Side Street Shakedown”), shuffles (the whimsical “Out On The Road”) and ballads (“Top Of The World”), expanding the reach and appeal of the band.
The Wild Feathers’ Alvarado is finding wide support across all of Triple A, with Lightning 100, Colorado Sound, KGSR-HD2, WMOT, KMTN and WAPS only a few of the stations supporting Rock & Roll’s next great hope.
Photo by Alex Justice
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