Denver has never been considered a cultural mecca in the national and international zeitgeist. The city has long seemed to think of itself as a cowtown with a frontier past that looms over the present. But there have always been people who have had to make their own fun.
The most famous musical entities and movements identified with Colorado like Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, The Fray, The Lumineers, EDM, jam bands and Americana can seem anomalous minus context and roots to local culture. Local journalists have made an effort to piecemeal these connections for decades, but that information is atomized and challenging to research. What follows is a brief and very incomplete exploration of the people and phenomena that have made Denver a contributor to music culture.
On December 26, 1968, concert promoter Barry Fey brought Led Zeppelin to Denver for its first U.S. concert, where the band performed at Auditorium Arena to launch their North Ameri…
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