The Music Guru
As a journalist for the Denver Post, G. Brown (Jour’79) covered music for nearly 30 years. Today he’s executive director of the Colorado Music Experience and author of On Record, a three-part book series focusing on popular music from 1978-1998. Volumes covering the years 1978, 1984 and 1991 kick off the series.
What is Colorado Music Experience?
CoME is a nonprofit cultural and educational organization, a unique repository established to preserve the legacies of Colorado music history. It's an evolving archive of podcasts, documentary-style videos, interview-based profiles and photo galleries.
What's your favorite trivia fact about Colorado's music?
Hmm. How about the Serendipity Singers, the polished folk-pop ensemble organized at CU? In 1964, their song “Beans in My Ears” was banned in Boston — because it’s dangerous to put beans in your ears!
What was the genesis of the On Record series?
Collectively, my photo files provide an amazing, one-of-a-kind visual history, and while I mostly remember all the fun I had, it turns out that I worked pretty hard as a writer — I conducted 3,248 interviews in a 26-year span. On Record is the musicians speaking to their music in a particular year. It serves as reference as well as high-end nostalgia.
As a music journalist interviewing musicians comes with the territory, but what was one time you were starstruck?
My first interview, with Burton Cummings of the Guess Who, a hero of mine. It was a scene out of the movie Almost Famous — I was 15, and I showed up backstage at the Denver Coliseum wearing my brown wool 8th grade graduation suit and tie.
What's your favorite memory from your time at CU?
Boulder was a happening place in the ’70s. Attending classes during the day and working at the legendary Tulagi nightclub at night was a dream lifestyle.
Photo courtesy G. Brown