Musical Act: Donavon Frankenreiter

Venue: Bluebird Theater

City: Denver, Colorado

Last night I walked down to the Bluebird to see one of my favorite live performers, Donavon Frankenreiter.  As usual he and his band put on a soulful, rockin’ show.  This band continues to evolve and grow as artists and last night they took quite a few improvisational twists and turns that were amazing.  The thing I like best about this band is that even though Donavon is the “name” they operate as a unit and Donavon has really allowed the the two band members to grow and shine.  In particular, multi-instrumentalist, Matt Grundy (bass, harmonica, lead/rhythm guitar!) is becoming one of my favorite guitar players even though he started out as the bass player.  He plays a double neck instrument that has a bass guitar and a six string guitar.  He switches between them effortlessly throughout the show laying down looped bass lines and then ripping into amazing leads that compliment Donavon’s stellar playing.  Now onto the coolest part of the night…midway through the show Donavon brought out his 14 year old son’s band to play two songs (Paranoid & Howlin’ for You).  These kids were amazing and Donavon made a funny quip that this was part of their home schooling curriculum.  The kids rocked and the crowd loved it!