While you’re busy gearing up for the new semester, take some time to refresh your music collection with something new and different: the reworked sounds of virtuosic keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth.
You may have heard of Kyle Hollingsworth before — he was the keyboardist for Boulder-based jam masters the String Cheese Incident until the band took a hiatus in 2007. But you’ve never heard him like this.
“I feel like I’m going into new territory with this new album,” Hollingsworth said in a recent interview..
Hollingsworth released his first solo album, Never Odd or Even, in 2004 while he was still playing with the String Cheese Incident. This time around, he’s breaking out of the jam scene just a bit with Then There’s Now, which drops Sept. 15. On his new album, Hollingsworth experiments with a more pop-oriented technique and several different musical genres.
The album’s opening track, “Way That It Goes” has a distinctive hip-hop vibe.
“Post-String Cheese Incident, I’ve been doing a lot of playing with some hip-hop people,” Hollingsworth said. “So I’ve kind of been in that world a little bit.” Hollingsworth recently toured with Speech from Arrested Development and DJ Logic. Then There’s Now also features DJ Logic on turntables.
“It’s part of what I already do, with the groove and the funk behind it,” Hollingsworth said of the hip-hop sound. “But it’s adding vocals on top and figuring out clever ways to intertwine lyrics.”
It’s difficult to classify Then There’s Now as any particular genre, though the range of sounds spans funk, jazz, bluegrass and electronica. (Hollingsworth himself calls it a “funk, vocal, slightly rap-y thing.”)
Of course, the album is chock-full of the virtuosic keyboard solos, catchy hooks and funky grooves that helped Hollingsworth carve a niche for himself in the jam scene while he was still performing with the String Cheese Incident.
“I think it’s still a signature Kyle sound … a funk-based, New Orleans kind of sound,” Hollingsworth says.
But it’s his reflective, personal vocals that really stand out on Then There’s Now.
“I’m doing a lot more singing on this one,” he says. “I think on the new album, I’m reaching a lot of new fans.”
The new disc is also much more concise than String Cheese fans might be used to. These are not the long, meandering tunes characteristic of many jam bands — most songs on the album are between three and five minutes long. However, jam fans can be sure Hollingsworth and his band will tinker with the tracks on stage.
“We’re partially a jam band,” Hollingsworth explains. “There’s going to be some improvisation that occurs, and there’ll be moments where we’re just going to jump off cliffs musically and just go for it.”
Hollingsworth will bring this infectious energy and enthusiasm for his craft to the Majestic Theatre Thursday, Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. Euforquestra, an Afrobeat band hailing from Iowa City, Iowa, will open the show.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of collaboration on stage. It’s going to be a lot going on, and a lot of music to take in,” Hollingsworth said.
And fans should definitely expect some jam tendencies to manifest themselves in Hollingsworth’s new tracks, despite their brevity.
“My favorite song that I’m looking forward to performing live is ‘All I Need.’ It’s only a minute and a half long, but live, I’m so excited to take it way out and go really deep into that song. I feel like it has so much potential to be this epic, Afrobeat song,” he said.
Madison fans are in for a treat, because although Hollingsworth’s new album Then There’s Now doesn’t hit streets until next week, it will be available for purchase at Thursday’s show.
And as if you needed another reason to be excited for about this tour, here’s one: It’s not just about the music… it’s also about the beer.
“I’m doing something called a ‘Rock and Brew’ tour,” said Hollingsworth, who also happens to be a home-brewer with a passion for great beer.
“I’m going to different locations and getting these breweries involved, and they’re letting me brew some beer at their place and hang out with fans,” he said.
He recently brewed his own beer, a Hoppingsworth IPA, at the Mountain Sun in Boulder, Colo,, which will be released at a show there later this month. Hollingsworth sounds almost as enthusiastic about brewing custom beer as he does about his new record and tour.
“I wanted to learn how to make great beer, and I wanted to drink great beer on tour, and I wanted to turn all my fans and all the String Cheese fans onto all this great beer that’s out there,” he says.
Great beer and live music? Seems like Kyle Hollingsworth is throwing down, Madison-style. Unforunately, though, he won’t be stopping at a brewery in Madison.
“But we’re going to be drinking good beer in the audience with the fans afterwards anyway,” he said.
So grab a beer if you’re of age and catch Kyle Hollingsworth getting down at the Majestic Theatre this Thursday night at 10 p.m. He might do something crazy, like take a chainsaw to his piano. Hey, he does it on YouTube. You never know with those jam-band dudes.
Kyle Hollingsworth will be at the Majestic Theatre Thursday night at 10 p.m. Tickets are $10.
