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Arts and Entertainment

Dolores River Festival full of funk, Gypsy rock

Pimps of Joytime will headline the Dolores River Festival on June 6 at Joe Rowell Park in Dolores.

The main music lineup has been announced for the Dolores River Festival on June 6.

Pimps of Joytime will headline the event for the main show of the evening at 6:30 p.m. They will be preceded by Cold River City, The Porter Draw, Carute Roma and Afro Beatniks. Side stage acts include The Crags, a Durango surf-rock bluegrass band, and Sweetwater Station from Montezuma County.

Pimps of Joytime is a soul-funk band from Brooklyn and New Orleans. Their live events and recordings have captivated fans across the country. Bandleader Brian J is a charismatic and soulful visionary, whose well-crafted songs invite the listener to enter a world of infectious dance grooves and indelible melodies.

The five-piece band’s diverse sound and spirited attitude are strongly influenced by the Brooklyn DJ culture and live music scene from which they’ve emerged. Recent collaborations with legendary artists Cyril and Art Neville of the Neville Brothers and Roy Ayers have helped to establish the band’s connection to its roots.

Cold River City originates from the Boulder and Denver areas. Described as the love child of funky soul and dirty blues, this six-piece music group gets psychedelic and is not afraid to improvise. For its debut LP, “Let Me Shine,” the band collaborated with Joel Scanlon of Euforquestra and the Motet.

“Simply put, our music comes from the heart and it comes from the mind,” the band’s website says. “When we get together, we find a groove, tap into it with all our energy and we try playing to the sounds that we have been influenced by throughout our entire lives, hopefully stumbling across some new ones along the way.”

The Porter Draw is an alt-country, Americana band from Albuquerque that has been contributing to the flourishing New Mexico roots music movement since 2007 and has shared the stage with such greats as Greensky Bluegrass, Reverend Horton Heat, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Cadillac Sky. Fitting in at country honky-tonks and rock ’n’ roll clubs alike, The Porter Draw has built a reputation for high-energy, sweat-drenched shows coupled with tight harmonies of wistfully delicate lyrics of longing, heartbreak and the American experience. According to its website, “They’ll sing high lonesome with the bluegrass boys, command the stage like The Boss, and surprise you with raucous vocals you haven’t heard since your older sister made you listen to The Clash.”

Carute Roma, or “Gypsy Wagon,” is an upbeat troupe of 10 bohemian musicians performing Gypsy tunes around the Four Corners at weddings, festivals, benefits and on street corners. Founded in Durango, Carute Roma specializes in traditional Roma music from Eastern Europe and Russia, along with modern Gypsy songs from around the world.

The Afrobeatniks draw their inspiration from the source: the popular, folkloric and spiritual music of Africa. The ancient rhythms that have traveled through time and space now have morphed into the grooves and melodies that these performers provide. The band has a passion for complex West African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz music.



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