If the fragile music industry ever sours, leaving musicians, writers and bloggers, roadies and sound guys out of work, musicians like Kyle Hollingsworth will be able to fall back on other trades to make a living. Like making beer.
Despite a current trend of vinyl sales on the upswing while digital sales are dropping, venues and record stores worldwide are closing their doors. It’s a telltale sign that the unpredictable world of the music business is about as stable as the house of cards built by the “Brady Bunch” kids, eventually knocked over by Tiger the dog. It’s good to have something to fall back on when whatever art you’ve pursued collapses because people would rather consume garbage than something decent.
Yet no matter how fragile the economy, people always have money for beer. It’s probably a good thing to add beer-making to anything you do. Hollingsworth, whose full-time gig is the keyboard player for jam band String Cheese Incident as well as his solo outings, has been a home-brewer for more than 20 years. He’ll play Saturday night at Animas City Theatre. Playing in his band are Garrett Sayers on bass, Ryan Jalbert on guitar and Brian McRae on drums.
The “Brewski Tour” is three parts music, one part beer: Craft-beer enthusiast Hollingsworth reaches out to breweries in towns where he’ll tour to make a special beer, which then is sold at his shows.
“I hook up with a local brewery, and they make a batch that is specific only to these shows,” Hollingsworth said last week from Boulder. “So I helped with the recipe, and we talk about ingredients. This time around, I made it with Ska Brewery.
“I love Ska. They have always been one of my favorites.”
The beer is called “Kyle’s Manipulated Modus,” an altered version of Ska’s Modus Hoperandi featuring orange peel and dry-hopped with Mandarina Bavaria hops.
It’s a venture that goes right alongside making music.
“I’ve been connecting the dots between brewing creativity and live-performance music, and I’ve joined the parallel of taking risks in both and looking at how balancing beer and balancing music can be similar,” he said. “It can be the best Warren Haynes solo ever, but you don’t want it to be the loudest thing in the mix. It can be the best hoppy beer ever, but it can’t be way over the top. It’s all about balance.”
He’s also finding balance between being in a jam band and fronting his solo project. It’s a way to explore some musical interests that may not fit into the realm of a String Cheese Incident set while also being the band leader.
“There’s some String Cheese-influenced music, but I lay down some funk and electronic music, as well. It’s an Afro-beat thing, but a little more like String Cheese on steroids,” Hollingsworth said. “It’s great to have some form of artistic control. We play my original music and some cool covers. In the end, what I like better, I don’t really know. I think right now I’m digging my solo project a lot because I’m having a lot of fun with it.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s Best
Saturday: Queensryche with original lead singer Geoff Tate, 6:30 p.m., $25 general admission/$35 reserved seating, Sky Ute Casino Resort, 14324 Highway 172, Ignacio, (888) 842-4180.
Saturday: Kyle Hollingsworth Band Brewski Tour, 10 p.m., $20/$25, Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive, 799-2281.
