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PRESS KIT
PRESS IMAGES (click an image for high-res version)
REVIEWS
July 15, 2010 by B. Dutch Seyfarth
"While most records americana records released by well known artists this year so far have all been pretty good, I'd have to say that the difference between Kort's new record and all of the other releases thus far in 2009 is sorta like the difference between a running into a familiar acquaintance or sharing a beer with an old friend. After almost 2 months of repeated listens to Kort's new album, I continue to find new treasures buried in the songs that somehow comfort me or give words to the frustrations of modern daily life. For these reasons alone, Kort McCumber's fantastic new album gets my vote for best americana album of 2009."
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July 12, 2010 by B. Dutch Seyfarth
"Never heard of Kort McCumber? Rest assured you will. I had a chance to fire off a couple of questions to both Kort and sister Beth so that you can get to know these rising stars of folk music. ... [Says Kort] 'Well, when I first picked up the guitar, I just wanted to be good enough to play a few songs around the camp fire. It has just continued after that. Sitting across a table from Vince Gill when he is playing mandolin and singing harmony on one of my songs was an amazing experience. Playing my song "Living On" on grand piano with the Jacksonville symphony in front of ten thousand people. Winning my first song-writing contest in Snowbird, UT in 2007. I've been really fortunate.'"
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June 2010 by Danny McCloskey
"On Kort McCumber's website, he gives a breakdown of what makes Americana tick, explaining that it is equal parts folk, bluegrass, country, rock and roots music. Yep, that covers it.....mostly. What's missing from the description, and what Kort adds, is blue-eyed soul. His voice drips with it. From the two shot snare hit from opener “Shaking Off The Blues” right on through to closer “As The Sun Goes Down”, blue eyes or not, soul is in the house. The vocals ride over eleven tracks that dip into the Americana chest of sound with good effect. Title track “Ainʼt the Same As Before” rambles as bass, high hat and riffs move down the sonic court and the story tells what happens when time changes a small town."
June 1, 2009 by Joe Kovak
"Kort McCumber has been musically reborn. Again. The Colorado-by-way-of-Florida based singer/songwriter has, for years, been turning out bluegrass tinged Americana, but with his latest album, Ain't the Same as Before, McCumber takes a hard left from the style of his last few albums toward a more rock and blues-fueled one. But that’s just McCumber, throwing away his preconceptions of what his music should sound like, and letting his songwriting dictate its fate."
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May 2008
Kort McCumber is yet another of those great unheralded Americana singer-songwriters and I'm more than a little gobsmacked that I've only just discovered him. I've always prided myself on being pretty much aware of all the good'uns out there and rather blindly assumed this was his debut album. After many listens I have just fallen totally in love with it. So imagine my total surprise when I finally got around to reading his press release to discover that LICKSKILLET ROAD is his sixth album. How come, I asked myself, could he have made five previous albums and remained way beneath my usually reliable radar? Especially as this is one of the best albums I've heard this year-and I have to say, there's been some pretty amazing ones so far.
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February 1, 2008 by Brian F. Johnson
Kort McCumber is one of those guys on the local music scene that is, simply put, one hell of a nice guy. So it’s no wonder that when he sat down to record his latest album, Lickskillet Road, that he had a ton of fellow Front Range musicians who offered their help. McCumber is joined by Danny Shafer, Greg Schochet, Sally Van Meter, and other Coloradoans, but McCumber also goes a little Nashville with the help of Vince Gill, who plays on a couple tracks on the album.
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2008
"One of Colorado's finest songwriters..."
RAMBLES.NET
August 16, 2008 by Jerome Clark
Though singer-songwriter Kort McCumber's laid-back country-folk sound will be familiar from a genre's worth of comparable material since the 1960s, it is always a pleasure to hear when it is capably delivered. The model here, broadly speaking, is Guy Clark, though McCumber is technically a more accomplished singer and his melodies are more consistently memorable.
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April 18, 2008 by Quentin Young
McCumber plays an assortment of instruments and sings on the recording. His voice is confident but non-threatening. It’s often achingly sweet. Other times it sounds like eggs, sunny-side up, with a side of bacon. The track “Middle Child,” on which [Vince] Gill helps McCumber sing about being “a middle child of a first born son,” is first-rate material that could easily be a hit. With its hittin’-the-road theme, mandolin highlights and relaxed, 3/4 time, it’s the perfect vehicle for McCumber’s flannel-clothed sensibility. The lyrics are autobiographical — McCumber really is the middle child of a first-born son who moved to a mountain beneath a “hill of gold” and wed himself a beauty.
April 17, 2008 by Dan Rhodes
"My first public, solo performance singing six of my original tunes came on Jan. 31, 1998, at a little bar in Gainesville called Common Ground," he said. "I was pretty hooked on being a singer-songwriter after that." Since then, Mr. McCumber has performed more than 1,000 shows throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival in Utah, and opened for such acts such as Vince Gill. His sixth and most recent recording project is his 2007 CD Lickskillet Road , which features Mr. Gill on a couple of numbers singing harmony and playing mandolin and guitar. The CD is named for the road where Mr. McCumber and his graphic artist wife, Amy, live. "This record is real rootsy bluegrass and American stuff; sort of like the Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons with my own little stamp on it adding elements of blues, country and rock," he said.
January 3, 2008 by David Kirby
Despite the fact that the shrinkwrap on his sixth album, Lickskillet Road, has been cool for some time now, Kort McCumber will still be hosting a CD-release party for it at the Boulder Theater this Friday night. "The last couple of records, we didn’t really get a chance to do something here in Boulder, so this time we wanted to do something big." Named for the bumpy foothills road west of town where McCumber lives, this latest release brims and crackles with original bluegrass and assorted Appalachia stylings, with a confident and buoyant energy that belies his 30 years. But while most of the record was finished a year ago, recorded largely at Jim Gilmour’s place in Vermont in fall of 2006, McCumber held it up in deference to a guest artist’s schedule. "I did the bulk of it in about a week, then worked on it over three days in December here in Colorado. Then we kind of sat on it for while so we could get Vince Gill to sit in on a couple of tracks."
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