Blog
Writing on live music for events.
Occasional written notes about planning and pricing music and how it effects people.
Why does music bring back memories?
What studies have found about how strongly songs bring back memories, which songs do it most, couples' own songs, and how to use all of it at an anniversary or milestone party.
Why do restaurants have live music?
What studies of restaurants and bars found about music, how long guests stay and what they spend, how loud it should be, and what's known about live music in particular.
Why do people sing along?
What researchers found about the songs that get a crowd singing, what happens when you know a chorus is coming, and whether singing together brings people closer.
Why do people play music at funerals?
What music does in a funeral or memorial service, what families have said about choosing it, the songs people often ask for, and whether it has to be a hymn.
Why do dementia patients remember music?
Why old songs often stay with people living with dementia, what a song can bring back, and what researchers have found music can't do for memory.
What music do 80 year olds listen to?
Which years of music people in their late 70s, 80s and 90s grew up with, why the Beatles may suit an 80th birthday better than big band, and how to find out what one person loves.
Sing-along songs for seniors
Songs that work for a sing-along with older adults, how to choose more for your residents, and what trials of group singing found.
Last song of the night at a wedding
What research says about how people remember the end of an experience, what that means for the last song at your reception, and how couples choose it.
Karaoke team building
What researchers found about singing together and feeling close, what they haven't shown about teamwork, and how live band karaoke works for a team evening.
Does music make food taste better?
What lab studies and one live wine tasting found about music, noise and taste, and what that means for the music at a dinner you're hosting.
Party music for all ages
What research says about the music each generation remembers best, and how to pick songs for a party where every age is in the same place.
Live music for memory care residents
What the studies say live music can and can't do for residents living with dementia, the songs they respond to, how loud it should be, and how a performance differs from music therapy.
Is live music better than recorded?
What researchers found when they compared musicians playing in the same space with a recording played back, and what live music hasn't been shown to do.
How to get people to dance at a wedding
What studies of real dance floors and concerts have found about getting people dancing, and how far each finding goes.
How does music affect people at a party?
What research has found about music and how people behave at events, and the popular claims the research doesn't support.
Does loud music make people drink more?
What the studies on music and drinking found, how much weight each one can take, and what it means for the music at a company party.
Do sound baths work?
What the studies of singing bowls and sound meditation have found, how small they are, what the reviews conclude, and what a sound bath can reasonably offer a team or a group.
What is yacht rock?
What the smooth soft rock of the late seventies sounds like, where the name came from, the songs people mean by it, and what a yacht rock party needs, from the dress code to the band.
What is Americana music?
What the music is and how it differs from country, the instruments and the artists, and which size of Americana band to book for a reception, a retreat or a wedding in Colorado.
What is a string quartet?
The four instruments and what each one plays, how a trio, a duo or a single violinist compares, what strings play at a wedding, and which size to book for a ceremony, a cocktail hour or a gala.
What instruments are in a jazz band?
What each instrument in a jazz band does, what the small bands are called and who plays in each, how a big band is laid out, and which size suits a wedding, a dinner or a company event.
How loud should background music be at a party?
The level people can talk over, what it sounds like in plain terms and in decibels, how the size of the act and the space change it, and whether a singer works over dinner.
What is a jazz trio?
Three musicians, and the instrument list is what people are usually asking about. The classic combinations, the one that works at a private event, what a quartet adds, and how to pick between them.
What a jazz band costs in Denver
A jazz band's price depends first on its size. Here is what the market charges for one guitarist, a duo, a trio and a quartet, for an hour and for an evening, so the budget line can be written today.
What a DJ costs in Denver
The word covers two different purchases, and the market prices them a long way apart. Here is what a DJ costs for four hours, for a wedding and for a corporate party, and where the production DJ with lighting sits above all of it.
January office party ideas
The company party that happens after the holidays: why the date works, seven ways to run it, and the themes that don't need a tree.
How far ahead to book entertainment for a company party
The short answer is whenever you're ready. The longer one is the order the decisions usually go in, the paperwork that takes longer than the booking, and what to have in hand when you ask a band for a price.
Gala entertainment ideas
Nine ways to run the music at a gala or an award night, placed against the program, with notes on the celebrity emcee and the silent disco.
Corporate event entertainment ideas in Denver
Eleven ways to run the evening part of a company event, music and otherwise, ranked by what each one asks of the crowd, with the sizes and the numbers attached.
Company picnic entertainment ideas in Denver
Eight ways to run the summer company party, from the lawn to the patio to the evening it turns into, with what each one needs from the weather and the power.
Company offsite ideas in Colorado for remote teams
The one week a year a distributed company is in the same place: how remote teams plan the offsite, where they go in Colorado, and seven evenings that do the work the agenda cannot.
How far ahead to book wedding musicians in Colorado
Whenever you're ready is the short answer. What helps more is the order the decisions usually come in, what a booking involves, and the eight things to have ready before you write to anybody.
Corporate retreat evening ideas in Vail
The days plan themselves. Eight things to do with the evenings in Vail and the valley, and the planner notes that decide which of them survive contact with the venue.
Client appreciation event ideas in Denver
Eight evenings that thank a client list instead of presenting to it, with the notes that change for financial advisors, realtors and law firms.
Band or DJ for a Denver wedding or company party
We sell both, so here is the comparison without a thumb on the scale: what each one actually does to a night, what the Colorado market charges for either, and why most full evenings end up booking both.
Office holiday party entertainment ideas in Denver
Seven shapes a Denver office party can take, each with the size it actually needs, plus what changes for a large group and what changes in January.
How to read a band quote
The number is the last thing to look at. Here is what sits under it, in the order it matters.
Where to hold a corporate holiday party in Denver in 2026
Sixteen venues with real private-event pages, sized from a mezzanine over Union Station to a hangar that holds 3,500, with the notes we would hand a client on each.
What changes when the reception is outdoors
Power, cover, the weather call, and the two ways an outdoor site works against volume at once. Including the Colorado decibel cap most outdoor receptions are actually bound by.
What live music costs for a corporate event
A band's price has two parts. Here is what each one covers, what two hours costs against four, and what the total comes to for the formats a Denver corporate night actually takes.
What a band needs from the venue
Stage footprint, power, load-in and the paperwork your venue and your finance team will both ask for. Including why published stage-size guidance runs to more than double what our own bands ask for.
Playing around a program
A gala runs on a document with eleven things in a fixed order. What the band does around remarks, an award, an auction and a video package, and who calls each one.