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Tony Furtado plays the Goat in Keystone on Tuesday.
KEYSTONE — Tony Furtado is at home in the United States. He wields his ax like a miner, picking away at the rhythms that define the cultural and political landscape of a nation. The kid from California’s East Bay started on the banjo and weaves the landscape of a country into his songs.
“Thirteen,” Furtado’s most recent album, is no exception. The title track is a reference to the 13 miners stuck in West Virginia’s Sago Mine.
“That Sago Mine disaster kind of hit me so that’s why I wrote the song about it,” Furtado said. “Our nation still has a problem with coal mining conditions — not like it used to be, but there’s still problems.”
That same conscious ethic — awareness of the world, including love and culture — runs through Furtado’s songwriting, and expands into the theme of “Thirteen.”
Furtado said the album’s name was not only a reference to Sago, but also materialized as a repetitive number in his own life.
“I realized it was my 13th album,” Furtado said. “I’ve noticed that number just popping up all around me, so I went with it.”
The number touches on luck, too, and Furtado wasn’t unaware of its connotations.
“The theme kind of came later,” Furtado said of the good luck/bad luck/no luck repetition that he said runs throughout “Thirteen.”
“I was looking at all the songs on the album and realized that was a common theme through a lot of the songs. I’m not saying I planned it but I’m not saying I deny it exists.”
Superstitious, maybe, but Furtado’s sound is definitely unifying and smooth, just like the rock-infused rhythms on “Thirteen.” Furtado recorded the album with heavy-hitting production artists, including Sean Slade, who worked with Radiohead and Uncle Tupelo, Jim Dickinson (producer of Ry Cooder albums) and Dusty Wakeman (Dwight Yoakam and Lucinda Williams).
Even with an all-star cast with individual cult followings, Furtado managed to keep the production of “Thirteen” relatively unproduced. By using 16-track, 2-inch analog tape for recording, he said the sound was warmer and nicer.
“It’s old-school, basically,” Furtado said. “There’s less manipulation available than there is with digital.”
And Furtado is organic, from his musical roots to the songs he chooses to play. He made his first banjo for a school project in the sixth grade. (No immediate family members were musicians.) He was hailed as a prodigy by 19, according to his website, www.tonyfurtado.com.
Now he brings the slide guitar and a few nods to late ’60s and early ’70s to his album, including John Fogerty’s “Fortunate Son” (note the luck tie-in), The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and Elton John’s “Take Me To The Pilot.”
Furtado said his shows aren’t too far from the jam band performances Colorado listeners are accustomed to.
“We definitely stretch out some songs and I play the banjo,” Furtado said. “I like it when it’s a fair mix of people: some who like to dance, some who like to sit and listen.”
<i>Lindsey Krusen can be reached at lkrusen@summitdaily.com or at (970) 668-4620. </i>
“Thirteen,” Furtado’s most recent album, is no exception. The title track is a reference to the 13 miners stuck in West Virginia’s Sago Mine.
“That Sago Mine disaster kind of hit me so that’s why I wrote the song about it,” Furtado said. “Our nation still has a problem with coal mining conditions — not like it used to be, but there’s still problems.”
That same conscious ethic — awareness of the world, including love and culture — runs through Furtado’s songwriting, and expands into the theme of “Thirteen.”
Furtado said the album’s name was not only a reference to Sago, but also materialized as a repetitive number in his own life.
“I realized it was my 13th album,” Furtado said. “I’ve noticed that number just popping up all around me, so I went with it.”
The number touches on luck, too, and Furtado wasn’t unaware of its connotations.
“The theme kind of came later,” Furtado said of the good luck/bad luck/no luck repetition that he said runs throughout “Thirteen.”
“I was looking at all the songs on the album and realized that was a common theme through a lot of the songs. I’m not saying I planned it but I’m not saying I deny it exists.”
Superstitious, maybe, but Furtado’s sound is definitely unifying and smooth, just like the rock-infused rhythms on “Thirteen.” Furtado recorded the album with heavy-hitting production artists, including Sean Slade, who worked with Radiohead and Uncle Tupelo, Jim Dickinson (producer of Ry Cooder albums) and Dusty Wakeman (Dwight Yoakam and Lucinda Williams).
Even with an all-star cast with individual cult followings, Furtado managed to keep the production of “Thirteen” relatively unproduced. By using 16-track, 2-inch analog tape for recording, he said the sound was warmer and nicer.
“It’s old-school, basically,” Furtado said. “There’s less manipulation available than there is with digital.”
And Furtado is organic, from his musical roots to the songs he chooses to play. He made his first banjo for a school project in the sixth grade. (No immediate family members were musicians.) He was hailed as a prodigy by 19, according to his website, www.tonyfurtado.com.
Now he brings the slide guitar and a few nods to late ’60s and early ’70s to his album, including John Fogerty’s “Fortunate Son” (note the luck tie-in), The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and Elton John’s “Take Me To The Pilot.”
Furtado said his shows aren’t too far from the jam band performances Colorado listeners are accustomed to.
“We definitely stretch out some songs and I play the banjo,” Furtado said. “I like it when it’s a fair mix of people: some who like to dance, some who like to sit and listen.”
<i>Lindsey Krusen can be reached at lkrusen@summitdaily.com or at (970) 668-4620. </i>
