Bluegrass heads to Breck

Who: Head for the Hills

When: Tonight

Where: three20south, Breck

Where'd the name come from? The band name is the advice of a wise old llama farmer we traded with near Los Alamos.

Home base: Fort Collins

More accurately: Greta, the rust-covered school van we purchased for $100 several years ago; she's band headquarters.

Who are you? We are four men in our mid-20s who channel everyone from Bill Monroe to Biz Markie through our bluegrass instruments.

If your music were a tangible item, what would it be, and why? I feel like it would be a potato, sprouting new eyes in different directions as it grows older but maintaining its original potato quality throughout.

Why do people love ya? Because of our excellent hair styles. Also, we provide people with a superb soundtrack for drunken debauchery. I do feel like our band is a good vehicle through which new and familiar listeners alike can explore the world of bluegrass-based music and beyond.

How do you keep it fresh? We do our best to keep learning and writing new material so that each time we return to a city we have a different experience to offer the people.

What's the craziest thing you've done/weirdest experience? Last summer we found ourselves at a festival where it was raining cats and dogs. We retreated to Greta (our trusty van) to seek refuge, only to find the roof was leaking worse than ever. We then rigged a group of empty Gatorade bottles to catch the incoming torrent and waited for the storm to pass. The crazy part was surviving off the roof-water for the ensuing days. (Okay, the last sentence is made up).

Bonus at your show: We are working with Breckenridge Resort Managers and offering free lodging to a special contest winner on the night of the show, as well as two free tickets to the show that evening and a signed copy of our new album. We are quite excited about it!

Salem plays Keystone and Dillon

Who: Salem

When: Tonight and Feb. 26 at the Summit House in Keystone, Thursday at Dillon Dam Brewery

Where'd the name come from? The cosmic interpolation of destiny and function.

Home base: Boulder

Type of music you play/who are you? Salem plays conscious funk, Afro-Cuban jazz and hip-hop. The band has been touring from Colorado to Canada, Alaska and the Northwest consistently and is now working with the Risan Project with North American multi media tours.

If your music were a tangible item, what would it be, and why? Salem is tangible in its cochlear transference of vibrations and has been known to put a healing on listeners.

Why do people love ya? Salem comes from the distant region of reality where the future is superimposed upon the moment. So in terms of receiving love, we are appreciated for more swiftly approximating the relative cornocopic potential at the precise moment of musical genesis.

How do you keep it fresh? We divine a meditative modality that resides upon a substructure of order that oscillates within a chaotic and improvisational form.

Tours: Salem is touring colleges, ski resorts and music venues throughout Canada and the U.S. on a ski film premier concert tour produced by the Risan Project. The tour features film premiers with Sweetgrass Productions “Signatures,” a 100 percent human-powered ski, snowboard, telemark and noboard film that is touring 30 countries in the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

Salem music is featured in Hiroyuki Yamada's Japanese ski film called “End of the Line” that was released in November 2009 and Japan's Snowstyle Magazine featured a full page article on Todd Anders Johnson and Salem in the September 2009 edition. Salem and Todd Anders Johnson are now endorsed by Libtech Snowboards, Ayotte Drums, Columbia Sportswear, Native Eyewear, Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures, Northwave and Boulder Outdoor Center.

National act support: Salem has performed nationally alongside acts such as Keller Williams, Pato Banton, De La Soul, Sweatshop Union, The Meters (PBS), Bone Thugs N Harmony, DJ Logic, Stanton Moore and Will Bernard, Hells Belles, Mama's Cookin, Tab Benoit, Rebirth Brass Band, The Motet, Steve Earle and Zilla.