Every year or two, we revisit a long-time staple of the Denver music community: Drunken Hearts and their fearless frontman and festival-maker, Andrew McConathy. You might recognize the names from their semi-annual hosting of bluegrass music at Rancho Del Rio’s YarmonyGrass for the past twenty-odd years or from their intermittent slots sharing the stages at Steamboat’s WinterWonderGrass, or any one of the plethora of gigs they’ve played in and around the Front Range in the past two decades. They’ve collaborated, they’ve jammed, they’ve traveled locally and nationally, and to kick off the spring season, McConathy is bringing his band to the Bluebird Theater on Friday, April 11, alongside Dragondeer and Patti Fiasco.
READ: Premiere — Drunken Hearts’ Reckless Way of Living
McConathy isn’t showing up to Friday’s show empty-handed. On the contrary, the Drunken Hearts recently released their single “Rose Colored Eyes,” a song originally written in 2018 and, after a lengthy evolution, is finally ready for its listening debut. Originally titled “Love for the Family,” the song was co-written with Kory Montgomery as a “completely different song with different lyrics and different chords.” After sitting on the track for years, McConathy sent it to producer and fellow co-writer Dave Pahanish, “who essentially flipped the whole thing upside down, added different lyrics, chords, etc., and voilá.”
Musically, “Rose Colored Eyes” is one of the Drunken Hearts’ most reliably beautiful yet haunting tunes. Vocally, McConathy’s raspy and soulful crooning is consistently top-tier. Instrumentally, the emphasis on guest musician Tim Carbone’s fiddle makes the song that much more moving, almost jarringly so. Lyrically, McConathy and Pahanish invoked “some of the greatest songwriters in the American songwriting canon, such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.” The lyrics are intended to “shed light on the idiocracy of modern-day American politics, while not necessarily pointing fingers or favoring a political party,” McConathy explained. “[The song is about] calling out the contradictions on both sides of the coin, even when it might be particularly painful to do so,” he continued — a seemingly widespread sentiment in today’s world.
Following the single’s release, there’s more music still on the horizon for the Drunken Hearts. “One Last Look” was co-written by Brian Hauser in a cabin outside of Blackhawk this past July and recorded in Nashville with Dave Pahanish producing. This upcoming single “is about communicating with lost loved ones in dreams, and ‘calling to them from the other side,'” McConathy shared. “Whether it’s about a lover or a departed friend, we kept it open-ended for the listener to decide.” It’s a message in the mystery, and one that the addition of Bonnie Sims on vocals and mandolin has elevated.
McConathy is excited to be bringing not just “Rose Colored Eyes,” but more new music as well as old tunes to the Bluebird Theater on Friday evening. The show is definitely not one to miss, as it will be the Drunken Hearts’ last for the immediate future as McConathy sets to recharge his battery, focus on songwriting, and “essentially get back in touch with the things that made me fall in love with music to begin with.” With a new record in the works, he plans to take his time, reflect, and “come back stronger than ever.”
Get tickets to Drunken Hearts’ show at the Bluebird here!