Jon Chandler hosts this live "Americana" concert series from the Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor in Arvada, Colorado. Kit Simon’s Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor is one of the country’s premier acoustic musical instrument shops. Its 19th-century brick walls are decked with high end guitars, mandolins, dobros, banjos and just about anything else with strings. What better place to host a monthly gathering of the Rocky Mountain region’s best singer/songwriter! On the third Tuesday of each month, the shop fills up with an audience that’s come to expect the best in Colorado music. For two hours, singer/songwriter/author Jon Chandler welcomes two guests to the stage for America’s Soul Live! a round-robin, Austin City Limits-type acoustic concert showcasing regional and national singer-songwriters. Bassist/audio producer Jeff Graves, string wizard Ernie Martinez, and fiddler extraordinaire Johnny Neill (who collectively play with Chandler as Jon Chandler & the Wichitones) are on hand, as well. When we first started, we just called it a songwriter’s circle, where Jon would swap songs with two other songwriters in a round robin format. In 2005, Jess Stainbrook, who was the head of Douglas County Television, caught us, and thought the whole concept would make a great TV show. He suggested that my song, America’s Soul, would make a good title for the series, so America’s Soul Live! was born. Jess and his crew videotaped most of the shows throughout 2005 and 2006, and a dozen or so were shown on Douglas County Channel 8. When Jess left the station, Rocky Mountain PBS picked up the shows, and snippets were shown on Frontier Airlines Wild Blue Yonder feature, as well. Plus, the Altitude Sports & Entertainment Network’s Onstage taping in 2007 still has people checking in.
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