Our Story
photo by Kate Petrik
In Fall 2018, in a backyard barn studio a few miles west of Denver, the first /O Sessions was born...
The experiment matched three singer-songwriters to a five-piece professional backing band for an intimate, one-night-only concert experience. The rich sound and arrangements, dreamed up hours before the concert, was an epiphany: slide guitar, bass, violin, piano, and drums transformed the pieces. Many of the long-time songwriters heard their new, unreleased songs fleshed out for the first time in front of a live audience.
We watched as the same musicians—about to embark on a major tour, record a new album, lineup a full gigging schedule—lose their livelihoods as the pandemic shut down the world. These hardworking, proud musicians waited with everyone else for the world to reopen. Its stuttering restart has been an incalculable loss for them, for us, and for our community.
The kinship and generosity of the Colorado music scene are unmatched. There is an unspoken contract between artists and society: entertain us, and we will support you. Through COVID-19 and the world's upheaval, we lighten our mental and emotional load with music. We soak in the notes as a balm to loss, sickness, unemployment, boredom, and the consuming worry that can blight our days.
At /O Sessions, we want to use what we have right now and what we have right now is the recordings of our first season of /O Sessions: rich, beautiful, and ready. Four nights, 11 songwriters, and 11 musicians who have spent their lives mastering their craft so that we can tune in and check out when we need it most.
We invite you to experience the beauty.