{"id":1303991,"date":"2019-02-20T11:55:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T18:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=448362"},"modified":"2019-02-20T11:55:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T18:55:06","slug":"vail-valley-band-darth-crooks-offers-classic-bluegrass-sound-gig-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/vail-valley-band-darth-crooks-offers-classic-bluegrass-sound-gig-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail Valley band Darth Crooks offers classic bluegrass sound, gig Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Darth Crooks is a local bluegrass band, playing traditional music with a mandolin, banjo, harmonica and more.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Call it what you want, roots music, honky tonk, Americana or bluegrass, local band Darth Crooks will take it, and play it, too.<\/p>\n

Only about a year old, Darth Crooks is made up of six friends, blending a unique\u00a0combination of instruments with classic bluegrass to create a sound of their own. The band is made up of Randy Aichele (mandolin, guitar, vocals), Jeffrey Brinn (percussion), Brett Parsons (banjo, guitar, vocals), Dustin Moore (guitar, vocals), Jason \u201cJunkyard\u201d Taylor (harmonica) and Glenn Reynolds (bass, vocals).<\/p>\n

Darth Crooks, a catchy play on Garth Brooks, came about after Parsons and Moore, who played in a band together in Ohio, moved to the valley and met Aichele. The three started playing gigs around town and eventually met and added the band\u2019s other half.<\/p>\n

One thing that makes the band stand out among the others in the Vail Valley is Aichele\u2019s mandolin. A mandolin is a small, eight-string guitar-like instrument often used in bluegrass and American roots music.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Darth Crooks plays music all across the valley, estimating that they have two or three gigs each month.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI had played guitar for years, and a coworker asked if I wanted to borrow his mandolin,\u201d Aichele said. \u201cAnd that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aichele started playing guitar when he was a kid, borrowing an \u201cold, crappy\u201d guitar to play with a friend.<\/p>\n

\n

Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Behind the music<\/h2>\n

Aichele\u00a0isn\u2019t the only one with a musical background, however. All the men in the group have long histories with music, noting that they grew up with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around (music) my whole life,\u201d Parsons said. \u201cMy mom is from Kentucky so I heard that kind of stuff all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brinn noted that he was a \u201ctotal band geek\u201d in sixth grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my parents gave me a drum set for Christmas that year,\u201d Brinn said. \u201cI was practicing in school, I was practicing out of school, just all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their sound is classic; sighting The Osborn Brothers, Earl Scruggs and The Stanley Brothers as some of their biggest influences. They don\u2019t let that box them in, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re drawn to a song or a type of music, and we say \u2018hey we should cover that,\u201d Brinn explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re always trying to write new ones, too,\u201d Moore added. \u201cAnd we\u2019re transitioning into rock \u2018n\u2019 roll covers with Americana.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band plays a mix of covers and originals, most of their own music being written by individual members before being brought to the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll play with it in rehearsal and spitball around a bit,\u201d Brinn said.<\/p>\n

The band members unanimously noted that more recently, however, their songwriting has become a group effort.<\/p>\n

Darth Crooks has recorded a few of their songs, but they refer to the recordings as \u201crough,\u201d and look forward to putting gig money toward recording time in a studio.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Darth Crooks has played at some of the valley\u2019s most popular venues, such as Agave and Vail Ale House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The\u00a0group efforts go far beyond the six men, however. They occasionally play with other bands around the valley (The Cliffnotes, Primal J. and the Neanderthals and more) and they\u2019ve played everywhere from Eagle to Vail (Mango\u2019s, Route 6, and Bonfire Brewing, among others).<\/p>\n

Additionally, Steve Corr, a friend of a band \u2014 a 12th man, if you will \u2014 has been Darth Crooks\u2019 \u201cbiggest supporter,\u201d often setting up sound equipment, plugging the band and helping them in any way that he can.<\/p>\n

Showtime<\/h2>\n

What can you expect from a Darth Crooks show?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe inject bluegrass standards throughout the set,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Taylor and the crew noted that some of their crowdpleasers include \u201cZombie\u201d and \u201cBillie Jean,\u201d during which, Aichele pulls out the stops and moonwalks across the stage.<\/p>\n

Darth Crooks\u2019 music and upcoming shows can be found on their Facebook page<\/a>, and they can be found at Vail Ale House in West Vail on Friday at 9 p.m. to show off their bluegrass skills.<\/p>\n

Arts & Entertainment Editor Nate Day can be reached at nday@vaildaily.com<\/a> or 970-748-2932.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darth Crooks is a local bluegrass band, playing traditional music with a mandolin, banjo, harmonica and more. Call it what you want, roots music, honky tonk, Americana or bluegrass, local band Darth Crooks will take it, and play it, too. Only about a year old, Darth Crooks is made up of six friends, blending a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1303991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 17:51:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}