In Fort Collins we are blessed with a truly unique music experience. An attentive audience and nurturing musical community allows for the growth of an incredibly diverse pool of talent and within this group we are fortunate to have a remarkable number of gifted women who call Fort Collins and the surrounding areas home. Below are just a few of the gifted and inspiring women who happen to do so.
Riley Ann Schultz - The Catcalls - Blues-Rock
Riley Ann Schultz begged her parents for a guitar when she was younger. Having already received instruction in piano, violin and beginner’s band instruments, she was unsuccessful in her attempts at securing that rock and roll mainstay from them. After playing saxophone in ska bands through high school and college Schultz began working as an english teacher. When she took a job in Galena, Illinois she met her musical mentor, a previously full-time musician from Chicago named Steve White. Schultz and White developed a friendship through their organization of jam nights at the coffee shop White had opened in town. When Schultz began to think about leaving her teaching position to pursue music full time, she told White first. “He had always been a supporter of me and championed me and my music,” Schultz says of her friend. With his encouragement, she did just that. First with her already successful-at-the-time all female string trio, The Matriarchs, then as a solo act. Eventually, after relocating to Colorado, she began pursuing blues and rock music as front-woman of The Catcalls. Now channeling inspiration from the likes of Sister Rosetta Tharp and Nina Simone, Schultz embraces the history of the blues and her position as a woman in the music industry, “being a woman in front of a rock band, that is inherently political, regardless of the words I’m saying.”
Bonnie Simms - Bonnie and the Clydes - Country-Soul
Bonnie Simms never questioned what she might do with her life, it was always music. Even as a toddler she was performing in a children's musical program her father started and toured Texas with. Put simply, she’s been doing this her whole life. “I worked in an office for like six weeks before I got married,” Simms says of her professional background, “it was literally the scariest thing ever.” While many people may shudder at the idea of taking center stage in any context, Simms feels perfectly at home and for the past nine years has been doing so as the front-woman of Bonnie and the Clydes. For Simms success is all about persistence, especially when you’re first getting started. “I played the worst gigs ever, and tons of them all of the time,” she says about when she first started playing in Colorado. Eventually it got better allowing Simms and the band to be more selective regarding which shows they took. Now between teaching lessons and performing with the band or as a duo with her husband, she really has made her career in music. So whether she’s entertaining a crowd, teaching a new musician, or staking out space for other women in a local bluegrass jam, Bonnie Simms is in this music thing for good.
Sasha Stone - The Sasha Stone Band - Indie-Rock
Growing up with a family of musicians in Illinois, Sasha Stone remembers standing on a stool to be beside her mother, singing into the microphone with her own band. As a teenager and young adult she sang alongside her brother and his band. For the past seven years Stone has been leading The Sasha Stone Band here in Fort Collins. Studying music therapy and vocal performance at Colorado State University Sasha realized that what she really wanted was the opportunity to play her own music. “I always thought it would be cool to have a band,” Stone explains, “but I never had one of my own.” After her brother passed away, she decided it was time to pursue her own music and began the process of creating The Sasha Stone Band. Now you can find the Indie-Rock outfit playing in a slew of venues along the front range as Stone uses her music to encourage emotional honesty and vulnerability and, as she puts it, “making magic with other people.” Now 35, Stone says she aims to make sure music is always a part of her life as she works to start her own business as a health coach and yoga instructor.
Sarah Slaton - Sarah Slaton - Singer Songwriter
As a budding musician and Arkansas Sarah Slaton felt compelled to make her way to Colorado. After making her way to Denver through an internship with Live Nation she got right to work and formed her first band Edison. The bands tireless touring efforts and commercial success offered Slaton a great deal of experience and opportunities to learn. After landing a record deal and a summer residency in New York City the touring schedule and music industry had taken its toll and Edison’s time ended in 2018. Now Slaton is aiming to take the skills and knowledge she gained through that experience and apply it to her solo project. Slaton has passionately pursued learning the business aspects of the music industry and considers it just as if not more important than the music itself because, “that’s the engine that propels you.” Collaborating with a host of musicians including local hip-hop act Kind Dub, Slaton is currently working out how to best record the EP she hopes to finish this year in the age of Covid-19. Her first solo single, Dance in the Sun, was released in 2019 and was well received. With her debut solo EP, Slaton hopes to grow from that early success, even if touring isn’t an immediately viable option. “No matter what I’m going to release an EP,” Slaton says, calling the situation of other musicians adding their parts from afar, “a Postal Service type of situation.”
Hilary Freeman - 12 Cents for Marvin - Ska-Reggae
When Hilary Freeman joined her first rock band in 1996 she couldn’t have known that they, 12 Cents for Marvin, would become a staple of the northern Colorado music scene and community. Now, 24 years later, the group still performs with some regularity and in addition to providing her services on bass for 12 Cents, Freeman also performs with a number of other local groups. As a math professor at Colorado State University, Freeman admits that she is typically very introverted, which is why the stage is such an appealing place for her. “Actually making that connection with other people and having fun and being totally silly,” is what Freeman describes as the best part of performing, the freedom a stage can provide is the perfect excuse for her to let loose. Having grown up not knowing of many prominent female bass players Freeman has been excited to see female musician’s visibility increasing over the course of her career, though she was embarrassed when she realized the Carol Kaye she enjoyed reading so much in her copies of Bass Player Magazine was not a man but one of the most prolific female bass players of all time. “‘A guy named Carol, that’s interesting’ that was my first reaction,” Freeman says of the mix-up, which she attributes to women often not receiving the spotlight given to their male counterparts.
Amy Russel - Amy and the Peace Pipes - Reggae-Piano Rock
As a wife and mother of three, 39-year-old Amy Russel has always got her hands full, but with the support of her family she’s able to find the time to pursue her passion for music. She’s been leading her band, Amy and the Peace Pipes, through the musical landscape of Fort Collins and northern Colorado for the past five years. With a classical background as a pianist and a powerful affinity for Taylor Swift to help inspire her, Russel hopes to empower and uplift listeners with her upbeat tracks like their song No One Else Like You. “Be kind to yourself and be kind to others,” is how Russel sums up the message she hopes to deliver through her music. After overcoming the sense that her overall drama free life made her boring, her happy life has become the primary inspiration for her music. Now she tries to focus on making positive music, even if she’s addressing some less pleasant experiences from her past. For Russel and her music, it really is all about leaving a positive impact on the world, “If I can do my small part in spreading love, then okay. I’m good at the end of the day.”
Erin Youngberg -FY5- Folk-Americana
When a seven-year-old Erin Youngberg was asked what instrument she’d like to play, the purple electric bass guitar her father kept around was the obvious choice, she loved the color of it. Her dad was a banjo player and began teaching her to play bass on old bluegrass standards. A couple of years into learning he found her an upright bass. “If you’re gonna keep playing bluegrass, you have to play the big bass,” Youngberg remembers him telling her. She’s now had that same bass for 30 years and uses it as her primary gigging bass. Scarred, scratched and nicked all over, the dark finish tells the story of her musical career. Busking with her father and eventually becoming the bass player in his band, playing bars and weddings near their home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Moving to Colorado and playing in bluegrass and country bands alike until eventually she and her husband Aaron formed their current project, FY5, with some like minded musician friends in town. Now in a life Youngberg describes as being, “entirely made by music.” From growing up playing with her fathers band, to meeting a friend and eventual boss at Telluride Bluegrass Festival and eventually, meeting her husband and bandmate and teaching their children to play, Youngberg's is a life truly steeped in music.
Alana Rolfe - VIVIAN - Dream Pop
Alana Rolfe grew up making music and has made its pursuit her life. Though she’s not entirely a fan of the money and pressure that often comes with the industry she’s making it work. “I don’t know how else I would make actual money,” Rolfe says of her life in the industry, “Still haven’t figured that part out.” With her previous projects like Fierce Bad Rabbit and Stella Luce gaining both local and national acclaim, she appears to be well on her way. With VIVIAN it’s a little different however. Seeing more and more of what music is reaching what crowds through her position with The Mishawaka, Rolfe has come to the realization that to be more successful she may have to quit making music just for herself. “What I like as a 36-year-old and what the average consumer likes, don’t necessarily match,” Rolfe explains, so now it’s about figuring out how to blend her preferences with those of the audience she’s hoping to reach. Rolfe admits that she’s had a hard time seeing the industry and trends within it change and recycle itself but knows that’s the nature of it. “That’s not really the point,” Rolfe says, “it’s the fun of creating it.” Teamed up with former Stella Luce bandmate Tim Massa, the duo are set to release their debut album as VIVIAN later this year.
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