Shortly following Caring for Kids, Curious Gage will be performing at Full Throttle Coffee for their Artists Night on May 11th.  We will be showing off our chops and killer dance moves for up-and-coming photographers who are looking to add to their portfolio, and giving a free sneak-preview of our upcoming concert, Curious Gage Strikes Back!  If you're in the area, come down and patronize this wonderful, local coffee shop.  Come for the drinks, stay for the music.  FTC Coffee is located in Fort Collins, CO, off Mason and Horestooth.  More information can be found on our schedule.

And finally, after a few months out of the spotlight, Curious Gage is EXTREMELY pleased to announce the date of our first concert as the New Curious Gage!  On May 13th, at the Bas Bleu Theater in beautiful down-town Fort Collins, prepare yourself as Curious Gage Strikes Back!

This full-length concert is our triumphant return to the stage after taking a short hiatus to train our new members, Previn and Lindsay, and develop our new set.  If you've been wondering what the future holds for Curious Gage, this is your chance to come and find out.  And as a special thank you to our friends, family, and fans who have stuck with us through the transition period, Curious Gage Strikes Back, will be a special ticketing rate of only $5!  Cheaper than a movie, and twice as much a cappella, don't miss your chance to come see Curious Gage as they once again take the stage to deliver their unique blend of all-vocal entertainment!  More details can be found on our schedule.
 
So there you have it, not one, not two, but three chances to see Curious Gage in May.  We hope to see you at each and every show. :)

Lindsay Rom has been singing since age 4, starting with school and church choirs. She lettered in Vocal Music and Theater in high school: a soprano 1 and an alto 2 for two years in the Madrigal choir, an alto 2 in Varsity Voices, and the only student to be in the Performing Arts Company for four consecutive years. Some of her notable performances were as Countess Aurelia in "The Madwoman of Chaillot", Zaneeta Shinn in "The Music Man", and Millie Owens in "Picnic".

An avid reader, a life-long lover of film and television, a music enthusiast, and a dance devotee, she has been truly immersed in the artistic world. Living in Colorado has also given her a fresh perspective on health, politics, and philosophy- other tremendous passions of hers. (She is also rarely seen without her iPhone close by, and fusses when it's more than 30 feet away.)

So, with the sour taste of defeat in my mouth I sat down to drink and cry.  Luckily for me, my good friend Hahn happened to choose that moment to call me, and in the course of our conversation I realized that Hahn happened to have a very talented wife who happened to be in graphic design.  A very talented wife who I felt confident I could whine, plead, persuade, and just plain beg to design a logo for us.

And believe it or not, she actually did!

Kadie Ainsworth is a true professional, an outstanding artist, and one heck of a awesome person all the way around.  She worked with the group for about a week, came up with some sketches, gently prodded us away from some of our more "outlandish" ideas (I believe at one point Justin and I were really keen on the idea of "Curious Gage" being spelled out in a foreign language) and came up with the following logo that absolutely blew our socks off!

At the time Curious Gage was shooting for an edgier, grudge-esque sound, and this image fit us perfectly.  Kadie really knocked it out of the park, and we will always be eternally grateful for her help.

Three years later (2006, for those keeping score) Justin and Ryan both moved out of town and Tom, Zach and I were forced to reform the group in a drastic manner.  Luckily we were able to find Phil and Carleen and ended up winning the Denver Harmony Sweepstakes just five weeks later (again, a story for another post).  After our win we decided that as much as we loved the old logo, it didn't quite fit the group anymore.  For one thing, while Curious Gage 1.0 was an edgier, rock/grunge/pop hybrid, this new group had a different sound.  A...quirky sound?  Perhaps.  At any rate, to designate the shift between Curious Gage 1.0 and 2.0 we decided to take a stab at a new logo.  This time we immediately decided to go to the pros (my computer was extremely grateful), and enlisted the help of Kristi Seidow, a gifted graphic designer who ended up joining the group a year later (again, not this post).

Kristi spent a good several weeks throwing a bunch of different ideas at us, each one more spectacular than the rest.  At first we didnt' really know what we wanted, and poor Kristi was forced to work with the ambiguous ideas we gave her (warm, inviting, professional, lighter).  However, after a couple weeks she emailed us the following logo and absolutely blew our minds.

It was so much better than anything we could have initially imagined, and fit the new group like a glove.  As I said above, Kristi later joined the group when Zach moved away, but we will always be grateful for the work she put in both before, and after she became a member of Curious Gage.  She is an unbelievable artist, designer, marketer, and friend, and anyone who gets a chance to work with her is truly blessed.


What new graphic challenges (and dare I say...blogs!?) await?  Only time will tell...

For those who live in Northern Colorado, Previn hardly needs an introduction.  This award-winning composer has been performing locally his entire life (born and raised in Fort Collins, just like Nic, Carleen, and Tom), and is a graduate of CSU in Music Composition.  Whether it's premiering original compositions, stunning audiences in operas, dazzling at weddings, or teaching private lessons, Previn has truly made his mark in Colorado.  And now, we've been lucky enough to nab him and premier his voice in another way, as the new tenor for Curious Gage!

Phil and I first started singing a cappella in 1999, with the invention of a little group we called Loose Endz. Loose Endz was five guys (well, truth be told, boys really) who shared a love of vocal music, even if we didn't really know at the time how to express it. It was our first chance to dip our toes into the a cappella world, and for Phil and I it started a tradition we carried on for the next 11 years.

At the time I was just a singer in the group, and believe it or not, Phil was actually the one who would do vocal percussion. I remember watching him doing it one day and thinking, "Man...this is something we should have in EVERY song, not just one or two." So, I started annoying my friends and family with constant spitting, all in the hope that I could eventually become as good as Phil.

Loose Endz eventually ended (but not before morphing into two other groups, In Retrospect, and later, 'Tangent), but it wasn't long before Phil and I got bit by the a cappella bug once again, and founded Curious Gage in the Spring of 2003.

Phil left for a time, but came back later to help reform the group in 2006 (along with the addition of a little estrogen in the form of Carleen), and five weeks later we won the Denver Regional Harmony Sweepstakes. It's hard to express what that win meant for us. I know for me it was a moment of pure happiness as I forgot the many years of loss that had preceded that moment, and basked in a few minutes of pure, selfish pleasure. And for Phil...well, like I said, we'd been doing this for awhile. I can only imagine that he felt the same kind of connection, some cosmic arc between 1999 and 2006 that led us to that moment.

It was pretty amazing.

Later, when our good friend Zach left to join the larger world of Denver, and later New York, we all got the pleasure of adding a little more estrogen in the form of Kristi.

Krisit added not only an excellent voice and years of stage experience, but also a TREMENDOUS amount of PR, marketing, and graphic design talent that we had previously been missing (though we had had the very amazing Kadie Ainsworth design us a wonderful logo in the early, formative years of the group). Once joining, Kristi immediately went to work changing the ways in which the Gage communicated with press, fans, and the world at large through inspiring press releases and amazing posters. Really, her work is absolutely incredible.

With Phil and Kristi, Curious Gage continued to perform wherever people would have us, and looking back on it there is absolutely nothing I would change. We got to travel, we got to design sets, we got to dress up...it was an amazing ride.

Now, with Phil and Kristi also moving on to the world at large (Phil has taken a fantastic new job in Lakewood, Denver, and Kristi has been accepted to a top-notch design school in Hollywood), Tom, Carleen and I are left with the unenviable task of carrying on without them. There will be challenges no doubt, but also exciting new opportunities for Curious Gage as we begin the next chapter of our musical journey.

Thank you fans for being with us these last seven years, sticking with us through changes large and small, and continuing to support us in our endeavors. And thank you, once again, Phil and Kristi, for all the wonderful memories. We all wish you the best of luck in the places that life takes you next.

~Nic