Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors: Denver Is a "Top-Shelf City to Play Music In"

Drew Holcomb knows how to read a room.

After nearly twenty years fronting his band the Neighbors, the Memphis-based singer-songwriter has developed a sixth sense when it comes to gauging audience energy from the pulpit. “You can tell sometimes before you even open your mouth, walking on stage. There’s a buzz in the room; you can feel it backstage when the openers play. You can tell what kind of night you’re going to have,” he explains.

“Are you going to have a quiet, contemplative Tuesday-night crowd on a Saturday? Or are you going to have a Saturday party crowd on a Monday?” he continues. “You just never know what you’re getting. But that makes for a unique energy every night.”

For example, Denver is “always a top-shelf city to play music in,” according to Holcomb, calling the Colorado capital a “youthful, energetic place.”

“You guys are so spoiled, because everybody comes through Denver,” he adds. “You know how to be a great crowd.”

The band’s latest record, Strangers No More (2023 via Magnolia Music/Tone Tree Music), is a nod to another musical ability that Holcomb and the Neighbors possess, specifically making fans and friends out of “strangers” who check out a set. “Our shows are very communal events,” Holcomb says. “People come in as strangers and they leave with this shared memory and experience together, which is the magic of the live show.”

Diving deeper into the ins and outs of reading people’s emotions, Holcomb makes it sound easy. He explains how he recently received a text from a friend who flew back home to Wichita to spend more time with his ailing father, who is currently in hospice care.

“People come sometimes with that sort of heaviness in their lives. Other people just got engaged and want to come to the show and celebrate,” he shares. “You have to stir up everybody’s circumstances in the room, every night, that makes for a different vibe and experience. That’s what I love about the live shows, no matter what.”

It’s that “fly by the seat of your pants” feeling that keeps Holcomb going.

“You just never know what’s going to happen. Every room is different,” he says. “It keeps you on your toes, and it’s never not exciting and never boring.” Of course, it helps that Holcomb & the Neighbors also offer a variety show of sorts, which is showcased on the eleven songs that make up Strangers No More, ranging from upbeat soul to folksy Americana. There’s something for everyone. The only constant is the players: Holcomb, Nathan Dugger (guitar), Rich Brinsfield (bass), Will Sayles (drums) and Ian Miller (keys).

“Certain songs have a Memphis-soul thing that needed some horns; other songs are very quiet, like ‘Fly’ and ‘Troubles,’” as Holcomb sees it, adding that “Dance With Everybody,” a co-write with Utah folk band the National Parks, is “an ode to the live audience.”

“The glue that binds it all together is it’s the same five musicians in the room recording together,” he continues. “That’s what gives the set of songs a glue instead of trying to specifically target a genre or sound. We are the same people making the sounds, so there’s going to be a connective tissue between all the songs.”

Holcomb & the Neighbors will showcase just that on Friday, May 3, at Denver's Summit during the group’s current Find Your People Tour. Canadian singer-songwriter Donovan Woods is also on the bill.

Since forming in 2005, Holcomb & the Neighbors have mastered another musical power: letting songs write themselves, without allowing outside tendencies or interference to hinder them. That requires being open to jumping between genres and styles. It’s common for songwriters to “force the music to fit inside a particular sonic box or vibe,” Holcomb says. But he’s learned that sometimes a good song simply starts with a lick or a casual quip between friends.

For example, “Find Your People” was born out of a conversation about forging friendships as an adult “in a changing and busy world,” he says.

“I made the offhand comment that I was grateful that I found my people,” he explains. “My co-writer said, ‘Find your people — let’s write that.’ Sometimes it can be a conversation. Sometimes it can be just a solo meditation around a musical piece. Sometimes it can be a series of words that come together. The common denominator is sitting down to do the work.”

That going-with-the-flow approach is embedded in the band’s DNA at this point and is similar to curating a different concert from night to night.

“Playing with this band now for almost twenty years, we sort of learned to let the song dictate what it should sound like,” Holcomb says.

That's evident in the new single, “Suffering.”

“It’s a bit angry. It’s a bit joyful, which is a tension song about how no matter who you are, everybody suffers, and there’s a bit of solidarity in that. The riff that I wrote the song to is a bluesy, classic American-rock riff,” Holcomb concludes. “It’s a little bit louder and outside of our box of what we typically record, but at this point in our career, it was like, ‘Well, that’s what the song wants, so let’s record it the way it needs to be recorded.’”

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, 7 p.m. Friday, May 3, Summit, 1902 Blake Street. Tickets are $25-$40.