COjam: New Beginnings
The history of COjam, its founder, and a new direction taken
By Eric Frank
March 26, 2024
COjam was created in 2011 by Eric Frank who moved to Denver, Colorado that same year. A drummer and keyboardist from Milwaukee (Gypsy Kitchen, Chinese Fingertrap), he was looking for a way to immerse himself in the music community. With incredible talent everywhere he looked, and live music performed eight days a week, he quickly realized that standing out from the crowd would be no easy task. Therefore, it was determined that in order to move forward with his own musical aspirations, he would do everything he could to help others with theirs.
Knowing but one mere Coloradan at the time of his arrival, COjam: The Colorado Jam Scene was a means to meet fellow artists, musicians, venue owners, concert promoters and key players in the industry. While these relationships were obviously beneficial to Frank (or “Franko” as he was known back in Milwaukee), his goal was to spread the wealth and include as many others as possible in his quest for recognition within the greater Colorado “jam” scene.
This blew the doors wide open. Soon, there were highlights such as Inside: Colorado Concert Venues in which jam-friendly venues were highlighted, offering a virtual tour, interviews with key personnel, and booking information for those seeking performance opportunity. Additional features included Artist Spotlight, 10 Questions, and Free Ticket Alert!, all aiding the music community in Colorado. Musicians, artists, promoters, venues and concert-goers were all given benefit, all in the name of “strengthening an already amazing music scene.” To put it succinctly: “Colorado Fans, Bands & Venues — Linked.”
But here’s a confession: all this work took a toll on ol’ Franko. I know because I am Eric Frank, and I’ve basically run this site and all things COjam by myself since 2011. I’ve invited a few photographers to capture live events, and brought in a few guest bloggers to review newly released albums and/or live performances, and I’m thankful for their assistance and willingness to help (shout outs to Trevor Jones, Nate Leichtman, Stephanie Esposito, Matt Bryant, Che Harness, Gary Sheer, and Karly Goertzen! And apologies to the people I know I’ve forgotten). But by and large, I lived and breathed COjam for nearly a decade without letup.
It has afforded me the opportunity to see a shit ton of absolutely incredible, high-quality and memorable music from local favorites such as Dazzle Denver and The Fox Theatre to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and 1stBank Center. I’ve been able to speak with inconceivably talented musicians such as Perrin Moss of Hiatus Kaiyote, Del McCoury, Billy Strings, Kitchen Dwellers, Marco Benevento, Josh Fairman of Analog Son, Carly Meyers and Chris Wood of Medeski, Martin & Wood and The Wood Brothers. This, alone, would be enough to fulfill most people’s lifelong musical checklist and I feel eternally grateful to have had these opportunities.
It is also through COjam that I met my wife (by way of Blake Mobley of Tiger Party— thanks bud!). My life would not be what it is without this wonderful, amorphous, ill-defined organization.
It also led to talent buying, most notably for Mile High Spirits - Denver’s Distillery in which my first order of business was the creation of Bloodies & Bluegrass, a weekly bluegrass brunch that brought in some of Colorado’s finest bluegrass acts, as well as many local entrepreneurs and business-owners. During my time at MHS, we threw some killer shows, from The Magic Beans, Roosevelt Collier, and Joey Porter’s Vital Organ to Coolio and CeeLo Green.
But as George Harrison once said, “All things must pass,” and in 2019, my wife and I experienced a family health crisis that took us away from Colorado. Then, in the midst of what was already a heavy time, that stupid-ass pandemic occurred, effectively suspending the live music industry indefinitely.
Furthermore, we had started a family of our own and needed to focus on our new priorities. Ultimately, this took me back home to Wisconsin, where I currently reside.
But a few years have passed, my boys are old enough to be babysat (is that a word?), and my antenna is suddenly picking up an old frequency.
Therefore, I have once again been working hard to reanimate, reinvent, and reinstitute COjam—albeit with a new focus. No longer will Colorado be the focal point of COjam, but rather, our spotlight aims to shine on local artists at a national level. Many of you may recall Eternal JamNation, an organization with 50 state chapters (COjam representing the Colorado chapter) dedicated to nurturing its local and statewide music scenes. My aim was always to have a national—yet local—focus; an organization that could connect local, independent artists by way of a single entity.
In this endeavor, I’m going to need your help.
I don’t know every state’s best town for our kind(s) of music. I don’t know the best bands in each city. And I certainly can’t be everywhere at once. That’s why we’ve created SonicPortal, found in main menu of this site. Here, you can suggest local musicians, bands, venues, festivals and more that you think deserve coverage from COjam.
Additionally, we want you to help in writing concert reviews, capturing live events through photo and video, and offering input on where bands ought to route their tours.
We’ll still sit down with some of the heavy-hitters, when we can. How could we not? It’s those that have already put in their time, paid their dues, and seen the ins and outs of this industry that inspire, motivate and guide new generations of musicians to create, to perform, and to search for the great meanings within the art of making music. For this, look no further than COjam’s interview with legendary guitarist, Uli Jon Roth. Sheesh… that guy’s a wizrd.
Now, COjam. It obviously stood for “Colorado.” But we’ve grown. The name’s pretty much gotta stick. I’ll be honest—I don’t really know what to do with it. It’s easy enough to say “CO-JAM,” right? The rest is basically superfluous. In replacing the “Colorado” part, some obvious words come to mind; community, communal, cooperative (or co-op)… This feels like naming a band. It’ll probably sound weird to some… maybe all. Who knows? But for now, I’m settling on our new name as being:
COjam: The National Jam Coalition.
Tell me what you think of the new name. Please be kind…
Eric Frank Music
One final point I’d like to make… As I mentioned at the onset of this article, at least one of my intentions with COjam was to get my music and/or band(s) noticed; to separate myself as a musician from a crowded playing field. However, I never did that—and that was intentional.
I always felt it was too arrogant to promote my own shows or showcase my music. I never wanted to conflict my interest with that of COjam’s intentions or to offer self-preferential treatment on what has become a pretty large platform.
Well, now I’m older and kind don’t give a fuck. These days, many musicians host their own podcast or find success through alternative creative spaces. Well, here’s mine. All artists have to be shameless self-promoters, right? And after all, the worst that can happen is that a whole bunch of people tell me that my music sucks. I think I can handle that.
So, I may occasionally insert my own musical endeavors within the site, but they’ll always come with a declaration of self-disclosure—for better or worse. At the time of this writing, I perform my own material (keys/guitar/vocals) under the name Rhino’s Brother (a nod to my brother, Ryan Frank), I play drums/percussion with the feel-good-funk band, Soulercoaster, and have just begun drumming once again with my guitarist brother, playing acid-freak-out improvisational music under the name, Them Brothers Frank. All three bands are based in southeastern Wisconsin.
COjam: Moving forward with music and purpose
So that’s it! I sincerely hope you accompany me on the journey ahead. Even through all the fun times, amazing shows, incredible people and memorable stories, I believe COjam’s best years are ahead of us. Either way, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and for making COjam the thriving community it is today.