She may have left Colorado in the late ’90s, but Seattle-based musician Sera Cahoone returns often to her hometown of Littleton. In fact, the Centennial State has such a special place in the heart of the alt-folk singer-songwriter that she titled her most well-known album Deer Creek Canyon.
“My whole family’s there, so I try to get home at least twice a year,” Cahoone says. “I have a lot of people that are really important to me still there, so I try to go back as much as I can. I still feel like Colorado, to me, is my home.”
Before leaving the Front Range for the Pacific Northwest, Cahoone played the drums in various bands, and she continued that in Washington, drumming for Carissa’s Weird and Patrick Park, and even on Band of Horses’ 2006 debut album, Everything All the Time. Eventually she wanted to do her own thing.
“I was just kind of wanting to take a break and try to start playing open mics and stuff — you know, play guitar and make myself uncomfortable,” she says. “I played drums all the time, but I was feeling a little limited in my creativity. A lot of times, being a drummer, you have to rely on other people. I just wanted more. I never was like, ‘Oh, I want to be a singer. I think I have this amazing voice or can write these amazing songs.’ I just wanted to try, and I feel like it came pretty natural to me.”
Cahoone self-released an eponymous album in 2006 that tastemakers KEXP and NPR Music fell in love with, leading to a deal with Sub Pop Records, famously the early home of Mudhoney, Nirvana and Soundgarden. The label was in the midst of another classic period in 2008, releasing albums by Fleet Foxes, The Helio Sequence, Flight of the Conchords, and Cahoone, whose earnest and inviting Only As the Day Is Long put her on the map as a twangy indie-folk staple.
“My very first record, I just kind of did on my own,” she says. “I played all the drums and kind of pieced it together. [It] was for sure the first record that is pretty much all band. I could say that my band definitely had a big part [in] forming a lot of the songs.”
‘Something about those rocks’
Though Cahoone’s solo career launched out of Seattle, her Colorado roots lend a down-home element to her brand of indie music. You’ll hear it on tracks like “Nervous Wreck,” which have an almost bluegrassy feel.
“I love country,” Cahoone says. “I don’t necessarily come from the country, but that’s what I listened to the majority of the time. Moving [to Seattle], I was pretty obsessed with what was going on, like Nirvana and all the grunge and Bikini Kill, you know — female empowerment. I just thought it was cool. But …growing up I definitely listened to a lot of folk and a lot of ’70s music, which I still do. Coming into this environment, I was more into indie-rock in these ways I was a part of, so I definitely think the two collided in an interesting way.”
With family and friends still in Colorado, Cahoone continues to keep one foot in the Centennial State. She has even toured a few times opening for Boulder’s Gregory Alan Isakov, whose guitarist Steve Varney is a fellow Columbine High School alum. Despite all that Colorado history, though, Cahoone has never played the state’s most iconic venue, Red Rocks — until now. She opens for The Head and the Heart alongside Rayland Baxter on Thursday, June 29 at the storied Morrison amphitheater.
“I mean, I’ve tried,” she jokes. “I’m like, ‘Gregory, get me on there!’ But it’s just never happened. I’m going to lose my mind.”
As she prepares to mark the upcoming milestone in her home state, Cahoone looks back on her memories of seeing legendary artists like Tracy Chapman and PJ Harvey at Red Rocks. She used to go there with her family on Christmas Eve every year as a kid, but returning to perform on the stage that loomed so large throughout her childhood will be a different kind of gift.
“It’s so close to where I grew up that I would always be like, ‘Oh wow. If I play Red Rocks, I’ve made it. I’m going to retire. I’m done.’ And now I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t want to quit,’” Cahoone says. “There’s just something about those rocks and the setting and all the history of it that just means so much to me. I’m going to try and be as present as I can and enjoy it — and hopefully play there again.”
ON THE BILL: The Head and the Heart with Rayland Baxter and Sera Cahoone. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29, Red Rock Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Tickets here.
