Sandblasting the mountains with rootsy grooves

Of all the music streaming services, Spotify’s algorithm is by far the best. The algorithm for a music streaming platform provides personal music recommendations and suggests songs, albums and playlists tailored to the user’s taste based on listening history and preferences. This is achieved through music data analysis and AI.

In years of being a devoted Spotify user, there is one band that the algorithm has steered me to, introducing more of its songs than any other band, and that is Dangermuffin.

After years of enjoying the band’s music virtually, I finally get to experience the band live at the Basalt Summer Concert Series on Wednesday. I went to last week’s concert with The Magic Beans from Boulder and the scene at Basalt River Park was that of an old-school mountain town’s rootsy, family friendly, high-vibe event. 

The riverside show kicks off at 5:30 p.m. with opener The Know Bodies Band (soul, funk, horns). Dangermuffin takes the stage at 7 p.m. Wednesday’s concert is only one of two shows the band is playing in Colorado. Dangermuffin also will play on Friday night at Big B’s Delicious Orchards in Hotchkiss on Friday at 7:30 p.m. 

Dangermuffin is Dan Lotti on guitar, Mike Sivilli on lead guitar, Andrew Hendryx on mandolin and Steven Sandifer on drums. The band’s music incorporates elements of rock, Americana, folk, reggae, funk and some Latin flair. It is distinguished by smart lyrics, Sivilli’s melodic guitar hooks and Lotti’s smooth vocals — think The Samples meets Sting, meets Mt. Joy meets Band of Horses. 

Dangermuffin was formed in 2007 in Folly Beach, South Carolina, outside of Charleston. They quickly found a standing Sunday night gig at a place called The Surf Bar.

“We’ve always called our music sandblasted roots rock because it was born at the beach steeped in those vibes,” Lotti said in an interview from Asheville, North Carolina,  where he, Sivilli and Hendryx now call home.

“Folly Beach is like the edge of America, the end of the line. You get the feeling a lot of people are running from something. So you get a little bit of that outlaw vibe. There’s some pirates and there’s some weird people and we love it. George Gershwin lived on Folly Beach. He wrote ‘Porgy and Bess’ and songs like ‘Summertime’ there. It has a lot of soul to it. There’s something in the air there, there’s a creative flow through that little beach town.”

Dangermuffin was soon gigging in Charleston six nights a week. The band released its first album “Beermuda” in 2007 and followed a year later with “Emancee.” Lotti described these releases as “homegrown records to get the band going.”  

Dangermuffin started touring nationally in 2009. In 2010, they released their best-known album “Moonscapes.” The title track is irresistible. The repeating guitar line is sonic candy, topped by Lotti’s sand-drenched vocals and lyrics that capture the Folly Beach ethos of the band: “What if we were on the shore of the sea of tranquility? Let’s drink and lose the clothes, I hope you would agree. And what would we find there, who knows? Just moonscapes, oceans and no clothes.”  

If you want to dive into Dangermuffin’s catalog, start here but bring a snorkel as it’s a deep dive. 

In 2014,  Dangermuffin released “Songs for the Universe.” The song “Western Skies” is a slow-grooving, hammock-swinging-on-a-beach-on-a-sunny-day kind of tune.

The band’s 2017 album “Heritage” played more to the band’s reggae sensibilities. The song “Kindred Sun” is on the slower side of the spectrum with great vocals, guitar and lyrics. It’s a gorgeous love song. “Anyway the sun goes down, I’d like to follow you, follow you around, for a life or two. I want to take you back, way back is where we’re going, for you’re the only one, kindred sun.”

After “Heritage,” Dangermuffin experienced several lineup changes and decided to take a hiatus in 2019 just before COVID hit. At the end of 2022, Lotti, Savillii and Sandifer began to feel the sand blasting up again and they reunited. They picked up mandolin player Andrew Hendryx and started gigging again. 

Before long they entered the studio for the first time since 2017 at the famed Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, an old church that has been converted into a recording studio. The addition of Hendryx to the mix was profoundly felt in the studio. 

“We made this album a self-titled album because we feel like we’re introducing a new band,” Lotti said. “Andrew is a great friend of ours and just an awesome musician. The new album features him and Mikey, kind of — if it’s not blasphemous to say — jamming in an almost Allman brothers-esque way with them both taking leads in tandem with these beautiful melodic lines. It’s really been a nice synergy for the band having Andrew in the mix.”

The band has released two singles from the album: “Icarus” and “New Sol.” The new album is expected to drop on Aug. 2. I’ve heard it and can say unabashedly it is my favorite new recording of the year, decidedly more upbeat than the band’s last few records — a rock ’n’ roll album that harkens back to Dangermuffin’s “Moonscapes” days. There are several songs on the album that — should they end up on a Spotify editor’s playlist — might finally bring the band out of the sand and into the stratosphere.

Free music rarely gets this good.