Just Announced- Michael Franti & Spearhead at Red Rocks

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre Friday, June 8, 2012. TICKETS GO ON SALE SATURDAY, MARCH 24 AT 10AM!!! TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT TICKETMASTER.COM, AT ALL TICKETMASTER OUTLETS. General Admission and Reserved tickets are $38.50 - $44.95 plus applicable service charges. All ages are welcome.

The Sound Of Sunshine -- Michael Franti & Spearhead latest inspired and inspiring album -- is a kind of musical sun shower, a bright, beautiful and often buoyant song cycle created to bring all kinds of listeners a sense of hope during rough and rainy times for so many in our world.

“Music is sunshine,” says Michael Franti, one of the most positive and conscious artists in music today. “Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.”

“Music is something you can’t hold in your hands, smell , taste or even see , yet somehow just coming together and feeling these little vibrations that tickle our eardrums can somehow lift us all up out of our most difficult moments in life to unimaginable heights.”

In the mid-Nineties, Franti first formed Spearhead, and increasingly in recent years, he’s found his own voice musically and his own organic brand of popular success. Franti and Spearhead’s last album, 2008’s All Rebel Rockers -- recorded in Jamaica with legendary producers and players Sly & Robbie – became the biggest hit of Franti’s career, hitting the Top 40 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and yielded the certified double digital platinum smash Top 20 “Say Hey (I Love You).”

Arguably the most cohesive, romantic and life-affirming Franti and Spearhead album The Sound Of Sunshine reflects the fact that, as Franti puts it, “With time, you get a better sense who you are and how to put together all your musical passions into your own sound. I feel like for a long time, I dabbled in other sounds. Like `Let’s do something with a reggae vibe here.’ Or `Let’s really rock here.’ But now, I write everything from the acoustic guitar up -- which keeps you honest. Then Jay Bowman, my songwriting partner and I, take a lot of time figuring out what’s the best way to present this song and make every word of it come across and ring true.”

For Franti, “To play for people and share your songs with them is to make a real connection. That’s why we play outside our shows for those who can’t afford to come inside. They need the songs too – maybe more. That’s the reality. And as a musician I was on tour with put it recently, “Our fans didn’t come to us from a reality show. They came to us from reality.” And so, we mean something in their lives. We’re the music they put on when they drive their little kids to school, or hang out with the person they love at night. There’s no higher honor. So they have an investment in the music. And that means so much because this music is very personal to me too.”