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GRAMMY ALERT: Gregory Alan Isakov’s new album Evening Machines was nominated for a 2020 Grammy for Best Folk Album.

Many musicians have day jobs to make ends meet. However, few artists maintain the lifestyle kept by Gregory Alan Isakov. The Colorado-based indie-folk artist is a full-time farmer who sells vegetable seeds and grows various market crops on his three-acre farm, while also tending to a thriving musical career.

“I switch gears a lot,” he says. “I wake up really early in the growing season, and then in the winters, I’m up all night. I’m constantly moving back and forth.”

Isakov had an easier time balancing his two passions while making his fourth full-length studio album, Evening Machines. In between farm duties, the multi-instrumentalist wrote and recorded in a studio housed in a barn on his property. Like the farm, this studio has a communal atmosphere, filled with instruments and gear stored there by musician friends— gear Isakov always leaves on, just in case inspiration strikes.

As its name implies, the dark indie rock and folk populating Evening Machines possesses a dusky hue. Hushed acoustic guitar and sparse piano combine for a moody foundation that’s amplified by ornate and heavy embellishments: distant electric guitars, keyboards, pedal steel, saw, percussion, strings, banjo, and some electronic drums. It’s an intimate album that encourages close listening and contemplation.

Isakov is no stranger to collaboration or traveling to hone his craft. In 2016 he released an album of his songs played in collaboration with the Colorado Symphony, and he tours regularly in the U.S. and Europe, performing alongside acts such as Iron & Wine, Calexico, Ani DiFranco, Passenger, Josh Ritter, Brandi Carlile, and Nathaniel Rateliff. In 2020 Isakov will be touring around his farming season— and striving for a cohesive musical vision that feeds his soul. “Music helped me get through some of the hardest times,” he says.

$1 of the ticket price goes to a charity chosen by the artist.

Photo credit: Rebecca Caridad