The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

The radio show called The Shakedown was thrilled to meet this group, welcomed them with open arms and made us feel right at home.  

With walls covered in an endless CD collection, I was lucky enough to watch these four soulfully fill the room with their unique acoustic sounds. Rustic and profound, the Coalminers had pulled four songs from their three albums they have released: ACT!, Cologne, Porcelain and Lucerne. 

I asked lead guitarist Nic Haughn why he chose those specific ones to blast all over Colorado. He replied, “Cologne is a banger. We reworked Porcelain from our first album so we changed the sound and added more instruments. Act is a fun song to play and we added a part where we can change it so we can do a surf rock/grunge version.”  

While the band was setting up, front man Mitch Cutts, broke the high E string on his guitar. Unprepared for a casualty like this, they did not have a string to replace it with but the show went on. Cutts played the whole set without the string and still managed to awh every person in the room. This mishap didn’t seem to shake them because they still played so beautifully that no one really noticed. 

They began with Cologne, thanked the listeners and effortlessly transitioned into my personal favorite song called: Porcelain. Porcelain brought tears to my eyes. After the last chord was strummed I looked over to my friend, Carolyn Kemp, and saw her mouth wide open and no words to say. This was her first time seeing them live and she loved every moment of their set.

Kemp said, “I really liked their music on Spotify but seeing them live took it to the next level. I think they are my new favorite band.”

ACT! and Lucerne are two up beat songs which starkly contrasted the first two. The Coalminers brought in the funky folk energy with their simultaneous rhythmic head bops. They got the rest of us, who were watching, to mimic their moves without us even noticing. 

The group delivered with the surf rock/grunge version of ACT! as promised. We all exchanged smiles as Cutts played the last note on his keyboard, Ryan Lavallee hit the bass drum one last time and all we were left with was the ringing of Haughns guitar, signifying their set was over. The Coalminers know how to leave a crowd wanting more. 

When talking to Haughn after the set he told us how playing on the radio differed from the other shows they have done. “I felt pretty confident playing since we just had our Globe Hall show the week before. But we have never done anything in a studio so it was weird showing up and having people set up mics for you and everything.” 

Although I thought they killed it, they didn’t think it was their best performance because they didn’t think it sounded good in their headphone mixes. We assured them that it all sounded great from our end. 

It was overall a very uplifting and happy environment to be a part of.

We said our goodbyes and sent them off to a first-look movie screening that contained all of their songs from all three albums. The movie is not out yet but will be submitted in festivals for everyone to see sometime this summer. Seeing Richy Mitch and the Coalminers doesn’t get old and I can’t wait for their next show in Denver at Lost Lake Lounge.