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From the Flaming Lips to the Moody Blues, the Colorado Symphony’s collaborations, ranked

February 4, 2025

From the Flaming Lips to the Moody Blues, the Colorado Symphony’s collaborations, ranked

The Colorado Symphony just announced a third night with Gregory Alan Isakov in April. 

Lettuce album on tap
Ahead of another collaborative show in March, funk band Lettuce and the Colorado Symphony will release the recording of a live 2018 collaboration. The show from Boettcher Concert Hall will be out on DVD, CD, a 3-disc LP, digital streaming platforms and Dolby Atmos on Feb. 28. 

The Grammy-nominated Boulder singer-songwriter has performed many times since their first collaboration in 2013. His chamber pop is well suited to symphonic backing, but the Colorado Symphony has also collaborated with rappers, rockers, jam bands and everything in between.

The pairings continue in March with funk band Lettuce, and in April with Isakov’s shows and two concerts with Denver’s Nathaniel Rateliffe. In August, the orchestra will play a show in Vail with the wild and wildly talented Australian rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. 

Of course, nothing can match the immersive experience of a live show with the symphony, but you can prepare for these shows by listening to their previous recordings. 

Here is our ranking of the orchestra’s recordings with pop artists. Most are available across major streaming platforms, alongside many more traditional classical recordings.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wh5XtRBCBFo%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

1. DeVotchKa — “Live w/ the Colorado Symphony

Of course, we are partial to Colorado musicians working together. But this 2012 record is stunning and firmly belongs in the top spot. DeVotchKa already had a deep catalog and a well-earned reputation for captivating and theatrical live shows. This set serves as a greatest hits album, with every song enhanced by the symphonic backing, from the joyous pop of “Queen of the Surface Streets” to the cinematic (and appropriate) closer “How It Ends.”


https://youtube.com/watch?v=sADfmLHuMPk%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

2. The Moody Blues — “A Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra”

The guys in The Moody Blues were pioneers in symphonic rock collaboration. Even though they recorded the landmark “Days of Future Passed” with the London Festival Orchestra in 1967, they did not play a concert with a full orchestra until 25 years later. That show with the Colorado Symphony from September 1992 was trimmed to a single LP and released in 1993. The full concert was eventually released 20 years later. The two-hour album sounds as good as a top-notch studio recording, and showcases amazing musicianship all over the stage. The Moody Blues don’t get much love or airtime these days, but younger music aficionados would do well to revisit this great recording.    


https://youtube.com/watch?v=jPMy01lS5as%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

3. Amos Lee — “Live at Red Rocks”

Amos Lee has a powerful voice, and his soaring melodies lend themselves well to collaboration with an orchestra. This 2015 release opens with a wonderful rendition of “Windows are Rolled Down” (above) that captures the majesty of both the Colorado Symphony and Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The orchestra is under-utilized on some other tracks, but it is still a perfectly recorded document of a great night of music.  


https://youtube.com/watch?v=AqyAmmEkVvI%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

4. “Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony

In 2016, the aforementioned Isakov released a studio album recorded with the Colorado Symphony. The album has the first studio recording of “Liars,” which was already a live fan favorite, as well as a great selection from Isakov’s first three albums. Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa helped with the orchestral arrangements, many of which build gradually in layers to stunning crescendos. Although the sound is perfect, this studio recording unfortunately doesn’t quite match the energy of a live show. 


https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ty0mYiJVzR4%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

5. The Flaming Lips — “The Soft Bulletin: Live at Red Rocks”

“The Soft Bulletin” was the best album of 1999, and is the Flaming Lips’ masterpiece. So it’s only appropriate that the wildly experimental Oklahoma City collective celebrated the record’s 20th anniversary in 2019 by playing Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony. Thankfully, the show was recorded and released the same year. It’s a great rendition of a great album, even if it suffers by sanding off some of the rough edges that make the Flaming Lips so inventive and interesting.  


https://youtube.com/watch?v=YDpT8s94lfc%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

6. RZA — “A Ballet Through Mud”

Wu-Tang alum and musical genius RZA wrote a ballet with longtime Colorado Symphony conductor Christopher Dragon, and the music is beautiful. But the short clip above demonstrates that the music is really meant to go with the ballet performance and is not as compelling on its own. Consider this a public plea for the musicians and dancers to reunite and stage “A Ballet Through Mud” again, and perhaps even release a full performance video.  


https://youtube.com/watch?v=LQlZ4cmff1s%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

7. John Tesh — “Live at Red Rocks”

I believe the story behind this record is better than the record itself (this podcast offers an entertaining historic recap). Tesh’s self-funded and over-budget gamble was almost a rain-drenched debacle. Instead, his show with the symphony became almost certainly the most watched Red Rocks concert ever. It was the soundtrack to years of successful pledge drives. But the album of new age originals and overwrought takes on Sting and Phil Collins has not aged well, and might be best left to the history books.