Music of the Mountains: Where to be and what to see -- Bruce Lish and John Heiland of KC36 Orange Sunshine Band

There’s a new jam band rolling into town, although the members have been playing locally for years. This new band is calling themselves KC36 Orange Sunshine Band (shortened from KC36 and the Orange Sunshine Band). The name is a reference to the disco-funk group KC and the Sunshine Band, as well as to the strains of marijuana known as the KC36 and the Orange Sunshine. The band’s lineup consists of guitarist Doug Diminico (a core member and leader of Smooth Money Gesture), mandolinist Dave Pullins (a core member of NoGo Gilbillies), drummer Larry Nivissimo, saxophonist Bruce Lish, and bassist John Heiland. Nivissimo, Lish, and Heiland have frequently collaborated for over three decades, also currently playing together in the Grateful Dead tribute group AoxomoxoA.

Heiland grew up in Chicago, surrounded by “upriver Mississippi bass and blues.” He started learning basic blues when he got his first guitar, but he didn’t start performing until he moved to Colorado in 1991. He lived next door to professional musicians, who heard him play more at that time, and he started playing bluegrass at Ward’s Millsite Inn, where other bluegrass musicians welcomed him in weekly Saturday night jams. He joined his first band, the Sugarloaf String Band, shortly after, connecting with similar groups such as Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon.

During his time in Sugarloaf String Band, he went on the road with Shanti Groove, a jam grass group that also included Nivissimo and Lish in the lineup. After Sugarloaf dissolved as a group, member Ryan Jones (who has since worked with Galactic and is now the production manager of the New Orleans live music venue Tipitina’s) sold Heiland his bass, which he had played in college. That started Heiland’s trajectory as a bass player, forming bands with Nivissimo and Lish such as Fat Rabbit and the Funkytonk Heroes. After Funkytonk Heroes, they formed another group, Seeing Stars Band, which has since morphed into AoxomoxoA. Now, to fulfill a birthday wish from Lish, the three musicians have brought in Pullins and Diminico to form yet another group, KC36 Orange Sunshine Band.

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