Excitement Returns
Red Thread Records is a label dedicated to bringing the best of adult contemporary and adult alternative music to the forefront. The label was founded by Jane Rubinstein and Kurt Eherenman to reinvigorate and provide fresh inspiration for both of these formats. The impetus was the founders’ feeling that the adult contemporary and adult alternative music worlds were in need of new blood that would, in effect, help rebirth the format and capture the early excitement of the genre.

Junior Burke at the Forefront
The label’s first release, Junior Burke’s “While You Were Gone” is an exemplar of the new blood that will do just that. While Burke is an accomplished songwriter whose works have been recorded by music legends ranging from Bob Dylan to Richie Havens, this album marks his first foray into full fledged performance. Listen to Burke’s consummate musicianship, his expert phrasing, graceful tenor voice and brilliant lyrics and it becomes immediately clear that a new adult alternative voice has arrived – one that should be heard, appreciated and savored.

Passion For Music
Red Thread Records takes its name from the Eastern concept of a red thread that connects individuals who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance, and whose lives will be forever intertwined from that time forward. Another Eastern tradition refers to the “red thread of passion.” The founders of Red Thread Records believe that music is the medium through which passion for life and its many facets can best be expressed and through which auspicious connections are often made and life’s most precious moments crystallized.

Buy your tickets NOW! General Admission $12.00 Student $6.00 Purchase the new CD, "While You Were Gone" To hear more tracks from While You Were Gone, click here Now Playing - It All Happened While You Were Gone:

Junior Burke to Celebrate Release of Debut Album on October 6 at 8 pm

Performance to Be Held at the Black Box Theatre, ATLAS Center, Boulder CU Campus

Burke’s CD While You Were Gone Available Now at juniorburke.com, cdbaby.com, Albums on the Hill and at the Naropa University Bookstore in Boulder, CO

Boulder, Colo. (Wednesday, September 12)—Naropa University Writing & Poetics Chair Junior Burke will celebrate the release of his debut album, While You Were Gone, on Saturday, October 6, 2007, at the Black Box Theater (ATLAS 2B) at the new University of Colorado ATLAS Center for Arts, Media and Performance on 18th Street north of Euclid Avenue on the CU Boulder Campus. Burke will be joined by friends and fellow musicians and performers to kick the celebratory event into high gear. Tickets will be available beginning September 15 from the Boulder Theater Box Office, the Naropa University Bookstore and online at JuniorBurke.com. The public can call 303-786-7030 for more information. Tickets will also be available at the Naropa University Bookstore on the Naropa Arapahoe Campus, 2130 Arapahoe Avenue, in Boulder. Ticket prices are $12 for the general public and $6 for students. Additional information is also available from Red Thread Records, at 303-575-1060.

The long-awaited debut album was produced by industry great Jim Tullio and features 11 of Burke’s evocative pop gems. Drawing on influences ranging from folk rock and blue-eyed soul to blues, Burke is a consummate singer-songwriter. He fashions seamless melodies infused with lyrics that are piercing, authentic and unforgettable, performing them in an evocative tenor voice that invites the listener to share with him an intimate, intensely personal experience. A songwriter during his entire adult life, Burke has seen his work performed and recorded by a range of top talents, including Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, David Bromberg, Mandy Patinkin, Bonnie Koloc, Freddie Jackson, Utah Phillips, the Boston Pops and the Rochester Philharmonic.

Burke’s friend and band mate Janet Feder (director of Naropa’s Music department) will open the show. By placing metal and other various objects on her guitar strings, Janet Feder manipulates a combination of normally pitched strings with ‘prepared’ ones. In this manner, Feder can create an entire orchestral palette of timbres and articulations, transforming the instrument into an acoustic ‘synthesizer’ of unfamiliar yet captivating colors and percussive effects.

Other performance guests will include Wendell Beavers, chair of the Naropa University BFA/MFA Performance department, singer Ethie Friend and pianist Gary Grundei. Feder, Beavers, Friend and Grundei have all collaborated with Burke in the past. Friend and Grundei will perform several numbers from "Someone Else’s Dream," a cycle of Burke’s songs that they debuted at BMOCA several years ago.

Future Junior Burke performance dates will be available soon. To learn more, sign up for the Red Thread Records newsletter here: