August Huckabee, founder of high-energy folk-rock band Westrock, is living his best Colorado life—and singing the soundtrack to yours, if you’re the type who’d rather be outside. You’ll find him white water rafting and adventure-guiding during the summer and backcountry skiing in the winter. Huckabee likes to immerse himself in Colorado’s great outdoors so he can find inspiration in the mountain’s melodies—and then he tries to capture it so he can play it for all to hear. “Living the lifestyle is the best inspiration,” he shares. “I have designed my life so that whenever inspiration strikes, I am ready to capture it for my next song.”
He tells me how he is often scribbling lyrics onto a notepad as he continues down a trail. His ultimate goal for Westrock’s music is to bring people together and unite communities, especially the mountain tribe.
Huckabee formed the band Westrock in 2018 while living in Boise. Huckabee, the frontman, singer, acoustic guitar player, and the only remaining original member, wrote all the tracks on the Sept. 2021 album Welcome to the River. The band’s sound is inspired by Huckabee’s Texas roots. “In Texas we have a subgenre of country called Red Dirt. It’s a mix of southern rock, bluegrass, blues, and traditional country. That’s really what we aspire to with our sound.”
The album is an ode to outdoor spaces, spanning from a quiet dirt road to a crowded chair lift. For the “Life from a Lift Chair” track, the band crowdsourced a music video of locals hitting the slopes they love. “We got over 100 submissions, which was really exciting. With that video, we were really looking to tap that outdoors community and get them engaged with our music.” The resulting high energy mashup captures the send-it spirit, midmountain aprés, and gangs of friends getting geared up on the gondola.
After success with their first video, Huckabee is encouraged to make another, this time to the album’s namesake “Welcome to the River” full of his white water rafting experiences. And, another album is already underway. Boulder’s backroads get a call out with the new “Fun to go Fast” track, and while the album is still nature-inspired, it’s a bit more broad and features a few love songs.
