BOULDER — Kyle Hollingsworth has four masters: family, music, beer and nature.
Nowhere is that more evident than in this keyboardist and home brewer’s house: a four-bedroom ’70s raised ranch on a quiet corner in a neighborhood just blocks from the grassy meadows and hiking trails of Boulder Open Space.
With his wife, Tania, the guy known to jam-band fans worldwide simply as “Kyle from String Cheese Incident” chose this home nine years ago “straight-up (because of the) location,” he says. “This was where we wanted to live.”
Hollingsworth, 43, is a Maryland native and lifelong outdoors enthusiast. He first came west in the 1980s to help clear the Colorado Trail. Later, after earning a jazz-piano degree from Towson State University, Hollingsworth “packed up my Honda with just enough stuff for three months,” headed to Boulder and “never went home.”
Even now that String Cheese Incident is arguably on the downhill side of a wildly successful run that started in the mid-1990s — and seemed like it might go on indefinitely — Hollingsworth doesn’t see himself living anywhere else.
“I’ve been across the world, and I still feel this is a great place,” he says. “The beauty here is unsurpassed.”
Parents with young children will relate to the Hollingsworth living room — a space where grown-up tastes and toddler toys coexist. During a recent morning, the musician visits with a guest in one corner of the room — a cozy seating nook arranged with soft taupe sofas near a black Yamaha baby grand piano and a copy “Fermenting Revolution.”
On the opposite side of the room, shelves and bins overflow with tops, tiny cars, kiddie instruments and stuffed animals. The middle of the room is bare for 3-year-old Zoe Hollingsworth’s boundless play.
This house has a man cave. But what sets that basement room apart from others like it is that Kyle’s room, or studio, is packed with more than a dozen keyboards, several of which are vintage, irreplaceable Craigslist finds.
“I have an old Wurlitzer electric piano, which they don’t make anymore, at least not that model. It’s from 1958 . . . I have a Hammond B-3 (organ) from the ’60s. I have a Moog synthesizer. And I have Big Head Todd’s clavinet. I bought it from him.”
Whether touring with the bluegrass-flavored String Cheese Incident or his own, more jazzy, electronic-sounding Kyle Hollingsworth Band, this musician rarely has all those vintage sounds at his disposal when on the road.
“There’s a lot of keyboards now that have the sample of those sounds — the pretend version,” he says. “But having that classic sound, especially for a home recording, is great.”
Fans recognize Hollings- worth’s love of making music when they see him on stage, where a song may start out with preconceived notes, then meander into an improvisational wonderland.
“Oftentimes Kyle will be playing a solo (on stage) and you’ll actually see him singing along as he’s playing,” says longtime friend Bruce Payne. “I’ve never seen another keyboardist do that. You can tell how excited he is about the music.”
But music isn’t the only pastime that holds Hollings- worth’s attention. Payne, as the keyboardist’s longtime home-brewing partner, can attest to the fact that the musician also is an amateur beer scholar.
“Kyle has spent a ton of energy the last three or four years” promoting craft beers and homebrewing, Payne says. “He has worked hard to get like-minded people together who can really appreciate the creative synergy” between beer and music.
Hollingsworth took an interest in the homebrewing process more than 20 years ago. He started experimenting with his own brews, and more recently engaged in a music tour that stopped at several craft breweries nationwide.
It takes little prodding for Hollingsworth to reveal his inner beer nerd.
“The process alone is really intriguing to me,” he says. “It does connect to music for me. There’s a creative space (to homebrewing) that’s similar to cooking. Once you know the basics of the craft, you then can explore beyond those boundaries.”
Hollingsworth’s relationship with beer matured with the release of Boulder Beer’s Hoopla Pale Ale. Its bottle has a tie-dye label and a hula hoop near the logo, a nod to those freaky, fun-loving jam-band fans. Hollings worth also incorporated The BrewRu Experience home-brew workshop and sampling event into this summer’s String Cheese Incident shows. His message: Anyone can brew their own beer at home.
Though time-consuming, he says, the process is “simple. All you need is water, grain, hops and yeast, along with a few tools that are available in a $50 kit in a homebrew shop.”
Hollingsworth developed Hoopla alongside the professional brewers at Boulder Beer. That brewery will host Kyle’s Brew Fest, a music and beer festival on July 23.
“He’s a great voice for craft brewers,” says Mike Memsic, one of the Boulder Beer brewers who helped Hollingsworth conceive Hoopla. Memsic describes that particular beer as especially intended for summer sipping, with “a nice, interesting hop character, not too overwhelming and heavy, with a really nice dry finish.”
The brewer got a kick out of working with such a well- known musician. But Memsic soon realized that Hollingsworth takes away just as much pleasure from working people in the beer business.
“That was hard for me to understand at first,” Memsic says. “But he gets really excited about getting to work and play with professional brewers, and that makes it fun for everybody.”
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
Kyle’s Brew Fest 2011
String Cheese Incident keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth throws two of his passions into the same pot at this music and beer festival featuring samples from dozens of artisanal breweries. The event benefits the Conscious Alliance, a Boulder anti-hunger organization.
When: 2-6 p.m. July 23
Where: Boulder Beer Co., 2880 Wilderness Place, Boulder
Tickets: $25 through includes a live performance by the Kyle Hollingsworth Band, a limited-edition glass, food, drink and access to a silent auction of rock memorabilia.
