Barefoot Family Caravan (“BFC”) is a quintessential Manitou Springs, Colorado band. The town is widely known for its eclectic artistic, musical and cultural influences, and BFC fits that rep like a glove. They describe their core genres as Psychedelic Rock, Jazz, Funk, Blues, Bluegrass, and Folk. Other bands the boys have played in include Lonnie Dillon and the Wandered, Shooks Mojo, The Ruxton Railsplitters, The Brian Grace Band, Harshmellow, and Two Scoops for Huck. The boys consider music to be their spirituality and life's “food”.

Frontman and guitarist Eli Blackshear is, for all intents and purposes, Manitou royalty; he was born there, and has been perfecting his musical chops since the age of 3. He took piano lessons and was a member of the National Piano Guild for many years. He began his public performance journey as a Folk singer, and his key artistic influence was Frank Zappa.

Artistic talent is baked into Eli’s DNA; his Father, Thomas Richman Blackshear II, is an internationally celebrated African-American artist is a graduate of Chicago’s American Academy of Art, whose paintings, sculptures, and ornaments are often found in Evangelical churches. The elder Blackshear also designed numerous stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, and his oil paintings are featured at Colorado Springs’ Broadmoor Galleries. Eli’s mother, Amy, is also a gifted artist and art teacher. Eli typically rocks a Standard Series PPS guitar, along with a Les Paul, and fancies ultralight strings. He’s highly active in community affairs, particularly regarding legislation and art.

Bassist Micah Dettling originally hails from Pittsburgh, PA. He came to Colorado with his parents in 2001 when he was in the 6^th grade. He’s been about music essentially since birth, and started piano lessons at age 4. He was originally a Jazz mandolinist, and played in Celtic and Irish Folk groups. He’s a self-described “Fender® fanboy”, who favors Fender’s “Jazz®” bass guitars, with flatwound strings. He’s a talented chef who works in a French kitchen, and is currently pursuing a degree in Musical Education.

Drummer Skip Carlson is originally from Daly City, CA, a suburb of San Francisco. He was traveling the country, hitchhiking, riding the rails, and living out of a backpack, but suffered a life-threatening infection. He stayed with a friend while recovering, and just...never left. He began his musical journey at the age of 4 on piano, but eventually switched to guitar and saxophone. When BFC needed a drummer, Skip picked up sticks (usually 5A barrel-tops) and never looked back. He favors Zildjian symbols. He’s also into plant genetics, and has amassed quite a collection of flora and heirloom seeds.

The band has had some wild experiences on-tour, including driving all the way across the country in an extremely loud, smoke-belching 1940’s school bus, with a Sharpie hand-written beer box for a “license plate”; somehow never getting pulled-over by the Five-O. Once, while playing gigs in New Orleans, their Manager suddenly disappeared for 3 days on a bender.

The band’s ultimate objectives are to get famous, sell-out Red Rocks Amphitheatre, quit their day jobs, live comfortably but not extravagantly, and own some land with a dope studio, where they can live by their own rules.

LiveMusicColorado.com is proud to count these talented artists and interesting raconteurs as Friends, and we never miss an opportunity to see them throw-down live, because it’s always a legit party.