Darin Talbot

Dubbed "Lake Tahoe's Troubadour," easygoing folk-rocker Darin Talbot uses his music primarily to celebrate the snowboarding lifestyle, much in the same way that Jimmy Buffett celebrates beach bumming and Jack Johnson does surfing. His odes to that leisure life, bearing a similar sound to the Samples, found an unexpected fan in Dr. Demento, and a 1999 invitation to open a show for the Brian Setzer Orchestra at the Playboy Mansion cemented Talbot's resolve. That November saw the release of his debut CD, Music Flight, on the indie Air Tahoe Records imprint. May 2001 brought Tahoe Backcountry, his first release to eschew other topics for a more pronounced focus on snowboarding culture. With some tracks picked up by Radio Disney, Talbot continued in the same idiom of "Tahoe, fun, and snow" on 2003's Big Air. He spent much of 2004 and 2005 playing bar and wedding dates in Tahoe and other parts of Nevada, with a fourth disc, Rise, slated for 2006 release and promising a return to more generalized topics. ~ Joseph McCombs