Girls On Top! opens Rock & Rails

The first band to play Niwot's summer concert series 18 years ago returns to open the 2023 Rock & Rails summer concert series Thursday, June 1.

Girls On Top!, a seven-member band featuring vocalists Dawn Beck, Kristin Henry and Michele Steele in three-part harmony, performs R&B, rock, soul and funk from the 1970s and 1980s, with a stage presence that has made them a favorite along the Front Range.

"We're 24 years in," said Henry, who doubles as the band's manager. "We're interactive, we're part of the community." She noted that Girls On Top! was the first band to perform as part of Niwot's renowned summer concert series at Whistle Stop Park, back when it was called Bands on the Tracks, and Rockin' Robin Abb was the emcee. "We were the first ever."

When informed that the Niwot Community Semi-Marching Free Grange Band, which first performed at the dedication of the bandstand in 2005, is opening for Girls On Top!, Henry said, "It will be the first and the first!"

Henry lives in Niwot where she and her husband have raised their daughter, but she often goes unnoticed around town. "I'm like Clark Kent, and then I take off my glasses," she said. The Philadelphia native, who remains a huge Phillies fan, collects baseball cards, and manages four fantasy baseball teams (who compete against each other), noted that some venues have asked them to change their name, in which case they are known by the acronym "GOT!" That [name change] doesn't happen locally anymore. "We're just part of the vernacular in Boulder County."

"The guy who started the band moved to Germany," Henry said. "He had a dream and the name came to him - three female singers. He was in the pit orchestra of a theater production called 'Quilters' about seven pioneer women. He picked three of us - Dawn, me and Karen LaNoureaux. Then he grabs the keyboard player from the pit. The band was formed out of a show."

"It's about female empowerment," Henry said of the band's name, which refers to the three female vocalists who provide the top range of the harmonies of the band.

Though the personnel of the band has changed over time, the ones who have left have gone on to other musical pursuits, and are sometimes called to sub for a band member who isn't available.

Michele Steele, a paralegal by day, is also a vocalist who has been with the group for about six years, and is the newest member. As the personnel changes, a wider range of music is added. "We started out being kind of '60's do-wop," Henry said, performing songs by the Supremes and the Temptations.

"Everything we do is collaborative," she added, but she describes herself as a "benevolent dictator" who sometimes has to break a tie when the vote is 3-3.

Many members of the band are otherwise involved in the arts, music and education. Henry, who formerly worked at Elevations Credit Union, teaches voice lessons, while drummer Gregg Wilkins is involved with sound healing as owner of SpiritWave Rhythms.

Alec Sims on guitar is also a manager at Healing Sounds/Spirit Music. Gary Sensenig on keyboards is a published author, while bass player Hilary Freeman is a math professor at CSU. Beck is an educator at Tantric Sacred Journeys in Gunbarrel.