NEDERLAND -- Evan Cantor, Burt Rashbaum, and Roland LaForge have always been musicians. They’ve all worked to become professional musicians, but ultimately, they couldn’t find a way to make a living through music. They never stopped playing, though.
The three joined forces for the first time in the 2000s. Cantor and Rashbaum worked in the same building at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Cantor jumped in to play music with Rashbaum and LaForge as a bassist.
Cantor tapped in for the bassist of a band that Rashbaum and LaForge were a part of, Too Much Jones, named after the founders and head brothers of the band, Mark and Craig Jones. On one of the nights Cantor tapped in for rehearsal, only he, Rashbaum, and LaForge came to the rehearsal room.
The three decided to jam and see what happened, and they realized they could form a band on their own. Craig, wanting to step away from a long-term band project, is now considered one of the godfathers of the new project the three formed, now called The CBDs.
All three had performed in various groups before and had played music all of their lives, but none of them had been in a band that lasted more than a few years. Having performed since 2013, The CBDs are celebrating their 12th year and approaching their 100th gig.
Early on, the band also utilized percussion elements, eventually deciding to implement percussion elements into the other instruments. The group also brought on a bassist, Greg Staab, who passed away in 2022.
After Staab’s passing, the group continued as a trio, with all three providing vocals, Rashbaum playing keys, Cantor playing acoustic guitar, bass, and harmonica, and LaForge playing electric guitar. They have a large repertoire of songs from other artists as well as original songs.
Especially with the original songs, the three are proud of all of their primary contributions: Rashbaum’s lyrics, Cantor’s composition, and LaForge’s arrangements. Many times, Rashbaum has written a poem that Cantor has found can work to music, and Cantor has quickly created a song demo.
Once the group starts rehearsing their songs, LaForge finds a way to re-energize the songs with his instrumentation, and the group as a whole now finds ways to let songs breathe during live performances if the crowd gets more excited and dances more in particular sections.
After the passing of Staab, along with Rashbaum’s wife Sharon Ferguson (considered one of the “band ladies” along with LaForge’s and Cantor’s wives), the trio recorded songs in the studio for the first time. They prepared 19 songs, expecting there to be a few that wouldn’t make the cut for an album release. Listening to the final versions, the group realized they had a great take on every song.
Typically, the group performs in two sets, with an intermission in the middle, so with this amount of songs, Rashbaum decided to treat the tracklist like a live set-list, and thus, their double album, Two Sets, was born.
The group is incredibly proud of how far they’ve come and are thrilled they get to perform together, not just as a group of musicians, but as a group of friends.
The CBDs will be playing their 100th gig at the Very Nice Brewing Company location in Nederland, located at 20 East Lakeview Drive #112 in the Caribou Village Shopping Center, on Sunday, May 25, 2025, starting at 4 p.m.
For more information about the group and to purchase Two Sets, be sure to head to their website at thecbds.com. You can also learn more about Evan Cantor’s artistic endeavors in general at evancantor.com.
