Fort Collins honky-tonk duo Sugar Britches stopped by the KGNU studio to chat with Dave McIntyre about their upcoming double album release—one full of originals and the other a collection of unconventional covers. The band shared the inspiration behind several new tracks, including “Bamboozled,” “Victimless Crime,” and “Old Man in the Band”. With performances lined up around Colorado, including at CSU’s Lagoon Series and Four Mile Historic Park, Sugar Britches continues to blend humor, heartache, and twang with their signature charm. (Studio Session: 5/30/25)
Dave McIntyre: We have some friends in the studio from Sugar Britches. Say hello, fellas.
Sugar Britches: Hey, Dave.
Dave McIntyre: Hey. Hello, Lance. How are you doing?
Sugar Britches: How are you?
Dave McIntyre: Good to have you in the studio.
Sugar Britches: Yeah, glad to be back. I think it’s been about a year.
Dave McIntyre: I think so.
Sugar Britches: Our yearly visit.
Dave McIntyre: You’ve got a couple of CDs coming out.
Sugar Britches: Yeah.
Dave McIntyre: Tell us about them.
Sugar Britches: We started recording these in January up in Fort Collins, and we’ve been working on them. We decided to get a bit ambitious this time around—we’ve been talking about it for a while—and do two albums at once.
So we did one album of originals and one covers album as well, just because that’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while and thought it would be fun. We picked some not-so-traditional country music covers, and some folky songs too. There are some odd covers we wanted to do, and then some new originals too.
Dave McIntyre: That’s great.
Sugar Britches: Yeah.
Dave McIntyre: How soon do you expect to have it ready?
Sugar Britches: As we were talking about before, it always takes a little longer than you think. You’re like, “Oh man, we’ve got to make cover art, do all this stuff, get everything lined up.” We’re getting everything mixed and mastered right now. We’re on the home stretch, so we’re hoping to release a few singles first. Hopefully by July or August we’ll start releasing them, and then maybe the full album in the fall.
Dave McIntyre: Okay.
Sugar Britches: Cool.
Dave McIntyre: Shall we hear Bamboozled?
Sugar Britches: Yeah. This is off the originals album.
Dave McIntyre: Well, I’m a novice at this. I’m going to have to call Evan back in to help us get this going. Well, this might help. Let’s see.
There it is.
Sugar Britches: (plays Bamboozled)
Dave McIntyre: All right.
Sugar Britches: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I like that one. I never know if you’re just going to stare at me and be like, “Terrible!”
Dave McIntyre: No, that’s a good one.
Sugar Britches: Thank you. It’s always fun to write these and just have them in the infancy. And then, working with Lance over the years, he’s like, “Let’s make it a rumba.” So it’s fun to do all these different styles.
Dave McIntyre: Yeah.
Sugar Britches: Definitely.
Dave McIntyre: The more diverse the better, I always say.
Sugar Britches: Absolutely.
Dave McIntyre: What are you going to play for us live?
Sugar Britches: Why don’t we do another newer original? We’re going to do Victimless Crime.
Dave McIntyre: Sounds good.
Sugar Britches: This is another one… pretty simple little premise. I started writing it—just a lot of silly little strings of words—but then Lance really added a good little Bob Wills flavor to it.
Dave McIntyre: Cool.
Sugar Britches: So this is called Victimless Crime.
Dave McIntyre: This is going to be on the covers CD?
Sugar Britches: This is on the originals, yeah.
Me and my wife were fighting a lot, so I was having these nightmares that we were getting divorced. I just had this line in my head when I woke up—it was, “I’m dreaming of divorce.” So don’t tell her I said that.
It’s a pretty fun, silly little song. Ready? Yep. One, two, three, four…
Sugar Britches: (plays Victimless Crime)
Dave McIntyre: All right, that’s a good one.
Sugar Britches: That’s a fun little one.
Dave McIntyre: I know that idea. So let’s see—you’ve got some CDs coming out. You guys are up out of Fort Collins, right?
Sugar Britches: Yep. Most of us are. Our bassist is in Denver and our fiddle player is in Denver now, but she’s moving back up to Fort Collins too.
Dave McIntyre: So where can folks go see you these days? Anything coming up?
Sugar Britches: Yeah, we’ve got some good big shows. June 18th, we’ll be at the CSU Lagoon for their summer concert series, which runs almost every Wednesday through the summer.
And July 2nd is another big one—we’ll be doing our second John Prine tribute at Four Mile Historic Park in Denver.
Dave McIntyre: How did the first one go?
Sugar Britches: It went great. It sold out quickly. It was so much fun. Lots of great guest singers. The one in Denver will feature the core Sugar Britches band and four great guests—Joe Hickey from West Side Joe, Alicia Craft, and Ansel Foxley. The last two are from Had I Known and Lelah, so…
Dave McIntyre: What’s the best way for people to find out where you’re playing? Website?
Sugar Britches: Probably our website—that should have all the dates listed if I’ve done my job. It’s sugarbritchesmusic.com.
Dave McIntyre: Okay.
Sugar Britches: Just make sure you go there and not to sugarbritches.com—I think that’s either a bakery or an adult website.
Dave McIntyre: So it’s sugarbritchesmusic.com.
Sugar Britches: That’s the important part.
Dave McIntyre: Great. Let’s hear another one. Should we do Egg and Daughter Night?
Sugar Britches: Yeah. That’s a good segue too. That’s off the covers album, and we felt like we had to throw a John Prine cover in there, but I think we did it very differently from the original.
Dave McIntyre: Good job. Great one.
Sugar Britches: (plays Egg and Daughter Night)
Dave McIntyre: Gotta love John Prine.
Sugar Britches: Absolutely.
Dave McIntyre: Are you going to play us another live one before I chase you out of the studio?
Sugar Britches: Sure. I think we’ll do Old Man in the Band. When I started playing, I was always the baby in the band. Now, playing with the younger guys like Lance, Cam, and Orie, I’m kind of the old guy. These guys helped me write this, and it’s a fun one—but it definitely hurts every time I sing it.
Sugar Britches: (plays Old Man in the Band)
Dave McIntyre: I like that one.
Sugar Britches: Oh, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. In my mind, I’m still 15 years old, but my body says otherwise. And these guys just make fun of me nonstop. Isn’t that right?
Dave McIntyre: Thanks for coming up, guys.
Sugar Britches: Oh yeah, thanks for having us. Appreciate it.
Dave McIntyre: Thanks for playing for us live and bringing in some new music.
Sugar Britches: We’ll be sure to send you CDs when they get here too. We appreciate you always supporting us, Dave.
Dave McIntyre: Well, you guys are good in my mind, and that’s why I’m going to send you an email later with some dates to get the band back in.
Sugar Britches: Yeah, absolutely.
Dave McIntyre: All right. See you soon.
Sugar Britches: See ya.
