17 MAY 21-27, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | FIND MORE MUSIC COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MUSIC Urban Renewal KEENAN TREVON COULD FINALLY PUT DENVER’S GROWING R&B SCENE ON THE NATIONAL MAP. BY CLEO MIRZA Keenan TreVon has the goods. Raised in Aurora, the musician has nat- ural talent, a studied passion for music, a dedicated team, fi erce ambition and, of course, the dashing good looks of an R&B heartthrob. But despite achieving many “fi rsts” for an urban artist from Colorado, TreVon hasn’t found the success you’d expect in this market. To be fair, he spent the past few years in Florida, San Diego and on the road, but since returning to his hometown last spring, he’s made a concerted effort to establish himself as a leading artist in the Box State. TreVon will drop his sophomore album, Buy Me Flowers: The Album, on Friday, May 22, the day before he headlines the Bluebird Theater. TreVon fi rst teased an EP titled buyme- fl owers (Part 1) in November 2024, with the intention of following it up with a full album soon after, but he didn’t drop Part 1 until a year later. In the time between the initial announcement and the release, TreVon’s life was turned upside down, prompting him to redo both parts of the project almost entirely. “Life kind of served me that platter,” he says. “At the beginning of last year, my mom got sick, I ended up getting jumped and my jaw got broken, so everything just kept getting pushed and pushed with life happening. This whole buymefl owers thing has been a journey.” Buy Me Flowers: The Al- bum refl ects TreVon’s R&B origins, where he is now and everything he’s been through to get here. “I think with everything that happened, my entire mood changed,” TreVon says. After a tumultuous year, TreVon finally dropped buymeflowers (Part 1) last November. Buy Me Flowers: The Album will include the fi ve songs from Part 1, plus nine new tracks. “It’s the most proud I’ve been of the R&B stuff,” he says. “I feel like we’ve really found the sound here. It sounds good, it sounds grown, it sounds mature, it sounds sexy.” While Buy Me Flowers: The Album is grounded in R&B, it incorporates ele- ments from emo and punk music that TreVon has grown to love, including his own guitar playing. “You’ll hear a few attempts on the album of bridging the gaps,” he explains, “like throwing R&B vocals and melodies on alternative-sounding beats. ‘Do U Miss Me?’ is a good ex- ample of blending the two.” He’s been gearing up for the album release with a three-month North Ameri- can tour. TreVon is one of the few urban art- ists from Colorado who has a solid amount of touring experience, including opening for singer Marc E. Bassy and rapper G- Eazy, who’s also managed by Mike Gomez, TreVon’s manager. On the buymefl owers tour, TreVon’s doing a few shows opening for New York rapper Skizzy Mars, whom he’s joined on tour before. But for the fi rst time, he’s head- lining more than half of the shows himself. “Touring is exhausting,” TreVon admits. “Not even be- ing dramatic, I think you have to be built for touring. Be- cause it is a lot of late nights, it’s a lot of early mornings, it’s a lot of travel, it’s a lot of avoiding being sick, it’s a lot of horrible food, it’s a lot of alcohol. It defi nitely takes a toll on your body.” But he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else: “I absolutely love it. I love per- forming, so having a show every night, there’s always something to look forward to.” Considering this is TreVon’s fi rst head- lining tour, he and Gomez are swinging big, booking several venues with a 500- to 600-person capacity. “This is where you fi nd out what you’re really made of,” Gomez says. “It’s easy to go on tour when everything isn’t in your name, and you just show up and perform and make the crowd love you. Now it’s a little bit different.” But Gomez and the label he co-owns, New Gold Medal, are confi dent in betting on TreVon. “Our pop girls get fi ve million streams a week,” Gomez says. “We think Keenan is going to be bigger than them.” The songs TreVon has released during the album rollout are already drumming up some impressive buzz. “Yours, Hers, Theirs,” a smooth-talking players’ anthem released as the lead single off Part 1, caught the attention of Spotify, which put the track on its Fresh Finds R&B playlist the week it dropped; a month later, his standalone single “Act Like U Loved Me” landed on Spotify’s R&B Weekly playlist. TreVon also performed live versions of both tracks for On The Radar; he was the fi rst Colorado artist to appear on the popular web series, which hosts freestyles, DJ sets, cyphers and live tapings from up-and-comers and industry legends alike. And his most recent single, “Grand Ave,” was featured as the cover of Pandora’s Indie R&B Radio station. “He’s got so many fi rsts right now,” Go- mez says. “He’s played in the biggest rooms, he’s gotten 1,500-person shows already. ... There’s never been an urban artist here that does these ticket numbers.” For years, the city has been looking for an urban artist to hit in Colorado, and Gomez is now convinced he’s found just that with TreVon. “Keenan is going to be the breakout,” he says. “We want our city to be behind us, and we want everybody to focus on what he’s doing because once he opens the door, everyone else can come through.” Frequent touring has helped TreVon build a wide-reaching fanbase around the world, but he’s still determined to have his home state match that energy. “When we go out of town, everyone loves him. We want people [here] to have that same gusto and love,” Gomez says. “He’s got all these pieces to the puzzle, and when you tell that story outside continued on page 18 Keenan TreVon’s time may have come. Keenan TreVon loves his hometown. But does the city love him back? MUSIC LOUDER MORNINGSTAR LOUDER MORNINGSTAR
