Metropolitan State University of Denver Provost Matt Makley, Ph.D., and Shawn Meek, professor of Communication Design, play guitar and sing in a psychedelic-rock jam band, and their gig on Saturday will help to send students on a study-abroad field-learning program.
Having each played since they were teenagers, the pair first discovered their chemistry together well before the band formed in spring 2024. Years before Meek joined Cosmic Caravan in February 2025, he and Makley became friends over their shared love for music and discovered a “synchronous” rapport in their approaches to it.
Now, all seven bandmates in Cosmic Caravan are committed not only to weekly practices amid their busy schedules, but also a purpose bigger than just having fun.
“We want to serve the community,” Makley said. “We want to play songs that help people feel good, that work like medicine in that setting. In the caravan, anyone can join, and the cosmic piece appealed to all of us at the time because we were just thinking beyond our local community.”
This weekend, their show will benefit Biology students attending the Tropical Field Biology program in Costa Rica. The money raised will close a gap in travel costs that would otherwise prevent talented students from the learning experience in the biology-rich environment.
“There’s research that shows students that go abroad amplify their worldviews and change their career trajectories and so forth,” Meek said. “My wife [Kaily Taylor-Meek, professor of Biology] is an MSU Denver Bio alumna and a professor there now. She went on this trip before Covid, and it changed her life. It’s super personal to me.”
Meek also designed the band’s branding and promotional materials and built the band website, where you can hear sample clips.
Makley and Meek credited Jennifer Gagliardi-Seeley, Ph.D., chair and professor of Biology, for coordinating a slew of fundraising events in addition to this Saturday’s.
Cosmic Caravan – Tropical Field Biology Fundraiser
- WHERE: Velvet Banjo, 741 East Colfax Avenue
- WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m.
- TICKETS: $10 at the door
About the band
If you like groovy rock music, and especially if you enjoy experiencing a song like it’s never been played before, Cosmic Caravan is for you.
Rooted in the Grateful Dead’s genre, they play familiar tunes from the likes of Jerry Garcia, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, but Meek said the “magic” happens when they find themselves in “the tunnel.” That’s what they call it when their improvisations work so well that everyone in the room feels like they “go into space a little bit,” and the sense of personal ego is lost.
They practice open-ended jams to know where to begin and end, but in between, they figure it out as they go, taking turns on solos and jumping into the original melodies they’ve composed as a group when it feels right.
“The beautiful thing is when you can’t tell who’s playing what,” Makley said. “There’s a moment you go into where I stop even realizing where my notes are beginning and ending relative to everyone else’s, and that’s where I think the magic is in music.”
About Tropical Field Biology
In the Costa Rica-based program, Biology students explore the country’s rich biodiversity, ecosystems and approaches to conservation and sustainability.
Since Gagliardi-Seeley and Christy Carello, professor of Biology, began offering the class nearly every year since 2009, the travel cost has doubled. The fundraising goal with Cosmic Caravan, a silent auction and other efforts is to eventually eliminate all costs of the program other than tuition.
Study abroad courses have been shown to increase retention, graduation rates, job placement and future job salaries, and MSU Denver data shows the 6-year graduation rate for students attending this class is 90%.
