By WENDY KALE

David Crosby (of CSN fame) has been calling Boulder a lot lately.  He's been sending a lot of e-mail too.  Why?  Because he's on a mission to hype his new proteges, Venice, but his sales pitch has hardly been needed.

Two months ago, the band played several places in town and walked away with the gold ring -- a slew of gigs and a slot at August's Gavin A-3 Summit.  But check them out for yourself, when Venice opens for Derek Trucks at the Fox on Wednesday.

Venice stands out from the pack of new acts bombarding radio. The band plays folk-rock tunes with ethnic rhythms, but the key to this band is the vocals. Venice is made up of two sets of brothers from different parts of the same family tree, making the group an all-cousin band. Add that to the fact that the Venetians are younger brothers of the Lennon Sisters (from the Lawrence Welk show) and you have the most genetically perfect male vocals in the music business.

Kipp Lennon shares main vocal duties with his cousin Mark Lennon, while their brothers Pat and Michael play guitar.  "Michael and I have had bands since we were in the seventh grade.  We pulled the name Venice in because our family has been there since 1917.  The Lennon Sisters are our older sisters -- they're a generation ahead of us.  They were already on TV by the time I was born.  But we always had a real normal family -- it wasn't a show-biz thing.  We just grew up loving music," Kipp explained.

"We just love harmonies.  We grew up listening to the Beatles and the Eagles.  There is an advantage to being family and singing together.  We rarely rehearse; we just know we can count on each other for the vocals."

So you're probably wondering about the Crosby connection.  "Jackson Browne saw us and told David Crosby.  He came to see us and did harmonies on 'Guinivere,' and he started showing up at our shows.  I was on David's last two albums, and he sang with us at Telluride.  He even posts us on the CSN bulletin board on the net," Kipp said.