Telluride’s Opera House: Sway Wild, 9/21

11 Sep Telluride’s Opera House: Sway Wild, 9/21

Telluride’s Sheridan Arts Foundation presents a double dose of roots music with Sway Wild featuring Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer and Stillhouse Junkies playing the historic Sheridan Opera House on Friday, Sept. 21. McGraw and Fer have played Telluride before, opening for Loudon Wainwright in 2015, and they are back with a rockin’ project. The SHOW Bar and doors will open at 8 p.m.; music begins at 9 p.m. Tickets, $11 GA floor; $21 reserved balcony. (There is a $4 ticketing fee.) Tickets and information: sheridanoperahouse.com or 970.728.6363 x5.

Scroll down for a teaser of the show.

Sway Wild

Known as a standout electric guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Mandy Fer is unafraid to dominate the stage for an extended guitar solo, defying long-held gender barriers for female guitarists. Dave McGraw’s emotional songwriting riffs on natural elements of the world around him. McGraw spent a decade as a wildlife biologist, studying endangered birds in remote locales from the deserts of Mexico and the Grand Canyon to the mountainous rainforests of Washington. McGraw and Fer joined forces in Flagstaff, Arizona in 2010 before relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 2012.

Fer and McGraw’s 2014 release Maritime charted at #1 on the EuroAmericana Chart for two consecutive months and was praised by The Telegraph for “…soulful songs, intuitive musicianship, and fine singing.”

Together, the duo’s exceptional vocal harmonies coupled with Fer’s pioneering electric guitar work have become a vehicle to carry them around the world. The pair has honed their skills touring extensively throughout the US and Europe, sharing stages with such artists as Iron & Wine, Glen Hansard, Gregory Alan Isakov, Charlie Hunter Trio, Birds of Chicago and many others. Winning over audiences anywhere from Alaska to Amsterdam, McGraw and Fer perform a heartfelt and dynamic blend of innovative folk, rock, pop and funk.

Fer and McGraw will be joined by Durango’s own Stillhouse Junkies, who took 3rd place in the 2018 Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest.

Stillhouse Junkies

Born in a distillery in Durango, CO, Stillhouse Junkies play a delirious, head-spinning mixture of original roots, blues, funk, swing, and bluegrass music. With all three band members sharing vocal duties and swapping instruments, the Junkies conjure a wide range of tonal landscapes that pay tribute to the iconic sounds of Gillian Welch, the Allman Brothers, Tim O’Brien, the Wood Brothers, John Hiatt, and countless others while breaking new musical ground with their genre-bending original material.

Stillhouse Junkies is Alissa Wolf on vocals/fiddle/guitar, Cody Tinnin on vocals/bass/banjo and Fred Kosak on vocals/guitar/mandolin.

The Sheridan Arts Foundation was founded in 1991 as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization to preserve the historic Sheridan Opera House as an arts and cultural resource for the Telluride community, to bring quality arts and cultural events to Telluride and to provide local and national youth with access and exposure to the arts through education. The Sheridan Arts Foundation is sponsored in part by grants from the Telluride Foundation, CCAASE and Just For Kids.