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It's fair to say The Grateful Dead were early adapters of the Google model – predating Google. They understood the power of the people to sell their brand, (Read "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis if you want to know more.)  Word is that when the Dead parted ways, their sea of fans parted too, some becoming devotees of Widespread Panic and others, Phish phans.

The scene last night in Telluride Town Park was grassroots Gothic, avid Phish phans as far as the eye could see demonstrating a populist zeal rarely seen outside of Tea Party gatherings these days. Only they are positive and having lots more fun. Phish does not hold back, delivering cross genre, super-extended grooves laced with improv and a light show that drives the crowd wild. Phish phans don't hold back either. They give full-throated praise to the boys in their band. Here's a random sampling from our neck of the woods Tuesday night.

IMG_7505 Phrog (his first Phish concert was in 1991) and Phidgt from Steamboat Springs. Phrog is involved with two Phish websites: cotapers.org and etree.org, which tapes and distributes the band's shows. (Trading tapes has helped Phish sell over 8 million albums/DVDs in the U.S alone.)

11 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Roy Malan's conversation with Susan]

Roy Malan In the early 1970s, Telluride was just beginning to pulse thanks to a chap from Beverly Hills named Joe Zoline, who had just opened the ski resort. Still, half of Main Street was boarded up and people were high-tailing it out of town muttering darkly about the closing of the Idarado Mines. The historic Sheridan Opera House was a camping ground for derelicts with broken glass and dusty mattresses everywhere. Roy Malan and Robin Sutherland, for many years stalwart co-directors of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, played despite the venue – and the crowd liked the sound.

That was in 1974. The Telluride Chamber Music Festival returns this weekend for its 37th encore. Following a free concert  and picnic, starting 5 p.m.,  in Town Park, the series takes place two consecutive weekends, Friday and Saturday, August 13 – August 14, then again August 20 – August 21.
11 August, 2010 /

It didn't look too good in Telluride this morning for the final Phish concert. It pretty much rained out our mushroom hunt up at Lizard Head Pass, and it wasn't sunny until late afternoon. But by time to head for the...

10 August, 2010 /

  Telluride audiences first met folk and indie rock star Jenny Lewis when she performed last year with Elvis Costello at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Her encore performance is Thursday, August 12, 8:30 p.m. at the historic Sheridan Opera House. ...

09 August, 2010 /


by D. Dion

It’s hard not to feel lucky having one of the precious tickets to the Phish shows in Telluride. Phish hasn’t played here in almost 20 years, since it was a quirky East Coast band just emerging on the scene, and this is the only stop in the Rocky Mountains that Phish will make on their summer tour.

And while it will be a huge concert for Telluride (the town’s population is less than 2,400, but 9,000 tickets have been sold for each of the two shows), the band has essentially outgrown this small pond. Phish had the largest attendance of any concert, anywhere, on the millennium New Year’s Eve, drawing 85,000 people to the Florida Everglades. The band plays big stadiums like Madison Square Garden or Fenway Park and festivals like Bonnaroo. For Phish, Telluride Town Park will be an intimate venue, albeit not one as cozy as the Moon, the Roma or the old Elks Lodge, where they used to play when they first broke into the mountain music market here in the late 80s.

08 August, 2010 /
MarmotteStockFB The creativity patrons experience at Telluride's La Marmotte restaurant is not limited to the table. In July the restaurant hosted  "Le Fair Affaire," a night of art, music, live performance painting, culinary tasting, and film screening, the brainchild of photographer Scott Rhea. La Marmotte's August event promises to be just as much fun.

"Marmotstock" is a pre-PHISH Telluride tailgate party and a benefit for one of town's best loved non-profits, the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program. The all-day event takes place Monday and Tuesday, August 9 and August 10, 11a.m. – 5 p.m., just outside La Marmotte, 150 West San Juan Avenue, one block from Gondola Plaza.

08 August, 2010 /

Summer in Telluride is a busy time. Hard on the heels of the Telluride Jazz Celebration (going on this weekend, August 5-8) is two days of good Phish-ing. There is a lot of excitement around Telluride for the Phish concerts, but the excitement...

08 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" for an interview with several Mudd Butts principals]

Mudd Butt Poster 2010 The Telluride Academy's Mudd Butts is a four-week theater intensive covering all aspects of what it takes to make a play happen. Through the Mudd Butts, kids aged 10 – 14 get to explore theater games, script and songwriting, improvisation, dance, voice, even marketing. But that's only what's described in the Academy's brochure.

Read between the lines and it becomes clear the young people fortunate enough to participate in the Mudd Butts wind up acquiring invaluable and indelible life tools. Kids meet their inner artist while developing confidence and discovering ways to laugh at themselves and navigate the mine field of group dynamics. What the directors are after is broadening kids' horizons about social, political and environmental issues. Through the Mudd Butts experience, kids travel from a local address on to the world stage. (Literally at times. There is a Mudd Butts International program.)
07 August, 2010 /
[click "Play", Susan talks with Paul Machado and Terry Tice]

The history of the Telluride Jazz Celebration in digestible sound bytes.

Jazz 2010 Postcard Final The story begins in another tranquil mountain village in Yugoslavia. A young man named Nick Terstenjak, who was passionate about jazz, migrated to America, settled in New York for a spell, then moved on to Telluride in 1975. The Telluride Jazz Celebration was born out of Nick's KOTO radio show in 1976.

Over the year, the Telluride Jazz Celebration changed hands time and again, but the line-up remained star studded. In 1983, the Town of Telluride took over. By 1984, downtown clubs and bars as well as Town Park became event venues. When Lynn Rae and Buck Lowe took over the event, Paul Machado became their stage manager. He also worked for the Lowes' successor before accepting the baton in 1991.
04 August, 2010 /