The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival, #18 if you're counting, hits town on the weekend of September 16-18, 2011. Blues & Brews is the last big event of the Summer in Telluride. The argument could be made it is also one of the first...
[click "Play" to listen to Mickey Raphael's conversation with Clint]
Willie (Danny Clinch photo)
Willie Nelson and Family are the Sunday night closer for the 18th Telluride Blues and Brews Festival (September 16-18, 2011). "Willie Nelson?" you ask. "At Blues and Brews?" Well, yes. Because Willie can do it all. Case in point: Have you listened to Willie's "Stardust" album? I rest my case. And a key part of the Willie Nelson sound is the harmonica of Mickey Raphael.
Raphael has been part of Willie's band for some three decades, and unless you have paid attention you might not have noticed: he is the consumate side man. But take that harp out of the mix and guaranteed you would miss it.
by David Feela Twenty-four years is a long stretchto stay out of sight -- that’s four timessix years deep. A lot of timeon your head. All the while we speculatedhow it happened in the end, the moband the union bosses being so hard to tell...
Mark Stevens
Labor Day weekend, the action is mostly on the silver screen. Labor Day weekend, September 2 – September 5 is all about the Telluride Film Festival. However, one Telluride Film Festival regular, documentary director extraordinaire Ken Burns, always finds time on Monday, the last day of the epic film happening, to meet his public. For the third year in a row, Ken will take his traditional post at Telluride's popular book emporium, Between the Covers Bookstore, on September 5, 10:30 – 1 p.m. (ish) or just before he feels he needs to leave for the Closing Picnic.
This year Ken Burns signs copies of "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," "Jazz," "Baseball," and "The Civil War." Joining Ken at Between the Covers is a newcomer to Telluride, author Mark Stevens, in town to to sign copies of his latest work, "Buried by the Roan," an Allison Coil Mystery and the sequel to Stevens' best-seller, "Antler Dust."
by Emily Brendler Shoff
It’s easy to come up with reasons not to go to Shakespeare in the Telluride Town Park. You’re broke. You’re afraid of Town Park after dark. You’re afraid of Shakespeare.
But here are a few reasons why you should dig more deeply into your wallet and soul and go see this year’s Repertory production of As You Like It.
For starters…. Hockey talent in the summer. It’s not often that you see many killer hockey players that can also act. It’s rarer still to see killer hockey players perform Shakespeare. This year, the Rep has two such stars, and they’re as successful on the stage as they are on the ice. Buff Hooper is a surly and charming Jacques, one whose melancholy energizes the stage. Emily Koren is a playful and puckish Touchstone, a fool who reminds us at once to reflect and to laugh.
Steve Gumble (and his SBG productions) is the force behind the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, now in its 18th year and a sold-out success annually. So what's a nice guy like that doing in a place like Taos? The short answer: Making a good thing better.
Friends and producers of the Taos event were not in the Festival producing business like Steve. Their day job was running the mountain. So, they approached their friend Steve to grow a musical event with loads of promise.
The third annual Taos Mountain Music Festival takes place this year on Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21. Northern New Mexico's music event of the summer features headliners Matisyahu, Railroad Earth, Ozomatli, and Leftover Salmon. Additional festival performances include Donna the Buffalo, Jackie Greene Duo, Afroman, Orgone, Dangermuffin, Langhorne Slim, Shannon McNally and Hot Sauce, Ryan McGarvey and Mariachi Luz de Luna.
By Jane Minarovic
If you have been fortunate enough to have attended a Mudd Butts Mystery Theatre Troupe production in the past 21 years, you have seen how the imagery of prop master Mike Stasiuk makes the narrative come alive. When he is not backstage creating fantastical masks and props out of cardboard boxes, newspaper, and paint, Mike creates whimsical sculptures from a variety found objects from his studio in Portsmouth, NH. He has had sculpture in private and corporate collections and is also published in books such as Found Object Art 1 and 2. He is represented by the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA and the George Marshall Store Gallery in York, ME.
Many of the Mike's magical props will be auctioned off after Sundays production.
See below for the Mudd Butts' cast list:
by Jane Minarovic Over the years, the Mudd Butts Mystery Theatre Troupe has grown from a small, all-girl cast at the Nugget Theatre, to a cast of 28 boys and girls who perform at the state-of-the-art Michael D. Palm Theatre for the Performing Arts. ...
The Telluride Chamber Music Festival opens this week for the 38th year in a row, joining Telluride Bluegrass and the Telluride Film Festival on the list of oldies but goodies on our town's summer cultural calendar.
The fun begins Thursday night, August 11, 5 p.m. with a FREE concert n Town Park. (Bring your own picnic.) Regular Telluride Chamber Music programming starts Friday, August 12. The two Sunday concerts, August 14 and August 21 are 2:30 matinees. Friday, August 19, is a double bill, including an 11 a.m. FREE concert for kiddos. All evening concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. The series takes place at the historic Sheridan Opera House. Tickets are $25.
Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House welcomes singer/songwriters Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, with Phil Lee and Tom Mason. The concert, billed as Americana/folk sounds, takes place Saturday, August 13, 8 p.m.
What's Americana? A hybrid of country, folk, bluegrass and swing. Who are Eric and Peter? Two of Nashville's hottest musicians, but Telluride virgins. (We promise to be gentle.)
For his band, Last Train Home, and for his duo with Peter Cooper, singer/songwriter Eric Brace is one of the most acclaimed artists in the Americana world. One critic described Eric's warm tenor voice this way:
