By David Feela (ed. note: David Feela makes a wry comment about our penchant for naming things, days, places for ourselves, our friends or our heroes. Happy Columbus Day.) You-Are-Here Pass We’ve named the mountain passes,fastened brass plaques where we stop and sigh,...
Thursday, September 29, Telluride's Llama hosts a Battle of the Bands and The 525s are invited. Doors at 9 p.m. Curtain up at 10 p.m. Cover charge: $5.
“It’s a real honor to be asked to join the fray,” says guitarist and songwriter Suzanne Cheavens. “For such a small town the local music scene is very vibrant, so to be included in this contest is a real tip of the hat to how far we’ve come.”
The 525s evolved from a short-lived women’s program at Mark Galbo’s Rock and Roll Academy in 2008. Original members Barbel Hacke, bassist Cindy Eckman and Suzanne remain from those nascent years, joined this summer by drummer Phil Hamilton. And Baerbel, the lead singer, is ready to show Battle of the Band fans what The 525s have up their sleeves.
An evening of blues, jazz and boogie on Friday
If you were around Telluride in the 1980s, you might remember the name "Scott Cossu" and a sold-out concert at the historic Sheridan Opera House back in 1988. This weekend, Scott returns to the Opera House stage for his (belated) encore Friday, September 30. The evening, which starts at 7 p.m., includes a concert, plus a party/fundraiser/ silent auction.
Scott Cossu was one of the first artists to sign Windham Hill Records in the late 1970's. Based out of Northern California, Windham Hill was a label dedicated to the sounds and spirits of New Age, Jazz, "Heavy Mental" and Classical. For four decades and counting, Scott has continued to write, perform and record jazz, blues and tail-shaking tunes. The show on September 30 features Scott on piano, Art Patience on harmonica, and Nathan Good on percussion showcasing New Age-style compositions, blues, jazz and traditional classical piano music.
Calypso Rose and her band, musicians from Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Ireland and Nigeria, are scheduled to perform at the historic Sheridan Opera House on Thursday, September 22. Showtime for this seats-out concert is 8 p.m.In her genre, raunchy, ribald and rife with socio-political and sexual...
by Emily Brendler Shoff
The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival always falls at the time of year when anything can happen weather-wise. It can be sunny and 70, or it can be snowing. This weekend was both. 
Saturday, it rained and snowed so hard that even long-time locals were questioning why they call Telluride home. At the beer tasting, people were dressed in every imaginable combination they could think of to stay warm. Those who’d thought to bring rain jackets and rain paints were the happiest but equally happy were those in trash bags, snap-up Carhartt suits, and polypro onesies. I even saw one guy wearing his ski clothes, including ski boots.
The weather didn’t seem to dampen people’s appreciation for the beer or the music. If anything, it just added another layer of appreciation. People discussed others’ outfits as much as they discussed the beer.
My rubber xtra-tuf rain boots from my Alaska NOLS trip in 1994 got the same amount of praise as I imagine the latest handbags do in New York.
Marcia Ball hit the jackpot with her name. It defines the lady and her talent, as in Marcia Ball is:
“More fun than a barrel of funky monkeys. Spicy, Texas-Louisiana blues, rock 'n’ roll and boogie-woogie...awesome piano,” National Public Radio
Translation: The lady is, well, a ball. And those around have – you guessed it - a ball.
Singer/pianist Marcia Ball joins Willie Nelson, Mavis Staple, The Robert Cray Band, Dweezil Zappa, BIg Head Todd and the Monsters on long list of talent performing this weekend at Steve Gumble's rocking, rollicking 18th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival.
Thoughts on 9/11 by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Rob Schultheis and David Feela
When I question why Susan and I continue to toil away on Telluride Inside... and Out, along comes something like this: three of our favorite poets/writers gave us three very different, but all beautiful, poems to honor memory of the events of September 11, 2001.
9/11/2001 holds a special place in our personal memories. Though we did not lose loved ones in the tragedy, there was an almost dime-novel aspect in the way we and ours experienced the horrors of that day.
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...
