I Wish I Was at MusicFest in Steamboat Springs
MusicFest in Steamboat Springs, Co. is in its fourth day (Jan. 5-10) and man, I wish I was there. Thirty bands from the Texas and Americana music scene, a six-day party full of concerts and a gorgeous mountain covered in a whole lot of fluffy snow -- plus, ski bunnies in cowboy hats. They call it the largest ski trip of its kind in the nation, and if you ask me, that beats sweating it out at a summer festival any day. A couple of artists that I talked with last year had some high praise for it, too.
Robert Earl Keen: "It's really about fun and music there. It's not so much who your favorite act is or you just came here for this. It's really about the entire experience. That's what I get from the fans that come. Everybody is inviting everybody to go jam at every stage all the time. It's a real cool thing. It's not very organized. It is organized in that people do go [onstage] on time, but as far as what you're going to see, you don't really know."
Jason Boland: "This will be our eighth or ninth year. Up there, it's world class. There's people that fly around the world to be in the champagne powder. There's always something you can go do -- skiing, poker games at night, parties at night. It's my favorite trip of the year."
On a side note, every year MusicFest honors one artist with a tribute concert, and last year it was Robert Earl Keen. An album recorded at that concert called Undone: A MusicFest Tribute to Robert Earl Keen will be released on Feb. 3. He also played this year, and here's a review of his set on Tuesday night (Jan.6).
Ticket prices don't even seem that outrageous, really. So I've already made up my mind that come hell or high water, I'm going next year. I just have to remember that until July when tickets go on sale -- and to request off from work.
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RedMaZ says:
REK is a musical genius, and this is one of the premier concerts of the year. Thanks for keeping this blog site somewhat balanced, by covering all of todays music scene.
lolhorse6375 says:
THATS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
solongsowrong says:
Robert Earl Keen is correct. These Fest such as this aren’t about your favorite artists. It’s about the experiences and the diverse music that is out there, available to anyone who is willing to expand their musical interests. I streamed several different festivals such as this one last year, and it’s absolutely amazing the talent that shows up to perform.
Thanks for reporting on this.
Jeff Dykhuis says:
I am finally going to make it this year, last year didn’t work out for me. I covered all of the Country Fever music festival in Pryor Oklahoma in June. It was the largest Red Dirt music festival ever held and had most of the bands that will be in Steamboat again this year. I plan to cover this festival for my site too and it is THE best Texas and Americana festival out there. Because its the best it sells out very quickly and it is limited to about 5500 people. I can’t post my link to my site here but if you type AMP American Music Photography in a Google search it will come up. Thanks Chris for bringing attention to other genre’s that are related to Country music but fall outside of the mainstream norm of Nashville.