The Trishas "I'm on Empty"

You know, we spend a good deal of time talking about which video we should put up next. And on Friday, our last day in Steamboat, I saw Kelley Mickwee and Savannah Welch doing some skiing. They were appropriately attired, though it was SOOOOO cold, I don't know if that is really possible. I have been attending MusicFest for seven years, and I don't think it was ever colder! This was the day of the outdoor stage, with Doug Moreland and Jack Ingram performing. I hope they could feel their fingers. I'm just saying. We didn't hang around, because we were hooking up with Brandon Jenkins to film the Gondola Concert Series™. But before I left the area, I told Savannah that we were double dipping into The Trishas videos that we shot in the condo. Her reaction was self effacing. It is almost like they don't know how good they are. The fact that they are not complacent, and that they have grown more every time we see them, makes me think they will continue to do so. Fly high, ladies!

-Jessie

Chris Knight "Heart of Stone"

OK, OK, so the lineup for MusicFest at Steamboat Springs is mostly Texas Red Dirt. There are a few exceptions, but they have to be a good fit, both into the family atmosphere that surrounds the artists here, and of course the sonics. I am not sure what precipitated John Dickson inviting Kentuckian Chris Knight a few years back. And then continuing these last few years, as he has been accepted into the MusicFest fold.

Chris used to be one of our most requested artists at X Country. He tells the unvarnished truth. He draws portraits of people, places and ways, though they may not be pretty. I remember seeing him years ago, might have been when his second CD came out and he was showcasing for a bunch of us radio types. Someone asked him what was "the body count" for that new album.

Chris Knight brought sideman Chris Clark with him to our condo for this recording. And he rendered unto us pain, heartbreak, stark tales of life...and he gave us fever.

-Jessie

Gondola Concert Series

It was early in the morning, we were only hours away from having to depart the MusicFest at Steamboat. The living room furniture was in the upstairs bedroom. We were rushing to reassemble the condo based on the still photos we took on my iPhone. Time was of the essence. But we had one last performance we needed to capture. The second year of the Gondola Concert Series™.

Brandon Jenkins volunteered for this mission. It was -3 degrees. He showed up armed with hand warmers, hot coffee, and his trusty Martin. Our Twitter winner, Vicky, from Ft. Worth, happens to be a huge fan of Brandon's. She was so excited she could barely speak. So we spoke for her...in Spanish.

This Music Fog recording required nimbleness, quick thinking, and a lot of AA batteries. Hell, there wasn't even time to clean the lens. Chris took Camera 2 onto the gondola ahead of us to film the disaster from a safe distance...and to make sure "we got that B Roll." The rest of us piled into car #89. We're pretty sure that we were under the weight restriction, and safety officials didn't seem to be too concerned. The rest speaks for itself.

-Aaron