Jackie Greene "Shaky Ground"

As we depart Colorado and bid farewell to a wonderful three days at the Telluride Americana Music Weekend, we would like to thank gracious promoters Steve and Lisa Stagner for inviting us. We would also like to applaud Steve for putting an exquisite lineup in place: Amanda Shires & Rod Picott, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Jason Eady & The Wayward Apostles, Band Of Heathens, Sam Baker and Joe Ely. Three nights in the heaven of the mountains and the music. We hope that you will put this event your radar for next year! It is a gem of a time! Meanwhile, don't let the doggie-door hit your ass on the way out!

After two weeks on the road, Beans and I are feeling a bit like we're on shaky ground, caught between the splendor of where we are, and the yearning for home. And as is our Sunday tradition, we found a cool video to bring you from Jackie Greene, who has a new CD just out called Till The Light Comes.

I have been following Jackie's career since 2003 when my buddy Mindy Giles sent me his first album for airplay consideration at XM. This CD, his sixth, is the follow up to the 2008 release Giving Up The Ghost. Jackie Greene cooks up a stew of rock, folk, country and blues; and on the new CD plays guitars, organ, percussion, piano, Wurlitzer, mellotron, glockenspiel, and electric sitar. Greene, much in demand, has shared the stage with the likes of Phil Lesh, Bob Weir's Rat Dog, Gov’t Mule, and Levon Helm, as Jackie was invited to perform in Helm’s band at the Mountain Jam for Helm’s 70th birthday! While in Woodstock, he played a private acoustic set at Radio Woodstock’s Utopia Soundstage. Here's “Shaky Ground,” which comes from the new CD.

- Jessie Scott

Tellu-Writing 3

We have been cruising the downtown streets, looking at the finest dog collection on the planet, and taking in the rest of the scenery as we get ready for tonight's Telluride Americana Weekend Concert with Sam Baker and Joe Ely.

HaaganWe were out strolling earlier (the altitude here is somewhere upwards of 8,700 feet, and so is best done slowly with lots of pit stops) when we saw an intrepid pizza salesman on a pedi-bike with a hot-box storage bin. "Pizza Makes You Stronger" was his slogan. It is obviously working for him. Don't think it is just us that are wusses in the thin air, the artists all talk about having to pace themselves when they sing, and that if there are a lot of words it could be hard to deliver the song without being out of breath, or turning purple while trying to power through it!

There are a lot of words in this one, but Amanda Shires and Rod Picott seem to do just fine with it. From the stage of the Old Sheridan Opera House comes the incandescent pairing; she from the sun-driven plains of West Texas, and he from the northern mill towns of New England. There are more tour dates on tap, so catch them if they are coming your way.

-Jessie Scott

Telluriding 2

This is one cool town! Lots of handmade, homemade, and arty things in the shops. There are a surprising lack of the chain stores that populate every town in America. I am hunting a CVS but have yet to see one. Telluride has a strange undercurrent, that is, we think the DOGS are really running this town. They are everywhere, small and large, and they all carry an air of entitlement. They let you check out free pink bicycles at the library. Then there are these weird cans of oxygen, which I was happy to pass around with Amanda Shires and Stacey Earle. It was almost as if we were passing a joint.

We see five year olds on the loose with hundred dollar bills buying Rocky Road, cause life is rough, and ice cream ALWAYS makes it better. There is a "FREE STUFF" cubby hole on the street corner, akin to what you would have found in a kindergarten classroom, and people were rummaging in it. What? - you come here on vacation and scuttle your stuff, so you can buy more? WTF????

We are not here on vacation. Beans and I are here to bring you coverage from the Americana Music Weekend, and SHEILA has joined us! Yay! Beans gave her a quick lesson on Camera 2 yesterday, and she performed brilliantly. Last night at the Sheridan Opera House, which is 100 years old, and like being inside a Whitman's Sampler Box, was Jason Eady and then Band Of Heathens. Tonight is Sam Baker and Joe Ely. A couple of nights ago there was a song swap from Amanda Shires & Rod Picott and Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart. They were magical together. Lots of fun and welcoming on stage with one another and the audience. We have a Mark Stuart blues tune for you now, "Gonna Love Me Someday." Life is TOUGH!

-Jessie Scott