Music to my ears

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

By Richard Anderson

I’m a huge music fan, you probably know, and I tend to keep an eye on what acts are passing through town or through the area. It used to be I would read about all the great music in Denver or Salt Lake City or San Francisco and I’d whine about how we never get the big names out here in Jackson “Way Too Far Off The Beaten Path” Hole, but I find myself doing that less and less.

This summer, we really seem to have turned a corner. Just this past July, folks who live in the shadow of the Teton Range had the chance to see Los Lobos, The Cowboy Junkies, Bill Frisell, Leon Fleisher, Ty England, The Itals, the Wailin’ Jennys, Tom Rush, The Neville Brothers and I forget who else.

This coming week, Jackson Hole or Teton Valley will hear newgrass by The Waybacks, show tunes by Franc D’Ambrosio, classical piano by Estonian Indrek Laul, big band music courtesy of the Richard Brown Orchestra, rock ’n’ roll by veritable icons of the biz like Steve Bailey, and jazz from the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

That’s a lot of music and a lot of different kinds of music. I can’t check out every one of these concerts, of course, and, in fact, there are some for which I have little or no interest, but nevertheless, it’s very satisfying knowing I could. Personally, I find it exciting that our remote neck of the backwoods appears to be getting on the map for many bigger musical acts. It’s not the biggest news in the world, I suppose, but it means a lot to me.

Perhaps more significant, however, is what that variety says about Jackson Hole. Judging from our musical tastes, we’re a crew with pretty good taste and wide-ranging interests. We’ve got our hippies and hippie wanna-bes who like to shuffle and skank to reggae, and we’ve got our defenders of high culture who feel more comfortable sitting in a concert hall than crammed into a dance hall.

We’ve got those who go along with the pop crowd – both popular tunes of the ’40s and ’50s and popular tunes of the ’90s and ’00s – and hearty individualists who seek out the obscure, the cutting edge, the next new thing. We have guys and gals who prefer a deafening soundtrack to accompany their raging party, and we’ve got our connoisseurs who prefer to listen quietly and careful to every note and nuance.

We’re a complicated and very mixed bunch, we denizens of the Tetons. You probably already knew that, but it’s always worth remembering and appreciating and respecting.

PERMALINK:
Music to my ears | Planet JH News Article: Editorial

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