Hangin' In Summit With Brantleys ~ Hiking And Keystone Bluegrass & Beer Fest 31July26-02Aug26

Summit Co ~ Kala and I headed to Summit for some time out of the non-air conditioned Blodgett spot and to enjoy some events with Scott & Peg. We arrived early and prepped the Nest for their arrival. We also did a recon hike around the tarn in the backyard, just 3mi & 400ft, and stopped at ORB for July's pickup ~ a tasty 4 pack of Corduroy.

Hiking The White River NF ~ Brantleys arrived Fri afternoon and we had a quick lunch with a Sextant cab and then hit the trail around the tarn again. It was warm but a nice hike in the woods with our friends. There are still some wildflowers about, despite the heat. We dined along the Blue River at Sauce that evening and then hit ORB for a nightcap. I introduced the team to Brit Marling, a stellar sci fi screenwriter and cool actor. IMO; we started them with Another Earth.

Keystone Bluegrass & Beer Festival ~ Rest was easy overnight and we had a big day at the Keystone B&B festival. I started us with a new egg dish variant which was received well. We laid around for the AM, and caught the stirring national news and fabricated pretzel necklaces to stay sated for drinking. At 11am it was off to Keystone; this'd be my 10th year. We got our RFID wrtisbands and 4oz glasses for unlimited beer tasting and 3 food servings each, the Buddy Pass, solid choice for couples. Beer & Bluegrass, what's not to like?

Mighty Holler ~ The lineup was good for Saturday and we began, beer-less to Scott's chagrin, at the Montezuma (smaller) stage with the fun Mighty Holler band from Boulder. They are a pair of couples with primary voicing from the women, an alto and a soprano. My teammates took shade and I listened acutely from center stage.

Old Dangerfield ~ We moved into River Run to see Old Dangerfield on the main stage. Good Colo Spgs band with an older southern style, not classic bluegrass. The team was antsy for the brewers to begin pouring but we started with Argento's excellent empanadas while OD played. The young guy had a good voice and they had some harmonies.

Beer! And Drunken Hearted String Band ~ The beers started flowing and we jumped from Argento's into the nearest beer booth from ORB. This is one of the first times I've seen them at this festival; unfortunately while they are just 10 miles away, they served from cans. Sheesh. We continued to sample beers at many of the stations. And we made it back to Montezuma for the excellent Drunken Hearted String Band (aka Drunken Hearts). Again Keystone features Colorado talent and we are steeped in it. For many of us this was the best band of the day. This variant of Drunken Hearts still had the original alt-country/outlaw-country tunes from the bandleader but stayed true to the strings format while they crushed many covers too. The band was very tight with mad skills and despite being on the smaller stage (where voices were a bit lighter in the mix), they crushed. I loved their rendition of "I Know You Rider," one of my fav songs ever.

Second Gear, Peculiar Smooth 62 III & Tribonacci On Tertiary Stage ~ We kept drinking and eating stuff and made our way past the main stage to hear the excellent 6 piece bluegrass band Second Gear; all the great strings and of course they are from Denver, CO. We ultimately made it toward the edge of the festival again and rested. I got the 1st glass of Peculiar's Smooth 62 III and alerted the team. This 10% ABV hazy IPA from Fort Collins would ultimately be our top beer of the festival. They poured from unlabled cans to our dismay and they ran out of the Smooth 62 while we were in line for re-ups. Oh well ~ better to have tasted than to have never tasted at all. We caught the small 3rd stage featuring Tribonocci while there. The team selfie is a bit fuzzy but was that the beer or my f-stop setting?

Larry Keel & Sweetwater ~ We drank and walked to the enclave/buffalo area anchored by Sweetwater and Deschutes and, while we did not try it, the hard seltzer team at Party Bomb was killing it with the youngsters. Atlanta's Sweetwater's hazy IPA was #2 at the show (drawn by fun employees and featuring trout taphandles) and ORB's classic In The Steep hazy IPA was #3. I'd not had Sweetwater before but I know their keen vibe from music video's hosted at their brewery back east and meeting their team was a treat. San Luis Valley's chili beer was honorable mention. Back to Montezuma for the Larry Keel Experience featuring a flat-picker from Virginia, with keen voice and good accompaniment.

Headliners Brothers Comotose ~ We got back to the main River Run stage for the Brothers Comatose show. I stood as the crowds rolled into the mosh pit for them, a strong California multi-genre country and alt-everything band with 4 part harmonies. I thought it was great. I love their YouTube drops of collaborations too with many top female vocalists. We tasted ribs and pizza and cheesesteaks but Argento's empanadas were the best and we tapped out our food cards taking some home.

Deck Vibe & Tunes ~ We capped the eve with great deck vibe in Summit Co below Peak One of the Ten Mile Range, and nosh prepped from the "ladies." And then, ORBs and tunes on the NestMT. Great weekend, spectacular festival of music and tastes, made all the better with our great friends ~ thanks for coming out.

July Music Appreciation ~ Just Some Album Drops 27Jul26

I'm late for July MA posting; I know ~ we've been wrangling subs and dodgin' heat and having fun. We hit great concerts though. MA this month is just some albums I own from "recent" drops from fav' artists... but for HWTK I offer links to bandcamp.com. Special shout to the anti-folk pop artist Pacing... such a good writer.

• Milk Carton Kids - Lost Cause Lover Fool

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• Bella White - A Sign In The Weather
  

  
  
• Ratboys - Singin' To An Empty Chair Feb26
  
• Watchhouse - Rituals

• Pacing - Planet Fitness
  
• Humbird - Morning When It Comes

• Maya de Vitry - All My Faith

• Heavy Weighs The King (HWTK) - Avidya...  is exclusively releasing through Ollo... hmmm. It's not an efficient site but it reps close to my heart. And, the listing includes high rez .wav files in 24/96 as well as Dolby Atmos files.

Wonder Weekend In Denver ~ Sushi Den, Hungarian F1 GP, Denver Outlaw Game, Watchhouse Concert @ Botanic Gardens 24Jul26-26Jul26

Friday... Kala & I headed to Denver for 100° heat and a bunch of fun with family & friends. We arrived Fri and Matt joined us for sushi at the excellent Sushi Den on Pearl. We'd never been but heard many good things. This was the best sushi in CO we've had, by all our accounts. We chose nice blue label dry Junmai Gingo that was light and tasty; we had an awesome albacore sashimi appetizer and many nice nagiri pieces including barracuda and sea bass, along with normals. The "fresh today - dated 7/24" list was superior. It was plenty close to Letha & Matt so we will definitely be back.

We stopped for a Sancere for a future concert and I was fortunate to score some La Cumbre Project Dank, a bi-annual special concoction of dank, bitter IPA ~ it is always different. I liked the Vinyl Edition, so bitter... Kala did not.

Saturday... We rose early for F1 qualifying in Budapest on Sat AM. My fantasy team was advantaged as for the first time this season a Mercedes did not qualify in pole position. Lando Norris did in his updated McLaren ~ and I am the one who's hung in there with Lando and with McLaren. Good for me. Hope he has race pace too as the Ferraris and Max are nearby and known to start well.

Afternoon held a double header of pro lacrosse games at Barton Field on DU campus, the home of the DU Pioneers and the Denver Outlaws. We used to have season tix back in the day when games were at Mile High but we've not been there in a while. We had great seats on the midstripe in row 4 but unfortunately the games were not competitive... the Utah Archers crushed the Maryland Whipsnakes in game #1 (so effing hot in the sun) and worse, the Outlaws were trounced 18-8 in game #2 by the Philly Waterdogs. We thought we'd do well when we took the opening faceoff to the goal in the first 5 seconds ~ that never happened again and I quickly flipped to the rally cap. The only solace was that there are a number of CO players on the Waterdogs. We had fun but left early due to the drubbing.

Sunday... We awoke again early for the F1 race. "Sunday Is For Formula One!" Lando raced well and drove well on this twisty circuit and topped the podium for the first time this year. Ferarri was hobbled with penalties and Max did Max; Kimi was 3rd.

We headed out to grab nosh at Mendocino Farms on the way to the Watchhouse concert. Food at this chain is excellent and perfect for a take-in situation like a concert at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Yoho was tarp runner and we were food suppliers; of course we also each brought a nice bottle of wine for the event (Edgar's Albarino and the Sancere). Jim secured a nice front spot stage right. Two Runner opened the show and were "fine" but I was surprised by the big lineup shift at bass, and more importantly fiddle... long-time Two Runner, also from Nevada City. Emilee was gone and a new player was "in." I don't know the drama but I did like Emilee. Paige did the most as the opener, as usual.

We came to see Watchhouse and their set was completely fabulous. First off I was freaked out a bit with the addition of percussion, then we saw a sax! For only 2 weekends did the lead sax guy, a brother of the bass player (often present), join the show. Great addition. Watchhouse played much of the latest album Ritual, but then launched into an unscripted setlist of whatever we yelled out. The band was tight and the duo sounded fabulous through Andrew's sad stuff to some more happy times. The Watchhouse concert was excellent, especially as it was enjoyed with our good friends, and good nosh, and good wine.

 

Thanks everyone for a great weekend in Denver.