Marching back into Buena Vista, the 101st Army Band takes the performance stage for the free Concert in the Park at McPhelemy Park on Thursday, July 16.

Compared to other musicians, Dennis Fischer considers himself limited in ability. It did not stop him from finding a way to express himself through music and entertainment.

“I consider fiddling to be an art form that will never die out,” he says. “Popular as ever, maybe more popular than it’s ever been because there’s a lot of people who enjoy the old-time string music. It connects us somehow with something deeper than ourselves, I guess.”

The Buena Vista Event Cooperative announced the summer schedule for its new performing arts stage by the Roastery on East Main Street.

July Fourth weekend will see a big return to live music following months of self-isolation with two shows by COVID-canceled bands at the Lawn, a new–yet–familiar outdoor venue in South Main.

Music has filled most of life for l Mary Hallman. Her father, though he loved the violin, mostly played the fiddle. Her mother was a singer, and she got Hallman started on a piano at the age of 4.

Much like regular education, music lessons have persisted through the COVID-19 quarantine.

"It’ll be a peaceful, comforting live music venue that’s becoming a tradition here in BV. It’s been about 3 years at the People’s Stage, 3 years at the Watershed and now maybe get 100 years here at the Roastery. Who knows, but live, local music is becoming a tradition here.”

The Seven Peaks Festival will not be returning to the Meadows this Labor Day Weekend.

Chaffee County commissioners agreed Tuesday to continue until May 12 a discussion about extending due dates for payments from Live Nation for the Seven Peaks special event permit.

Campout for the Cause announced Friday that it would be canceling its 2020 festival at the Meadows, originally set for the last weekend in May.

Currently in eighth grade, 14-year-old Rosalyne Cope has already had the opportunity to boost her music performance skills and play at the high school level.

Chaffee County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday in a special meeting to amend one of the due dates for the Live Nation Seven Peaks concert.

Coleman Smith, the founder of Coletrain Music Academy in Buena Vista and founding member of BV favorite Rapidgrass, just completed a two-week tour of India with the Bluegrass Journeymen.

Music is a language that anyone can learn regardless of age, as music teacher Dale Kettering knows very well.

Due to the ongoing concerns over COVID-19, Buena Vista schools will limit the performance of the "Into the Woods" musical scheduled for this weekend.

Buena Vista's Main Street live music venue The Lariat announced on social media Friday that it would be suspending all live music for this weekend.

This Saturday, Lyons live looping master Arthur Lee Land is bringing friends to The Lariat for his “Twang is Dead” show.

Chaffee County commissioners unanimously approved an amended resolution for the Seven Peaks 2020 music festival during their Tuesday meeting.

Straight from Summit County, Dog City Disco brings a lesson in karate funk to The Lariat Friday, March 6.

Students in the Buena Vista High School Concert Band recently represented BVHS on two university honor bands.

Instrumental music students from Buena Vista high and middle schools participated in a lock-in in preparation for their upcoming trip to perform at Disneyland in Southern California.

The audience at The Lariat should come prepared for “a ruckus night of dancing” Friday, Feb. 21, says Patrick Storen, mandolin player, vocalist and founding member of Liver Down the River.

Instrumental music students from Buena Vista high and middle schools participated in a lock-in in preparation for their upcoming trip to perform at Disneyland in Southern California.

The audience at The Lariat should come prepared for “a ruckus night of dancing” Friday, Feb. 21, says Patrick Storen, mandolin player, vocalist and founding member of Liver Down the River.

The Chaffee County Board of County Commissioners continued the public hearing on the special event permit resolution for the Seven Peaks Music Festival until March 10 at the request of festival organizers.

WonderGrass Presents, the organizers behind WinterWonderGrass, announced the 2020 Campout For The Cause lineup Tuesday morning. Tickets go on sale for the event at the Medows at 10 a.m., Tuesday, March 3 at campoutforthecause.org for the May 29-31 event.

The 2019 record explores more progressive song structures and psychedelic sounds, bringing to a culmination a journey that is “one of self-discovery, the quest for wholeness, the quest for significance. It has a lot to do with compassion and empathy,” Grant said.

A group of young musicians from Buena Vista Middle School attended the San Luis Valley Music Educators Association Middle School Honor Band in Alamosa.

Musketeer Gripweed and mamajazzy did gyre and gimble in the wabe...

Everyone has a beat that drives them through the rhythm of life. For some, that beat is the literal beat of a drum.

The Ivy Ballroom and The Lariat are teaming up again this New Year’s Eve, hosting back-to-back performances by two of Buena Vista’s favorite bands.

Celebrate the holidays with a night of Americana, folk and Colorado bluegrass during Trout Steak Revival’s second concert at the Surf Hotel’s Ivy Ballroom on Saturday, Dec. 28.

Bring in the first night of winter (that’s what the calendar says) with a night of music from The Blind Pigs Saturday at The Lariat.

A year and a half ago, Coleman Smith opened the Coletrain Music Academy on South Main Street, providing just the musical opportunity kids like Kai Johnson were seeking.

Collegiate Peaks Chorale presents “Peace on Earth.”

Two popular Denver bands return to The Lariat in Buena Vista this weekend.

The Lariat will welcome back Mark Lavengood at 8:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 7.

The Noteables and You’ve Got Male women’s and men’s choruses will present their winter concert series, “Good News, Great Joy,” Dec. 6-8 in Salida and Buena Vista.

Special to The Times

When Jerome Hogan advertised openings in a chorale for men and women’s voices in January 2008, Sherry Thomas became one of the Collegiate Peaks Chorale’s charter members, though with some hesitation.

Once the the curtain has fallen on the Last Waltz in BV Saturday night, the party isn’t over.

Watch The Band play on Saturday at the Ivy Ballroom in the second performance of Salida’s Next Last Waltz this Saturday, Nov. 30.

The Wood Belly quintet returns from the Front Range to bring its unique blend of contemporary bluegrass songs to The Lariat on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Rocky Mountain Grateful Dead Revue featuring Tyler Grant will headline a free event that begins at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Salida SteamPlant theater, 220 W. Sacket Ave.

Chris Nasca and Alex Johnstone are two Arkansas Valley musicians who keep finding ways to maintain warmed up fingers as the nights get longer and colder.

Ohio bluesman Patrick Sweany will bring his old-school sound to The Lariat Thursday, bringing up-and-coming Colorado bluesman AJ Fullerton with him.

Noelle Hogan wanted nothing more than to learn to play the violin hen she was 5. She begged her mom to let her take Suzuki lessons.

Since 1991, Alpine Orchestra has provided live classical orchestral music to the citizens and visitors of the Upper Arkansas River Valley.

“Our music is instrumental, so it can mean anything. This time around we wanted to give it some sort of shape, some sort of concept,” TAUK guitarist Matt Jalbert said of the foursome’s latest record, “Shapeshifter II: Outbreak.”

As a fog machine helps set the scene, Grant Farm returns to provide the live entertainment on a stage appropriately decorated with lights, skeletons and cobwebs.

The Jazz Merchants Big Band (formerly known as the CMC Jazz Project) will be rounding out the set with a couple of tunes, followed by one combined chart with both bands performing together on stage.

Denver band the Magic Beans will be headed to The Lariat in Buena Vista Friday night, coming through on a year of touring that saw the funk quartet play Red Rocks Ampitheater for the first time last spring.

Since he was very young, Coleman Smith has been inspired by music, from classical lessons with the violin to fiddle lessons to swing music. Around the age of 8, he could already see music as his destined career path.

A new band on the scene, The Blind Pigs is made up of Rapidgrass members Coleman Smith (violin) and Alex Johnstone (mandolin, vocals), LaPompe’s David Lawrence (vocals, guitar), Gary Sloan (bass) of The Royal Street Ramblers and newcomer Bonnie Culpepper (vocals, ukulele) of the Coletrain Music Academy.

Raw, soulful, and with plenty of swagger, Town Mountain has earned raves for their hard-driving sound, their in-house songwriting and the honky-tonk edge that permeates their exhilarating live performances, whether in a packed club or at a sold-out festival, their website states in introducing visitors.

A group of Chaffee County public safety officials and members of the Seven Peaks Community Advisory Board met Sept 25 to discuss the country music festival that celebrated its second outing at the Meadows west of Buena Vista Labor Day weekend.

With “a tight, grooving rhythm section with soulful organ, funky clavinet, singing synthesizers, masterful guitar licks and moving vocals,” per the band’s website, the group performs a genre unto its own known as psychofunk.

Ringing out over Main Street’s vendor village will be music coordinated by Ark Valley Live Music, from DJ Tropical Waffle, Stillhouse Junkies on Friday, Flash Mountain Flood on Saturday, with Amoramora closing things out Sunday.

“Collegiate Peaks Bank is delighted to have this opportunity to make a donation that will allow students to attend a performance by this astounding young pianist,” Arthur said. “Thank you to the Walden Chamber Music Society for allowing us to make this possible.”

Walden Chamber Music Society will present pianist Janice Carissa at the Salida SteamPlant Oct. 4.

Ringing out over Main Street’s vendor village will be music coordinated by Ark Valley Live Music, from DJ Tropical Waffle, Stillhouse Junkies on Friday, Flash Mountain Flood on Saturday (preceded by another Tropical Waffle set, with Amoramora closing things out Sunday.

While Eminence Ensemble’s musicianship impresses most, it’s their ability to cross and bend genres so fluidly, meticulously and with purpose that sends fans on a unique journey.

Born and raised in a sleepy mountain town in Northern Idaho, singer-songwriter Jeff Crosby has managed to delineate the sometimes amorphous genre of “Americana”, package it perfectly, and deliver it to his listeners time and again.

Crosby and his band The Refugees return again to The Lariat as well at 9:30 p.m., Friday. 

Denver rock-n-roll outfit Boot Gun has built a unique sound that serves not only as a backdrop for their zany lives but as a soundtrack to the vibrant city they live in.

Jerry Joseph is a prolific and accomplished songwriter, writing hits for Widespread Panic and releasing 30 albums in his 30-plus-year career.

Touring in distant towns becomes much easier when the venues become friendlier and more familiar. Such is the case for World’s Finest playing at The Lariat Saturday, Sept. 7.

"Fishin' in the Dark": cool. Fishin' without a CPW license: not cool