By Jim Stanford on December 7, 2009
Tonight What’s Good Here? Productions continues its quest to single-handedly revive the dormant Jackson Hole music scene, presenting the Denver folk band Paper Bird with local pickers Random Canyon Growlers at Jackson’s Hole Bar and Grill (formerly Eleanor’s Cuvee, behind Plaza Liquors in Grand Teton Plaza).
Paper Bird plays an old-timey folk with banjo, trombone and a trio of betties belting out harmonies. The septet performed at the Mile High Music Festival last summer and was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” last month.
Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $8.
For those more intent on listening than chatting with friends, Paper Bird also will play around 7:30 p.m. at the Hootenanny, which returns tonight to Dornan’s.
And Paper Bird will visit the Jackson Hole Community Radio studio at 6 p.m. for an interview and performance. Update: Click here for the video.
Posted under Music
This show was mighty impressive. First, the band is a lot livelier than its MySpace and YouTube presence suggests. The musicians hopped between original songs like the stomping “Colorado” from their A Sky Underground EP to well-placed covers like Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” and an up-tempo “Angel From Montgomery.”
Their sound has a strain of ragtime or Dixieland jazz, particularly when singer Sarah Anderson blows her trumpet alongside trombonist Tyler Archuletta.
The ladies – Anderson and sisters Esme and Genny Patterson – belted out the lyrics so joyously that by the encore, a cover of George Michael’s “Faith” that morphed into Jackie Wilson’s R&B classic “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” the show took on the feel of a soul revival, with the audience clapping hands in time.
The cuvée was packed to every corner, and the crowd enveloped the band. Stunning to see so many people out on a snowy, cold night.
Let’s hope Paper Bird flies this way again soon.
anyone else want to petition to change the name of this bar to ANYTHING BUT Jackson’s Hole?