Tickets on sale next week Wednesday, February 12 at 10 am (MT)
The onset of summer in the mountain town of Durango, Colorado inches a bit closer with the announcement of the artist lineup for the Durango Blues Train on May 28, 29 & 30. The Durango Blues Train is excited to kick off it's 10th year rockin' and rollin' aboard the the historic Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad with Kent Burnside, The Sugar Thieves, Cary Morin, One Roof Blues, Mike Munson, and Jacob T. Skeen.
Kent Burnside
Kent Burnside was born into the blues. He grew up in the North Mississippi Hill Country and is the eldest grandson of blues legend R.L. Burnside. As a boy, Kent worked in the fields surrounding Holly Springs, Potts Camp and Chulahoma. He sold sandwiches to folks who gathered at the family farm to hear his grandfather play the blues. When Kent was nine, R.L. gave him his first guitar lesson. Today, Kent Burnside travels the world to continue his family’s important musical legacy and build his own. Kent’s powerful, raw, deeply soulful performances are at once hypnotic, dark, hopeful, engaging and danceable. Kent wants every person to leave his show with a smile on their face and real Mississippi Blues in their heart.
The Sugar Thieves
The Sugar Thieves have been winning fans over world wide with their high energy, soulful live shows since 2006. Over the years they have honed their brand of American roots music, creating a sound that is all their own. Moving between blues, country, folk, gospel, rock and roll, and elements of jazz, freely they honor the tradition that makes American music so great. The Sugar Thieves call Phoenix Arizona home, but over the past eight years they have made their presence known all over the US, Mexico, and Europe. The Sugar Thieves have shared a bill with the likes of Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, The Flaming Lips, The Blues Brothers, Robert Cray, and more. They’ve recorded and produced six albums, each containing a variety of original music, and old songs reinvented.
Cary Morin
“One of the best pickers on the scene,” Morin brings together the great musical traditions of America like no other. Deft fingerstyle guitar, vocals that convey melodic elation and gritty world-weariness, Morin crafts a style often characterized as full-throttle Native Americana . Morin hails from Montana, relocating to Colorado in the early 80’s, where he currently resides. Morin has toured Europe, Canada, Japan, and the U.S. as a solo artist and as a member of The Pura Fé Trio. "A man and a guitar, a lot of soul, and an understanding of the history of soulful men with guitars in American music can sometimes achieve this kind of timelessness in their work…,” comments Richard Higgs (Public Radio Tulsa). “Morin has the chops. [His] performances… would stand out, variously, among the old-school delta blues pliers, the Greenwich Village folk crowd at the end of the 1950s, the back-to-nature bards of the late '60s, or today's thriving scene. Morin references all these styles, but he's no dilettante. His engaging sound is his alone…."
One Roof Blues
What began as a husband and wife duo with Dave (guitar) and Taylor LaRocco (vocals), quickly expanded to include Randy Hayes (harmonica), rounding out the talented One Roof Blues trio. One Roof Blues’ homegrown sound blends the sultry tone of Taylor’s vocals seamlessly with Dave’s bottleneck slide guitar and the searing presence of Randy’s harmonica. Playing soul and blues-inspired originals and a variety of covers in venues across Southwestern Colorado, the group earned a spot in the Telluride Blues Challenge during the 2014 Brews and Blues Festival. They debuted on the Blues Train in 2014, returned in 2015, and will be returning as a crowd favorite in the Spring of 2020. Audience members young and old are advised to bring their dancing shoes.
Mike Munson
Mike Munson has established himself as an adept slide guitar player and an evangelist for the blues. With his fourth release, Rose Hill (2018) Munson traced the tradition to its roots, recording at the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi on the Blue Front Record label. For a number of years Munson has been mentored by Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, the renowned owner of the oldest juke joint in North America, the Blue Front Cafe. Holmes is one of the last in a musical lineage referred to as the Bentonia Bluesmen who have made a name for the haunting and ethereal minor tunings used in this region of the state. Munson has thrived under the mentorship of Holmes, building a body of work that blends his Midwestern roots with his Mississippi travels. From sad and somber slow tunes to swampy, caterwauling stompers, his music is a master class in creative blues composition and performance, often dark and heavy, yet lyrically compelling and altogether danceable. He never loses sight of his artform or the music’s roots while finding a voice that is distinctively his own.
Jacob T. Skeen
If you’ve never seen a one man band, you need to see Jacob T. Skeen, who not only serves up smoldering psychobilly all on his own, but pounds his drums and strums his guitar all dolled up in a suit. He plays ferociously, and has been relentlessly taking up stages around the Salt Lake valley, keeping up with his own fast guitar playing and steady kick-drumming, while a single cymbal shimmers in front of his jostling knees. He recently returned from an international tour to Italy including performing at the Festival di Invasione Monobanda vol 6 in Roma to promote the release of his first full length album “Death, Thou Shalt Die”. He has had the privilege of opening for artists such as Bob Log III, Bloodshot Bill, Freight Train Rabbit Killer, Reverend Beat-Man, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Reverend Dead-Eye, and performed at the 2019 Deep Blues Festival in Clarksdale Mississippi.
Refreshments will be available for purchase on board. Guests can enjoy light snacks, bars with wine and craft beer from award-winning regional brewery partners Telluride Brewing Company and Ska Brewing.
Tickets for the Durango Blues Train on May 28, 29 &30 go on sale Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 10 am (MT). Tickets are $119 per person per night, plus a Historic Train Preservation fee. Tickets are limited and will sell out in advance. Purchasers must be 21 years old to participate. Tickets will be available online here.
Tickets and the artist lineup for August 20, 21 & 22 will be released later this spring. For more information, click here.