STANLEY AIMING TO PUT ESTES PARK ON LIVE-MUSIC MAP
Next month, the Stanley Hotel will launch “Live from the Stanley,” a concert series that will book nationally recognized artists at the venue’s 530person-capacity concert hall.
With more than 500 miles between it and the nearest major city, Denver is a live music oasis by default. But even though many touring bands make the trip to dip their beaks in our city’s music scene, it’s still a stage too far for some.
Imagine, then, how Estes Park must feel.
The mountain town is a winding, 90-minute drive northwest of Denver, and on your way to nowhere in particular — maybe Cheyenne, if your band is on a roadhouse tour. Unless you’re a local artist looking to test your material in the mountains, or you’re the Bloomington, Ind., group Murder By Death, which has a yearly gig at the historic Stanley Hotel, there isn’t much sense in routing your tour up there.
If the 107-year-old hotel has its way, that mind-set will go the way of the steam-powered car.
Next month, the Stanley Hotel will launch “Live from the Stanley,” a concert series that will book nationally recognized artists at the venue’s 530-person-capacity concert hall. After establishing the series, the hotel hopes to broadcast it online and possibly on television.
“It could be something like the Stanley’s own brand of (‘Austin City Limits’),” said Frederic Lahey, head of communications for the Stanley Hotel. “Austin City Limits” is a long-running and Peabody
Award-winning televised concert series on PBS known for its sharp, eclectic booking. It’s credited with helping peg Austin, Texas, as “The Live Music Capital of the World,” a motto the city has since trademarked.
The Stanley will introduce “Live from the Stanley” with a two-night stand by Grammy Award-winning country-folk artist Mary Chapin Carpenter on Nov. 11 and 12. These inaugural shows will not be streamed or broadcast anywhere.
The hotel declined to disclose whom it had in mind for future concerts, save to say it is looking at “large, recognizable names.” It is currently in the process of booking shows for December and January.
Although Carpenter would seem to suggest a predilection toward oldfashioned acts that suit the hotel’s historic aesthetic, Lahey said the venue would not adhere to any genre limitations. In 2015, bluegrass jam band Leftover Salmon began an annual tradition of hosting a hotel-wide threeday mini music festival. Last year, German producer DJ Zedd rented out the hotel for a promotional event for his new album.
“You’d be surprised at who thinks the Stanley is the coolest place in the universe,” he said.
While the more than century-old Stanley already enjoys a reputation as slice of bygone frontier life, the concert series is the latest example of the hotel’s push to expand its appeal for a new generation. In 2013, the hotel partnered with the Denver Film Society on the horror-focused Stanley Film Festival, which took a hiatus this year (and subsequently scared away the DFS) to host a symposium to brainstorm concepts for its upcoming $24 million, 43,000-square-foot film center.
“Live from the Stanley” could attract even more visitors to the Estes Park centerpiece year-round. The venue plans to host seven shows next year and 10 in 2018.
It may seem like a challenge to coerce artists to hike up to Estes Park’s historic haunt. But what the hotel lacks in convenience, it makes up for in its unique environs. The Stanley provides room and board for performers and their entourages in the hotel for the duration of their stay.
Besides, what other music venue can boast that it inspired one of the most beloved horror stories of all time?
“It’s not just another gig,” Lahey said.