There is music everywhere in the Wyoming/Idaho/Montana greater Yellowstone area, as DJ Choupin and I found on a two-week swing through the area over the Independence Day holiday.

While not a music act, the venue certainly is: DJ got a chance to chat with Longmire author Craig Johnston and the star of the series Robert Taylor at the Silver Dollar Bar in the Wort Hotel in Jackson. They couldn’t have been kinder or more gracious. We are excited about seeing the 4th season (and re-watching the first 3 seasons) of Longmire on Netflix!

We had swung by the party at the Silver Dollar Bar after attending the Hootenanny at Dornan’s in Moose, Wyoming. DJ had worked at Dornan’s for several years; the Roadkill Live!!! comedy review played at the Wort’s Greenback Lounge (enter through the Silver Dollar Bar) for 8 weeks in summer of 1988.

At the Hootenanny, we had particularly enjoyed performances by John Sidle and John Byrne Cooke, so I was delighted to catch up with them for a chat at the Silver Dollar Bar.  Sidle and Cooke are mainstays of the Stagecoach Band that plays in Wilson, Wyoming, every Sunday, as well as at the Hootenanny in Moose, Wyoming. Back in the day, I had designed the lighting for an Actors Coop production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum that Sidle had starred in as Pseudolus. Turns out Cooke has also appeared in Forum as Senex.  But I digress….

It was a musical couple of weeks.  In addition to two trips to the Hootenanny, DJ and I enjoyed seeing the Dirt Farmers at their Three Forks, Montana performance; the Lake String Quartet (twice!) at the Lake Hotel in Yellowstone; and two performances under the aegis of the Grand Teton Music Festival. With the latter, I am trying to talk up the possibility of a performance of A Roadkill Opera in the very spot the story takes place, the newly reconverted to performance space in the Silver Dollar Bar. The opening week of the GTMF also saw our ad in the Jackson Hole News & Guide promoting the availability of the studio recording at the Valley Bookstore and at Gifts of the Earth.

This week is the anniversary of the 1988 opening night for the original eight week run of Roadkill Live!!! at the Wort Hotel’s Greenback Lounge (enter through the Silver Dollar Bar). The opening night is recounted in five part harmony in A Roadkill Opera; the key plot point is that, during the hour before the first professional gig for the “rude mechanicals” putting on the show, they learn that their showroom is being torn down. The musical number Torn Down recites the names of local favorites that had played (or would have played) the showroom such as Loose Ties, Shelley and Kelly, Susan Carlman, Beth McIntosh, Deadly Earnest, Johnny Gimble, Sawmill Creek, and others.

In real life, the management of the Wort Hotel has, effective 2015, removed the hotel rooms and offices and gift shop that had displaced the 1988 nightclub, and replaced them with an expanded showroom as part of the Silver Dollar Bar. Hurray! Was the protest of the 1988 teardown expressed in Paer & Parker’s A Roadkill Opera responsible for this remarkable reversal of fortune? History will decide…

In honor of the Roadkill Live!!! anniversary and in celebration of the reestablishment of a first rate, full size performance venue at the Silver Dollar Bar at the Wort Hotel, A Roadkill Opera is providing promotional messages during the opening week of the Grand Teton Music Festival to let people know of the local availability of this fast, funny, melodic concoction full of true-ish Jackson Hole history. A Roadkill Opera–music from 1804 by Ferdinando Paer–action set in 1988 Jackson Hole–a new opera in just 59 minutes (in English).

Laura Wehrmeyer sings the role of Holly (Danner, that is), a radio news reporter who aspires to be a disc jockey.

David Timpane sings the role of Stephan, a whitewater rafting guide whose river name at Mad River in 1988 was “Killer.”

Peter Maag writes about Paer’s Leonora

“an inspired, imaginative work, technically worthy of the highest praise…The orchestration is faultless and complements the vocal parts beautifully.”

Pam Schipper wrote in the Gaithersburg Town Courier

“Songs like ‘Impress Them,’ ‘Cod Piece Dining.’ ‘Jello,’ and [Gonna buy my old granddad a] ‘Geo’ pair offbeat humor with beautiful vocals and music.”

A Roadkill Opera tells the story of the hour before the lights go up on opening night for a comedy improv troupe in 1988 Jackson Hole–the Roadkill On A Stick Frozen Foods Theatre Company.  During that hour, they find out their showroom at the Silver Dollar Bar is being torn down.

If you like it, tell your friends. If you don’t like it, you can kind of keep that to yourself.

Available on iTunes, at Gifts of the Earth & the Valley Bookstore

Fully staged performances Washington, DC, January 8-9, 2016

roadkillopera.com   roadkillopera@icloud.com  240-277-6640

Additional promotional items will be announced as artists are signed for the fully staged performances in Washington, DC on January 8-9, 2016.