The Moab Grassroots Music Exchange (MGME) is back at it, connecting fresh musical acts to local entities.
MGME will be hosting July’s featured artist, Crook and the Bluff of Salt Lake City, on its platform comprised of local businesses, artists and music lovers. This month’s platform extends across the moonlit desert and over radio waves, connecting the “Pink Floyd of the American West” with KZMU, Area BFE and Club Rio, with support from Zax Restaurant and Watering Hole, Moonflower Community Cooperative, Milt’s Stop & Eat, the Lazy Lizard Hostel, and the Haren’s Nest Bed and Breakfast.
“The biggest thing is we just want a vibrant music scene in Moab,” Club Rio manager Tyler Mason said. “MGME acts like an audition for us to discover bands and see if they are a good fit for the Rio. MGME brings talent into town that I want to have access to.”
Such talent was spotted in Crook and the Bluff’s fusion of Western psychedelia and dirty desert blues into a dynamic and commanding performance that can only be truly experienced live.
Lucky for Moab, such opportunity is knocking on the Club Rio’s door this weekend, and several other doors as well.
Crook and the Bluff will premiere on Saturday, July 8, at the community radio station, for KZMU’s Tiny Station Concert series.
“Tune in or stream, with your host Serah Mead, also known as DJ Honeywine, live at 5,” KZMU Program Director Christy Williams Dunton said. “(Or) come on up if you wish to beat the heat.”
The concert is open for public attendance at the radio station at 1734 Rocky Road, and will stream live over the local airwaves 90.1 and 106.7 FM.
The full Bluff experience will take to Area BFE Saturday evening, then bleed out through the doors of Club Rio at 2 S. 100 West on Sunday, July 9, striking the first chord at 9 p.m.
“Equipped with an arsenal of songs depicting lust, love, loss, murder and malevolence, Crook and the Bluff’s music explores diverse themes and often meddles in strange curiosities,” reads the band’s bio. “‘The Bluff’ are storytellers at heart, and engulf listeners in a spectrum of orchestrated vibrations, with eerie ballads of torment and revenge, a sultry number lamenting a lost bird that administers the pulse to the dance floor, or the droning, hypnotic piece that buzzes through the efficacy of licking toads. Equal parts musicians and mad scientists, the band has crafted a deep symbiosis with its armory of equipment, using it to manifest colorful and mesmerizing soundscapes.”
The Crook’s Kirk Dath says the desert has seen him through several transformative experiences, taught him a lot about himself and inherently inspired much of his songwriting with Crook and the Bluff.
“Come and have a beer with us,” he said. “We love MGME – the feeling of everyone sharing their music and art, being open and free, cooking together, and sharing the beautiful environment. I know it takes a lot of work from this community of people and we are looking forward to the whole thing.”
Crook and the Bluff will be accommodated at the Haren’s Nest, a newly opened bed and breakfast at 3310 E. George White Road. The Haren’s Nest, new to the MGME platform, provides a serene, local, interconnected and inspiring space for its guests.
“We promote sustainable and conscious tourism by directing funds to our Moab locals and educating guests on local land and community issues,” local owner Dailey Haren said. “Haren’s Nest supports local artists, artisans and businesse, by providing a beautiful space to showcase Moab-made fine art, furniture and décor for a low consignment fee. We are really excited!”
Local artists can submit work now by calling Haren at 435-260-2011.
Dath said that Crook and the Bluff is most in its element in exploration, and drawn to foreign encounters.
“I love being on the move; I love being on tour,” Dath said. “We just drive and show up and rock out … so it’s like a vacation. And I need a vacation.”
Salt Lake City’s Crook and the Bluff to sweep through Moab
When: Saturday, July 8, at 5 p.m. at KZMU; Sunday, July 9, at 9 p.m. at Club Rio
Where: Tiny Station Concert Series at KZMU, 1734 Rocky Road, 90.1 and 106.7 FM, or www.kzmu.org; The Club Rio at 2 S. 100 West
Cost: Free
Information: www.crookandthebluff.com/about/band/; www.facebook.com/moabgme
For more information, go to: www.crookandthebluff.com/about/band/, or www.facebook.com/moabgme.
“Expect the unexpected.”
