Sometimes creative inspiration came be found in the oddest of places. Like a chewed up mouthful of blue corn tortilla chips.

At least that's where Eric Thorin, the bassist for the Matt Flinner Trio found it one day. A few years back, on the way to a show in Carbondale and up against a tight deadline, Thorin was struggling to come up with an idea for a song.

“When you're stuck for ideas, you'll try to come up with one out of the blue,” said Matt Flinner, the trio's mandolin player. “Eric just spat a mouthful of chips onto a piece of music paper and assigned notes to some of the blotches. He crafted a melody from those and it turned out to be a memorable tune and was a candidate for recording for an album. It came out really well, so you never know.”

Writing a song on deadline isn't anything new for Flinner, Thorin or the group's guitarist, Ross Martin. The Matt Flinner Trio has mastered the craft of composing music on the go. The group practices a unique approach — writing in hotel rooms, dressing rooms, on airplanes and in the back of tour vans — and debuting the new pieces the same night.

They perform in Minturn Thursday at The Open Space. That means each member will write a new, complete songon Thursday, and debut those three songs that night.

“What I love about the Matt Flinner Trio is that they are musicians and composers who are willing to take a risk,” said Michael Wasmer, the owner of The Open Space. “They commit to writing music the day of the show and playing it that night — ‘tour du jour.' That takes guts. I also like that they are deeply rooted in ‘American music' drawing from jazz, bluegrass and folk to create something new and fresh.”

How place affects music

The Trio formed in 2006, and started writing this way almost immediately, Flinner said.

“A deadline is the best thing to help me get stuff done,” he said. “We also wanted to see how different places would affect the way we write — different days, and surroundings — would that change the way we write?”

Part of the idea initially came from Miles Davis 1959 recording “Kind of Blue.”

“It was supposedly partly written the day they recorded it,” Flinner said. “They wrote some of it on the way to the studio and they came out with a beautiful record that was really unique. We found that idea of freshness appealing and we had confidence in our ability to pull things off on short notice.”

Currently the trio is in the midst of a four week tour celebrating the group's most recent album “Winter Harvest.” Released Jan. 31, the album is a road-crafted sequel to their 2009 release, “Music Du Jour.”

“We've done close to 70 of these shows now, so we're getting to choose 15 tunes out of 206,” Flinner said. “We wanted to choose the few tunes that really defined the group and where we'd gone.”

The Open Space is a new music venue in Minturn, located at 211 Main Street.

“We are interested in hosting the occasional show with musicians of great inspiration for small, appreciative audiences,” Wasmer said. “Minturn once hosted a very successful series of small shows throughout town each fall… We see this as a unique contribution to the valley's music scene.”

High Life Editor Caramie Schnell can be reached at 970-748-2984 or cschnell@vaildaily.com.