New music homegrown right here in Eagle County

The summer has been filled with live music from the multitude of musicians who call the Vail Valley home. It’s not just après ski music, it’s après bike, après hike, fish, golf, shop, you name it, the musicians are there to entertain you as you wind down from your day’s activity, but beyond singing “Brown Eyed Girl,” and other popular cover tunes these professionals have been busy creating their own original music and are excited to release it to the public. Here’s a look at what these artists have been up to and how you can follow their creativity.

Tim & Taylor

Tim & Taylor, the country duo out of Nashville that has been gaining fans quickly here since 2016, just released a new video, “The Whiskey Still Burns,” earlier this month with a video release party at 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirits Company’s Tasting Room on Bridge Street in Vail, which was fitting because the couple performs there regularly, loves their spirits and filmed the video at the distillery in Gypsum.

“It was perfectly fitting to film this video in a whiskey distillery and 10th Mountain Whiskey has always been so good to us,” Taylor Gore said. “We just love Ryan (Thompson, owner of 10th Mountain Whiskey) and the crew and the brand and product and couldn’t be more grateful for their support over the years.”

---

---

The inspiration for the song actually came from a shot of 10th Mountain Whiskey.

“Tim and I wrote this song in 2021 with our friend Brian White in Nashville. Tim had the title – it was inspired by him taking a shot of 10th Mountain Whiskey one night and he looked at me and said, ‘After all this time the whiskey still burns. Hey, write that down,'” Taylor Gore said.

---

---

Another local tie-in is that the duo was styled for the video from head to toe by Axel’s Vail, a boutique in Vail Village that is owned by the Wilhelmsen family and the siblings, Candace and Axel, Jr., had Tim and Taylor come by the store to share their vision.

“They made us look the part and gave this video the edgy visuals we were going for,” Taylor said.

Tim & Taylor were just asked to open for the Eli Young Band on Sept. 21 at the Vilar Performing Arts Center.

“We are honored and so excited to play that venue after all these years we’ve been in the valley. We’ve put together a 30-minute show that will exhibit that side of our live performances,” Taylor Gore said. To keep up with more news, music and video releases, go to TimAndTaylor.com for show dates and upcoming special events. 

Babaux and the Peacemakers

Christian Basso of Babaux and the Peacemakers has been performing for over 25 years. For those of you who have been around the valley long enough, you’ll remember Little Hercules playing at Garton’s and State Bridge Lodge. He followed that up with the bands The Sessh and Renegade Sons. Currently, Basso performs as Babaux as a solo act and Babaux and the Peacemakers with the full band.

Babaux and the Peacemakers put out “Lucky 13” in 2022 and follow-up album, “Moments in Time” in 2023 and since then have enjoyed over one hundred consecutive weeks on the independent artist Roots Music Report Radio charts. But Basso is busy working on his 15th album, and the third album for Babaux and the Peacemakers. With all this experience, it’s no surprise that Basso has his own recording studio in his house downvalley.

“All of my demos are recorded in my home studio. Babaux and the Peacemakers’ first two albums were recorded in Denver at Bright Side Studio. The band is looking into recording our latest project in a new studio and have been looking at Clubhouse Records in Golden but have not made the final decision yet.” Basso said.

The band, which has been compared to likes of Whisky Meyers and Tyler Childers, is set to release more music this year. Stay tuned and listen to some of Babaux and the Peacemaker’s music at Babaux.com.

Gandy Dancers

The Gandy Dancers have been busy not only performing at their regular gigs at King’s Club Lounge at the Sonnenalp Hotel, Gambit Bar at The Sebastian Hotel, Route Six Café and, more recently, they opened up for the Travelin’ McCourys at the Dillon Amphitheater, but they’ve also been making music that’s ready to be released.

“Our new album is due to drop on Friday, Sept. 13 and it’s called ‘8 Tracks’ because it has eight songs and the tracks refer to Gandy Dancers being a railroad term for railroad workers of the past,” said Kevin Danzig, who plays guitar and sings alongside Cody Boyd on banjo and Peter Fontanese on bass.

Danzig said the group had a lot of fun recording the new music and did most of the recording right in Minturn.

“I have been recording in Leadville at Madhouse Recorders the past two albums but we wanted this one to be more of a local project, so we used Mintown Studio in Minturn. Joe Bianchi (another local musician and part of Turntable Review) did a wonderful job with the engineering on his end,” Danzig said.

The Gandy Dancers were joined by fellow musicians from the Vail Valley music community for this project. 

“Larry Dutmer and Steve van Beek play drums and keyboards on three of our new tracks. Brett Scott plays the upright bass on “Teton Snowfall” and “Dead Ahead,” and on “When Son” Beth Swearingen sings with us,” Danzig said.

The band has been releasing music for the past several months. Danzig said it is customary to drop a song every six to eight weeks on Spotify, YouTube and other streaming platforms. They’ll include all the singles and some extra tracks on the full album.

The band is thankful for the support it gets from radio and television stations on both sides of Vail Pass but said they can’t wait to share the music live at the album release party which is set for Sept. 13 at the Route Six Café in Eagle Vail from 7 to 10 p.m. Learn more about Gandy Dancers at Reverb Nation.

Michelle Cohn Levy

Michelle Cohn Levy’s website is WhatMichelleDoes.com but the real question is “what DOESN’T Michelle do?” The busy wife and mother of three young girls can be found belting out tunes like “Brown Eyed Girl” with the late Toby Keith on stage at Bridge Street Bar, or hopping in to sing a Fleetwood Mac tune at Mamie’s at the top of Bachelor Gulch or singing the national anthem for the vets during a Vail Veterans Program. She is also the cantor at B’nai Vail and her enthusiasm leads the congregation in prayer and song.

Cohn Levy has been busy writing music for a new album, “Ascend,” which comes out in a few weeks. It was co-written with Coleen Dieker, who sings and plays violin on the new album, which is full of innovative new Jewish music.

“It is very challenging for me to write new music with all of the distractions of daily life,” Cohn Levy said. “Coleen and I had to take a four-day album writing retreat at State Bridge to allow ourselves to completely focus on our music.”

The album contains contributions from 20 incredible musicians including Mark Levy, Sam E. Bee, Eliana Light and Noah Aronson and was recorded at Maxed Out Studios in Gypsum.

“Max Clark is extremely talented, easy to work with and professional,” Cohn Levy said. “We chose to write, record and release a full album in one go.” “Ascend” contains Jewish music for usage in a wide variety of settings, or to just listen to and enjoy.

“We had an unbelievable album release concert on top of the mountain on Aug. 14 that included seven musicians! You’ll be able to find clips on YouTube and all social media once we receive the professional video footage,” Cohn Levy said. The music will be available on WhatMichelleDoes.com and on streaming platforms.

Sam E. Bee

Sam E. Bee grew up in Summit County and started playing guitar in his father’s music shop before heading off to high school and graduating from the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio and eventually Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He’s been back in the Rockies for a while, playing gigs at Bridge Street Bar, Shakedown, Agave, Ein Prosit and just played at the new Down Valley Vibes Fest with the Sam E. Bee trio in Eagle on Aug. 23.

Sam E. Bee has a new debut album, “Everyone’s Searching,” and video coming out in September, but it’s taken a while for Sam E. Bee to share his voice.

“I’ve finally become brave enough to face my demons and release the original music I’ve been sitting on for so many years,” Bee said. “The hard part is committing to writing as a part of my music career. It’s easy to let go of the creative spark and it’s also hard to be vulnerable enough to decide to put your work, and yourself, out there.”

But Sam E. Bee feels supported by the community of musicians around him, many of whom are helping him out on his new works.   

“I played bass on Michelle Cohn Levy and Coleen Dieker’s new Jewish album, ‘Ascend,’ which features local legend, Mark Levy, on drums and I managed to borrow these exceptional players for my new single, ‘Snake Rope.'” 

Bee said they are currently in pre-production for the music video and had a filming party for “Snake Rope” in Buena Vista earlier this month. Bee explains how his co-writer, Tracy Kimball and he came up with the title of the song.

“A snake rope is where you see a person at a show twirling an invisible lasso and moving their hips while spinning around in a circle. I was playing the riff on guitar and Tracy said, ‘that sounds like a snake rope.’ She started doing the dance and the concept for the song was born,” explained Bee.

“Snake Rope” was recorded at Maxed Out Studios in Gypsum.

“I can’t say enough about how professional and smart Max Clark at Maxed Out Studios is,” Bee said.

To keep tabs on Sam E. Bee, go to SamEBee.com and search his songs on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and local radio and television stations and attend his “Snake Rope” pre-release party from 8-11 p.m. at Route 6 Café on Aug. 30.