August 21st, 22nd, & 23rd

Soda Springs Park

Manitou Springs

Colorado


WELCOME
...to the Official Site for the 2009
MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Our 27th year promises to be our best ever, with another great lineup of acoustic and folk musicians, excellent food, strolling entertainers, and fun for the whole family!

Other events and festivals have succumbed to hard times...some have had to raise prices...but the MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL continues as one of Colorado's great traditions - open, free, and fun for all.

Return to our page and watch it grow as we add more performers and festival-related events.
Save the dates - Friday, August 21st (5 - 10 pm), Saturday, August 22nd (10 am - 10 pm), Sunday, August 23rd (11 am - 6 pm)

See the 2009 Performance Schedule HERE!

Featured Performers

Robert Force

...is perhaps the most aptly named musician in the country today, because Robert is just that - a force in music, education, community action, and half a dozen other areas as well. A legend among mountain dulcimer players both for his In Search Of The Wild Dulcimer instructional text and for his extension of the instrument's vocabulary from its traditional folk origins into blazingly original styles of play and performance, Robert also engages audiences with a wry wit that is the perfect complement to the passion of his musicianship. Long a mainstay at the MMF, Robert returns to Manitou Springs with his usual - and forceful - combination of visionary innovation and musical artistry.










Bob Haworth

...is the Renaissance man of popular folk music. Called "the best independent musician working in America today," Bob continues to entertain and amaze audiences with the full range of his astoundingly diverse abilities as a performer - he is a master instrumentalist on banjo and guitar (and saw - you need to see this to believe it), a singer who combines vocal power with sensitive interpretation, and a songwriter of everything from wickedly witty satire to the tenderest of romantic ballads. Bob's tales from his travels around the world as a member of The Brothers Four and The Kingston Trio are just as much fun as his "Bob O'Luney" one-man band performance. All the Bobs will be at the MMF once again to our delight - and yours.

The Chilly Winds

..is a group that brings back the sounds and the memories of the popular folk bands of the late 1950s through the mid-1960s like the Kingston Trio, The Clancy Brothers, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and more. Their driving rhythms and sweet harmonies have delighted audiences at the last several MMFs, not in small measure because much of the audience sings along with most of their songs, which is exactly what they want everyone to do.

Cripple Creek

...is a couple of folks whose craft at making mountain dulcimers is matched only by their mastery at playing them, a world-class tenor banjo player, a robust tenor whose own songs have the simple eloquence of a Guthrie or Paxton, an angelic vocalist and a bassist to anchor your sound on - that's Manitou's own Cripple Creek. Through decades of performance and multiple CDs, this band has delivered roots music, gospel, Americana, satire, protest, and just about anything else you could call folk in rich four part harmony - and with a delightful sense of humor that consistently finds its mark but leaves no one wounded and everyone smiling, usually as they're singing along with the group.

JIM YOUNG is the pride of Southern Colorado's singer-songwriters, and no other artist matches Jim's subtle combinations of the diverse strains and rhythms that have shaped the music and the peoples of his beloved Southwest. Jim's quiet warmth and wry wit lend his performances a kind of open range authenticity that you just don't find in many other performers. In Jim's voice and guitar, you can hear a bit of cowboy, a bit of country, a bit of Spanish - and if you close your eyes, you can see the landscape he sings of stretching to the far horizon.

The Wagon Tongue String Band....is Manitou Springs' own version of old-timey music with a distinctively contemporary twist. The Wagon Tongues preserve two key elements of the traditional mountain bands and original bluegrass performers - the brilliantly played instrumental mix of guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and bass, and the one-microphone set-up for the perfectly modulated vocal blend for which they are known. But with the Tongues, you can always expect the unexpected, as their devoted fan base will tell you. We're delighted to welcome the Wagon Tongues to the MMF for the first time.

Check out Wagon Tongue String Band music on MySpace HERE.


PLUS....Steve Eulberg, Bud Ford III, Pretty Good Folk, Gospel Jam, and more!
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See The 2009 Performance Schedule HERE.
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Return To MMF Home Page HERE.
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