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Animal Shelter Looks for Relief from Mudslides Page 5
Longboard Bench Honors Memory of Hailey Teen Page 7
Chris Millspaugh: It’s Good To be Busy Page 13
S e p t e m b e r 1 1 , 2 0 1 3 • Vo l . 6 • N o . 3 7 • w w w.T h e We e k l y S u n . c o m
Blackberry Bushes to Infuse Brewery With Bluegrass BY KAREN BOSSICK
T
he bass player is a member of the Spokane Symphony. The fiddler has a degree in jazz fiddle. And the singer-songwriter dabbles in musical theater. But when Taylor Kent, Jakob Breitbach and Jes Raymond get together as The Blackberry Bushes, they fuse the twang of bluegrass with a contemporary sophistication. The Seattle trio will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the Sun Valley Brewery in Hailey. “I like to say if Dolly Parton, Edgar Meyer and Vassar Clemmons had a band, we’d want to see that,” said Raymond. “We are trying to bring the poetics of the singer-songwriter to the energy of a progressive bluegrass sound. “Bluegrass is a funny genre. Some people think anything with a fiddle is bluegrass; some people define it very narrowly. We have lots of influences, including pop, jazz, classical, and rock. But we love bluegrass music and we call ourselves bluegrass.” Raymond grew up in Vermont, attending bluegrass festivals. She met her fiancé, Breitbach, who grew up playing fiddle in a family band, in the rainy bottom of the Puget Sound. Pretty soon, Portland, Ore., native Kent entered the picture, enabling the three to construct a mix of joyful singing, enchanting songwriting and daredevil sound with virtuosic fiddle and bowed bass. “Their blend of traditional bluegrass and folk elements with more contemporary sounds has an appeal not seen since Nickel Creek or The Be Good Tanyas,” noted Joseph Kyle of The Big Takeover. The trio named their band on a whim without much thought so they would have a name for their first show. “As a kid I remember going to my grandparents’ house, just down the road from my parents’ house, and I loved to climb through the tunnels that my cousins and I had built through a large stand of blackberry bushes,” Raymond said. “Then out here in Washington, blackberry bushes are EVERYWHERE! And anyone who has tried to get rid of them knows it’s really futile. We didn’t really expect the name to stick—it was just for that first show. But, apparently, when you name something The Blackberry Bushes, it is much like actual blackberry bushes, and there is just no getting rid of the name.” Raymond said the songs she writes typically take the form of a question. “When I was 19, I moved to New Mexico on a Greyhound bus. I lived in the hostel, cleaned it in the morning and sat in the yard all day learning to play the guitar and write songs. I would sing my songs for travelers at the fire circle we had at night. I sang an older gentleman a new song one night, and he told me, ‘It’s good, but don’t tell me what I should think or know.’ “That has always really stuck with me. I try to notice what is happening around me, tell the truth, and use my songs to ask more questions than I have answers for. If a song is good, it teaches me, and hopefully someone else can put themselves into it also.” tws
Caritas Chorale Seizes the Roaring Twenties for Their Fundraiser
read about it on PaGe 8
From Ice Rink to Kitchen Brian Boitano
Brian Boitano Cooks to Benefit Sun Valley Figure Skating Club STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
H
e spun the Granny Smith apples in the sangria with the finesse he puts into a spiral. And he flipped sopapillas with the grace with which he lands the ’Tano triple lutz. And when the evening was said and done, the crowd was as entertained as if Brian Boitano had performed his quadruple toe loop. Brian Boitano traded the rink for the kitchen sink Sunday night, starring in a fundraiser for the Sun Valley Figure Skating Club. Seventy-five men and women ponied up $100 to $200 each to see the 1988 Olympic gold medalist show the casual easy-going way he entertains friends at home in San Francisco. “We’ll sit at a bar like this and cook and eat as we go,” he said. “Everyone wants to be involved when they’re at someone’s house. They’re always saying, ‘Can I help?’ ‘Can I help?’ Before you know it, people haven’t sat down at the table with a napkin on their lap. But they’ve had a ball. “Getting my friends involved inspires them to do more impromptu entertaining, which I think people are interested in right now.” Boitano donned his chef’s apron this time in Rick and Kim Selby’s spectacular new home overlooking Dollar and Baldy mountains. Guests walked amidst hot tubs and a firepit built into a gargantuan patio as they nibbled on Boitano’s signature hors d’oeuvres. And they gathered around a massive granite counter in a kitchen equipped with its own wood-fired oven as they watched Boitano serve up his demonstrations. Boitano deftly mixed a little tequila, triple sec and lime juice into a pitcher of freshly squeezed watermelon juice as he showed off one of his favorite margaritas. “I don’t get stuck on a recipe. I tend to use more watermelon than less,” he said. “I also make these with apricots, mangos, passionfruit. It’s fun for guests to experiment with making drinks like these because it’s like a scientific experiment.” Boitano said entertaining via cooking is second nature to him, just as is ice skating. It started with a big Italian
Brian Boitano poses for pictures with skater Anita Hartshorn and Kim Selby.
Isabella Bourret offers Yini Orebaugh a choice of hors d’oeuvres.
family where food is front and center and was honed by his Aunt Tree who put out “amazing spreads” encompassing such foods as cactus in adobo sauce. Skating around the world only introduced him to more exotic flavors and combinations.
He’s never been to cooking school. He hasn’t studied cooking via the Cooking Channel. But this self-taught chef has a popular TV show titled “What Would
continued, page 17
AN ALL-NIGHT AFFAIR. Martini & Caviar Party Saturday, September 21st, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm. The Roundhouse. • Enjoy a scenic gondola ride up Bald Mountain and receive a glass of Michelle Sparkling Wine as you step off to embark on a unique and epic culinary adventure at the famous Roundhouse Restaurant. • Sun Valley Company Executive Chef and James Beard Award Semi-Finalist, John Murcko, will prepare artfully crafted hors d’oeuvres featuring sturgeon caviar from Fish Breeders of Idaho and much more. • Harvest Festival Mixologist, Ryan Sullivan, will create incredible and intricate artisanal cocktails featuring Square One Organic Spirits, distilled here in Idaho.
For information visit us at www.sunvalleyharvestfestival.com, or call 208.450.6430