Can You Say Yakety Yak?

TELLURIDE – Longtime Telluride favorite Shawn Colvin opens this year’s holiday concert series at the Sheridan Opera House, gracing the historic stage on Sunday, Dec. 27. Four more concerts follow in short order, including a gala on New Year’s Eve, featuring fifty years of Motown with the Marvelettes and the Coasters.

Can you say Yakety Yak? Or better yet, can you sing along to it? If so, here’s your chance!

The annual holiday concert series is the Sheridan Arts Foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the year, making it easy for music lovers to do good. When you enjoy a night out at the opera house, you are simultaneously giving your financial support to the Young People’s Theater and the Wild West Fest, and enables the opera house to offer discounted rental rates to other local Telluride nonprofits.

That New Year’s Eve gala, not incidentally, includes champagne, sweet treats and party favors.

Colvin, whose newest release has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album, is a three-time Grammy winner and a frequent highlight of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The night after Colvin performs, New Orleans funk takes the stage courtesy of Leo Nocentelli of The Meters Experience. The Meters, whose hits include Cissy Strut and Look A Py Py, won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2001 Grammy’s.

On Tuesday, Dec. 29, Johnny Cash will receive a tribute by Rusty Evans & Ring of Fire, performing the Man in Black’s hits. The last concert in the series, on Saturday, January 2, features The Melodians, whose Rocksteady hits include Rivers of Babylon and Sweet Sensations.

The big money in support of the opera house comes from sales of the Patron’s Package at $7,500, which includes tickets to all five events with reserved seating in the balcony. Tickets for individual events range from $20 to $30, with general admission to the New Years Eve gala at $100 for general admission and reserved balcony seating at $250 and $500.

Tickets are available at SheridanOperaHouse.com. Call (970) 728-6363 for more information.