KGNU will continue a three-decade tradition of the annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam on Sunday, July 19, when a musical performance extraordinaire continues with a virtual Safer at Home edition!  

For your enjoyment, this year’s bands are the Cody Sisters, River Arkansas, and Bowregard!

The Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam, aka “The Charles,” is named for beloved Hot Rize guitarist, Charles Sawtelle, who helped start the event in 1989 and was a great supporter of KGNU Community Radio. After his passing in 1999, the station renamed the event in his memory. Celebrating its 32^nd anniversary this year,

“The Charles” is a family-friendly mini-festival of al fresco bluegrass and Americana music, normally hosted on a Sunday afternoon in July at the Gold Hill Inn.

We’re disappointed this year’s bug won’t allow us to celebrate in person and that’s why we’ve put together an irresistible musical lineup for you to enjoy at home.

The Cody Sisters Band has established itself as a force in the United States and UK for fans of acoustic, folk, and bluegrass music. Their passion is in creating new music with their award-winning instrumentation, stunningly emotional original lyrics, and beautiful sister harmonies. Hearing them is quite an experience, as they blend Americana, Gypsy Jazz, Folk, and Modern Bluegrass together in a completely unique way, creating a Modern Americana/Roots sound. Audiences love this band!

The River Arkansas is a band made up of some of the finest musicians on the Colorado front range. Fronted by Mike Clark, the band delivers a mixture of heartfelt country, blues, folk, and Americana, inspired by the Arkansas River.

Bowregard has taken the Colorado bluegrass world by storm, winning both the 2019 Telluride Bluegrass Band Contest and the 2018 Ullrgrass Bluegrass Band Contest within a year of forming. Sweet and mournful vocal harmonies join nimble picking and strikingly original songwriting and arrangements that combine old-time music, progressive new acoustic music, and bluegrass into a truly unique sound unlike anything else on the Front Range of Colorado.

Won’t you join us? This event benefits KGNU, an independent volunteer-powered, listener-supported community radio station, heard locally at 88.5 FM in Boulder and Denver, 1390 AM in Denver, 93.7 FM in the Nederland and Ward area, 98.7 FM in Fort Collins, and online at kgnu.org.

The concert is free and open to the community. Donations are welcome and encouraged for this – typically KGNU’s premiere summer fundraiser.

What:  32nd Annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam, Safer-at-Home Edition
When: Sunday, July 19 – The starts around noon, wrapping-up by 3:00 p.m.
Where: Online with RSVP at KGNU.ORG by noon, July 18 

Attendees will be sent a link for the concert by 2:00 p.m. on July 18.

About KGNU

At KGNU, a small staff working with more than 300 volunteers produce, host, report, DJ, administer and govern the station, broadcasting 18-20 hours of locally produced programming each day. Keep our mission alive for another 40 years by donating today!

Vision: The Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc. dba KGNU Community Radio envisions an actively engaged global community rooted in mutual respect, working together to advance a more equitable, just, and environmentally sustainable society that ensures all peoples access to and participation in independent media.

Mission:  KGNU seeks to stimulate, educate and entertain our audience, to reflect the diversity of the local and world community and to provide a channel for individuals, groups, issues, and music that have been overlooked, suppressed or underrepresented by other media.

As such, KGNU reaffirms our commitment to foster inclusive equitable practices, communities, and governance first and foremost inside our organization, and by proactively working toward building an inclusive and socially equitable local media landscape by challenging all forms of discrimination. We believe that by working together and embracing our differences, we forge stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive communities.